SATUVISTE UNIVERS 1187 THE Ba SUDAIND VDIHOME THE UNIVERSI OF MICHIGAN * LIBRARIES BE THE M • THE BUKI LIB TULISNIBALAS HR puyela River alyadha OF MIC GAIUVINTZ 1187 RADHA Mada H MICHIGAV. THE WY MICHIG W 10 LLISEEN Malik Cana IES oFarashah OF Kutha SI MICH ARDASHI Ibn Huba M W • THE CCHIGAN MICH Sarat Car MICHIG 1817 Canal 4. AINS 417 OF OF THE MICH ACHIGAN REAT Bar LUR srikan M UNIVER Idha ar Mukram UNIVERS • THE 1811 LIBRARIES HUSTA River Tab 1187 GAV PROV CHIGAN CHE UNU M THE UNS CHL MICHI LIL HUISHDAINA SHIUVINTE MAP II IPPER MIDDLE & LOWER NAHRAWAN MICHIGAN jisra 3O alidit Great Khurasan Road Ma dal 39996 Neighbourhood of BAGHDAD. Nahrawan Scale of English Miles 5 0 5 10 15 20 OShadhurwan Jisr Buran Abarta 2 FAIT Nahrawan Canal eYarzaliyah 31 eller dain Shadhurwan THE QUskaf UNIVERSTE anal River Tigris O Sib Dayr Akul Dayr hah ieih o Safiyah NEDISTRICT ha Canal Humaniyah SHIR BABGAN Jarjaraya ubayrah AY Numaniyah o Canal Nil Canal Zab Canal 230 Vill Zundah On XA Source UBAL PROVI Romana Source of R. Dujas Y OF 32 INN Susai Idhaj. PROV. DOR kram 50 CE 317 SARDAN Lurdagan • Ramhurmuz SISTAN ARIES Tab 31 bAsak Sanbil ARRAJAN PROVINCE OF FARS -- 50 51 GHIUVIE TRS Lee 10 231 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 J. J. Saunders was educated at the University of Exeter and graduated with honours in History. During the Second World War he served in Intelligence in India and Burma. After the war he studied Arabic in London and was elec- ted to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1946. Since 1949 he has taught history at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is the author of The Age of Revolu- tion (Hutchinson, 1947) and Aspects of the Crusades (University of Canter- bury, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1962). UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ISLAMIC ART SEMINAR CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, C. F. CLAY, MANAGER. London: AVE MARIA LANE, E.C. Glasgow : 50, WELLINGTON STREET. Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS. New York: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Bombay and Calcutta: 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 Yں by G. LE STRANGE Author of Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate, Palestine under the Moslems etc. CAMBRIDGE: at the University Press 1905 Fine Arts DS UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 44.9 ISLAMIC ART SEMINAR . 164 Cambridge: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. ارز ، ماندانا کیا Hatic 6-17.00 901905-12 PREFACE. N the following pages an attempt is made to gather 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 Tîmûr,—the last great Central 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 Baghdad under the Abbasid Caliphate published in 1900, and carries forward the geographical record which I began in Palestine under 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. @ 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 Routen des Orients, though the translation of the Itineraries which Professor De Goeje has appended to his edition of Ibn Khurdâdbih and Kudâmah, 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 Palestine under 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 & the Arab dh and d are both indifferently pronounced 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 essāy 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. LE STRANGE. 3, VIA SAN FRANCESCO POVERINO, FLORENCE, ITALY. May, 1905. a 5 B 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 Baghdad to the Moslem frontiers. The Moslem geographers, and their works. Other authorities. Place-names in the Arabic, Turkish, and Persian provinces 1 CHAPTER II. 'IRÂĶ The division of Mesopotamia, Northern and Southern. 'Irâķ or Babylonia. Change in the courses of the Euphrates and Tigris. The great irrigation canals. Ba dâd. Madâin and the cities on the thence down to Fam-aş-Şilḥ 24 CHAPTER III. 'IRAK (continued). Wâsit The Great Swamps. Madhâr and Ķurnah. The Blind Tigris. Başrah and its canals. Ubullah and 'Abbâdân. The Tigris above Baghdad. Baradân. The Dujayl district. “Ukbârâ, Harbâ, and ķâ- disîyah 39 CHAPTER IV. 'IRÂK (continued). Sâmarrâ. Takrît. The Nahrawân canal. Baʻķûbâ and other towns. Nahr- awân town, and the Khurâsân road. Jâlâlâ and Khâniķîn. Bandanîjân and Bayât. Towns on the Euphrates from Hadîthah to Anbâr. The “Îsâ canal. Muḥawwal, Şarșar and the Nahr-al-Malik. The Kûthâ canal 53 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. ‘IRÂK (continued). The bifurcation of the Euphrates. The Sûrâ channel. Þașr Ibn Hubayrah. Nîl and its canal. The Nahr Nars. The Badât canal, and Pombedita. The Kûfah channel. Kûfah city. Ķâdisîyah. Mashhad ‘Alî and Karbalâ. The twelve Astâns of 'Irâk Trade. The high roads of 'Irâķ 70 CHAPTER VI. JAZIRAH The three districts. The district of Diyar Rabî'ah. Mosul, Nineveh, and the neighbouring towns. Great Zâb, Hadîthah, and Irbil. Little Zâb, Sinn, and Dâķûķ. The Lesser Khâbûr, Hasanîyah, and ‘Imâdîyah. Jazîrah Ibn 'Omar and Mount Jûdî. Nașîbîn and Râs-al-'Ayn. Mârdîn and Dunayşir. The Hirmâs and the Khâbûr. 'Arabân and the Tharthâr river. Sinjâr and Hadr. Balad and Adhramah 86 CHAPTER VII. JAZIRAH (continued). The district of Diyâr Mudar. Raķķah and Râfiķah. The river Balîkh and Harrân, Edessa and Hisn-Maslamah. Ķarķîsiya. The Nahr Sa'îd, Raḥbah, and Dâliyah. Ruşafah of Syria. Ânah. Bâlis, Jisr Manbij, and Sumaysât. Sarûj. The district of Diyâr Bakr. Âmid, Hânî, and the source of the Tigris. Mayyâfarîşîn and Arzan. Hișn Kayfâ and Tall Fâfân. Sâ‘irt ΙΟΙ CHAPTER VIII. THE UPPER EUPHRATES. The Eastern Euphrates or Arsanâs. Milâsgird and Mûsh. Shimshâț and Hișn Ziyâd or Kharpût. The Western Euphrates. Arzan-ar-Rûm or Ķâlîșalâ. Arzanjân and Kamkh. The castle of Abrîş or Tephrike. Malațiyah and Țarandah. Zibațrah and Hadath. Hişn-Manşûr, Bahasnâ, and the Sanjah bridge. Products of Upper Mesopotamia. The high roads 115 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER IX. RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. Bilâd-ar-Rûm or the Greek country. The line of fortresses from Malațiyah to Țarsûs. 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 Saljûķs. The kingdom of Little Armenia. The Crusaders. The chief towns of the Saljûş Sultanate of Rûm 127 CHAPTER X. ROM (continued). The ten Turkoman Amirates. Ibn Bațâțah and Mustawfî. Kaysârîyah and Sîvâs. The Sultan of Mesopotamia. The Amîr of Ķaramân. Ķûniyah. The Amîr of Tekkeh, ‘Alâyâ, and Antâliyah. The Amîr of Hamîd, Egridûr. The Amîr of Germiyân, Kutâhîyah, and Sîvrî-Hişâr. The Amîr of Menteshâ, Mîlâs. The Amîr of Aydîn, Ephesus, and Smyrna. The Amîr of Şârûkhân, Magnesia. The Amîr of Ķarâsî, Pergamos. The 'Othmânlî territory, Brusâ. The Amîr of Ķizil Aḥmadlî, Sinûb. 144 CHAPTER XI. ADHARBÂYJÂN. The lake of Urmiyah. Tabrîz. Sarâv. Marâghah and its rivers. Pasawâ and Ushnuh. Urmiyah city and Salmâs; Khoi and Marand. Nakhchivân. Bridges over the Araxes. Mount Sablân. Ardabîl and Âhar. The Safîd Rûd and its affluents. Miyânij. Khalkhâl and Fîrûzâbâd. The Shâl river and Shâh Rûd district 159 CHAPTER XII. GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. The Gîlâns. Daylam and the Țâlish districts. Barvân, Dûlâb, and Khashm. Lâhîjân, Rasht, and other towns of Gîlân. The district of Mûghân. Bajarvân and Barzand. Mahmûdâbâd. Warthân. The province of Arrân. Bardhâʻah. Baylaşân. Ganjah and Shamkûr. The rivers Kur and Aras. The province of Shirvân. Shamâkhî. Bâkûyah and Bâb-al- Abwâb. The province of Gurjistân or Georgia. Tiflis and Ķarș. The province of Armenia. Dabîl or Duwîn. The lake of Vân. Akhlâț, Arjîsh, Vân, and Bitlîs. Products of the northern provinces 172 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII. JIBÂL. The province of Jibâl, or 'Irâķ 'Ajam, with its four districts. Ķirmasin or Kirmânshâhân. Bisutûn and its sculptures. Kanguvâr. Dînavar. Shahrazûr. Hulwân. The great Khurâsân road. Kirind. Kurdistân under the Saljūķs. Bahâr. Jamjamâl. Alânî and Alîshtar. Hamadân and its districts. Darguzîn. Kharaķânayn and the northern Âvah. Nihâvand. Karaj of Rûdrâvar, and Karaj of Abu-Dulaf. Farâhân 185 CHAPTER XIV. JIBÂL (continued). Little Lur. Burûjird. Khurramâbâd. Shâpûrkhwast. Sîrawân and Șaymarah. Isfahân and its districts. Fîrûzân ; Fârifân and the river Zandah Rûd. Ardistân. Kâshân. Ķum, Gulpaygân, and the Ķum river. Âvah and Sâvah. The river Gâvmâhâ 200 CHAPTER XV. JIBÂL (continued). Ray. Varâmîn and Țihrân. Ķazvîn and the castle of Alamût. Zanjân. Sultânîyah. Shîz or Satûrîş. Khûnaj. The districts of Țâliķân and Târum. The castle of Shamîrân. The trade and products of the Jibal province. The high roads of Jibâl, Adharbâyjân and the frontier pro- vinces of the north-west 214 CHAPTER XVI. KHzISTAN. The Dujayl or Kârûn river. Khûzistân and Ahwâz. Tustar or Shustar. The Great Weir. The Masruķân canal. “Askar Mukram. Junday Shâpûr. Dizfûl. Sûs and the Karkhah river. Başinnâ and Mattầth. Ķarķûb and Dûr-ar-Râsibî. Hawîzah and Nahr Tîrâ. Dawraķ and the Surraķ district. Hişn Mahdî. The Dujayl estuary. Râmhurmuz and the Zutt district. Territory of Great Lur. Îdhaj or Mâl-Amîr. Sûsan. Lurdagân. Trade and products of Khûzistân. The high roads . 232 CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XVII. FÂRS. Division of province into five districts or Kûrahs. The district of Ardashîr Khurrah. Shîrâz. Lake Mâhalûyah. The Sakkân river. Juwaym. Dasht Arzin lake. Kuvâr. Khabr and Şimkân. Kârzîn and the ķubâd Khurrah district. Jahram. Juwaym of Abu Aḥmad. Mândistân. Îrâhistân. Jûr or Fîrûzâbâd. The coast districts of Fârs. Ķays island. Sîrâf. Najîram and Tawwaj. Ghundîjân. Khârik and other islands of the Persian Gulf 248 CHAPTER XVIII. FÂRS (continued). The district of Shâpûr Khurrah. Shâpûr city and cave. The Ratîn river. Nawbanjân. The White Castle and Shaʻb Bavvân. The Zamms of the Kurds. Kâzirûn and its lake. The rivers Ikhshîn and Jarshîķ. Jirrah and the Sabûk bridge. The Arrajân district and Arrajân city. The Ţâb river. Bihbahân. The river Shîrîn. Gunbadh Mallaghân. Mahrubân. Sînîz and Jannâbah. The river Shâdhkân . 262 CHAPTER XIX. FÂRS (continued). The Istakhr district, and Iștakhr city or Persepolis. Rivers Kur and Pulvâr. Lake Bakhtigân and the cities round it. The Marvdasht plain. Baydâ and Mâyin. Kûshk-i-Zard. Sarmaḥ and Yazdikhwâst. The three roads from Shîrâz to Isfahân. Abarşûh. Yazd city, district, and towns. The Rûdhân district and its towns. Shahr-i-Bâbak and Harât 275 . CHAPTER XX. FÂRS (continued). The Dârâbjird Kûrah or Shabankârah district. Dârâbjird city. Darkân and Îg. Nîrîz and Iştahbânât. Fasâ, Rûnîz, and Khasû. Lâr and Furg. Târum and Sûrû. The trade and manufactures of Fârs. The high roads across Fârs 288 xiv CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. KIRMÂN. The five districts of Kirmân. The two capitals. Sîrjân, the first capital, its position and history. Bardasîr, the second capital, now Kirmân city. Mâhân and its saint. Khabis. Zarand and Kuhbinân, Cobinan of Marco Polo 299 CHAPTER XXII. KIRMÂN (continued). The Sîrjân district. Bam and Narmâsîr districts. Rîgân. Jîruft and Ķama- dîn, Camadi of Marco Polo. Dilfarîd. The Bâriz and ķafs mountains. Rûdhkân and Manûjân. Hurmuz, old and new, and Gombroon. The trade of the Kirmân province. The high roads 311 CHAPTER XXIII. THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. The extent and characteristics of the Great Desert. The three oases at Jarmaḥ, Nâband and Sanîn. The chief roads across the desert. The Makrân province. Fannazbûr and the port of Tîz. Other towns. Sind and India. The port of Daybul. Manşûrah and Multân. The river Indus. The Tûrân district and ķuşdâr. The Budahah district and Kandâbîl 322 CHAPTER XXIV. SIJISTÂN. Sijistân, or Nîmrûz, and Zâbulistân. Zaranj the capital. The Zarah lake. The Helmund river and its canals. The ancient capital at Râm Shahristân. Nih. Farah and the Farah river. The Khâsh river and the Nîshak district. Karnîn and other towns. Rûdbâr and Bust. The districts of Zamîn Dâwar. Rukhkhaj and Bâlis, or Walishtân. Kandahâr, Ghaznah, and Kâbul. The silver mines. The high roads through Sijistân 334 CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER XXV. ĶÛHISTÂN. The province called Tunocain by Marco Polo. Ķâyin and Tûn. Turshîz and the Pusht district. The Great Cypress of Zoroaster. Zâvah. Bûzjân and the Zam district. Bâkharz district and Mâlin. Khwâf. Zîrkûh. Dasht- i-Biyâd. Gunâbâd and Bajistân. Tabas of the dates. Khawst or Khûs. Birjand and Mûminâbâd. Tabas Masînân and Duruh 352 CHAPTER XXVI. ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN AND JURJÂN. The ovince of Ķûmis. Dâmghân. Bistâm. Biyâr. Samnan and Khuvâr. The Khurâsân road through Ķûmis. The province of Țabaristân or Mâzandarân. Âmul. Sâriyah. Mount Damâvand, with the districts of Fâdûsbân, Ķârin and Rûbanj. Fîrûzkûh and other castles. Nâtil, Sâlûs, and the Rûyân district. The fortress of Țâķ and the Rustamdar district. Mamțîr and Țamîsah. Kabûd Jâmah and the Bay of Nîm Murdân. The province of Gurgân or Jurjân. The river Jurjân and the river Atrak. Jurjân city and Astarâbâd. The port of Âbaskûn. The Dihistân district and Âkhur. The high roads through Țabaristân and Jurjân 364 CHAPTER XXVII. KHURẤSÂN. The four quarters of Khurâsân. The Nîshậpûr quarter. Nîshậpûr city and Shadyakh. The Nîshậpûr district. Tûs and Mashhad, with its shrine. Bayhaķ and Sabzivâr. Juwayn, Jâjarm, and Isfarâyin. Ustuvâ and Kûchân. Râdkân, Nisâ, and Abîvard. Kalât, Khâbarân, and Sarakhs 382 CHAPTER XXVIII. KHURÂSÂN (continued). The Marv quarter. The Murghâb river. Great Marv and its villages. Âmul and Zamm, on the Oxus. Marv-ar-Rûd, or Little Marv, and ķașr Ahnaf 397 xvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIX. KHURÂSÂN (continued). The Herât quarter. The Herât river, or Harî Rûd. The city of Herât. Mâlin and towns on the upper Harî Rûd. Bûshanj. The Asfuzâr district. The Bâdghîs district and its towns. Kanj Rustâķ. Districts of Gharjistân and Ghûr. Bâmiyân 407 CHAPTER XXX. KHURÂSÂN (continued). The Balkh quarter of Khurâsân. Balkh city and Naw Bahâr. The district of Jûzjân. Țâlikân and Jurzuwân. Maymanah or Yahûdîyah. Fâryâb. Shuburķân, Anbâr and Andakhûd. The Țukhâristân district. Khulm, Siminjân, and Andarâbah. Warwâlîz and Tâyiķân. The products of Khurâsân. The high roads through Khurâsân and Ķühistân 420 CHAPTER XXXI. THE OXUS. Transoxiana in general. The names Oxus and Jaxartes. The upper affluents of the Oxus. Badakhshân and Wakhkhân. Khuttal and Wakhsh. ķubâdhiyân and Șaghâniyân, with their towns. The Stone Bridge. Tirmidh. The Iron Gate. Kâlif, Akhsîsak, and Firabr. The Aral Sea or Lake of Khwârizm. Freezing of the Oxus in winter 433 CHAPTER XXXII. KHWÂRIZM. The province of Khwârizm. The two capitals : Kâth and Jurjânîyah. Old and new Urganj. Khîvah and Hazârasp. The canals of Khwârizm: towns to right and left of Oxus. Lower course of the Oxus to the Caspian. Trade and products of Khwârizm 446 CHAPTER XXXIII. SUGHD. Bukhârâ, and the five cities within the Great Wall. Baykand. Samarkand. The Buttam mountains and the Zarafshân or Sughd river. Karmîniyah, Dabûsiyah and Rabinjan. Kish and Nasaf, with neighbouring towns. The products of Sughd. Routes beyond the Oxus as far as Samar- kand 460 CONTENTS. xvii CHAPTER XXXIV. THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. The Ushrûsanah province. Bûnjikath the capital. Zâmîn and other towns. The Farghânâh province. The Jaxartes or Sayhûn. Akhsîkath and Andîjân. Ûsh, Uzkand, and other cities. The province of Shâsh. Shâsh city or Binkath. Banâkath or Shâhrukhîyah, and other towns. The Îlâķ district. Tûnkath city and the silver mines of Khasht. The Isbíjâb district. Isbîjâb city or Sayram. Chimkand and Fârâb or Utrâr. Yassî and Şabrân. Jand and Yanghikant. Țarâz and Mîrkî. Outlying towns of the Turks. Products of the Jaxartes countries. Routes to the north of Samarķand 474 INDEX 491 LIST OF MAPS. I. The Provinces of South-western Asia during the Caliphate to face p. 1 The Provinces of 'Irâķ and Khûzistân with part of Jazîrah to face p. 25 II. III. IV. V. VI. The Provinces of Jazîrah and Adharbâyjân with the North-west Frontier . to face p. 87 The Province of Rûm p. 127 The Provinces of Jibâl and Jîlân with Mâzandarân, Ķûmis, and Jurjân to face p. 185 The Provinces of Fârs and Kirmân p. 249 The Province of Makrân with part of Sijistân P. 323 The Provinces of Khurâsân, Ķûhistân with part of Sijistân to face p. 335 The Provinces of the Oxus and Jaxartes p. 433 The Province of Khwârizm p. 447 VII. VIII. IX. X. ABBREVIATIONS AND CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF MOSLEM GEOGRAPHERS. A. H. A. D. I. K. Kud. Ykb. I. S. I. R. I. F. : : : : : : Ibn Khurdâdbih Ķudâmah Ya‘ķûbî Ibn Serapion Ibn Rustah Ibn Faķih 250 266 278 290 290 290 (864) (880) (891) (903) (903) (903) Mas. Ist. Mas'ûdî Iştakhrî Ibn Hawķal Mukaddasî 332 340 367 375 (943) (951) (978) (985) I. H. Muk. N. K. ... Nâșir-i-Khusraw ... 438 (1047) F. N. Idr. I. J. Fârs Namah Idrîsî Ibn Jubayr 500 548 580 (1107) (1154) (1184) .. Yak. Kaz. Yâķût Kazvînî 623 674 (1225) (1275) Mar. A. F. Mst. I. B. Marâsid Abu-1-Fida Mustawfî Ibn Bațâțah 700 721 740 (1300) (1321) (1340) (1355) ... 756 Hfz. A. Y. Hâfiz Abrû 'Alî of Yazd 820 828 (1417) (1425) 1010 J. N. A. G. Jahân Numa Abu-l-Ghâzî (1600) (1604) I014 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 Baghdâd 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 Muḥammad, 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 Îrân 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 păttern 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 Baghdâd on the Tigris, a few miles above Ctesiphon, the older winter capital of the Sassanians. LE S. I 47 2 [CHAP. INTRODUCTORY. Baghdâd 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 Baghdad. 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 Baghdad. 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 Afghanistân, 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] 3 INTRODUCTORY. 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-'Irâș, 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 'Irâķ, under the Abbasids, was of course Baghdâd; * 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, Wâsit, Kûfah, and Bașrah, which continued to flourish for many centuries; and these, with Anbâr (already a city in Sassanian days) lying on the Euphrates in the latitude of Baghdâd, were the great centres of population in the 'Irâķ 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-Jazîrah, “the island,' or rather the peninsula,' [-2 4 [CHAP. INTRODUCTORY. 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 Jazîrah 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, Âmid on the Upper Tigris, and Raķķah 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 (11th) 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 Saljûķ Turks settled in these highlands which they wrested from the Byzantines, and then finally Asia Minor, or Rûm, 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 Adharbâyjân, the ancient Atropatene, bounded above and below, respectively, by the Araxes and the White River, the Safid- 1] 5 INTRODUCTORY. Rûd, 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 Urmîyah, near which stood Tabrîz and Marâghah, 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 Gilân, or Jîlân, on the Caspian, where the Safîd-Rûd, 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 Mûghân at the mouth of the combined Araxes and Cyrus rivers; then Arrân lying to the westward between the courses of these two rivers; with Shirvân to the north of the Cyrus, and Gurjistân (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 Adharbâyjân spreads the rich province of Media, which the Arabs very appropriately called Al-Jibâl, “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 Jibâl province, in later times, when the Kurds attained fame and power, came to be known as Kurdistân; and in the later middle-ages, but by a misnomer, as will be explained in due course, the province of Al-Jibâl was often called 'Irâķ 'Ajamî, or Persian 'Irâķ, in contrast to Arabian 'Irâķ, which was Lower Mesopotamia. The Jibâl province included many great cities; in the west Kirmânshâh and Hamadân (the latter the ancient Ecbatana); in the north-east Ray (Rhages), and to the south-east Ispahân. At a later period the Mongols of Persia founded Sulțânîyah in its northern plains, which for a time taking the place of Baghdâd, became the capital of this portion of their empire, which included both Mesopotamia and Persia under the rule of the Îl-Khân. In the mountains of the Jibal province many rivers take their rise, among the rest the Kârûn, 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 [CHAP. INTRODUCTORY. to the east of the combined mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris. The province of Khûzistân, lying south of Media and east of Lower Mesopotamia, occupies the lower course of the Kârûn river, or Dujay), with its numerous affluents. This country was extremely rich ; Tustar and Ahwâz were its chief towns; and its lands being plentifully irrigated were most productive. East of Khûzistân, and bordering the Gulf, lay the great province of Fârs, the ancient Persis and the cradle of the Persian monarchy. Under the Abbasids it still kept the division into the five Kûrahs, or districts, which had been organized under the Sassanians, and Fârs was closely studded with towns, great and small, the most important of which were Shîrâz the capital, Istakhr (Persepolis), Yazd, Arrajân, and Dârâbjird. The islands of the Gulf were counted as of Fârs, and ķays island was an important commercial centre before the rise of Hurmuz. The chief physical feature of Fârs was the great salt lake of Bakhtigân, which with other smaller sheets of water stood in the broad highland valleys, whose mountains were offsets of the ranges in the Jibâl province, already referred to. In Fârs, the Dârâbjird district under the Mongols came to be counted as a separate province, and was in the 7th (13th) century called Shabankârah ; the Yazd district also, in the later middle-ages, was given to the Jibâl province. To the east of Fars lay the province of Kirmân, far less fertile, almost lacking in rivers, and bordering on the Great Desert. Of this province there were two capitals in Abbasid times, Sîrjân and Kirmân city; and the two other most important towns of the province were Hurmuz, on the coast; and Jîruft, inland, a centre of much commerce. The Great Desert of Central Persia is the most remarkable physical feature of the high tableland of Îrân. 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 Makrân, 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 1] 7 INTRODUCTORY. 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 Fârs and Kirmân, which lie on its south-western side, and the eastern provinces which are beyond its other limit, namely Khurâsân with Sistân 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 Makrân province, which on the east touched India, running up to the highlands overlooking the Indus valley, part of which is now known as Balûchistân. On these regions, however, our authorities are not very fully informed. North of Makrân, and across the narrow part of the desert opposite Kirmân, lay the province of Sijistân or Sîstân, 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 Afghanistân lying above Kâbul and Ghaznah. Here Kandahâr 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 Sijistân. North-west of the Zarah lake, and on the border of the Great Desert, was the very hilly province aptly called Ķdhistân (Land of Mountains), the chief towns of which were Tûn and Kâyin, well known as the Tunocain of Marco Polo; Sijistân and Ķühistân thus forming the southern border of Khurâsân, the great eastern province of Persia. Before describing this last, however, the three small provinces of Ķūmis, Țabaristân and Jurjân, which form the subject of the succeeding chapter, require notice. Ķûmis, of which the capital was Dâmghân, 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 Țabaristân, otherwise called Mazandaran, which extended from Gîlân and the delta of the White River (Safîd-Rûd), on the west, to the south-eastern corner of the Caspian. Here Țabaristân joined Jurjân, or Gurgân, the ancient 8 [CHAP. INTRODUCTORY. Hircania, which included the valleys watered by the rivers Atrak and Jurjân, on which last stood Jurjân city. The Jurjân province extended eastward from the Caspian Sea to the desert which separated Khurâsân from the cultivated lands of the Oxus delta, namely the province of Khwârizm. The modern province of Khurâsân 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 Khurâsân of those days included what is now become the north-western part of Afghanistân. On the east, medieval Khurâsân bordered on Badakhshân, its northern frontier was the Oxus and the desert of Khwârizm. The Moslem geographers divided Khurâsân into four quarters, named after its four capital cities; viz. Nîshâpûr, Marv, Herat, and Balkh. From a physical point of view the remarkable feature of Khurâsân consisted in the two great rivers of Herat and of Marv, which rising in the mountains of what is now Afghanistân, turned north and flowed out to waste in the sands of the desert towards Khwârizm, reaching no sea or lake. The chapter following deals with the upper waters of the Oxus, and a number of small provinces, stretching from Badakhshân westwards, which lie to the north, on the right bank affluents of the great river. Its delta, forming the province of Khwârizm 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, Samarķand and Bukhârâ, 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 Farghầnah near the borders of the Chinese deserts, of which the capital was Akhsîkath, to Shâsh, modern Tâshkand, with the Isbîjâb 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] 9 INTRODUCTORY. 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 Baghdâd, where the Tigris was crossed by those coming from the further east and bound for the Hijâz. 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 Khurâsân 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 Baghdad by the Khurâsân gate, it went across the plain, passing over numerous streams by well-built bridges, to Hulwân at the foot of the pass leading up to the highlands of Persia. Here it entered the Jibâl province and after a steep ascent reached Kirmânshâh, the capital of Kurdistân. Crossing the Jibâl province diagonally, north- east, the road passed through Hamadân to Ray. From Ray onwards it went almost due east through ķûmis, having the Țabaristân mountains on the left, and the Great Desert on the south, till it entered the province of Khurâsân near the town of Bistâm. Continuing onwards it came to Nishậpûr, then to Țûs, and on to Marv, beyond which it crossed the desert to the Oxus bank at Âmul, thence reaching successively Bukhârâ and Samarķand in the province of Sughd. At Zâmîn a short distance east of Samarķand, the road bifurcated: on the left hand one road proceeded to Shâsh (Tâshkand) and ultimately to the ford at Utrâr on the lower course of the Jaxartes; the other road, leaving Zâmîn, turned off to the right, towards Farghầnah and the Upper Jaxartes, coming to Akhsîkath the capital, and finally to Úzkand on the borders of the Chinese desert. IO [CHAP. INTRODUCTORY. This in its full extent was the great Khurâsân road; and to the present day the post-roads crossing Persia, but centring in Țihrân, 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 Sulțânîyah, which became the capital of the Mongols. But all that this entailed was a branch road north from Hamadân direct to Sulțânîyah, 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 Khurâsân high road. Thus from near Kirmânshâh a road went north to Tabrîz and other towns on the Urmîyah lake, with prolongations to Ardabîl and to places on the Araxes. From Hamadân, going south-east, there was a high road to Isfahân; and from Ray, going north-west, the distances to Zanjân are given, whence a highway led up to Ardabil. Nishậpûr in Khurâsân was a centre for many branch roads; southwards one went to Țabas on the borders of the Great Desert in Ķühistân; another road went to ķâyin; while south-east was the highway to Herat, whence Zaranj in Sijistân was reached. From Marv a high road followed up the Marv river to Lesser Marv (Marv- ar-Rûd), where, joining a road coming from Herat, it went on to Balkh and the eastern frontier lands beyond the Oxus. Finally from Bukhârâ there was direct communication, north-west, with Urganj in Khwârizm; and, south-west, with Tirmid on the Oxus opposite Balkh. This completes the system of the Khurâsân road; and now returning to Baghdad, 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 Wâsit to Bașrah, the great port for the trade of the Persian Gulf. From both Wâsit and Başrah, Ahwaz in Khûzistan was reached, and thence the high road went due east to Shîrâz in Fârs. This was a centre of many roads. North was the road to Isfahân and on to Ray; north-east, through Yazd and across the Great Desert Țabas was reached, which communicated with Nîshậpûr; eastward by more than one route Sîrjân and I] II INTRODUCTORY. Kirmân were in communication, and thence eastward across the Great Desert was the way to Zaranj in Sijistân; while south-east and south from Shîrâz two roads branched towards the Persian Gulf ports, one passing through Dârâbjird to Sûrû near Hurmuz, the other to Sîrâf, at one time the chief harbour of Fârs. Returning once again to Baghdâd, the central point, we find that the great Pilgrim road to Mecca and Medina left West Baghdad, going south to Kufah on the border of the Arabian desert, which it crossed almost in a direct line to the Hijâz. A second Pilgrim road started from Başrah, running at first nearly parallel with the other, which it finally joined two stages north of Mecca. Then from Baghdâd, north-west, a road went to the Euphrates at Anbâr, and thence up that river to Raķķah, 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 Baghdâd, north, there were high roads up both banks of the Tigris to Mosul, whence Âmid was reached on the one hand, and Ķirķîsiyâ on the Euphrates to the south-west. From Âmid 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 Baghdâd, 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 1 For further particulars of the Arab geographers see Palestine under the Moslems (London, 1890), the Introductory chapter; also for more detail, the Introduction to the French translation of Abu-l-Fidâ, by M. Reinaud (Paris, 1848). I 2 [CHAP. INTRODUCTORY. 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 Khurdâdbih, Ķudâmah, Ya'ķûbî and Ibn Rustah. The first two are almost identical in substance. Ibn Khur- dâdbih was post-master of the Jibâl province, Kudâmah was a revenue accountant; their itineraries give stage by stage the distances along the great Khurâsân road and the other trunk roads, as sketched in the preceding paragraphs, which radiated from Baghdâd. The work of Ya‘ķûbî has unfortunately not reached us in its entirety; to it we owe the account of Baghdad which, with the description written by Ibn Serapion, has made it possible to work out in detail the topography of the Abbasid capital. Yaʻķûbî gives further a number of valuable notes on many other cities, and the details of the high roads traversing the 'Irâķ 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 Baghdâd, 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 Yafķûbî, adding many notices of towns; but above all he has given us a most minute account of the great Khurâsân road as far as ſûs, near Mashhad, with some of its branch roads, notably those going to Isfahân, and to Herat; also the road from Baghdad south to Kufah, and to Başrah, with the continuation eastward to Shîrâz. 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-Faķih, 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?. 1 The texts of Ibn Khurdâdbih, Ķudâmah, Ya‘ķûbî, Ibn Rustah and I] 13 INTRODUCTORY. The systematic geographers begin with the 4th (10th) 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, Istakhrî, Ibn Hawķal, and Muķaddasî, are those to whose labours we are most materially indebted. The work of Ibn Hawķal is but a new edition, partly enlarged and emended, of Istakhrî; on the other hand Istakhri, a native of Persepolis, gives the description of his native province, Fârs, in far greater detail than is to be found in Ibn Hawķal, who reduced his chapter on Fârs 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-Fakîh 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 Four. R. Asiat. Soc. for 1895, p. 9; and the MS. referred to is that in the British Museum, numbered Add. 23, 379. Ya'ķûbî, in addition to his work on geography, also wrote a history, the text of which has been edited by Professor M. T. Houtsma (Ibn-Wadhih, qui dicitur Al- Ja'qubi, Historiae, Leyden, 1883), and this often contains valuable informa- tion in matters of geography. 14 [CHAP. INTRODUCTORY. 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 Fârs, the ruins of which have not yet been identified, though their situation can now be fixed within narrow limits. Another writer of the 4th (10th century is Mas'udi, who has left two works; the first for the most part historical, and well known under the title of The Golden Meadows; the second, a sort of commonplace book, full of curious details and notes, which is called At-Tanbîh, “The Admonishment'.' Coming to the 5th and 6th (uth and 12th) centuries, we have the works of two famous travellers, pilgrims, whose descriptions of the places they passed through are of considerable importance. Nâşir, son of Khusraw, the Persian, in the middle of the 5th (11th) century went from Khurâsân 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 Baghdâd, 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 Fars Namah (Book of Fârs), 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 Idrîsî, who lived at the court of the Norman king, Roger II of Sicily. He wrote in Arabic, and very inconveniently has composed 1 The texts of Istakhrî, Ibn Hawkal, and Mukaddasî form volumes , II, and III, respectively, of the already-mentioned series of the Bibl. Geogr. Arab. (Leyden, 1870-1877). Of Mas'ûdî the text of the Tanbîh 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 Le Livre de l'Avertissement. The history, called The Golden Meadows (Murûj-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] 15 INTRODUCTORY. 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 Dictionary of Yâķt, 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 Yâķût 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 Al-Marâșid, '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 Baghdâd. Of about the same date is Kazvînî, 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-Fidâ, a Syrian prince, who, though he com- piled largely from the works of his predecessors, in addition gives 1 The Persian text of Nâșir-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 Fårs Namah exists only in manuscript : that quoted is in the British Museum, numbered Or. 5983. Idrîsî 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, Manuscrits Arabes, Nos. 2221 and 2222. 16 [CHAP. INTRODUCTORY. 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 Baţůțah 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 Îrân (Mesopo- tamia with Persia), which shows the condition of the country after the Mongol settlement, when this region was governed by the Îl-Khâns. Mustawfî also wrote an historical work called the Tarikh-i-Gusidah, “the Select History,' which, besides being of considerable value for Mongol times, often contains geographical notes of great importance . For the time of Tîmûr we have primarily the notices in the historical work of 'Alî of Yazd, then the Geography written by Hâfiz Abrû; both are in Persian, and date from the first half of the 9th (15th) century. Lastly for the settlement after the conquests of Tîmûr, the works of two Turkish authors, one writing in Eastern Turkish, the other in ‘Othmanlî, have to be mentioned, both being of the earlier half of the uth (19th) century. These are the History of the Turks and Mongols by the Khwârizm prince Abu-l- Ghâzî, and the Universal Geography called the Jahân Numâ · The Mu'jam-al-Buldân, the great dictionary of Yâķût, 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 Mustawfî and later authorities, in the Dictionnaire de la Perse (Paris, 1861) of M. Barbier de Meynard. The Marâșid-al-Ittila, which is the epitome of Yâķût, has been edited by Juynboll (Leyden, 1852). The two volumes of the Cosmography of Kazvînî have been edited by Wüstenfeld (Göttingen, 1848). The text of the Geography of Abu-l-Fidâ 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. 2 The Travels of Ibn Bațâțah, the Arabic text with a French translation, have been published (Paris, 1874–1879) by Defrémery and Sanguinetti. The Persian Geography of Hamd Allah Mustawfî (the text of the Nuzhat-al-ħulab) was lithographed at Bombay in 1311 (1894), and the Guzidah is quoted from the British Museum Ms. numbered Add. 22,693, Mss. Add. 7630 and Egerton 690 having been collated. Part of the Guzidah has now been printed, with a French translation, by M. J. Gantin (Paris, 1903). I] 17 INTRODUCTORY. (World Displayer) by the celebrated bibliographer Hâjj 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 Balâdhurî, 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‘ķûbî, 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 (10th) 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 (10th) 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-Athîr has to be relied upon; also the entertaining summary of Moslem history generally known by the name of Fakhrî. The Universal History of Ibn Khaldûn is often of use to supplement the meagre chronicle of Ibn-al-Athîr ; and the great Biographical Dictionary of Ibn Khallikân occasionally adds details. These authors all wrote in Arabic. In Persian the two histories called the Rawặat-aş-Şafâ and the Habib-as-Siyâr, respectively by Mîrkhwând and by Khwândamîr 1 The Persian text of the history of Tîmûr by 'Alî of Yazd, known as the Zafar Namah, is published in the Bibliotheca Indica (Calcutta, 1887). A French translation called Histoire de Timour Bec was published (Paris, 1722), by Petis de la Croix. Hâfiz Abrû exists only in manuscript; the one quoted is that of the British Museum, numbered Or. 1577. The Turkish text of the Jahân Numâ was printed in Constantinople in 1145 (1732) by Ibrâhîm Efendî, and a Latin translation of part of this work was published by M. Norberg (Lund, 1818). The Turkî text, with a French translation, of the History of the Mongols, by Abu-l-Ghâzî, has been published by Baron Desmaisons (St Petersburg, 1871). LE S. 2 18 [CHAP. INTRODUCTORY. 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 Saljūķ dynasties in Asia Minor and in Kirmân, are likewise of importance, and are more than once quoted in the following pages, being referred to under the names of the chroniclers Ibn Bîbî, and Ibn Ibrâhîm?. 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-Kafah, Al-Başrah, and Wâsit. The Aramaic names, as a rule, are easily recognisable by their form, and by the termination in long â, for example Jabultâ; and the meaning of these too is generally not far to seek :'e.g. 'Abartâ, “the passage, or crossing place,' marking a bridge of boats; and Bâjisrâ, which is equivalent 1 The text of Balâdhurî has been edited by Professor De Goeje (Leyden, 1866). He has also given us Ibn Mashku wayh, 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 Tabarî have been published, in three series, under the editorship of Professor De Goeje (Leyden, 1879—1901). The Chronicle of Ibn-al-Athîr is edited by Tornberg (Leyden, 1867–1876). Fakhrî, more correctly named Ibn-at- Tiktaşâ, has been edited by Ahlwardt (Gotha, 1860). Of Ibn Khaldûn, the text quoted is that printed at Bulâķ in 1284 (1867): the text of Ibn Khallikân 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 Mîrkhwând (or Amîrkh wând) and by Khwândamîr are to the lithographed editions, published in Bombay, of the Rawờat-aş-Şafâ in 1266 (1850), and of the Habîb-as-Siyår in 1273 (1857). The two Saljûķ chronicles are edited by Professor Houtsma in vols. I and iv of his Recueil de Textes relatifs à l'Histoire des Seljoucides (Leyden, 1886–1902). The first of these is by Ibn Ibrâhîm (otherwise called Muhammad Ibrâhîm, or Muḥammad ibn Ibrâhîm), who flourished about the year 1025 (1616); and the second chronicle is by Ibn Bîbî, who wrote about 680 (1281). See also an article by Professor Houtsma in the Zeit. Deutsch. Morg. Gesell. 1885, p. 362. I] 19 INTRODUCTORY. to the Arabic Bayt-al-Jisr, meaning 'bridge-house.' Older Persian names like Baghdâd, "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 Saljûķ 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 Salûşîyah, later as Selefkeh; and Heraclia which we find at first as Hiraķlah, and in more modern times as Arâkliyah. After the Saljûķ 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 Ķarâ Hişâr and Karah Hişâr; Ķarah-sî and Karâsi; Karamân and Ķarâmân, 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 Marâghah in Adharbâyjân, and the hamlet of Bayzâ (Al-Bayda, 'the white town') in Fârs, 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 Ushturân, and Dih Namak. These names the Arab geographers constantly 1 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-Marîyah, '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-ķaléat Ayyûb, 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 20 [CHAP. INTRODUCTORY. translate, and in their pages we find the above, for instance, given as Ķaryat-al-As, Ķaryat-al-Jamâl, and Ķaryat-al-Milḥ, 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 Râs-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 Kanguvâr, which from the stealing of their mules here the early Moslems had called ķașr-al-Luşûş, “Robber Castle'; but Persian Kanguvâr has in the end survived the Arab nickname. when the Moslem conquerors founded a new provincial capital, as was the case with Shîrâz, 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 Shîrâz, 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; Țuraythîth becomes Turshîz: Hamadhân is in later books spelt Hamadân'; further there was evidently an Arabic and a Persian pronunciation (or spelling) of the same name contemporaneously current, thus Arabic ķâshân is written Kâshân in Persian, Şâhik appears later as Châhik, and Șaghâniyân is Chaghâniyân. Then again, as the Arabic grammar demanded tri-consonantal roots, the Persian Bam had to be written in Arabic Bamm, and ķum ķumm; but this was merely to suit the rules of Arabic orthography, and the doubled final 1 It is to be remarked that the dh, which the modern Persians pronounce z (e.g. Azarbâyjân, written Adharbâyjân), was apparently sometimes not given the x sound ; thus Hamadhân is now called Hamadân, and never pronounced Hamazân. In Persian the Arabic w is generally, but not always, pronounced v, e.g. Ķazwîn or ķazvîn. 1] 21 INTRODUCTORY. 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 Ķirmâsîn or Ķirmîsîn, later known as Kirmânshâhân, shortened to Kirmânshâh 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 Al 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-Furât, 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-Sîrajân becomes (Persian) Sîrjân. 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 Isfahân, 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-Shâm, '(the capital of) Syria'; and Zaranj, the chief town of Sijistân, was 1 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-Kûfah, said to mean “the (city of the) Reed- huts’; but on the other hand, Wâsit, “the Middle-town,' is always written without the article, though here too it would have seemed equally appropriate. 2 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 [CHAP. INTRODUCTORY. more often known simply as Sijistân, for Madînat-Sijistân, 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 Kirmân province, where the name Kirmân (scilicet city) in the earlier books stands for the first capital Sîrjân, and in later times for the present city of Kirmân, a totally different town, which only became the capital when Sîrjân 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 Sîrjân city, for example, the name is still met with in the modern Sîrjân district; the same is the case with both Bardasîr and Jîruft, 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 Aradûn district is now given to the little town known as Aradûn, which of old was called Khuvâr (of Ray). In physical geography the Arab nomenclature was not rich. Single and notable mountain peaks generally had proper names (e.g. Damavand, 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. Mâhâld, Zarah, and Chîchast), but more commonly the lake was known by the name of the principal town on its shores; as for example the Urmîyah lake, and the lake of Vân also called after Arjîsh. 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 Țabaristân, or of Gîlân, or of Jurjân, also of Bâkû, and it was latterly known as the Khazar 1] 23 INTRODUCTORY. 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 Khwârizm, and the Persian Gulf as the Sea of Fârs. 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'. 1 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 Khurķân, in the Ķûmis province. Nothing much is known of it, but it seemed not unimportant to mark that this Khurķân of Ķûmis, though now disappeared from the map, was to be kept separate from the like-written name (in Arabic) of Kharraķân in the Jibâl province. All that is known of the Ķûmis town is its position; but to fix this, (1) Ķazvînî has to be cited, who says the town stood four leagues from Bistâm; to which information (2) Yâķût adds the fact that it stood on the road going to Astarâbâd; while (3) Mustawfî further tells us that in his day Khurkân 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. 'Irâķ or Babylonia. Change in the courses of the Euphrates and Tigris. The great irrigation canals. Baghdad. Madâin and the cities on the Tigris thence down to Fam-aş-Şilḥ. 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-Jazîrah, “the Island,' the southern half was known as Al-'Irâķ, 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-Sawâd, 'the Black Ground,' and by extension As-Sawâd is frequently used as synonymous with Al-'Irâķ, thus coming to mean the whole province of Babylonia'. The frontier between 'Irâķ and Jazirah varied at different epochs. By the earlier Arab geographers the limit generally 1 In its secondary sense Sawâd means the District' round a city, hence we have the Sawâd of Baghdâd, of Kûfah, and of Başrah frequently employed to designate respectively the environs of these cities. CHAP. II] 25 'IRÂĶ. coincided with a line going north from Anbâr on the Euphrates to Takrît on the Tigris, both cities being reckoned as of 'Irâķ. Later authorities make the line go almost due west from Takrît, so as to include in 'Irâķ many of the towns on the Euphrates to the north of Anbâr; this, physically, is the more natural division between the two provinces, and it crosses the Euphrates below “Ânah, where the river makes a great bend to the southward. The Euphrates was known to the Arabs as Al-Furât; the Tigris they called Dijlah (without the article), a name which occurs in the Targums as Diglath, corresponding to the latter part of Hiddekel, the form under which the Tigris is mentioned in the book of Genesis. When the Moslems conquered 'Irâķ in the middle of the ist (7th) century Ctesiphon, which they called Madâin, 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, Kûfah, Başrah, and Wâsit, which rapidly grew to be the chief towns of the new Moslem province, Kûfah and Basrah more particularly being the twin capitals of 'Irâķ 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 Baghdad on the Tigris some miles above Ctesiphon (Madâin). Baghdad 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 ‘Irâķ, 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 'Irâķ were entirely different from what they are now, by reason of the great changes which have come to pass in the courses of the 1 As such Kûfah and Başrah were known as Al-'Irâşân (vulgarly Al- 'Irâķayn), meaning the two capitals of Al-'Irâķ.' At a later date, however, when Kûfah and Başrah had lost their pre-eminence, the name Al-'Irâķayn or 'the two 'Irâķs' came to be used incorrectly, as though meaning the two provinces of 'Irâķ, namely Arabian and Persian ‘Irâậ, the latter standing for the province of Al-Jibâl, but this will be more particularly explained in Chapter XIII. 26 [CHAP. 'IRAK Euphrates and Tigris, and the consequent ruin of the numerous irrigation canals which, under the earlier Caliphs, made 'Irâķ 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 Baghdad by the waters of the Euphrates at Ķurnah. The combined rivers, now known as the Shațț-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 10th (16th) century, the Tigris, when it came about a hundred miles below Baghdad, 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 Wasiț. This city occupied both banks of the river, and the Tigris some 60 miles below Wâsit, 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 Kufah; for the main channel of the Euphrates was in those days the Kûfah arm of the river, that which flows by Hillah (now the main stream) being then only a great irrigation canal, called the Naḥr Sûrâ. 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-ķațr, to where (near modern Ķurnah) 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 Baghdad to Başrah, which last, the seaport of Baghdad, 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 11] 27 ‘IRÂĶ. off at the village now known as Ķ at-al-'Amârah, which stands for the medieval Mâdharâyâ; and this, the present channel down to Ķurnah, 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 Balâdhurî dates the origin of the swamp as far back as the reign of ķubâdh 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 Anûshirwân the Just, son and successor of ķubâdh, the dykes were partially repaired and the lands brought back under cultivation; but under Khusraw Parwîz, the contemporary of the prophet Muḥammad, 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 Balâdhurî King Parwîz 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 (Balâdhuri 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 Dihậâns (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 Mâdharâyâ, to the western channel (the Shatt-al-Hayy) which passed down through the site sub- 28 [CHAP. IRAK. sequently occupied by the Moslem city of Wasit. 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 (gth) century when he wrote. He then describes the back-water, six leagues long (above Ķurnah), which ran up north to ‘Abdasî and Madhâr, 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 'Abdasî and Madhâr right up to where this rejoined the Tigris course (of his day) in the district north of Wâsit (at Mâdharâyà), whence up stream the river was clear to Madâin. He continues :-'and of old, sea-going ships sailing in from India came up the Tigris (estuary, of the later) Başrah, and thence could attain to Madain (Ctesiphon), for sailing on they came out above (the present) Fam-aş-Şilḥ into the Tigris reach of (the river below where, in later times, was) Baghdad.' 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 Wâsit, 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 Tîmûr and the beginning of the 9th (15th) century, describe the lower Tigris as still passing through Wâsit, this fact being confirmed by Hâfiz Abrû 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 Baghdâd, went down by boat in six days to Başrah, passing on the fifth day Ķurnah, '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 Baghdâd 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] 29 ‘IRÂK. by Wâsit) 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 (Ķût-al-)'Amârah; and just before coming to Başrah he passed Ķurnah 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 'Irâķ 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 Nahrawân, starting from below Takrît and re-entering the river fifty miles north of Wasit, 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 Baghdad to Başrah, 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, Principal Navigations (Glasgow, 1904), vi. 6; also v. 371, for in 1563 Cæsar 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 Pilgrimes (folio, 1625—26), v. 1411, 1412; Six Voyages en Turquie de J. B. Tavernier (Utrecht, 1712), i. 240. 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 Atheneum for March 23rd, 1901, p. 373), who speaks of the castle (of Ķurnah) six leagues above Başrah 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. 30 [CHAP. 'IRÂķ up from the accounts of contemporary authorities, shows how the marvellous fertility of 'Irâķ 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 Nahrawân, 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 Baghdad 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 'Irâş, and explain the details of the road system (already referred to in Chapter I) of which Baghdad was the central point. The first of the great canals which ran from the Euphrates to the Tigris was the Nahr 'Îsâ?, and just above where its waters flowed out into the latter river, the Caliph Manşûr about the year 145 (762) built the Round city, which became the nucleus of Baghdad. 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 Başrah Gate to the S. E. opening on the suburbs along the Tigris bank where the various branches of the 'Îsâ canal flowed out; (2) the Kûfah Gate to the S.W. opening on the high road 1 Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate (Oxford, 1900). It is to be noted that the number of districts, towns, and villages in 'Irâķ 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. Roy. 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 alte Landschaft Babylonien (Leyden, 1901), for fuller details, which it is impossible to find place for in the present chapter. 2 Nahr means both canal’ and river’ in Arabic; «Îsâ was the name of the Abbasid prince who dug the canal. II] 31 'IRÂĶ. going south, which was the Pilgrim road to Mecca; (3) the Syrian Gate to the N.W. where the high road branched left to Anbâr on the Euphrates, and right to the towns on the western Tigris bank north of Baghdâd; and (4) the Khurâsân Gate leading to the main bridge of boats for crossing the river. By this bridge East Baghdâd was reached, at first known as the Camp of Mahdî, son and successor of the Caliph Manşûr, and Mahdî built his palace here, also founding the great Friday Mosque of East Baghdad. The settlement on the east side was divided into three quarters, that near the bridge head was known as the Rusâfah quarter, the Shammâsîyah quarter lay above it along the river bank, and the Mukharrim quarter below it. These three quarters of East Baghdad were surrounded by a semicircular wall, going from the river bank above the Shammâsiyah to the river again below the Mukharrim ; and across the middle and narrow part of East Baghdâd went the beginning of the great Khurâsân road, starting from the Khurâsân Gate of the Round city, and crossing the main bridge to the (second) Khurâsân Gate of East Baghdad, whence, as explained in the previous chapter, the trunk road went east to the limits of the Moslem empire. From the Kûfah Gate of the Round city, as already stated, led the Kûfah 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 Muḥawwal Gate lay to the westward of the Round city, being reached from both the Kûfah Gate and the Syrian Gate, where the roads converging fell into the great western high road going through the town of Muḥawwal to Anbâr. North of the Syrian Gate was the Harbiyah quarter (balancing Karkh on the south of the Round city), and beyond the Harbîyah and surrounded on two sides by a bend in the river were the northern cemeteries of West Baghdâd, at a later time famous as the Kâțimayn, and so named from the tombs of two of the Shî'ah Imâms. The city of Baghdâd occupied the central point of four districts, two being on either bank of the Tigris. On the western side the Kațrabbul district was north of the 'Îsâ canal, and Bâdûrayâ lay to the south of the same; while, on the eastern bank the Nahr Bûķ district was to the north of the line of the Khurâsân 32 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ road, and Kalwâdhâ district to the southward; the town of Kalwâdhâ standing on the river bank a short distance below the southernmost gate of East Baghdâd. From Baghdâd, as the central point of the road system of the empire, two roads (as already said), going south and west, bifurcated at the Kùfah Gate of the Round city; and two, going north and east, passed through East Baghdad, having their starting-point at the further end of the main bridge of boats. The southern road, to Kûfah (and Mecca), after leaving the suburb of Karkh, came before long to the town of Şarşar, on the Nahr Şarşar, the second of the great canals from the Euphrates to the Tigris, which flowed parallel with the Nahr 'Îsâ on the south. The western or Anbâr road turning off at the Kûfah Gate, and passing through the suburb of Barâthâ, came after about a league to the town of Muḥawwal which stood on the 'Îsâ canal. The eastern or Khurâsân road left East Baghdad (as already said) at the Khurâsân Gate, north of the Mukharrim quarter, and the first town reached was Nahrawân Bridge at the crossing of the great canal of this name. Finally, the northern road passed through the Shammâsîyah quarter to the Baradân Gate of East Baghdâd, and shortly came to the town of Baradân lying on the east bank of the Tigris; whence, keeping along the left bank of the river, the high road reached Sâmarrâ and the towns of northern Mesopotamia. During the five centuries of the Abbasid Caliphate the plan of Baghdâd 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 Hârûn-ar-Rashîd. 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 Sâmarrâ, and during the reigns of seven Caliphs Baghdâd was reduced to the condition of a provincial town. When finally in 279 (892) Sâmarrâ was abandoned and the Caliph re-established his court in the old capital, it was East Baghdâd, 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] 33 'IRÂĶ. 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 Baghdâd as it had existed in the time of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd. 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 long en- closed by a great semicircular wall. The new wall of East Baghdad, 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 Kalwâdhâ), and it was built by the Caliph Mustazhir in 488 (1095). 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 Baghdâd, which is as heretofore the capital of 'Irâķ, and the residence of its Turkish Governor. Seven leagues below Baghdâd, and occupying both banks of the Tigris, lay Al-Madâin, 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 Țaysafûn, 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. Anûshirwân 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.' Madain is merely the Arabic plural of Madinah, “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 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ. Mesopotamia ; and this suburb existed when the Arabs conquered the country in the following century, being still known as Rûmiyah, the Roman (or Greek) town, which some report to have been built on the plan of Antioch. Al-Madâin, 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 Yafķûbî wrote in the 3rd (9th) century. These were, on the east bank, Al-Madinah-al-'Atiķah, 'the Old Town,' corresponding with Ctesiphon, and one mile south of it Asbânbur, adjacent to which lay Rûmîyah. On the opposite bank of the Tigris was Bahurasîr, a corruption of Bih-Ardashîr—the good town of King Ardashîr'—and one league below it was Sâbâț, which according to Yâķût was called by the Persians Balâsâbâd. 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 Aywân-Kisrâ, 'the Hall of the Chosroes,' and this, accord- ing to Yaʻķûbî, stood in Asbânbur; while another great building known as Al-ķașr-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 (10th) 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 Manşûr was founding Baghdad; for the Caliph expressed his intention of demolishing the Sassanian palace, and using the materials for his new city. His Persian Wazîr, Khâlid the Barmecide, in vain attempted to dissuade him from this act of barbarity, but the Caliph was obstinate; the Wazîr, 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 Yâķût 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 Tâj in East Baghdâd, which the Caliph ‘Ali Muktafî finished building in the year 290 (903). II] 35 ‘IRÂĶ. In the 4th (10th) century Madâin, 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 Salmân the Persian, one of the best known Companions of the prophet Muhammad. The markets of Madâin were built of burnt brick and were well provided. In the neighbouring Rumiyah, the Caliph Manşûr had for a time held his court, while at Sâbâț on the opposite bank Mamun had also resided. The grandeur of the ancient palace of the Chosroes is a theme on which the Arab geographers relate many details. Ya‘ķûbî says that the summit of the great arch is 80 ells in height; Yâķût refers to the magnificent kiln-burnt bricks, each near an ell in length by somewhat less than a span in width. Mustawfî, who gives the legendary account of Madâin and its palace, reports that in the 8th (14th) century both Madâin and Rûmîyah 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 Bahurasîr, already men- tioned, which Yâķût, who had been there, calls Ar-Rumaķân. To the south of it lay Zarîrân, a stage on the Pilgrim road, and to the west Şarşar, already mentioned, on the Şarsar canal, which last fell into the Tigris a short distance above Madâin. The district round Madâin, which stretched eastward from the Tigris to the Nahrawân canal, was known as Râdhân (Upper and Lower), of which Yâķût names numerous villages, and Mustawfî praises the magnificent crops harvested here. Dayr-al-'Âķūl, 'the Convent of the (river) Loop,' is still marked on the map, situate on the east bank to leagues below Madâin, 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 Nahrawân. In the town was a Friday Mosque’, standing 1 Ykb. 320, 321. I. S. 9. I. H. 167. Muk. 122. Yak. i. 425, 426, 768, 809; ii. 729, 929; iii. 3. Mst. 139, 140. 2 This convenient, but of course incorrect term translates the Arabic Masjid-al-Jami', 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 Makâm or Mashhad, the shrine' or 'place of 3—2 36 [CHAP. ‘IRÂĶ. 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 (Al-Maașir) 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.' Muķaddasî in the 4th (10th) century refers to Dayr-al--Âķůl as one of the finest cities of this region of the river bank, but afterwards the bed of the Tigris changed and Yâķût 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. Mustawfî, however, in the following century still counts Dayr-al-'Âķūl 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- Âķal, was the small town of As-Sîb, for distinction called Sîb of the Banî kûmâ, which was noted for its olive-groves, and famous in history for the battle which took place here in 262 (876), when Ya‘ķùb the Saffarid was defeated by the troops of the Caliph Mu'tamid. A short distance below Dayr-al--Âķal stood the monastery of Marmârî, surnamed the Disciple, otherwise called Dayr ķunnâ (or ķunnah), which lay a mile to the east of the Tigris, and 16 leagues from Baghdad. The historian Shâbustî in martyrdom' of a saint. The Musallå 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-Jâmi', 'the Mosque of the Congregation '--terms often translated by the Cathedral,' or 'Congregational Mosque.' The possession of a Jami' or Mimbar (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; Istakhrî for instance gives a long list of places in Fârs 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-Jami' became changed to Masjid-al-Jum'ah, meaning "the Friday Mosque, but this is not the classical usage. II] 37 'IRÂK. the 4th (10th) century (quoted by Yâķût) 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 dînârs (£100 to £500). 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 dînârs (£25 to £100). Over against Dayr ķunnâ, but on the Tigris bank, was the small town of Aş-Şâfîyah, which Yâķût writes was in his day already a ruin; and opposite this on the western side lay Humânîyah (or Humayniyah) which is still found on the map, two leagues S.E. of Dayr-al--Âķūl. In the beginning of the 3rd (9th) century Humânîyah was a place of some importance, for after the death of the Caliph Amîn, his two sons and his mother, Zubaydah, widow of Hârûn-ar-Rashid, were for a time sent to be kept in prison here by Mamûn; and Yâķût in the 7th (13th) century describes Humânîyah as a large village surrounded by well cultivated lands? Jarjarâyâ, or Jarjarây, which still exists, lay four leagues S.E. of Dayr-al-'Âķūl. It is described by Mukaddasî in the 4th (10th) century as having been a large town, and its Friday Mosque stood close to the Tigris, which surrounded the town on two sides. Ya'ķûbî writing in the previous century states that its population chiefly consisted of Persian nobles, and it was the capital of the district of Lower Nahrawân. In the 7th (13th) century, according to Yâķût, it was, like most of the towns of the Nahrawân districts, in a state of complete ruin. On the western bank of the Tigris, four leagues below Jarjarâyâ, at the ruins now called Tall-Nu'mân stood the town of An-Nu'mânîyah, which Yâķût counts as the half-way stage between Baghdad and Wâsit. An-Nu'mânîyah was the capital of the Upper Zâb district, its Friday Mosque standing in the market place, and Yaʻķûbî adds that near by stood the monastery called Dayr Hizķil, where mad people were looked after by the monks. Nu'mânîyah was celebrated according to Ibn Rustah for its looms, where carpets like those of Hîrah were 1 I. R. 185, 186. Ykb. 321. Kud. 193. Muk. 122. Mas. Tanbih 149. Yak. ii. 676, 687; iii. 362; iv. 980. Mst. 139. Ibn-al-Athir, vi. 207. 38 [CHAP. II 'IRÂĶ. manufactured. In the 8th (14th) century Mustawfî still speaks of Nu'mânîyah as a flourishing town surrounded by date-groves. The small town of Jabbul lay on the eastern bank, nine leagues below Jarjarâyâ, 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 Muķaddasî describes it as of the size of Dayr-al--Âķūl; but when Yâķût wrote, Jabbul had sunk to the size of a big village'. The town of Mâdharâyâ occupied the position where at the present day Ķûț-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 Ķurnah. Mâdh- arâyâ was on the east bank, and in the 3rd (9th) century it was inhabited by Persian nobles. Here the great Nahrawân canal flowed back into the Tigris; and immediately below Mâdharâyâ came Al- Mubârak, a town which lay opposite Nahr Sâbus on the western bank of the Tigris. The town of Nahr Sâbus 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 Zâb district ; it was counted as five leagues distant from Jabbul. On the opposite bank, and five leagues down stream, was the Șilḥ canal with the town called Fam-aş-Şilḥ at its 'mouth' (Fam), or point of origin, which latter lay seven leagues above Wâsit. Fam-as-Silḥ 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 Wazîr of Mamûn, in which he celebrated the marriage of his daughter Bûrân with the Caliph, spending fabulous sums in banquets and gifts, as will be found chronicled in the pages of Mas'ûdî. Fam-as-Silh afterwards fell to ruin, and Yâķût 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-aş-Şilḥ the buildings of the Great Mosque in Wâsit were visible on the southern horizon. Yak. ii. 23, 54; 1 Kud. 193. Ykb. 321. I. R. 186, 187. Muk. 132. iv. 796. A. F. 305. Mst. 141. 2 Ykb. 321. Kud. 194. I. R. 187. Yak. ii. 903 ; iii. 917; iv. 381. Mas. vii. 65. CHAPTER III. 'IRAK (continued). Wấsit. The Great Swamps. Madhâr and Ķurnah. The Blind Tigris. Başrah and its canals. Ubullah and 'Abbâdân. The Tigris above Baghdad. Baradân. The Dujayl district. “Ukbârâ, Harbâ, and Ķâ- disîyah. Wasit, the middle city,' was so called because it lay equi- distant (about 50 leagues) from Kûfah, Basrah, and Ahwâz. It was the chief town of the Kaskar district, and before the foundation of Baghdâd, as already said, was one of the three chief Moslem cities of 'Irâķ. Wasit was founded about the year 84 (703) by Hajjaj, 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. Yaʻķûbî states that eastern Wâsit had been a town before the days of Hajjaj, 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 Hajjaj, and called Al-ķubbat Al-Khadrâ, celebrated for its great dome, from the summit of which Fam-aş-Şilḥ seven leagues distant to the north could be seen. The lands round Wâsit were extremely fertile, and their crops provisioned Baghdad in time of scarcity; also paying yearly into the treasury a million of dirhams (£40,000) from taxes, as reported by Ibn Hawķal, who was at Wasit in 358 (969). Muķaddasî states that the mosque in the eastern half of Wasit likewise was built by Hajjaj. The town markets were magnificent 40 [CHAP. 'IRAK 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 Wâsit continued to be one of the most important cities of 'Irâķ, and apparently the eastern quarter was the first to fall to ruin, for ķazwînî, who was Judge at Wâsit in the latter half of the 7th (13th) century, speaks of the town as lying solely on the western Tigris bank. Ibn Bațâțah, 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 Mustawfî 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 Wâsit is frequently mentioned as a place of importance during the various campaigns of Tîmûr, 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 Wâsit, taking the eastern course down by Ķurnah, and the city fell to complete ruin. Hâjjî Khalfah, 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 Wasit, according to Yâķût, 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 Wasit, and above Al-ķațr, where in the 4th (10th century the swamp began. The first of these towns was Ar-Rusâfah, 'the Causeway,' lying on the left bank, ten leagues from Wâsit, and near it flowing eastward into the swamp was the canal called Nahr Bân, with the town of the same name, Kaz. ii. 320. Mst. 141. 1 Ykb. 322. I. R. 187. Ist. 82. I. H. 162. Muk. 118. I. B. ii. 2. A. Y. i. 640, 657; ii. 517. J. N. 463. The ruins of Wâsit 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 Euphrates and Tigris Expedition, i. 37) states that these ruins were visited by Ormsby and Elliott in 1831—2, but he does not mark their position. III] 41 'IRÂĶ. also spelt Nahr Abân, at its exit. Below this came Al-Fârâth and then Dayr-al--Ummâl, '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-Sîb, on which stood the towns of Al-Jawâmid, “the Dried-lands, and Al-'UĶr; finally, the Nahr Bardûdâ on which lay the town of Ash-Shadîdîyah. All these were important towns lying in the swamp, round and about Al-Jâmidah, otherwise called in the plural) Al-Jawâmid; further, Mukaddasî describes a large town in this region called Aş-Şalîk, 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-Hawânît, “the Taverns,' where there was a toll-bar moored across the river, like the one already described at Dayr-al--Âķûl (p. 36), and this was close to Al-Kațr, 12 leagues below Rusafah, where, according to Ibn Rustah, the Tigris in the 3rd (gth) century dividing into three arms finally entered the swamp?. The Swamps were called Al-Baţâih (the plural form of Al- Bațiḥah, 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 ķațr 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 Başrah estuary. These lagoons of open water, clear of reeds, were called Hawr or Hawl by the Arabs, and the lagoons were connected by channels navigable for small boats. The great river barges, 1 1. S. 9, 20. I. R. 184, 185. Muk. 119. Yak. ii. 10, 553 ; iii. 209, 415, 840; iv. 217, 758. Kud. 194. 42 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ according to Ibn Rustah, did not pass below ķațr, 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 Başrah. The first was called Bahaşşâ, the second was the Bakamși lagoon, then the Başrayâthâ, and the fourth was the Hawr-al-Muḥam- madîyah, the largest of all, on which stood the tower called Minârah Hassân, after Hassân the Nabathæan who had been employed by the Omayyad viceroy Hajjâj to drain and reclaim lands in the Great Swamp. Beyond this last lagoon came the channel passing the villages of Al-Hâlah and Al-Kawânîn, 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 Ķurnah, had been a freedman of the Caliph Manşûr, and when in command of troops at Başrah he dug, or more probably widened, the boat channel which, as Yâķût 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 Jahân Numâ 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-Madhâr, was six leagues in length, and led to the two cities of 'Abdasî (or ‘Abdâsî) and Al-Madhâr; the exact sites of which are unknown. The surrounding district-along the then desiccated eastern bed of the Tigris-was called Jukha, and it stretched north-westward to Kaskar, the district of Wâsit. Madhâr had been a city of much importance at the time of the Moslem conquest, and was then 111] 43 'IRAK. the capital of the district of Maysân, otherwise called Dasti- Maysân. Madhâr is described as lying four days' journey from Başrah, and was celebrated for its beautiful mosque and the much venerated tomb of 'Abd-Allah, son of the Caliph ‘Alî. The neighbouring town of 'Abdasî, according to Yâķût, was of Persian origin, that name being the Arabic form of the older Afdâsahî, which had been a hamlet of the Kaskar district before the conquest. Kaskar and Maysân were the two districts of the eastern part of the Great Swamp, and Kaskar, according to ķazwînî, 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 Shabbût) was caught in great numbers, salted and exported. Further, in Maysân might be seen the tomb of the prophet 'Uzayr, otherwise Ezra, which ķazwînî 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 'Abbâdân. This estuary was variously known as the Blind Tigris (Dijlah-al-‘Awrâ), or the Fayd (the estuary) of Bașrah, and the Persians named it Bahmanshîr; 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 Madhâr and 'Abdasî, also filling and emptying the numerous canals of Başrah, and those irrigating the lands east and west of the estuary. Başrah, the great commercial port of 'Irâķ, 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 Kaz, ii. 1 I. R. 94, 185. I. S. 28. Kud. 240. Baladhuri, 293, 342. 297, 310. Yak. i. 669; iii. 603; iv. 468, 830. J. N. 455. 44 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ. ; 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 Bayân, at a point about 30 miles above 'Abbâdân, joined the estuary of the Tigris with that of the Dujayl (the Kârûn river), which flows down from the Khůzistân province into the Persian Gulf at Sulaymânân'. Al-Başrah-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 Kafah, one of the new capitals of 'Irâķ; and in the year 36 (656) near Basrah 'Alî gained the barren victory, the famous Battle of the Camel, over those who were responsible for the death of the Caliph ‘Othmân; in which battle Talhah and Zubayr, two well-known Companions of the Prophet, were slain. Başrah lay about 12 miles in a direct line from the Tigris estuary, being reached by two great canals, the Nahr Ma‘ķil from the N.E. down which ships came from Baghdad, and the Nahr-al-Ubullah by which the traffic passed from Başrah going S.E. to the Persian Gulf at 'Abbâdân. 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. Başrah 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 Bâb-al-Bâdiyah (the Desert Gate) gave egress. The width of the city, from the canal bank to this gate, was in the 4th (10th) 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 'Awrå, 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 ‘Abdasî channel; and only at a later date to the lower estuary. Mas. Tanbih 52. Yak. i. 770. J. N. 454. This last gives the Tigris estuary under the name of the Shatt-al-'Arab. 111] 45 'IRÂĶ watered by numerous minor canals, and beyond these lay extensive palm-groves. Muķaddasî states that Başrah 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'Irâķ'; 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 Baghdad 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 Muķaddasî wrote many quarters of the city had already gone to ruin? Among other iristitutions, Muḥaddasî mentioned a public library, which existed in Başrah during the 4th (10th) century, having been founded and endowed by a certain Ibn Sawwâr, who had also provided the town of Râmhurmuz in Khůzistân 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 Başrah 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 'Alî-stormed Başrah, burnt the greater part of the town including the Great Mosque, and for three days his troops plundered the city. Then in 311 (923) Başrah 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 (1052) it was visited by the Persian traveller Nâșir-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 ‘Alî near the Great Mosque still existed, and there were thirteen shrines recalling divers events of the days when ‘Alî was in 1 The tomb of Zubayr is still marked by the ruins of that name which stand on the site of medieval Başrah. Modern Başrah, lying on the Tigris estuary, occupies the position of Ubullah at the exit of the canal. 46 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ residence here. Nâșir also carefully enumerates the twenty districts surrounding the city. In 517 (1123) the city wall, running half a league within the old line, was rebuilt by the ķadi 'Abd-as-Salam, and in the 8th (14th) century, after the Mongol invasion, when Ibn Bațâțah was here, Başrah was still a very populous city. He speaks of the mosque of ‘Alî, 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 Țalḥah and Zubayr; but the town proper then con- sisted of only three inhabited quarters. Mustawfî, writing in the same century, gives a long account of Başrah. Its mosque, which he reports had only been rebuilt by the Caliph 'Alî, was the largest in Islam—and any mosque planned larger it was impossible ever to complete—and of this mosque 'Alî had set the Ķiblah (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 : perpetual miracle established by the Caliph ‘Alî who had built it. Mustawfî gives some further account of the Başrah 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. Başrah had at all times been famous for its canals, which according to Ibn Hawķal, in the 4th (10th) century, exceeded 100,000 in number, and of these 20,000 were navigable for boats. The Nahr Maʻķil, already mentioned as the main channel from the direction of Baghdâd, had been dug during the reign of 'Omar by Maʻķil ibn Yasar, a Companion of the Prophet. This and the Ubullah canal, going from Başrah 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'. 1 As generally reported (but different authorities give different lists) the other three were, the Ghawtah, or Garden Lands, of Damascus; the Sha‘b а III] 47 'IRÂĶ. 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, Başrah, 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 Shiķķ 'Othmân, ‘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 Khůzistân. This was called 'Askar Abu Ja'far—the Camp of Abu Ja'far,' in other words, of the Caliph Manşûr. Ubullah was in the 4th (10th) century a town of considerable size, having its own Friday Mosque, and the like was the case with Shiķk 'Othmân, both according to Muķaddasî being fine buildings. Nâşir-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 ķazwînî writing in the 7th (13th) century describes these places as gone to ruin, though Shiķķ 'Othmân was held famous for its great Sidr or lotus trees. In the next century Ibn Bațâțah describes Ubullah as a mere village, from which condition it has arisen in modern times by the building, on the older site, of New Başrah. 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 Hawķal 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‘ķil, and four south of Başrah, between the Ubullah canal and the Bavvân, or Vale of Bavvân, in Fârs, which will be described in Chapter XVIII; and lastly the Wâdî-aş-Şughd, or Valley of Soghdiana, lying between Samar- ķand and Bukhârâ, which will be mentioned in Chapter XXXIII. Ist. 80. I. H. 159, 160, note c. Muk. 117, 130, 413. N. K. 85–89. Yak. i. 636 ; iv. 845. I. B. ii. 8, 13, 14. Mst. 137. 48 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ. mouth of the estuary. The only one of these canals which is of importance is the Nahr Abu-l-Khaşib so called after a certain freedman of the Caliph Manşûr-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-Mukhtârah, 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 Rayyân, on or near which lay the two towns of Al-Maftaḥ 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-Maftaḥ. Below this was the Nahr Bayán, with the town of Bayân lying at its mouth five leagues distant from Ubullah on the opposite side of the estuary. The port of Muḥammarah on the Haffâr channel occupies its site at the present day, this channel connecting the upper reach of the Tigris estuary with that of the Dujayl (Kârûn). Muķaddasî, 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 Kudâmah under the name of the New Canal (An-Nahr-al-Jadid), and it was navigable for cargo- boats coming to Basrah from Ahwaz, which before the widening of the 'Adudî channel (as Muķaddasî calls it) had had to pass down the Dujayl estuary, out to sea, and then up the Tigris estuary past Bayân to Ubullah? The great island between the two estuaries which Yâķût names (in Persian) Miyên Rûdân (Betwixt the Rivers) is described by Muķaddasî as a Sabkhah or salt-marsh, with the town of 'Abbâdân on the seaboard at one angle, and Sulaymânân at the other angle on the Dujayl estuary. 'Abbâdân still exists, but now lies up the 1 Ist. 81. Baladhuri, 362. I. H. 160, 161. Muk. 118, 135. I. S. 29, 30. N. K. 89. Kaz. ii. 190. Yak. ii. 675. I. B. ii. 17. Tabari, iii. 1982. 2 I. S. 30. 1. K. 12. Kud. 194. Ist. 95. I. H. 171. Muk. 419. Mas. Tanbih 52. Yak. iv. 586. III] 49 'IRAK 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. Muķaddasî in the 4th (10th) century, however, describes 'Abbâdân as having only the open sea beyond it. It was inhabited by mat-weavers, who used the Halfâ 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. Nâşir-i-Khusraw, who was here in 438 (1047), says that in his day the low tide left a couple of leagues dry between ‘Abbâdân 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 Khashâb (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. ‘Abbâdân was still a flourishing town in the 7th (13th) century with many mosques and Rubâțs (guard- houses), but in the next century when Ibn Bațâțah 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 Bațâțah, speaks of 'Abbâdân as a considerable port, and states that its revenues, which amounted to 441,000 dînârs in the currency of his day, were paid in to the Başrah treasury. The harbour of Sulaymânân, a few leagues east of 'Abbâdân, was often counted as of the Khůzistân province, and all that is recorded of it appears to be the fact that it was founded by a certain Sulaymân ibn Jâbir, surnamed 'the Ascetic?! Returning to the latitude of Baghdâd the towns lying along the Tigris to the north of the capital as far as the limits of 'Irâķ have now to be described, with those which stood near the bank of the great Nahrawân canal. As already said (see p. 32) the 1 Baladhuri, 364. Ist. 90. I. H. 173. Muk. u8. Kaz. ii. 280. N. K. 89, 90. Yak. iv. 708. I. B. ii. 18. Mst. 137. Mas. i. 230. Yâķût (i. 645) notes that the people of Başrah had the habit of turning proper-names into place-names by the terminal syllable an: e.g. Talìatån, 'the Țalḥah canal.' This explains the forms Sulaymânân and ‘Abbâdân, the latter being called after a certain 'Abbâd. 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 'Abbâdân. LE S. 4 50 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ chief high road from Baghdad to Mosul and the northern towns went along the left or eastern bank of the Tigris. It left East Baghdâd by the Baradân Gate of the Shammâsîyah quarter, and in about four leagues reached the small town of Al-Baradân, which still exists under the slightly altered form of Badrân. Close to Baradân were two other important villages, Bazûghâ and Al-Mazrafah, the latter lying three leagues above Baghdad. At Ar-Rashidîyah near Baradân the Khâliş 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 ķâdisîyah 60 miles north of Baghdad. The river bed, however, during the middle-ages took an almost straight line from Ķâdisiyah to Baradân, 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 Marâșid, writing about the year 700 (1300), speaks of as the Shuţayțah or 'Lesser Stream'; and one of the great alterations must have taken place during the reign of the Caliph Mustanșir, 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 (10th) century also, Mas'ûdî 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 Baghdâd. 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 ‘Ukbarâ, close to which lay Awânâ, and then Bușrâ further down stream, the three places standing some 10 leagues from Baghdad. They lay surrounded by gardens, to which pleasure-seekers from the capital resorted, and Muķaddasî especially praises the grapes of 'Ukbarâ, which he says was a large and populous town. A short distance above 'Ukbarâ was ‘Alth or Al-'Alth, which is still marked on our maps, but now of the western bank, and Muķaddasî describes this as a large and very populous city, lying on a branch canal from the Tigris. 111] 51 'IRÂĂ. North-west of 'Alth, where the river at the present day turns off eastward for the great bend, stands Kâdisiyah 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 Kârûn), 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 (10th) 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 Ķâdisîyah. The Dujayl-meaning the Little Tigris'- watered all the rich district of Maskin lying to the north of West Baghdâd beyond ķațrabbul. The later Dujayl was therefore a loop-canal of the Tigris, which it rejoined opposite ‘Ukbarâ after throwing off a number of branches, some of which ran so far south as to bring water to the Harbîyah, the great northern suburb of West Baghdâd (see above, p. 31). The district of the Dujayı, otherwise called Maskin, included a great number of villages and towns, lying westward of ‘Ukbarâ and the Tigris channel, the chief of which was Harbâ, 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 Fakhrî records and the extant inscription still testifies, was built by the Caliph Mustanşir in 629 (1232). Near Harbâ was Al-Hazirah (the Enclosure), where the cotton stuffs called Kirbâs were manufactured, being largely exported. Yâķût 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 Hazîrah, are still to be found on the map. As late as the 8th (14th century the Dujayl district, with Harbâ for its chief town, is described by Mustawfî as of amazing fertility, and its pomegranates were the best to be found in the markets of Baghdad. i 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 [CHAP. III 'IRAK. Many other towns were of this district. About ten miles above Ķâdisiyah is Sâmarrâ, which will be described in the next chapter, and Mațîrah lay half-way between the two, immediately above where three small canals branched from the left (east) bank of the Tigris. Midway between Mațîrah and ķâdisiyah, below the exit of these canals, stood Barkuwârâ, otherwise Balkuwârâ, or Bazkuwâr. The village of Al-Mațîrah, according to Yâķût, had derived its name from a certain Matar of the Shaybân tribe, who was a notable man of the Khârijite sect, and it had been originally called Al-Matarîyah, this in time becoming corrupted to Al-Mațîrah'. Ten miles north again of Sâmarrâ was Karkh Fîrûz, also called Karkh of Sâmarrâ, to distinguish it from Karkh the southern quarter of West Baghdad, and further to the north lay Dûr, where the great Nahrawân canal branched from the left bank of the Tigris. At this point, but from the right or western bank of the Tigris, began the Isḥâşi canal which making a short loop rejoined the river again opposite Mațîrah. 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. 1 Ykb. 265. I. S. 14. 1. J. 233. Yak. i. 178, 605; ii. 235, 292, 555; iv. 529, 568. Mst. 138. Fakhri, 380. Commander J. F. Jones in the Records of the Bombay Government (new series, number XLIII, 1857, p. 252) gives a drawing of the Harbâ bridge. He gives (p. 47) Barkuwârâ under the form Bez-guara. CHAPTER IV. ‘IRÂK (continued). Sâmarrâ. Takrît. The Nahrawân canal. Ba‘ķâbâ and other towns. Nahr- awân town, and the Khurâsân road. Jâlâlâ and Khâniķîn. Bandanîjân and Bayât. Towns on the Euphrates from Hadîthah to Anbâr. The "Îsâ canal. Muḥawwal, Şarșar and the Nahr-al-Malik. The Kûthâ canal. Sâmarrâ, which for more than half a century and during the reigns of seven Caliphs, from 221 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 Aramæan is written Sâmarrâ, which the Caliph Mu'tașim 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 Khallikân, Sâmarrâ being that most commonly used, and the one selected by Yâķût as the heading to his article on this city. Yafķûbî writing at the close of the 3rd (9th) century has left us a long and detailed account of Sâmarrâ and its palaces, for the seven Caliphs who lived here, mostly as the prisoners of their Turk bodyguard, occupied their enforced leisure in building, and in laying out pleasure-grounds. The city proper stood on the eastern bank of the Tigris and extended with its palaces for a distance 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 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ Caliph Mu'taşim (a younger son of Hârûn-ar-Rashid) built his first palace when he came to settle at Sâmarrâ in 221 (836) belonged to a Christian monastery (Dayr) which was bought for 4000 dînârs (£2000) and it was known as At-Ţîrhân. His Turk body- guard were granted fiefs at Karkh, and further up stream to Dar, some also lay south of Sâmarrâ towards Maţirah; 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 (Sâj) were imported, also palm beams from Başrah and divers marbles from Antioch and Laodicea. A thoroughfare called the Great Road (Ash-Shâri'-al-A'zam) was laid out along the Tigris bank, being bordered by the new palaces and the fiefs, and this road went from Mațîrah 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 Dâr-al--Âmmah (the Public Audience Chamber) where the Caliph sat in state on Mondays and Thursdays. Besides his palace in Sâmarrâ, Mu'tașim 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 Başrah, and with exotics sent for from provinces as far distant as Syria and Khurâsân. These lands on the western side were irrigated by branch canals from the Nahr-al-Ishâķî, already mentioned, which was dug by Ishâķ ibn Ibrâhîm, Chief of Police to Mu'tasim, and this was more especially the district called Ţîrhân, which Yafķûbî speaks of as 'the plain of Sâmarrâ. When the Caliph Mu'tasim died in 227 (842) Sâmarrâ was in a fair way to rival Baghdâd in the grandeur of its palaces and public buildings. His two sons Wâthiş and Mutawakkil, who became Caliphs in turn, completed the work of their father. Hârûn-al-Wâthiş built the palace, called after his name the ķașr-al-Hârûnî, on the Tigris bank, and at either end of this, east and west, was a great platform. Wâthiķ also dug a harbour from the river, where cargo-boats coming up from Baghdad might conveniently unload. He was succeeded by his brother Ja'far-al-Mutawakkil in 232 (847) who at first lived in the Hârûnî palace, but in 245 (859) he began to build himself a IV] 5 'IRÂK. 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 ķaşr-al-Ja'fari. The ruins of the Ja'farî palace still exist in the angle formed by the branching of the Nahrawân canal, and the older town of Al- Mâḥūzah 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 Mațîrah to Dûr. In his palace of the Mutawakkiliyah, otherwise called the Ja'farîyah, Mutawakkil was murdered by his son Muntașir in 247 (861), and, during the troublous times that followed, the four next Caliphs had their abode at the Kașr-al- Jawsaķ (the Palace of the Kiosque) on the western side of the Tigris opposite Sâmarrâ, this being one of those built by Mu'tașim. Mu'tamid, son of Mutawakkil, and the last of the Caliphs to reside at Sâmarrâ, lived first at the Jawsaķ, but afterwards built himself a new palace on the eastern bank, known as ķașr-al-Ma'shûķ (the Palace of the Beloved), from whence he finally removed the seat of Government to Baghdad 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 Kașr-al- Jiss (the Gypsum Palace) built by Mu'tasim on the Ishâķî canal; and Yâķût, 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 Sâmarrâ, however, naturally came to an end with the return of the Caliphs to Baghdâd, and its many palaces rapidly fell to ruin. In the 4th (10th) century Ibn Hawķal praises its magnificent gardens, especially those on the western side of the Tigris, but Muķaddasî says that Karkh on the north was, in his day, become the more populous quarter of the town. The great Friday Mosque of Sâmarrâ, however, still remained, which Muķaddasî says was the equal of that of Damascus in magnificence. Its walls were covered with enamelled tiles (mînâ), it was paved with marble, and its roof was supported on 56 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ marble columns. The minaret was remarkable for its great height, and, Yâķût 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 Sâmarrâ; such was in any case the belief of Mustawfî who, in the early part of the 8th (14th) century, says that the minaret then existing of the Friday Mosque was 170 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'tașim had been its builder. Later authorities add little to our knowledge of Sâmarrâ, and in after years it came chiefly to be inhabited by Shî'ahs; for here were the tombs of the tenth and eleventh Imâms, ‘Alî-al-'Askari and his son Al-Hasan, and here above all, said they, was the mosque with the underground chamber where the twelfth Imâm had disappeared in 264 (878), he being Al-Kâim, the promised Mahdî, who was to reappear in the fulness of time. The shrines where these Alids were buried stood in that part of Sâmarrâ called 'Askar Mu'tașim, “the Camp of Mu'taşim,' and it is from this that the tenth Imâm had his title of Al-'Askarî. Writing in the early part of the 8th (14th) century Mustawfi, the Shîfah, 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 Kâs-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, Sâmarrâ 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 Bațâțah, who was here in the year 730 (1330). 1 Baladhuri, 297, 298. Ykb. 255—268. I. K. 94. I. S. 18. I. H. 166. Muk. 122, 123. A. F. 289. Yak. iii. 14—22, 82, 675; iv. 110. Ibn Khallikan, No. 8, p. 15. Mst. 139. I. B. ii. 132. Ist. 85. IV] 57 'IRÂĶ Takrît, lying thirty miles north of Sâmarrâ on the west bank of the Tigris, was commonly counted as the last town of 'Irâķ, and was famous for its strong castle which overlooked the river. Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century states that the majority of its population were Christians, and that they possessed a great monastery here. Muķaddasî says the wool-workers of this town were famous, and in its neighbourhood much sesame was grown ; Mustawfî adds, also water melons, of which three crops a year were produced in spite of the somewhat raw climate of Takrît. Ibn Jubayr states that the city wall was 6000 paces in circuit, with towers in good repair, when he passed through Takrît in 580 (1184), and Ibn Bațâțah gives praise to both its markets and its numerous mosques'. The great Nahrawân canal left the Tigris a short distance below Dûr, as already said, and in its upper course was known as Al-Ķâțûl-al-Kisrawî, “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 Sâmarrâ to about a hundred miles south of Baghdâd, 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 Dûr”, which, for distinction among the many towns of this name, was called Dûr-al-'Arabâyâ or of Al-Hârith, the canal passed to the back of the Mutawakkiliyah and other outlying quarters north of Sâmarrâ, and here it was crossed by a stone bridge. It next came to Îtâkhîyah, a village and fief called after Îtâkh the Turk, sometime captain of the guard to the Caliph Mu'taşim ; this had originally been a monastery called Dayr Abu-Sufrah, and here stood the bridge of the Chosroes (Kanțarah Kisrawîyah). The monastery took its name from Abu Sufrah the Khârijite. Next the Nahrawân came to Al-Muḥammadîyah, a small town, where it was crossed by a bridge of skiffs (Jisr Zawârîķ), and according to 1 Ist. 77. I. H. 156. Muk. 123. I. J. 234. Mst. 138. 1. B. ii. 133. 2 Dür means the ‘Houses' or 'Habitations,' and is a common place-name, being the plural form of Dårah, 'a homestead.' 3 It is to be noted that in the classical usage Jisr stands for 'a bridge of boats,' while şanţarah is a masonry bridge of arches.' Shâdhurwân, trans- 58 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ Yâķût this Muhammadiyah was but a later name of ſtâkhîyah, the change having been effected by Mutawakkil in honour of his son Muḥammad-al-Muntașir, who afterwards became Caliph by the murder of his father. At some distance below these places the Nahrawân was joined successively by the three lesser ķâtûls, namely the Yahûdî, the Mamûnî, and the canal of Abu-l-Jund, which were all three taken from the left bank of the Tigris near Matîrah below Sâmarrâ, and which irrigated the fertile districts south of that city. Above their inflow, the Nahrawân was dammed back by the first of its many weirs (Ash-Shâdhurwân), and where the first canal came in stood the large village of Al-Mamûnîyah. This, the Yahûdî (or Jews') canal, was crossed between Mațîrah and Mamûnîyah by a stone bridge called ķanțarah Waşîf, after Waşîf, one of the captains of the Turk bodyguard, in the reign of Mu'tasim. The second canal, called Al-Mamûnî, fell into the Nahrawân below the village of Al- ķanâțîr, '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 Hârûn-ar-Rashîd, who built a palace there while superintending its construction. On its banks stood the town of Țaffir, and here it was crossed by a bridge of boats. Yâķût, 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‘ķūbâ and Daķûķâ. He passed through this going from Baghdâd to Irbil; no habitations were to be met with, and Yâķût 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-Walîd, the name given to the bridge over the river Sarus, between Adana and Mopsuestia, which was built by Justinian. The word ķanțarah also designates any arched structure, as a viaduct or aqueduct, being borrowed from the Byzantines, who used the word kéut pov (the Latin centrum) to denote the central arch of a bridge, and by extension applied it to mean the whole structure. Iv] 59 IRÂK Four leagues below where the last of these three canals joined the Nahrawân lay the town of Şâlâ or Şalwa, otherwise called Bâb Şalwâ or Bâşalwâ. Below this again was the town of Baſķûbâ, some ten leagues north of Baghdâd, and the capital of the Upper Nahrawân district. At Ba‘ķâbâ the Great ķâțûl canal changed its name, and became the Tâmarrâ, under which name it passed on to Bâjisrâ and thence to the city called Jisr Nahrawân, beyond which the main waterway was more especially known as the Nahrawân canal. Near Bâjisrâ (the Aramaic form of Bayt-al-Jisr, the bridge-house') which stood in a well cultivated district, surrounded by palm-trees, the Tâmarrâ sent off a branch from its right bank known as the Nahr-al-Khâlis, which flowed out into the Tigris at Baradân to the north of Baghdad, and from the Khâliş many of the canals of East Baghdad derived their water. Jisr Nahrawân, the Bridge-town, where the Khurâsân road from Baghdâd crossed, will be described presently; and here a canal called the Nahr Bîn branched from the right bank of the Nahrawân, flowing ultimately into the Tigris at Kalwâdhâ. From this the water channels of the lower quarters of East Baghdad derived their supply. One mile below Jisr Nahrawân the Diyâlâ canal branched south from the main stream, and after irrigating the outer gardens of East Baghdad, reached the Tigris three miles below the capital. South of Jisr Nahrawân the great canal took the name of the Nahrawân exclusively, and after passing the Upper Weir (Shâdhurwân) it came to Jišr Bûrân, the bridge named after the wife of the Caliph Mamûn. Below this stood Yarzâțiyah (or possibly Barzâțiyâ), and then the town of 'Abartâ, which Yâķût describes as of Persian origin, having important markets. Beyond ‘Abartâ lay the Lower Weir and next Iskâf (or Uskâf) of the Banî Junayd, a city lying on both banks of the canal, and the Banî Junayd, Yâķût reports, had been chiefs of this district and famous for their hospitality. Yâķût adds that by the 7th (13th) century, when he wrote, the lands round here had entirely gone out of cultivation, for the Nahrawân had gradually silted up during the previous two centuries, the Saljūķ Sultans having ever 60 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ on the 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 Uskâf the Nahrawân flowed on for nearly 60 miles, between a continuous line of villages and farmsteads, down to Mâdharâyâ where its waters finally rejoined the Tigris. Mâdha- râyâ, as already said, stood to the south of Jabbul_and above Al-Mubârak, which lay opposite the town of Nahr Sâbus. When Yâķût wrote it was in ruin, and its name is now no longer marked map, but it must have stood just below the present ķut-al-'Amârah where, as already explained, the Tigris now divides off from the Shatt-al-Hayy channel'. This triple division of the Nahrawân canal (namely the Ķâțul, the Tâmarrâ, and the Nahrawân proper), with the three branch canals (the Khâliş, the Nahr Bîn, and the Diyâlâ) which flowed back to the Tigris after watering the East Baghdad 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 Nahrawân, 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 Tâmarrâ section was originally one of these streams, and Yâķût 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 Baghdad. The Khâliş and the Diyâlâ were according to his account branches of the Tâmarrâ (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 Bafķuba), and Khâlis in the time of Yâķût was the name of the district, to the north of the Khurâsân road, which on one side came right up to the walls 1 Yarzâțiyah is possibly the present Razatiyah or Zatariyah lying above 'Abartâ. Ykb. 321. I. S. 19, 20. Baladhuri, 297. I. R. 9o. Mas. Tanbih 53. Yak. i. 252, 454; iii. 539, 604 ; iv. 16, 381, 430. I. K. 175. IV] 61 'IRÂĶ. of East Baghdad. In the 3rd (9th) century Ibn Rustah and Ibn Khurdâdbih give Nahrawân as the name of the mountain stream, which came into the Great Ķâțâl at Şalwâ; in the 8th (14th) century Mustawfî writes that the Nahrawân was the name of the Diyâlâ river, which rose in the mountains of Kurdistân, and which was formed by the junction of two streams, one the Shirwân river which lower down was called the Taymarrâ, the other the Hulwân river, which flowed down past ķașr Shîrîn and Khâniķîn ; and these two streams united above Ba‘ķūbâ where they flowed into the Nahrawân canal. In regard to Nahrawân town, otherwise called Jisr Nahrawân (Nahrawân Bridge), this was the first stage out of Baghdad along the great Khurâsân 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 Nahrawân 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 Hawķal in the following century speaks of the fertile lands lying round the town, and Muķaddasî 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 Mustawfî wrote, Nahrawân town was in ruin, for the Khurâsân road no longer passed through it, but went north by Ba‘ķûbâ. The fertile district about here was still called the Țarîķ-i-Khurâsân (the District of the Khurâsân road) of which Ba‘ķūbâ, Mustawfî 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 Bilâd-ar-Růz, lay north-east of Nahrawân town, and is frequently mentioned by Yâķût. The Caliph Mu'tadid had built a palace here; it was counted as of the Tâmarrâ district, and lay eastward 1 I. R. 90, 163. I. K. 175. Ist. 86. I. H. 167. Muk. 12). Yak. i. 812 ; ii. 390, 638. Mst. 139, 141, 216. 62 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ. access. off the Khurâsân high road, being also noticed by Mustawfî. Leaving Nahrawân town the next stage of the Khurâsân 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 From its position this 'Daskarah of the King' appears to be identical with the celebrated Dastagird, where Khusraw Parwîz 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 (10th) century still known as Dastagird Kisrawîyah (of the Chosroes), was seen by the traveller Ibn Muhalhal (quoted by Yâķût) 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 Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century describes Daskarah as possessing a strong castle, doubtless of Moslem foundation, and Muķaddasî 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 Shahrâbân, mentioned by both Yâķut and Mustawfî, 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 Jalâlâ was the next stage on the Khurâsân road, surrounded by many trees but unfortified. Not far from the town, standing in the village of Hârûnîyah, 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 Yâķût, boats went down to Bafķûbâ and Bâjisrâ. In history Jalâlâ 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 Mustawfî names the place Rubâț Jalâlâ, from the guard-house which had been built here by Malik Shâh the Saljūķ; and the position of Jalâlâ corresponds with the modern station of ķizil Rubâț, “the Red Guard-house.' East of Jalâlâ was the town of Khâniķîn, which is noticed by Muķaddasî as a city on the road to Hulwân. Here Ibn Rustah says there 'IV] 63 'IRÂĶ was a great bridge of many arches over the river, built of well- mortared kiln-bricks. Near Khâniķîn was a naphtha spring that produced a large revenue, and Yâķût describes the bridge afore- said as having 24 arches in his day, the 7th (13th) century, across which passed the Khurâsân road. When Mustawfî wrote in the next century Khâniķîn had fallen to ruin, and was merely a large village, but its district was still extremely productive. Six leagues beyond Khâniķîn, and half-way to Hulwân the first town of the Jibal province, lay ķașr Shîrîn, “the Palace of Shîrîn,' the mistress of King Khusraw Parwîz. 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. Yâķût and Mustawfî give long descriptions of ķașr Shîrîn, the ruins of which still exist; and it is to be noted that the legends of Farhad the lover of Queen Shîrîn, and of Pahlabâdh the musician, and of Shabdîz the famous horse of King Parwîz, are found localised in many places of the surrounding district'. Over- hanging Ķașr Shîrîn is the great mountain wall forming the outpost of the Persian plateau, and Hulwân, the next stage on the Khurâsân road, though often counted as of 'Irâķ, being in the mountain pass, will be described in a later chapter. South of the line of the Khurâsân road, and on the Khûzistân frontier, two important towns remain to be noticed-Bandanîjîn and Bayât. Bandanîjîn, a name no longer found on the map, was the chief town of the districts of Bâdarâyâ and Bâkusâyâ, and the village of Bâkusâyâ still exists near which the town of Bandanîjîn must have been situated. The two districts lay beyond and north-east of the Nahrawân canal, and comprised a great number of fertile villages. Bandanijîn the capital, according to Yâķût, was called in Persian Wandanîgân, and Mustawfî says in his day the name was pronounced Bandanîgân, being of the Liḥf district, the 'Foot-hills of the Kurdistân mountains, and its river came down from Ariwajân. According to Ibn 1 I. R. 164. Ist. 87. I. H. 168. Muk. 121. Kaz. ii. 295. Yak. i. 534 ; ii. 107, 393, 573, 575, 813 ; iv. 112. Mst. 137, 138, 139, 193. 64 [CHAP. 'IRÂK Khurdâdbih Bandanîjîn was counted as of the same district as Barâz-ar-Rûz. Bayât, the ruins of which still exist, is mentioned by Mustawfî; he adds that its river, which rose in the Kurdistân mountains, became lost in the plains before reaching the Tigris, and though its water was brackish, many fertile districts were irrigated by it. Bayât appears to be practically the same place as the town of At-Țîb, mentioned by Ibn Hawķal, 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 Bayât. Yâķût says that in his day the inhabitants of Tib were Nabathæans, and still spoke their Aramaic dialect, tracing their descent direct from Seth, son of Adam'. The cities of 'Irâķ 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 Takrît to the Euphrates would cross that river a little below 'Ânah, where its course makes a great bend south, and this is the natural frontier between Jazîrah and 'Irâķ, as marked by Mustawfî. To the south of this line begins the Sawâd, or alluvial land, of Babylonia; to the north lie the more stony plains of Upper Mesopotamia. The city of Al-Hadîthah on the Euphrates, about 35 miles below 'Ânah, is the northernmost town on this side. The name signifies the New Town,' and to distinguish it from Al-Hadîthah on the Tigris, it was called Hadîthah-an-Nûrah, of the Chalk' pit. Yâķût 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. Mustawfî describes it as in every way the opposite of Takrît, both in situation and climate. Between Hadîthah and Hît, down stream, came the two towns of Alûsah and An-Nawûsah, lying on the Euphrates seven leagues distant one from the other, and Alûsah, which Yâķût refers to as a small town, still exists. Both are frequently mentioned in the records of the Moslem conquest; iv. 353 1 I. K. 6. Ist. 94. I. H. 176. Yak. i. 230, 459, 477, 745; iii. 566 ; Mst. 137, 138, 220. The Bâdarâyâ district of Bandanîjîn must not be confused with Bâdûrayâ, the name of the southern district of West Baghdad. IV] 65 'IRÂķ. further, An-Nawûsah was counted as a village of Hît, 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 Hawķal speaks of Hît as very populous, and Mustawfî 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 (Khandaş Sâbûr) still existed. This had been dug by Sâbûr Dhû-l-Aktâf, as the Arabs called him, in the fourth century A.D. It began at Hît 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 Lower 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 Hît in the desert, is described by Muķaddasî as a small fortress, and a stream running from here entered the Euphrates below Hît. Dates and sugar-cane were exported from its district, the latter more especially from a neighbouring town called Shafâthâ; but the exact site of these two places is unknown'. Twelve leagues below Hît was the village of Ar-Rabb, where previous to the 4th (10th) century the earlier) Dujayl canal left the Euphrates; and taking its course due east, after watering the Maskin and ķațrabbul districts, reached the northern suburbs of West Baghdâd. As already mentioned, this western portion of the Dujayl soon became silted up; and by the time when Istakhrî wrote in 340 (951) the Dujayl already took its waters from the Tigris opposite Ķâdisiyah, as described in the paragraphs on the Maskin district. Al-Anbâr, 'the Granaries,' standing on the left bank of the Euphrates, was one of the great cities of 'Irâķ in Abbasid times. It dated from before the Moslem conquest, and by the Persians was called Fîrûz Sâbûr (or Fayrûz Sâbûr, in Ist. 77. 1 I. S. 10, 13. I. R. 107. Kud. 217. Baladhuri, 179. 1. H. 155. Muk. 117, 123, 135. Yak. i. 352; ii. 223; iii. 759; iv. 734, 997. Mst. 135, 141. 5 LE S. 66 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ. Greek Perisabor) from its founder King Shâpûr'; and under the Arabs Fîrûz Sâbûr 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, Saffâḥ, had for a time made Anbâr his residence, and he died in the palace which he had built here. His brother Manşûr also for a time lived at Anbâr, and from here went to Baghdâd, where the new Abbasid capital had begun to be built. Mustawfî gives the tradition that the Jews whom Nebuchadnezzar brought from Jerusalem to Babylonia were interned at Anbâr. In the 8th (14th) century the town walls, he says, were 5000 paces in circuit. The importance of Anbâr 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 Baghdad. This canal, the Nahr 'Îsâ, took its name from an Abbasid prince 'Îsâ who was either 'Îsâ ibn Mûsâ, nephew of Manşûr, or “Îsâ ibn 'Alî (the more usual ascription), the uncle of that Caliph. In either case Prince 'Îsâ gave the canal its name, he having re-dug it, making thus a navigable channel from the Euphrates into Baghdad. Where the canal left the Euphrates, a little below Anbâr, it was crossed by a magnificent bridge, called ķanțarah Dimimmâ, from the village of Dimimmâ which was on the Euphrates bank close to the hamlet of Al-Fallajah. The Nahr 'Îsâ, passing by many villages and farms of the Fîrûz Sâbûr district, at length came to the town of Al-Muḥawwal, one league distant from the suburbs of West Baghdad. Just before reaching this town the Șarât canal branched from the left bank of the Nahr 'Îsâ, and this canal formed the dividing line between the ķațrabbul district to the north and Bâdûrayâ to the south of West Baghdad. The Şarât canal, following an almost parallel curve to the Nahr 'Îsâ, poured its waters into the Tigris immediately below the Başrah Gate of the Round City, and from these two streams all the watercourses 1 Sâbûr is the Arab form of the Persian Shậpûr or Shâh-pûr, which the Greeks wrote Sapor. IV] 67 'IRAK. of West Baghdad were derived, with the exception of the few coming from the Dujayl canal. Al-Muḥawwal means the place of unloading, and the town took its name from the fact that the river barges going from the Euphrates towns to Baghdâd, had here to unload into small boats that could pass under the numerous bridges which below Muḥaw- wal spanned the 'Îsâ canal where this traversed the suburb of Karkh. Muḥawwal 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 Mustawfî counts a palace built by the Caliph Mu'taşim 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 Muḥawwal is not now known, but it must lie to the north-east of the ancient Babylonian mound called the Hill of ‘Aķarķüf, which is frequently mentioned by the Arab geographers, and which Mustawfî connects with the legends of the tyrant Nimrod who threw Abraham into the fiery furnace. Three leagues below the village of Dimimmâ the second of the great transverse canals, the Nahr Şarşar, flowed off towards the Tigris, which it entered four leagues above Madâin. This canal, in its lower reaches, traversed the Bâdûrayâ district, which lay south of West Baghdad, and Ibn Serapion describes how along its banks numerous waterwheels (dâliyah) and levers (shadúf) were set up for irrigating the fields. Some way above where, near Zarîrân, the canal flowed into the Tigris, and almost in sight of the White Palace of the Chosroes at Madâin, was the flourishing town of Şarşar, where a great bridge of boats carrying the Kûfah road crossed the canal. Şarsar town lay a couple of leagues only from Karkh, the great southern suburb of West Baghdad ; the Șarşar canal, Ibn Hawķal writes, was navigable for boats, and Şarşar 11. S. 10, 14. I. K. 7, 72, 74. Kud. 217. Ist. 77. I. H. 155, 166. Muk. 123, 134. Yak. i. 367 ; ii. 600 ; iii. 697 ; iv. 432. Mst. 136, 138, 140, 141. The lower courses of the Nahr ·Îsâ and of the Şarât canal belong to the topography of Baghdâd, and have been fully described in a former work. The site of Anbâr appears to be that marked by the ruins at Sufayrah, or possibly those to the north of this village of which Mr J. P. Peters has given a plan in Nippur, i. 177. 5—2 68 [CHAP. 'IRAK town stood in a forest of date-palms. Muķaddasî likens it to the towns of Palestine for the manner of its building ; and Şarsar continued to be a place of importance down to the close of the 8th (14th) century when Tîmûr took possession of Baghdad and garrisoned the surrounding districts. The third transverse canal was the Nahr-al-Malik, which began at the village of Al-Fallûjah' five leagues below the head of the Nahr Şarşar, and flowed into the Tigris three leagues below Madâin. This, “the King's Canal,' dated from ancient times, and is mentioned by the Greeks as the Nahar Malcha. Yâķût 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 Kûfah road, this lying seven miles south of Şarşar. According to Ibn Hawķal Nahr-al-Malik town was larger by a half than the latter town, being likewise famous for its corn lands and palm-groves ; Mustawfî adding that over 300 villages were of its district. The fourth transverse canal was the Nahr Kûthâ, its point of origin on the Euphrates being three leagues below that of the Nahr-al-Malik, and its outflow 10 leagues below Madâin. The Kathâ canal watered the district of this name, which was also known as the Ardashîr Bâbgân district (after the first Sassanian king), though part of it was counted as the Nahr Jawbar district on a branch canal. The city of Kûthâ Rabbâ, 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 Kûthâ was the place where Abraham was thrown into the fire by the tyrant Nimrod, and the town took its name from Kûthâ, the grandfather of Abraham, according to the Moslem tradition. In the 4th (10th) century Ibn Hawķal describes the place as a double city, Kûthâ-at-Țarîş, 'of the Road,' and Kûthâ Rabbâ, which last was a city larger than Bâbil (Babylon), and near here, he says, were great mounds of | This is the Feluchia (Feluge or Felugia) of Cæsar Frederick, and other Elizabethan merchants, where coming down the Euphrates they left their boats and went by land across to Baghdad : as narrated in Hakluyt, Principal Navigations (Glasgow, 1904), v. 367, 455, 466 ; vi. 4. IV] 69 'IRÂĶ ashes said to mark the place of Nimrod's fiery furnace; Muķaddasî adding that near the high road might be seen an ancient tower, about which many legends were told. The Itineraries state that Kûthâ town, the site of which appears to be that marked on the map as Tall Ibrâhîm, 'the Hill of Abraham,' was four miles south of Nahr Malik town. Some few miles to the north of the Kûthâ canal stood the large village of Al-Farâshah, the half-way stage between Baghdad and Hillah, on the high road followed at the close of the 6th (12th) century by the Mecca pilgrims going down to Kûfah. 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 Mustawfî also gives Farâshah in his itinerary, placing it seven leagues south of Şarsar! 1 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“Îsâ is more or less that of the modern Saklawîyah canal : the Șarșar appears to have followed the line of the Abu Ghurayb canal; the Nahr-al-Malik is the Radhwânîyah, and the Nahr Kûthâ is the Habl Ibrâhîm, “Abraham's rope,' of the modern maps. These identifi- cations, however, are only approximate, for naturally in over a thousand years the face of the alluvial Sawâd is entirely changed from what it was in Abbasid times. CHAPTER V. ‘IRÂĶ (continued). The bifurcation of the Euphrates. The Sûrâ channel. Ķașr Ibn Hubayrah. Nîl and its canal. The Nahr Nars. The Badât canal, and Pombedita. The Kûfah channel. Kûfah city. Ķâdisîyah. Mashhad 'Ali, and Karbalâ. The twelve Astâns of 'Irâķ. Trade. The high roads of 'Irâş. The river Euphrates in the 4th (10th) century bifurcated at a point some six leagues below where the Kathâ canal was led off. The western branch, to the right, which was then considered the main stream of the Euphrates, passed down by Kûfah 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 Sûrâ, or As-Sûrân; and this by many channels likewise poured its waters finally into the swamp. Taking the Sûrâ branch first (the present Euphrates channel) we find that Ibn Serapion admits this was greater even in his day than the Kûfah branch and more broad. Where the bifurcation took place, the Upper Sûrâ canal watered the three sub- districts of Sarâ, Barbîsamâ, and Bârūsma, which formed part of the middle Bih ķubâdh district ; then bearing south the channel passed a couple of miles to the westward of the city called ķaşr Ibn Hubayrah, and here it was crossed by the great bridge of boats known as the Jisr Sûrâ (or Sûrân) by which the Pilgrim road went down from ķașr Ibn Hubayrah to Kûfah. The town of Al-Kașr, as it was called for short, the Castle or Palace of Ibn Hubayrah, took the name from its founder, who had been governor of 'Irâķ under Marwân II, the last Omayyad CHAP. V] 71 'IRAK common use. Caliph. Ibn Hubayrah had not lived to complete his work, but after the fall of the Omayyads, the first Abbasid Caliph, Saffâḥ, took up his residence here, finished the palace, and called it Hâshimîyah in honour of his own ancestor Hâshim. 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 Manşûr made Hâshimîyah for a time his residence, before the foundation of Baghdâd, Kaşr Ibn Hubayrah, or Madînah (the City of) Ibn Hubayrah, was always the name of the place in In the 4th (10th) century ķașr Ibn Hubayrab was the largest town between Baghdad and Kûfah, and it stood on a loop canal from the Sûrâ, called the Nahr Abu Raḥâ, the Canal of the Mill.' The city was extremely populous, it had fine markets, many Jews residing here, as Muķaddasí 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 Bâbil as the Arabs name these. The city of Hillah, lying a few miles below the Bâbil ruins, on the Euphrates, otherwise the Sûrâ canal as it was called in the 4th (10th) century, was at this date known as Al-Jami'ân, 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-Ħillah, 'the Settlement,' was built on the opposite right bank, by Sayf-ad-Dawlah, chief of the Banî Mazyad, in about the year 495 (1102); and this quickly grew to importance, for its bridge of boats became the new Euphrates crossing for the Pilgrim road from Baghdâd to Kûfah, the high road no longer passing down by ķașr Ibn Hubayrah (then a ruin) and the Sûrâ bridge. By the 6th (12th) century, also, the Sûrâ arm comes to be considered the main stream of the Euphrates, as at the present day, and the name Nahr Sûrâ gradually goes out of use. (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 Batûțah, In 580 72 [CHAP. 'IRAK. 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 Mustawfî, 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. Mustawfî adds that the popula- tion of Hillah were all bigoted Shî‘ahs, and they possessed a shrine (Maķâm) here, where they believed that, in the fulness of time, the promised Mahdî, who had disappeared at Sâmarrâ 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 (10th) century of the Sûrâ canal, this, as already said, passed to the west of the great ruins of Babylon, or Bâbil. These ruins Muķaddasî describes as then occupied by the site of a village near a bridge of boats, and Mustawfî 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 Mârût were imprisoned until the day of judgment. Above Bâbil, the last of the many canals flowing from the Euphrates to the Tigris branched from the Sûrâ. This waterway, now known as the Shatt-an-Nîl—the Nile Stream'- Ibn Sera- pion calls the Great Şarât, the name is the same as that of the more famous canal of West Baghdad (see p. 66) in the upper reach lying to the west of the city of Nîl. From its point of origin the Great Şarât flowed eastward past many rich villages, throwing off numerous water channels, and shortly before reaching the city of Nîl a loop canal, the Șarât Jâmasp, branched left and rejoined the main stream below the city. This loop canal had been re-dug by Hajjaj, the famous governor of 'Irâķ under the Omayyad Caliphs, but took its name, as was reported, from Jâmasp, the chief Mobed, or Fire-priest, who in ancient days had aided King Gushtâsp to establish the religion of Zoroaster in Persia. The ? 1. S. 10, 16. Ykb. 309. Ist. 85, 86. 1. H. 166, 168. Muk. 121. Yak. ii. 322 ; iii. 861 ; iv. 123. I. J. 214. I. B. ii. 97. Mst. 138. v] 73 ‘IRÂĶ. city of An-Nîl likewise was founded by Hajjaj; it became the chief town of all this district, its ruins being still marked on the map under the name of Nîlîyah; and the Nîl canal was reported to have taken its name from the Nile of Egypt which it was said to recall. The main canal here, opposite Nîl city, was spanned by a great masonry bridge named the Kanțarah-al-Mâsî. In the time of Abu-l-Fidâ that portion of the canal which lay west of the town, namely the Great Şarât of Ibn Serapion, was also known as the Nahr-an-Nîl, but Ibn Serapion gives this name exclusively to the reach beyond, east of Nîl 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'mânîyah (see p. 37), whence a branch, called the Upper Zâb 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 Sâbus which lay one day's march above Wâsit, where the canal finally discharged its waters into the Tigris, probably in part by the Lower Zâb canal. to be added that this last reach of the Nîl, below the Lagoon, was known as the Nahr Sâbus, 'the Canal of Sâbus,' 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 Yâķût says that all the reach from Nîl city to Nu'mânîyah was called the Upper Zâb canal, while his Lower Zâb canal is apparently identical with the Nahr Sâbus 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 Sûrâ below here was crossed by a masonry bridge called the Kanțarah-al-Ķâmighân, “through which its waters pour with a mighty rush' as Ibn Serapion reports. Six leagues below this bridge, and near Jâmi'ân, the later Hillah, the Sûrâ 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 Hammâm ‘Omar with other villages reached the town of Niffâr. This canal took its name from Nars (or Narses), the v] 75 ‘IRÂĶ Moslem conquest of Mesopotamia, at the same time as Başrah 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-Hîrah. Kûfah rapidly increased in population, and when in the year 36 (657) 'Alî came to reside here the city during four years was the capital of that half of Islam which recognised ‘Alî as Caliph. In the mosque at Kûfah ‘Alî was assassinated in the year 40 (661). Istakhrî describes Kafah as the equal in size of Başrah in the 4th (10th) 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 ‘Alî received his death-wound, was on the eastern side of the city, and had tall columns brought from the neighbouring town of Hîrah, which fell to ruin as Kûfah became more populous. One of the chief quarters of Kûfah was Al-Kunâsah—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 Kufah in 580 (1184) it was an unwalled town mostly in ruins, but its Friday Mosque still existed, and Ibn Bațâțah, in the 8th (14th century, describes its roof as supported by pillars, formed of stone drums joined with lead. A Miḥrâb or niche marked the place where ‘Alî had been assassinated. Mustawfî, who gives a long account of Kûfah, says that its walls, 18,000 paces in circuit, had been built by the Caliph Manşûr. The sugar-cane grew here better than anywhere else in ‘Irâķ, 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 (tannûr) 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 Hîrah, which had been a great city under the Sassanians. Near by stood the famous palaces of As-Sadîr and Al-Khawarnaḥ, the latter built, according to tradition, by Nu'mân, prince of Hîrah, for King Bahrâm Gûr, the great hunter. The palace of Khawarnaķ with its magnificent halls had mightily astonished the early Moslems when they first took possession of Hîrah on the conquest of 76 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ Mesopotamia. In later times Khawarnaķ 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 Bațâțah passed by here in the beginning of the 8th (14th) century. On the actual desert border, five leagues west of Kûfah, and the first stage on the road to Mecca, was the large hamlet of Al- Ķâdisîyah 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. Mukaddasî describes ķâdisîyah-called ķâdisîyah of Kûfah 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 Baghdâd Gate; and at the Desert Gate (Bâb-al-Bâdiyah) was the Friday Mosque, before which, when the Pilgrims came, a great market was held. In the 8th (14th) century when Ibn Bațâțah travelled through Ķâdisîyah it had sunk to the size of a large village, and Mustawfî describes it as for the most part in ruin'. Najaf, where the tomb of 'Ali (Mashhad 'Ali?) is to the Shi'ahs a most venerated shrine, lies about four miles to the westward of the ruins of Kufah, 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 Kûfah mosque, 'Alî, 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 1 I. S. 10, 16. Kud. 233. Mas. Tanbih 52. Ist. 82. I. H. 162, 163. Muk. 116, 117. Yak. ii. 492 ; iii. 59; iv. 322. I. J. 213. I. B. i. 414; ii. 1, 94. Mst. 133, 138, 140. The broad shallow lake—known as the Baḥr Najaf- which now extends to the westward of the ruins of Kûfah and the Najaf shrine, did not exist in the middle-ages, and the Pilgrim road from Kûfah to Mecca passed across what is now its bed. 2 Mashhad means “the place of Martyrdom,' hence equivalent to Shrine ; Al-Maķâm, 'the Place,’ is used in the same sense. v] 77 'IRÂĶ tomb was erected at Mashhad 'Alî, for the place was kept hidden for security. Subsequently, however, in the year 175 (791), the holy site was discovered by the Abbasid Caliph Hârûn-ar-Rashîd. For, when hunting one day near Kûfah, 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 Hârûn to dig, and the body of 'Ali being discovered, a Mashhad or shrine was, according to Mustawfî, 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 Shî‘ah account, but though Hârûn-ar-Rashîd at one period of his reign favoured the Alids, the Arab chronicles certainly do not relate that he invented the tomb of 'Alî. The earliest notice in detail of Mashhad ‘Alî is of the middle of the 4th (10th century by Ibn Hawķal. He says that the Hamdânid prince Abu-l-Hayjâ—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 'Alî, which shrine he orna- mented with rich carpets and hangings : also he surrounded the adjacent town with a wall. Ișțakhrî and Ibn Hawķal, however, add that in their day the burial-place of ‘Alî was shown in the corner of the Great Mosque at Kûfah, and this was credited by many persons of note, as is affirmed by other authorities. Mustawfî 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, 2500 paces in circuit. In the chronicle of Ibn-al-Athîr it is recorded that ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah, at his own wish, was buried here, likewise his sons Sharâf and Bahâ-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 Baghdad populace, who were zealous in persecuting the Shîahs. It must however have been quickly rebuilt, for Malik Shâh and his Wazir, the Nizâm-al-Mulk, made their visitation here in 479 (1086). Writing in the early part of the 8th (14th) century Mustawfi 78 [CHAP. ‘IRÂķ adds that Ghâzân, the Îl-Khân of his day, had recently erected at Mashhad 'Alî a home for Sayyids (descendants of the Prophet) called the Dâr-as-Siyâdah, also a Khânķâh or Darvish monastery. Yâķût 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 Bațâțah was here in the year 726 (1326) and speaks of Mashhad 'Alî as a fine city, which he entered by the Bâb-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 Kashânî 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? Karbalâ, or Mashhad Husayn, lies eight leagues to the north- west of Kûfah, and marks the site of the battlefield where in the year 61 (680) Husayn, son of ‘Alſ, and grandson of the Prophet, was slain, with nearly all his family. The place of martyrdom of Husayn is to Shîahs of the present day a more venerated place than Mashhad ‘Alî. 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. Mustawfî adds, when describing the palaces at Sâmarrâ, that this iniquity on the part of Mutawakkil was requited to him, in that none of the buildings he began at Sâmarrâ could ever be completed, but soon fell to the same state of ruin in which 1 Ist. 82. I. H. 163. Muk. 130. Ibn-al-Athir, ix. 13, 42, 169, 394 ; x. 103. Mst. 134. Yak. iv. 760. I. B. i. 414-416. V] 79 ‘IRÂĶ. 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 Istakhrî and Ibn Hawķal who wrote a little before this date. In 407 (1016) the dome at Mashhad Husayn was burnt down, but must have been shortly afterwards restored, for the place was visited by Malik Shâh in 479 (1086), when he went hunting in these districts. Yâķût unfortunately gives no descrip- tion of the shrines at Karbalâ, merely mentioning incidentally that the name Al-Hâir, meaning 'a garden pool,' was commonly given to the enclosure round the tomb of Husayn. Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century speaks of the little town that had grown up round the shrine as being some 2400 paces in circuit, and his contemporary Ibn Baţūtah 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 Batutah 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 'Irâķ in the 3rd (9th) century, Ibn Khur- dâdbih and Ķudâmah state that the province was then divided into twelve districts called Astân, each containing a varying number of sub-districts, called Ţassúj, 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 Mukaddasî in the following century, and it will be worth while to enumerate the twelve Astâns, giving at the same time the best known of their sub-districts Țassûj. 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 Tâmarrâ. These were (1) the Astân of Shâd Fîrûz or Hulwân Muk. 130. 1 Ist. 85. I. H. 166. Yak. ii. 189. Mst. 134, 139. I. B. ii. 99. Ibn-al-Athir, vii. 36; viii. 518; ix. 209; X. 103. 80 [CHAP. 'IRAK .. (otherwise Shâdh Fayrûz) comprising the sub-districts of Tâmarrâ, and Khâniķîn, with three others; five in all: (2) the Shâd Hurmuz district, round Baghdad, with the sub-districts of Nahr Bûķ, of Kalwâdhâ and Nahr Bîn, of Al-Madinah-al-'Atîķah (otherwise Madâin), of Upper and of Lower Radhân, with two others; seven in all: (3) the Shâdh ķubâdh district, with the sub-districts of Jalâlâ, of Bandanîjîn, 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 Khurdâdbih; Ķudâmah on the contrary transposes the names, making the Astân of Shâdh ķubâdh the Baghdad district, and giving Khusraw Shadh Hurmuz as the name of the Jalâlâ Țassûj with its seven neigh- bours. The last Astân to the east of the Tigris was (4) the district of Bâzijân Khusraw, otherwise of Nahrawân, which Ķudâmah names Arandîn Kird, and this comprised five sub- districts, to wit: Upper, Middle, and Lower Nahrawân (with Iskâf of the Banî Junayd and Jarjarâyâ), next the Bâdarâyâ Țassûj, and lastly Bâkusâyâ. The next group of two districts was of those watered partly from the Tigris, partly from the Euphrates; it consisted of (5) the Astân of Kaskar, otherwise called Shâdh Sâbûr, with four sub-districts lying round Wâsit; and (6) the Astân of Shâdh Bahman, or the Kurah Dijlah, on the Lower Tigris, with four sub-districts, Maysân and Dasti-Maysân being two of them, the latter lying round Übullah. 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) Astân-al-A'lâ, “the Upper District, with the four sub-districts lying along the Nahr 'Îsâ, namely Fîrûz Sâbûr or Al-Anbâr, Maskin, ķațrabbul, and Bâdûrayâ. Next below came : (8) the Astân of Ardashîr Bâbgân, lying along the Kûthâ canal and the Nil, with the sub- districts of Bahurasîr and Rûmaķân opposite Madâin, of Kůthâ, and of the two canals called Nahr Jawbar and Nahr Durķît. To the east of this was: (9) the district of the Zâb canals, called the Astân of Bih Dhîvmâsufân, comprising the sub-districts of the Upper, Middle, and Lower Zâb canals. v] 81 IRAK. The last three districts were those respectively of Upper, Middle, and Lower Bih ķubâdh, and of these the first (10) Upper Bih ķubâdh comprised six sub-districts, namely, Bâbil (the ruins round Babylon), Upper and Lower Al-Fallûjah, with two others, and the Țassûj of 'Ayn-at-Tamr some distance to the west of the Euphrates. The Astân (11) of Middle Bih ķubâdh included four sub-districts, to wit, those of the Badât canal, of Sûrâ with Barbîsamâ, of Bârûsamâ, and of Nahr-al-Malik. Finally (12) Lower Bih ķubâdh 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; Ardashîr Bâbgân was the founder of the dynasty : Shâd Fîrûz or Shâdh Fayrûz means 'glorious fortune' in Persian. Bih ķubâdh is “the Goodness, or good land, of King ķubâdh,' and the “Glory' (Shâdh) of Hurmuz, of ķubâdh, of Shâpûr, and of Bahman recall the names of four of the most famous kings of Persia'. The trade of 'Irâk consisted of imports rather than of exports, the capital province consuming the products of the outlying regions. Muķaddasî, 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 Baghdâd were noted for all kinds of curious wares brought together here from foreign lands. Its manufac- tures were coloured silks—the famous 'Attâbî 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 Başrah many stuffs were manufactured of raw silk and its markets were famous for the jewellers, who sold all manner of curiosities; further Başrah was the chief emporium for various ôres 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. Kûfah was famous for its dates, for its essence of violets, and for raw-silk stuffs of which turbans were made; Wâsit exported lupins and 1 I. K. 5–8. Kud. 235, 236. Muk. 133. LE S. 6 6 82 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ. dried fish called Shîm; finally Nu'mânîyah 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 Baghdad; whence five main roads—to Bașrah, Kûfah, Anbâr, Takrît and Hulwân-set forth, communicating ultimately with the outposts of the empire. The easiest route to Başrah from Baghdad 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 Yarķûbî. Down as far as Al-ķațr 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 Bașrah was reached by the Nahr Mafķil. The Ubullah canal led back to the estuary, and was followed by those bound for ‘Abbâdân and the Persian Gulf. The way by land from Baghdâd to Wâsit, which went down the eastern side of the Tigris through Madâin, 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); Ķudâmah also gives this route in detail, and in one or two cases where lacuna occur they can generally be filled up from Abu-l-Fidâ. The road from Wâsit to Başrah by land, along the northern edge of the Great Swamp, is given by Ķudâmah, and this too is the way by which Ibn Bațâțah travelled in the 8th (14th century. Ibn Rustah and Ķudâmah likewise give the road from Wâsit, eastward, to Ahwaz the capital of Khůzistân; and from the stage at Bâdhbîn, one march east of Wâsiț on this road, a bifurcation went north-east to Ţîb, from which Sûs (Susa) in Khûzistân was reached . The Pilgrim road, going south from Baghdâd to Kûfah, left the Round City by the Kûfah Gate and passed through the Karkh quarter to Şarșar, and thence on to ķașr Ibn Hubayrah. Beyond this it crossed the eastern arm of the Euphrates (the present main 1 Muk. 128. 2 I. R. 184, 186—188. Ykb. 320. Kud. 193, 225, 226. Mst. 195. A. F. 305. 1. B. ii. 8. v] 83 'IRÂķ. channel) called in the 4th (10th) century the Nahr Sûrâ, at the Sûrâ bridge of boats, and thence came down to Kûfah, 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 Kafah the Pilgrim road went south-west to ķâdisîyah, 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 Baghdâd to Kufah gives alternative routes, with the distances in miles and in leagues. After the beginning of the 6th (12th) century ķașr Ibn Hubayrah, the half-way stage between Baghdad and Kûfah, fell to ruin; ħillah taking its place (see p. 71) to which the high road went down from Şarșar by Farâshah. At Hillah the eastern arm of the Euphrates was crossed great brid of boats similar to that which had formerly existed at Sûrâ. This is the route followed by Ibn Jubayr and all later travellers. From Kûfah to Başrah 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 Ķâdisiyah, is described by Ibn Rustah and Ibn Khurdâdbih'. As already said, two Pilgrim roads crossed the deserts of Arabia going from Mesopotamia to the Hijaz, one starting from Kafah, the other from Basrah, and they came together at the stage of Dhât'Irķ, 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-Mutaʻashshå), with the number of miles between each halt carefully noted, in the Road Books of the 3rd (9th) century and by Mukaddasî. The road from Kûfah passed through Fayd, 1 I. R. 174, 175, 180, 182. Ykb. 308. 1. K. 125, 145. Kud. 185. A. F. 303. I. J. 214—219. Mst. 193. Muķaddasî (p. 252) estimates the distance from Başrah to Kûfah along the edge of the desert at ten long marches (Marḥalah), 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 Bilâl ibn Abi Burdah, riding swift dromedaries (Jammázah), he having an urgent affair with Khâlid-al-Kasrî at Kûfah, in the year 120 (738), during the reign of the Omayyad Caliph Hishâm. 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 [CHAP. 'IRÂĶ which lay a short distance south of Hâyil, the present chief town of Jabal Shammâr. The Başrah road went by Darîyah, the older capital of what later became the Wahhâbî kingdom, the ruins of which town still exist a few miles to the west of Ar-Riyâd, the present chief town of Najd. From both the Kûfah and the Başrah Pilgrim ways there were branch roads, bifurcating to the right, leading direct to Medina? From Baghdad at the Kûfah Gate of the Round City a second high road branched westward, and going first to Muḥawwal kept along the bank of the 'Îsâ canal to Anbâr on the Euphrates, whence following up stream it passed Hadîthah, the last town in 'Irâk, and reached Ânah in Jazirah. This is the first part of one of the roads (namely, by the Euphrates) going from Baghdâd to Syria, and it is given by Ibn Khurdâdbih and Ķudâmah. The other road to Syria goes north along the Tigris by Mosul, and as far as Takrît lies in the ‘Irâķ province. This, which was the post-road, left the Baradân Gate of East Baghdad and keeping up the left bank of the river through 'Ukbarâ and Sâmarrâ came to Takrît. It was here joined by the caravan road which, leaving the I. R. 175. 1 The Kûfah road to Mecca and Medina is given in I. K. 125. Kud. 185. Ykb. 311. Muk. 107, 251. The Başrah road is given in I. K. 146. Kud. 190. I. R. 180, 182. Muk. 109, 251. It is worth noting that the older chief town of Najd is invariably written Darîyah (with initial Dâd) by the Arab geographers. Hâjjî Khalfah is the first (J. N. 527) to give the modern pronunciation and spelling Dara'iyah (with initial Dål and an 'Ayn) though once or twice and in the Itinerary (J. N. 527, 543) he writes Parîyah or Hișn Darîyah. The geography of the Hijâz, and of Arabia in general lying north of the Dahnâ or Great Desert, has been fully worked out (from Arabic sources) by Professor F. Wüstenfeld, in a series of articles published in the Abhandlungen der Königlichen 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 von Medina auslaufenden Hauptstrassen (vol. XI, 1862): Die Wohnsitze und Wanderungen der Arabi- schen Stämme (vol. xiv, 1869): Die Strasse von Basra nach Mekka mit der Landschaft Dharija (vol. xvi, 1871): Das Gebiet von Medina (vol. XVIII, 1873), which gives the Kûfah-Mecca Pilgrim road : Bahrein und Jemama (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] 85 'IRÂĶ Harbîyah quarter in West Baghdâd, went up the Dujayl canal to Harbâ, and thence by the palace grounds opposite Sâmarrâ passed along the Isḥâķî canal to Takrît. This last is the road followed by Ibn Jubayr and Ibn Baţûțah'. Finally from the Khurâsân Gate of East Baghdad started the great Khurâsân 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". 1 I. K. 72, 93. Kud. 214, 216, 217. Muk. 134. I. J. 232. I. B. ii. 132. Mst. 195. ” I. R. 163. Ykb. 269. I. K. 18. Kud. 197. Muk. 135. Mst. 193. CHAPTER VI. JAZİRAH. The three districts. The district of Diyâr Rabî'ah. Mosul, Nineveh, and the neighbouring towns. Great Zâb, Hadîthah, and Irbil. Little Zâb, Sinn, and Daķûķ. The Lesser Khâbûr, Hasanîyah, and 'Imâdîyah. Jazîrah Ibn 'Omar and Mount Jûdî. Nașîbîn and Râs-al-'Ayn. Mârdîn and Dunaysir. The Hirmâs and the Khâbûr. “Arabân and the Tharthâr river. Sinjâr and Hadr. Balad and Adhramah. As already explained the Arabs named Upper Mesopotamia Al-Jazîrah, '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 Diyâr Rabî'ah, Diyâr Mudar, and Diyâr Bakr, after the Arab tribes of Rabî'ah, Mudar, and Bakr respectively, who, in pre- Islamic days, had settled here under Sassanian rule, each receiving its appointed Dâr (plural Diyâr) or ‘Habitation' to which the tribe had subsequently given its name. Of Diyâr Rabi'ah, Mosul on the Tigris was the chief town; of the district Diyâr Mudar, Raķķah on the Euphrates was the capital; while Âmid on the upper course of the Tigris was the chief city of Diyâr Bakr, the northern- most of the three districts. Muķaddasî, on the other hand, describes the Jazîrah province under the name of IĶlîm Aķūr, 'the Aķûr Region’; the origin of the name is not clear, but Aķûr 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 معمارانه CHAP. VI] 87 JAZÎRAH. occurs to this rule, namely in the drainage of the affluent of the (greater) Khâbûr, the Hirmâs river from Naşîbîn. Just above its point of junction, the Hirmâs was dammed back at Sukayr-al- ‘Abbâs, and while a moiety passed on to join the Khâbûr which went to the Euphrates at Ķarşîsiyâ, the main stream of the Hirmâs flowed into the Tigris on its right bank at Takrît by the channel called the Nahr-ath-Tharthâr. Further, it will be seen that the limits of the three districts are determined by the water parting. Diyâr 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) Fâfân, with the land to the northward traversed by the numerous affluents of the Tigris which join its left bank west of Tall Fâfân. To the south-west, Diyâr Mudar comprised all the lands along the Euphrates from Sumaysâț, where it left the mountain gorges, down to 'Anah, with the plains watered by its affluent the river Balîkh, coming from Harrân. Lastly Diyâr Rabi'ah was the district east of Mudar; namely, of the (greater) Khâbûr coming from Râs-al-'Ayn, with the Hirmâs which, as we have seen, flowed eastward by the Tharthâr to the Tigris, also the lands on both banks of the Tigris from Tall Fâfân down to Takrît, namely those westward to Naşîbîn, and those eastward which included the plains watered by the Lower and Upper Zâb and the Lesser Khâbûr river. Mosul (Al-Mawșil), the chief city of Diyâr Rabî'ah, stards 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 Bûdh Ardashîr. 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 Jazîrah province under Marwân II, the last of the Omayyad Caliphs, who also built here what afterwards came to be known as the Old Mosque'. Ibn Hawķal who was at Mosul in 358 (969) describes it as a 1 Muk. 136—138. I. K. 17. Yak. iv. 682—684. Mar. i. 84. Yâķût gives the old Persian name of Mosul as Bawardashîr or Nawardashîr, but the latter form is undoubtedly a clerical error. 88 [CHAP. JAZIRAH. fine town with excellent markets, surrounded by fertile districts of which the most celebrated was that round Nînaway (Nineveh) where the prophet Yûnis (Jonah) was buried. In the 4th (10th) century the population consisted chiefly of Kurds, and the numerous districts round Mosul, occupying all Diyâr Rabi'ah, are carefully enumerated by Ibn Hawķal. Mukaddasî 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 Başrah. 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 (Suķ-al-Arba'â) by which name also the castle was sometimes known. The Friday Mosque (that of Marwân 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 Muķaddasî, and the houses of the town stretched for a considerable distance along the Tigris bank. Muķaddasî adds that formerly Mosul had borne the name of Khawlân : and that the Kașr-al- Khalîfah, '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 Muķaddasî wrote occupied by fields. In the year 580 (1184) Mosul was visited and described by Ibn Jubayr. Shortly before this date the famous Nûr-ad-Dîn, under whose banner Saladin began his career, had built the new Friday Mosque in the market place, but the old mosque of Marwân 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 Mâristân (or hospital) was famous, also the great VI] 89 JAZÎRAH. market buildings called the Kayşarîyah', and there were also numerous colleges here. Ķazwînî 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 Muķaddasî as the Tall-at-Tawbah, “the Hill of Repent- ance,' where the prophet Yûnis, Jonah, had sought to convert the people of Nineveh. The spot was marked by a mosque, round which, Muķaddasî adds, were houses for pilgrims, built by Nâşir-ad-Dawlah the Hamdânid prince, and half a league distant was a celebrated healing spring called 'Ayn Yûnis after the prophet Jonah, with a mosque adjacent, and here might be seen the Shajarah-al-Yaķțîn, namely the Tree of the Gourd' planted by the prophet himself. Yâķût 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 Jurjîs, or St George. In the 8th (14th) century Ibn Bațâțah passed through Mosul, which he describes as protected by a double wall and many high towers, ‘like those of Dehlî.' The fortress was then known as Al-Hadbâ, the Hump-backed,' and in the new Friday Mosque (that of Nûr-ad-Dîn) 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 Mustawfî, 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 Yûnis) on the opposite bank of the Tigris, lying among the ruins of Nineveh?. 1 The Arabs, more especially those of the west, called the great buildings of a market, often used as a hostelry or caravanserai, Al-Kayşarîyah, or ķaysârîyah, a term which they must have derived from the Greeks, though Kalo apeia does not occur, apparently, in the Byzantine historians, as applied to the Cæsarian, 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 Cæsarion, the famous quarter of Alexandria; though this explanation is the one often given. 2 I. H. 143—145. Muk. 138, 139, 146. I. J. 236—238. Yak. iv. 684. I. B. ii. 135. Kaz. ii. 247, 309. Mst. 165, 167. 90 [CHAP. JAZÎRAH. A few miles to the east of Mosul lie the two small towns of Barçallâ and Karmâlîs, which are mentioned by Yâķût and Mustawfî, and Bâʻashîķā is somewhat to the north of these, all three being of the dependencies of Mosul. Muķaddasî mentions Bâ'ashîşâ as noted for yielding a plant that cured scrofula and hæmorrhoids. It was a small town, Yâķût 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 Kayşarîyah, with excellent bath houses. The Friday Mosque had a fine minaret, though in the 7th (13th) century most of the population were Christians. Bartallâ lying a few miles south of Bâ‘ashîķâ was likewise counted as of the Nineveh district. It was, Yâķût 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 Barçallâ were proverbial for their excellence, and Mustawfî praises its cotton crops. Karmâlîs, some miles further to the south again, had also a fine market according to Yâķût, 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 Baghdad. 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 Takrît the Tigris received, on its eastern bank, the waters of the two Zâbs, the one flowing in about a hundred miles above the other; and Ibn Hawķal praises the magnificent fields occupying the broad lands lying between the two rivers. The upper or Greater Zâb rose in the mountains between Armenia and Adharbâyjân, and joined the Tigris at Hadîthah. The lower or Lesser Zâb, called also Majnûn, 'the Mad River,' from its impetuous current, flowed down from the Shahrazûr country, and came into the Tigris at Sinn. The country from which the Great Zâb flows is that known as Mush- takahar and Bâbghîsh according to Yâķût, and its waters at first were red in colour, but afterwards ran clear. Al-Hadîthah, “the New Town,' which stood a league above its junction with the Tigris (called Hadîthah of Mosul, to distinguish it from Hadîthah VI] 91 JAZIRAH. on the Euphrates already mentioned, p. 64), had been rebuilt by the last Omayyad Caliph, Marwân 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'. The town of As-Sinn (the Tooth) lying one mile below the junction of the Lower Zâb according to Mas'ûdî, but above it with the Lesser Zâb flowing to the east according to Muķaddasî, was in the middle-ages chiefly inhabited by Christians, and Yâķût says there were many churches here. It was known as Sinn of Bârimmâ, 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 Zâb, stood the town of Bawâzij (Madînat-al-Bawâzîj as Ibn Hawķal gives the name) which however appears at the present day to have left no trace on This also is the case with both Sinn and Hadîthah, and may be explained by the lower courses of both the Zâbs having much changed since the 4th (10th) century. Yâķût refers to the town as Bawâzij-al-Malik, of the King,' and in the 8th (14th) century it still existed, for Mustawfî describes it as paying 14,000 dînârs to the treasury of the Îl-Khâns. South of Sinn the post-road to Sâmarrâ and Baghdâd kept along the left bank of the Tigris, passing first Bârimmâ, a hamlet lying under the hills of this name otherwise known as the Jabal Humrîn, then coming to As-Súdaşâniyah, and finally reaching Jabiltâ (or Jabultâ) which appears to have been a mint city in 304 (916) lying on the east bank of the Tigris a little to the northward of Takrît. None of these small towns now appear on the map, but their positions are given very exactly in the Itineraries. the map Ist. 75. I. H. 147, 155. Muk. 139, 146. Yak. i. 446, 472, 567; ii. 168, 222, 552, 902; iv. 267. Mst. 165, 166, 214. 92 [CHAP. JAZİRAH. Rather more than a hundred miles due east of Sinn lies the town of Daķūķâ or Daķūķ—the name is generally written Tâūķ or Tawûķ in 'Alî of Yazd, as at the present day-which is frequently mentioned by Yâķût and the later geographers. Mustawfî speaks of the river of Daķūķ (as he spells the name) which, rising in the Kurdistân mountains near Darband-i-Khalifah (the Caliph's Pass), flowed out below the town of Daķūķ into the sandy plain, where, according to Mustawfî, there were most dangerous quicksands which swallowed up those who attempted to cross over. In flood time, he says, the Daķūķ river reached the Tigris, and its lower course is the stream now known as the Nahr-al-Aʻzam (the Great River): but in early times when the Nahrawân canal existed in its entirety, the spring floods of the Daķūķ river must have flowed into this. Mustawfî describes the town of Daķūķ as of medium size; it had a more healthy climate than that of Baghdad, 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 Zâb, and is described by Yâķût 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. Mustawfî praises the excellent crops, especially of cotton, that were produced by its lands. To the north of Mosul the city of 'Imâdîyah, near the head waters of the Upper Zâb, according to Mustawfî derived its name from its founder the Daylamite prince 'Imâd-ad-Dawlah who died in 338 (949). Other 1 Ist. 75. I. H. 153. Mas. Tanbih 52. Kud. 214. Muk. 123. Yak. i. 464, 750; ii. 581; iii. 169. Mst. 139, 165, 220. A. Y. i. 660. Karkûk, not given by Yâķût or the earlier geographers, is mentioned by ‘Alî of Yazd (i. 661) as near Tâûķ. In regard to Jabiltâ, or Jabultâ, on the Tigris opposite Takrît, it is to be remarked that this name has often been misread Habiltâ (e.g. Muk. 135: the letters ħ 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 Gebhillå, and in this script G and I do not resemble one another. VI] 93 JAZIRAH. authorities, however, ascribe 'Imâdiyah, or at any rate the restoration of that town in 537 (1142), to 'Imâd-ad-Dîn Zangi, father of that famous prince of Upper Mesopotamia, Nûr-ad-Dîn, under whom Saladin began his career. Yâķût reports that of old a castle had existed here held by the Kurds, and known under the name of Âshib. Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century describes 'Imâdîyah as a town of considerable size. In the neighbouring mountains were the head waters of the river Khâbûr-al-Hasanîyah, which flowed into the Tigris just north of the town of Faysâbûr, about 150 miles above Mosul. This river (not to be confounded with the Khâbûr of Râs-al-'Ayn) rose according to Yâķût, in the district of Az-Zawzân, and at the town of Al-Hasanîyah it was spanned by a magnificent stone bridge, the remains of which still exist near the hamlet of Hasan Aghâ, which probably represents the older town. Hasanîyah, where there was a Friday Mosque, is described by Muķaddasî 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'alathâyâ, where there was a Friday Mosque on a hill, the place being completely surrounded by gardens To the north of Faysâbûr is the important town of the Jazîrah (the Island), called Jazirah Ibn 'Omar for distinction, after a certain Al-Hasan Ibn ‘Omar of the tribe of Taghlîb, its founder; and the Tigris, as Yâķût explains, went half round the city in a semicircle, while a ditch filled with water on the land side made it an island. Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century describes Jazîrah 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 Mukaddasî adds that the mud at Jazîrah in winter time was pheno- menal. Ibn Bațâțah 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. Mustawfî adds that over a hundred villages were of its dependencies. Opposite Jazirah Ibn 'Omar, on the west bank of the Tigris, was Bâzabdâ of the Bâķirdâ district, this representing the well-known 1 Muk. 139. Kaz. ii. 192. Yak. i. 186; ii. 384; iii. 717, 931. Mst. 165, 166. 94 [CHAP. JAZIRAH. Roman fortress of Bezabda, but no description is given of the place. From Jazîrah Ibn 'Omar Jabal Jûdî was visible to the east- ward, with the Mosque of Noah on its summit, and Karîyat-ath- Thamânîn (the Village of the Eighty) at the foot of the mountain. The Ķurân (ch. xi. v. 46) states that 'the Ark rested upon Al-Jûdî,' 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 Thamânîn named after their number. Muķaddasî describes Thamânîn in the 4th (10th) century as a fair- sized city, and it lay one march to the north of Al-Hasanîyah; Mustawfî who calls it Saķ-Thamânîn-'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 Jazîrah Ibn 'Omar, and these are enumerated by Yâķût, namely, the Yarnâ (or Yarnî) and the Bâʻaynâthâ (or Bâsânfâ as Ibn Serapion calls it), with a large village of the same name, above Jazîrah. Below this town, but to the north of the Khâbûr-al-Hasanîyah, and flowing down from the country of Az-Zawzân were the Al-Bûyâr and Dúshâ rivers'. On the western side of the Tigris, in the latitude of Jazîrah Ibn 'Omar, is the hilly district of Tûr 'Abdîn, 'the Mountain of (God's) Servants,' peopled by the Jacobites, in which the rivers Hirmâs and the Khâbûr of Nașîbîn have their source. Naşîbîn, the Roman Nisibis, which Yâķût describes as cele- brated for its white roses and its forty thousand gardens, stood on the upper waters of the Hirmâs river, called by the Greek geographers the Saocoras or Mygdonius, and it is still one of the most important towns of Upper Mesopotamia. Ibn Hawķal who was there in 358 (969) describes Nașîbîn as the finest town of the Jazîrah province, and its neighbourhood produced the best barley and wheat crops. The hill above, from which its water came, was called the Jabal Bâlûsâ, the town was most pleasant to live in, and the only drawback was the fear of scorpions. It was more spacious than Mosul, and Muķaddasî 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 1 Ist. 78. I. H. 152, 153, 157. Muk. 139. I. S. 18. A. F. 55, 275. Yak. i. 466, 472 ; ii. 79, 144, 552, 957; iv. 1017. I. B. ii. 139. Mst. 165, 166. VI] 95 JAZÎRAH. fortress built of mortared stone protected the town. Nașîbîn 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 Hirmâs where it flowed by the town ; also there was the hospital (Mâristân) and several colleges among other notable buildings. Ibn Bațâțah who was here in the 8th (14th) century describes Naşîbîn 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. Mustawfî, who gives the circuit of the walls as 6500 paces, praises the grapes and other fruits grown here, and its wine, but the dampness of the climate, he says, made Naşîbîn 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'. Râs-al-'Ayn, 'the Spring-head,' near the sources of the Khâbûr (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-Zâhirîyah was supposed to be fathomless, and the stream flowing from this ran into the Khâbûr, by which pleasure- boats are described as travelling down from garden to garden from Râs-al-'Ayn to Ķarķîsiyâ on the Euphrates. Râs-al-'Ayn is described by Ibn Hawķal as a walled town, having gardens and many mills within its circuit; and the árable fields stretched for 20 leagues beyond the houses. Mukaddasî 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 Râs-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 Khâbûr. In his time the city apparently had no wall, though in the 8th (14th) century this must have been rebuilt, for Mustawfî describes it as 5000 paces in circuit. He adds that cotton, corn, and grapes were grown here abundantly. Muk. 140. I. J. 240. Yak. iii. 559; 1 1. H. 140, 142, 143. 1. S. 12. iv. 787. I. B. ii. 140. Mst. 167. 96 [CHAP. JAZIRAH. was woven. About half-way between Râs-al-'Ayn and Naşîbîn, but more to the north, stood the great rock fortress of Mârdîn, overlooking the city of Dunaysîr in the plain below, some three leagues to the south. In the 4th (10th) century the castle of Mârdîn, called Al-Bâz (the Falcon), was the stronghold of the Hamdânid 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 Bațâțah, who visited Mârdîn in the 8th (14th) century, describes it as a fine town where much woollen stuff At that time the great fortress was known as ķalʻat- ash-Shahbâ, 'the Grey Castle,' or ķal'at-i-Küh, “the Castle of the Hill.' Mustawfî describes Mârdîn as amply irrigated by the waters of the Șawr river, which flowed down from a hill of the same name in Tûr 'Abdîn, and this river ultimately joined the Khâbûr; 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 Kûch Hişâr. Yâķût 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. Dârâ, lying a few miles to the eastward, which had been a great fortress in Roman days, is mentioned as a small town by Ibn Hawķal, and Muķaddasî 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 Yâķūt states that it was famous for its Maḥlab or cherry-stone preserve, the gardens being most fruitful. When Ibn Bațâțah passed Dârâ in the 8th (14th) century, however, its fortress had already become an VI] 97 JAZIRAH. uninhabited ruin. Kafartůthâ, to the S.W. of Mârdîn and on its own small river, is described by Ibn Hawķal as already a town of some importance in the 4th (10th) century, being at the junction of the high road coming down from Âmid. It was at that time a larger place than Dârâ, but in the 7th (13th) century Yâķût refers to it as merely a large village?. The Greater Khâbûr from Râs-al-'Ayn received on its left bank the waters of the Mârdîn river, and below this again was joined by the Hirmâs coming from Nașîbîn ; but the major part of this latter stream, as already said, was diverted at the dam of Sukayr-al-'Abbâs, a short distance above the junction with the Khâbûr, into the Tharthâr channel. The Khâbûr now bearing the waters of three considerable streams, and— Mustawfî adds- further swelled by the confluence of 300 rivulets, flowed down south to Karķisiyâ on the Euphrates, which is the chief town of the Diyâr Mudar district and will be described presently. Before coming to this the river ran by the towns of 'Arâbân and Mâkisîn, which were of the Khâbûr lands and counted of Diyâr Rabî'ah province. “Arbân or ‘Arâbân, the ruins of which still exist, was in the 4th (10th) century a walled town where cotton stuffs were largely manufactured, cotton being grown in the surrounding country along the banks of the Khâbûr. Mukaddasi speaks of 'Arâbân as standing on a high hill and surrounded by gardens. To the south of it, half-way to Ķarķisiyâ, was the town of Mâkisîn (or Maykasîn) where a bridge of boats crossed the Khâbûr. 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 Hirmâs river is described as at a spring six leagues north of Naşîbîn, 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 Naşîbîn 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 i Baladhuri, 176. Ist. 73, 74. 1. H. 143, 149, 152. Muk. 140. I. J. 242, 244. Kaz. ii. 172. Yak. ii. 516, 612, 733, 911; iii. 435; iv. 287, 390. Mst. 166, 205, 219. I. B. ii. 142. A. Y. i. 677. LE S. 7 98 [CHAP. JAZÎRAH. miles or more south of Nașîbîn was the dam or weir called Sukayr-al-'Abbâs, where in the 4th (10th) century there was a con- siderable town with a Friday Mosque and markets. This was at the head of the Tharthâr 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 Yâķût 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. Yâķût had himself travelled along its course, and adds it was reported that in old times boats used to pass down this stream from the Khâbûr 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 Sinjâr the river Tharthâr cut through the line of hills called the Jabal Humrîn, otherwise the Jabal Bârimmâ, and received from the north a small stream which flowed down from the city of Sinjâr. This in the 4th (10th) century was a walled town, surrounded by a most fertile district. Muķaddasî 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 Sinjâr during the Flood; but afterwards, continuing on its course, came finally to rest on Jabal Jûdî on the east side of the Tigris. Further, Yâķût adds that Sinjâr was also famous as the birth- place of Sultan Sinjâr or Sanjar, the last of the great Saljûķs, son of Malik Shâh. According to ķazwînî Sinjar in the 7th (13th) century was remarkable for its bath houses, which had beautiful mosaic floors, and Ibn Bațâțah 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 Mustawfî 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 Tharthâr, about half-way between Sinjâr and where that river joined the Tigris near Takrît. At Hadr are still to be seen the remains of a great Parthian VI] 99 JAZIRAH. palace which Yâķūt reports to have been built by a certain As-Sâțirûn 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 Naşîbîn 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 Sinjâr by way of Tall A'far. Yâķût writes that Balad, where there was an Alid shrine, occupied the site of the old Persian town of Shahrâbâdh, and that the name of Balad was often written Balaț. Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century refers to Balad as a considerable city, and Muķaddasî 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, Yâķût says, and the date palm grew in the surrounding district, which was known under the name of Al-Mahlabîyah, from the Maḥlab perfume, or preserve, of cherry-stones chiefly made here. The right-hand road at the bifurcation beyond Balad led to the town of Bâʻaynâthâ which Muķaddasî describes as lying in the midst of twenty-five fertile districts, the richest and pleasantest of all Mesopotamia, as he adds; and this Bâʻaynâthâ 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 Jazîrah Ibn ‘Omar as mentioned on p. 94. Beyond Bâʻaynâthâ on the road to Nașîbîn came Barķa'îd, a place evilly proverbial for the thieving ways of its people, practised against all strangers and their In the 3rd (9th) century it was a town of considerable size, with three gates, more than two hundred shops, and many caravans. 1 The name of the town is written Sinjâr, 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. 140, 141. Yak. i. 464, 921; ii. 281 ; iii. 109, 158; iv. 962. Mst. 166, 219. 1. B. ii. 141. Kaz. ii. 263. 7—2 IOO [CHAP. VI JAZIRAH. 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 Barķa‘îd and Nasîbîn, was a place of about the same size as Barķa îd ; 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 (10th) century Muķaddasi describes Adhramah as a small place standing in the desert near some wells, and there were vaulted buildings round about these'. i Kud. 214. Ist. 73. I. H. 148, 149. Muk. 139, 140. Yak. i. 177, 472, 571, 715, 863 v. 428. Kaz. ii. 204. CHAPTER VII. JAZÎRAH (continued). The district of Diyâr Mudar. Rakkah and Râfiķah. The river Balîkh and Harrân, Edessa and Hișn-Maslamah. Ķarķîsiyâ. The Nahr Sa'id, Rahbah and Dâliyah. Ruşâfah of Syria. 'Ânah. Bâlis, Jisr Manbij, and Sumaysâț. Sarûj. The district of Diyâr Bakr. Âmid, Hânî, and the source of the Tigris. Mayyâfarîşîn and Arzan. Hişn Kayfâ and Tall Fâfân. Sâʻirt. The district of Diyâr Mudar, as already explained, lay along the banks of the Euphrates, and the chief town was Ar-Raņķah 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-Raņķah is merely descriptive; Ražķah being the term for the swampy land beside a river subject to periodical inundation, and as such Ar-Raķķah, the Morass,' is found elsewhere as a place-name, this particular Raķķah receiving the surname of As-Sawda, 'the Black,' for distinction. In the 2nd (8th) century when the Abbasids had succeeded to the Caliphate, Rakķah, one of the chief cities of Upper Mesopotamia commanding the Syrian frontier, had to be secured, and for this purpose the Caliph Manşûr in 155 (772) proceeded to build some 300 ells distant from Rakkah the town of Ar-Râfiķah (the Com- panion or Fellow), which was garrisoned by Khurâsân troops entirely devoted to the new dynasty. Râfiķah is said to have been laid out on the plan of Baghdâd, and was a round city. Hârûn-ar-Rashîd added to the town and built himself a palace here called the Kașr-as-Salâm (the Palace of Peace), for he at times resided in Raņķah, or Râfiķah, when the climate of 102 [CHAP. JAZÎRAH. Baghdad was too hot. Soon the older town of Raķķah fell to ruin, new buildings covered all the intervening space, enclosing 'the Morass,' now a shallow lake, lying between Raķķah and Râfiķah, and the name of Rakkah passed to Râfikah, which last, once the suburb, took the place of the older city, and lost its name in the process. Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century, however, speaks of the twin cities of Raņķah and Rafiķah, each with its own Friday Mosque, and he especially mentions the magnifi- cent trees which surrounded the towns. Muķaddasî describes only one town, namely Raķķah, 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 Raķķah had its terraced roof. There were also excellent baths. Near by were the ruins of the old town, then known as Ar- Rakķah-al-Muhtariķah, 'Burnt Raķķah.' Mustawfî on the other hand speaks of Râfiķah 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 Raķķah was the celebrated plain of Şiffin, which had been the battlefield between the partizans of the two Caliphs Mu'awiyah and ‘Alî. “The Martyrs,' as the Shî‘ahs called those who had fallen in the cause of ‘Alî, had their shrines here, and Ibn Hawķal, 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 Şiffîn on the north (left) bank of the Euphrates stands the fortress known as Kalʻat Ja‘bar, after its early possessor, an Arab of the Banî Numayr. Originally this castle had been called Dawsar. It is frequently mentioned in the later history of the Caliphate, and in the year 497 (1104) was taken possession of by the Franks from Edessa, during the time of the first Crusade. On its left bank below Raķķah the Euphrates receives the river Al-Balîkh, VII] 103 JAZÎRAH. . which the Greeks knew as the Bilecha. Its source was at a spring called the 'Ayn-adh-Dhahbânîyah lying to the north of Harrân. The name of this spring is given variously by our authorities as Ad-Dahmânah or Adh-Dhahbânah, and Mustawfî (in Persian) writes of the Chashmah Dahânah'. The Balîkh took its course south and joined the Euphrates below Raņķah, passing by a number of important towns which were irrigated from it or from its tributaries. Harrân (the ancient Carrhæ) near its source was famous as the home of the Sâbians (not identical with the Sabæans, but often confounded with them) who professed to hold the religion of Abraham, and tradition stated that Harrân was the first city to be built after the Flood. Muķaddasî describes Harrân 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 Harrân in 580 (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-Ruhâ (a corruption of the Greek name Callirrhoe), lay on the head-waters of one of the tributaries of the Balîkh. 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 Hawķal estimates at more than 300 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 Ruhâ from being stormed and plundered. Mukaddasî in the latter part of the 4th (10th) century, after speaking of the 1 Baladhuri, 179, 297. Ist. 75, 76. I. H. 153, 154. Muk. 141. I. S. 12. I. R. 90. I. K. 175. Yak. i. 734; ii. 621, 734; iv. 112, 164. Mst. 166, 219. Ibn-al-Athir, x. 253. 104 [CHAP. JAZIRAH. 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-Aķşâ at Jerusalem had been built, he says, on its plan. Mukaddasî adds that the city was well fortified. Notwithstanding its Arab garrison at the time of the first Crusade in 492 (1098), Edessa was taken by Baldwin, and during half-a-century remained a Latin principality. In 540 (1145), however, Zangi retook the city from Jocelin II, and after that date Ruhâ was in the hands of the Moslems. The ruins of its many handsome buildings might still be seen in the 8th (14th) century, and Mustawfî describes a great cupola of finely worked stone, rising beyond a court that was over 100 yards square. Ruhâ is more than once mentioned by 'Alî of Yazd in his account of the campaigns of Timûr, 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-Ruhâ, and as Urfah Edessa is known at the present day'. To the south of Harrân, and lying some distance to the east i Ist. 76. I. H. 154. Muk. 141, 147. I. J. 246. Yak. ii. 231, 591. A. Y. i. 662. Mst. 166. J. N. 443. In the matter of the famous napkin (Mandil) 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'ûdî, 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'ûdî mentions the year 332 (944) as that when the Byzantines got possession of it, to their great joy. Ibn Hawķal, writing in the same century, merely calls it 'the napkin of 'Îsâ, son of Mariyam, on whom be peace.' Ibn-al-Athîr in his chronicle under the year 331 (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 Muttaşî 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-Ruhâ 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] 105 JAZÎRAH. of the Balîkh river, was the small town of Bâjaddâ on the road to Râs-al-'Ayn. Its gardens were famous, and it was a dependency of Hișn Maslamah, which lay nearer to the Balîkh river. This great castle took its name from Maslamah, son of the Omayyad Caliph 'Abd-al-Malik, and it stood nine leagues south of Harrân, 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 Hişn Maslamah. The fortress buildings covered an area of a Jarîb (equivalent to a third of an acre), and its walls were fifty ells in height. To the south of Hișn Maslamah on the road to Raķķah, from which it was three leagues distant, stood Bâjarwân, which Ibn Hawķal describes as having been a fine town, though in the 4th (10th) century already falling to ruin. Yâķût, whose description of Hișn Maslamah has been given above, merely mentions Bâjarwân as a village of the Diyâr Mudar district, Some two hundred miles below Raķķah stands Ķarşîsiyâ, the ancient Circesium, on the left bank of the Tigris where, as already explained (p. 97), the moiety of the Khâbûr river flows in. Ibn Hawķal describes it as a fine town surrounded by gardens; but Yâķût and Mustawfî both refer to it as a smaller place than the neighbouring Raḥbah, 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 Raħbah- ash-Shâm, 'of Syria,' or Raḥbah Malik ibn Țawķ after its founder, who had flourished during the reign of the Caliph Mamûn. Near it stood the small town of Ad-Dâliyah (the Waterwheel) and both places lay near the bank of a great loop canal, called the Nahr Sa’îd, which branched from the right bank of the Euphrates some distance above Karşîsiyâ and flowed back to it again above Dâliyah, which, like Rahbah, was also known for distinction as Dâliyah of Malik ibn Țawķ. The canal had been dug by Prince Sa'id, son of the Omayyad Caliph 'Abd-al-Malik; he was a man of great piety, being known as Sa'id-al-Khayr, 'the Good,' and was 1 I. H. 156. Kud. 215. Yak. i. 453, 454, 734; ii. 278. 106 [CHAP. JAZIRAH. for some time Governor of Mosul. Raḥbah is described by Muķaddasî 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. Dâliyah 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 Rusafah (the Causeway), called Rusâfah-ash-Shâm--of Syria-or Rusâfah Hishâm, after its founder. The Caliph Hishâm, 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, Yâķût says, 120 ells deep. The physician Ibn Butlân, who wrote in 443 (1051), describes Rusafah 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 Raķķah and Karşîsiyâ, two days' march above the latter town, was Al-Khânûķah, a city of some size according to Ibn Hawķal, and Yâķût adds that in its vicinity was the territory of Al-Madiķ. Below Ķarķîsiyâ the only town of importance within the limits of the Jazîrah province was 'Ânah, 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. Yâķût adds that 'Ânah possessed a strong castle which overlooked the river, and here the Caliph Ķâim found shelter in 450 (1058), when Basâsîrî the Daylamite, after taking possession of Baghdad, had caused the public prayers to be read there in the name of the heterodox Fatimid Caliph of Cairo. Mustawfî says that in the 8th (14th) century 'Ânah was still a fine town, and VII] 107 JAZÎRAH. It was famous for its palm-groves. The harbour of Al-Furdah, called Furdah Nuộm for distinction, lay due west of 'Ânah on the Euphrates, half-way to Ķarķîsiyâ, 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 Ruşafah to Raķķah, while the right-hand road kept up stream along the river bank?. Above Raķķah there were three towns on the Euphrates, namely Bális, Jisr Manbij, and Sumaysât, 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 Jazîrah. Bâlis lies due west of Raķķah, at the limit of the plain of Şiffin, where the Euphrates after running south turns east. the Roman Barbalissus, the great river-port for Syria on the Euphrates, and hence the centre point of many caravan routes. Ibn Hawķal describes Bâlis 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, Muķaddasî says, Bâlis was still populous in the 4th (10th) century; but Yâķût 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-Fidâ 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 ķal'at-an-Najm, 'the Castle of the Star,' from its height on the hill, and it was also called Hișn Manbij, 'the Manbij Fortress. When Ibn Jubayr passed ķal'at-an-Najm, coming from Harrân in 580 (1184), he speaks of the market which was held below its walls. Abu-l-Fidâ says that the fort had been rebuilt by Sultan Nûr-ad- Dîn, son of Zangi, and its garrison freely harassed the neighbouring i Ist. 77, 78. I. H. 155, 156. Muk. 142. Baladhuri, 179, 180, 332. I. S. 10, 14. Yak. ii. 394, 538, 764, 784, 955 ; iii. 595, 876; iv. 65, 560, 840. Mst. 139, 166. 108 [CHAP. JAZIRAH. It was towns occupied by the Crusaders. Ķazwînî, 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 Ķal'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 ķazwînî, the stranger was often left 'with nothing but his drawers (sârawil) 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. Sumaysâț, 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. a very strong fortress. Mas'ûdî states that Sumaysâț was also known as ķal'at-at-Țîn, 'the Clay Castle,' and Yâķût 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 Saruj is to be mentioned, which lies about half-way on the direct road from Raķķah north, across the desert plain, to Sumaysâț; this road forming the chord of the great semicircular sweep followed by the Euphrates. Sarûj was also on the caravan road from Harrân and Edessa to Jisr Manbij, and is described by Ibn Hawķal as a fine city, surrounded by fertile districts, a description which Yâķût, adding nothing further, corroborates'. The cities of Diyâr Bakr, the smallest of the three districts into which the Jazîrah province was divided, lay exclusively on, or to the north of, the upper course of the Tigris. The chief town of the district was Âmid, sometimes written Hâmid, 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 Diyâr Bakr, or else Ķârâ Âmid (Black Âmid) from the colour of the stone used here. The town stood on the right or west bank of the Tigris, and a hill 100 fathoms in height dominated it. Ibn Hawķal states that its walls were built of black mill-stones. Muķaddasî describes its strong fortifications as being like those of Antioch, the outer walls, Ist. 62, 76, 78. I. H. 119, 120, 154, 157. Muk. 155. Mas. i. 215. I. J. 250. Yak. i. 477; iii. 85, 151; iv. 165. A. F. 233, 269. Kaz. ii. 160. VII] 109 JAZÎRAH. saw it. 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 Muķaddasî also remarks on the black stone of which, and on which, he says the city was built. Âmid possessed a fine Friday Mosque, and its walls were pierced by five chief gates, namely the Water gate, the Mountain gate, the Bâb-ar-Rûm (the Greek gate), the Hill gate, and the Postern gate (Bâb-as-Sirr) used in time of war. The line of fortified walls included the hill in their circuit, and in the 4th (10th) century Muķaddasî says that the Moslems possessed no stronger or better fortress than Âmid on their frontier against the Greek Empire. Nâşir-i-Khusraw the Persian pilgrim passed through Âmid in 438 (1046), and has left a careful description of the city as he The town was 2000 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 10 yards broad, no mortar was used in its construction, but each stone block was, Nâşir estimates, of the weight of 1000 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 (Bâb-al-Arman), to the west the Greek gate, and to the south the Hill gate (Bâb-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 Âmid, Nâșir 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, IIO [CHAP. JAZIRAH. 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 Nâșir saw an iron gate of lattice-work, so beautifully wrought that never had he seen the equal thereof. This description of the magnificence of Âmid is borne out by what the anonymous annotator of the Paris Ms. of Ibn Hawķal writes, who was here in 534 (1140). He notes that its markets were well built and full of merchandise. In the 7th (13th) century Yâķût and ķazwînî repeat much of the foregoing description, and the latter speaks of Âmid 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. Mustawfî in the following century writes of it as a medium-sized town, paying the Îl-Khâns a revenue of 3000 gold pieces. At the close of this century Âmid was taken by Tîmûr'. To the north of Âmid, and near one of the eastern arms of the upper Tigris, stands the town of Hânî, which is said by Yâķût to be famous for the iron mine in its neighbourhood, which produced much metal for export. Hânî is also mentioned by Mustawfî. Some distance to the west of Hânî lies the chief source of the Tigris, which Muķaddasî 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-Dhîb (the Wolf River), apparently identical with the Nahr-al-Kilâb (the River of Dogs) referred to by Yâķût, which came down from the hills near Shimshật, to the north of Hâni. The source of the Tigris, according to Yâķût, was distant two and a half days' journey from Âmid, at a place known as Halûras, where 'Ali, the Ist. 75. I. H. 150, 151. Muk. 140. N. K. 8. Yak. i. 66. Kaz. ii. 331. Mst. 165. A. Y. i. 682. VII] III JAZIRAH. 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 Muķaddasî and Yâķût, whose accounts are not quite easy to reconcile, and probably the names of these streams varied considerably between the 4th and the 7th (10th and 13th) centuries. Some distance below Âmid 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 Şalb. A more important affluent, however, is the river coming down from the north of Mayyâfarîşîn, a tributary of which flowed by that city. This is the river Sâtîdamâ, or Sâtîdamâd, one branch of which was called the Wâdî-az-Zûr flowing from the district of Al-Kalk, while the Sâtîdamâ river itself had its head-waters in the Darb-al-Kilâb- 'the Dogs' Pass'—so called, Yâķût 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 Anûshirwân, some time before the birth of the prophet Muhammad. This river Sâtîdamâ, which is mentioned by Ibn Serapion, is that which Muķaddasî names the Nahr-al-Masûliyât, and is now known as the Batman Șû, one of whose affluents, as already said, flows down from Mayyâfarîşîn'. The Arabic Mayyâfarîşîn appears to be a corruption of the Aramaic name Maypharkath, or the Armenian Moufargin, and it is identical with the Greek town called Martyropolis. Muķaddasî in the 4th (10th) 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- ķaddasî remarks that its gardens were scanty. Mayyâfarîşîn was visited by Nâșir-i-Khusraw in 438 (1046), who speaks of the town as surrounded by a wall built of great white stones, each of 500 man weight (about a ton and a half), and while all Âmid, as already said, was of black stone, in every building at Mayyâfarîşîn 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, il. S. 17, 18. Muk. 144. Yak. ii. 188, 551, 552, 563, 956; iii. 7, 413 ; iv. 300, 979. Mst. 165. I 12 [CHAP. JAZIRAH. and this possessed a solid iron door, no wood having been used in its construction. There was according to Nâșir 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 Mayyâfarîşîn stood a second town called Muḥdathah, “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 Mirdâsid Amîr Nașr, surnamed Shibl-ad-Dawlah. Both Yâķût and ķazwînî give a long account of various churches, of the three towers, and the eight town gates, which had existed of old at Mayyâfarîşîn—the Greek name of which, Yâķût says, was Madurşâlâ, 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 Mayyâfarîşîn 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 Mayyâ- farîşîn was still an important place, and Mustawfî praises its excellent climate and abundant fruits'. Arzan, a short distance to the east of Mayyâfarîşîn, stood on the western side of the river called the Nahr, or Wâdî, as-Sarbat. Arzan had a great castle, well fortified, and it was visited in 438 (1046) by Nâșir-i-Khusraw. He writes of it as a flourishing place with excellent markets, being surrounded by fertile and well irrigated gardens. Yâķût describes Arzan (which must not be 1 1. H. 151. Muk. 140. N. K. 7. Yak. iv. 703—707. Kaz. ii. 379. Mst. 167. VII] 113 JAZIRAH. 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 Mayyâfarîşîn and Arzan flow in from the north, stands the castle called Hișn Kayfâ, or Kîfâ, which the Greeks called Kiphas or Cephe. Muķaddasî 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 Hawķal, 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 Amîr Fakhr-ad-Dîn ķârâ Arslân in the year 510 (1116). 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. Yâķût, who had been at Hişn Kayfâ, 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 Hişn Kayfâ as a large town, but for the most part gone to ruin, though still inhabited by a numerous population. The hill known as Tall Fâfân, with a town of this name at its foot, stood on the northern or left bank of the Tigris, some 50 miles east of Hișn Kayfâ, where the river makes its great bend south. The town, Muķaddasî writes, in the 4th (10th) 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 Fâfân comes down from Badlîs (Bitlis), rising in the mountains of Armenia to the south-west of Lake Vân. This river is joined by a great affluent rising to the south of the lake, which Mukaddasi and Yâķût name the Wâdî-ar-Razm, and the Tigris below the junction of their united streams became navigable for boats. On LE S. 8 CHAPTER VIII. THE UPPER EUPHRATES. The Eastern Euphrates or Arsanâs. Milâsgird and Mûsh. Shimshâț and Hișn Ziyâd or Kharpût. The Western Euphrates. Arzan-ar-Rûm or Ķâlîķalâ. Arzanjân and Kamkh. The castle of Abrîş or Tephrike. Malațiyah and Țarandah. Zibațrah and Hadath. Hișn Manşûr, Bahasnâ 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 Jazîrah 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 (10th) century Ibn Serapion still calls this the Nahr Arsanâs, and the same name is given to it by Yâķût 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 Murâd Şû, being so named, it is commonly said, in honour of Sultan Murad IV, who conquered Baghdad in 1048 (1638). The Arsanâs took its rise in the Țarûn country, a name the Armenians write Daron, and the Greeks knew of as Taronites, which includes the mountains lying to the north of Lake Vân. The first place of importance on the Arsanâs was the town of Malâzkird, which in the various dialects of this region was also known as Minâzjird, Manzikart, and Milâsgird. In the 4th (10th) century Muķaddasî describes Malâzkird as a strong fortress with a mosque in its market street, the place being surrounded by 842 116 [CHAP. THE UPPER EUPHRATES. many gardens. In 463 (1071) 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 Saljūķs, this leading up to their conquest and permanent settlement in Asia Minor. Yâķût more than once refers to Minâzjird or Minâzkird, and Mustawfî, who gives the name as Malâzjird, praises its strong castle, its excellent climate, and its fertile lands. The town of Mûsh to the south of the Arsanâs, in the great plain on the west of Lake Vân, is often counted as of Armenia. It is mentioned by Yâķût, and Mustawfî 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 Arsanâs received on its right bank two affluents coming down from the north, and the Ķâlîķalâ country. These affluents are important as they enable us to fix the approximate position of Shimshâț, a town of some note, which has disappeared from the map, and which has often been confounded with Sumaysâț on the Euphrates already mentioned (p. 108). Ibn Serapion states that the first affluent was the Nahr-adh-Dhîb, “the Wolf River,' which rising in Ķâlîķalâ fell into the Arsanâs a short distance above Shimshât; the second was the Salķit river, which rose in the mountains called Jabal Marør (or Mazûr) and joined the Arsanâs one mile below Shimshâț. A reference to the map shows that these two streams are those now known respectively as the Gunek Șd and the Perî Chay; the Ķâlîķalâ country representing the mountain region lying between the Arsanâs and the Western Euphrates, and to the west of the Țarûn country. Shamshâț (Shimshât) was much the most important place on the Arsanâs, which Ibn Serapion also refers to as the river of Shimshâț, and the town appears to have stood on the southern or left bank of the river. Shamshâț is undoubtedly the Arsamosata of the Greeks, and Yâķût—who particularly remarks that it is not 1 I. S. II. Kud. 246, 251. Muk. 376. Yak. i. 207; iv. 648, 682. Mst. 165, 167. Hâjjî Khalfah (J. N. 426) in 1010 (1600) is apparently our earliest authority for the Eastern Euphrates being called the Murâd Şû, and as his work was apparently written before the reign of Sultan Murad IV, this goes to prove that the stream was not called after that monarch, as is commonly said. VIII] 117 THE UPPER EUPHRATES. to be confounded with Sumaysâț—says that Shamshâț lay between Pâlûyah (modern Pâlû) and Hișn Ziyâd (modern Kharpût). In the 7th (13th) century when Yâķût wrote, Shamshâț was already in ruins, but the data above given by Ibn Serapion and Yâķût enable us to fix its position within narrow limits. The fortress of Hișn Ziyâd, which Ibn Khurdâdbih mentions as situated at no great distance from Shamshật, was on the authority of Yâķût the Arab name for the Armenian Khartabirt, now more generally called Kharpût. Mustawfî gives the spelling Kharbirt, but adds no details, referring to it merely as a large town enjoying a good climate. In this district Balâdhurî and other early authorities mention the bridge of Yaghrâ, which crossed a stream that was probably some tributary of the Arsanâs, and this bridge (Jisr) lay 10 miles distant from Shamshât; its exact position, however, is unknown. Then about a hundred milės to the westward of Sham- shâț the Arsanâs 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 Ķârâ Şû (Black Water), and this is the Nahr-al-Furât of Ibn Serapion. According to him it took its rise in the mountains called Jabal Aķradkhis (the name is apparently written Afradkhis by Mas'ûdî, and other variants occur) which are of the Ķâlîșalâ country to the north of Erzerum. This important town, which the Arabs called Arzan-ar-Rûm or Ard-ar-Rum (the Land of the Romans), the Armenians knew as Karin, and the Greeks as Theodosiopolis. It is the Moslem city of Ķâlîkalâ, and the chief place in this district. The origin of the name Ķâliķalâ, 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 Arsanâs took their rise. Of the town of Erzerum the earlier Arab geographers afford no details, except to state that it was a great city: Mustawfî speaks of there being many fine churches here, one especially with a dome whose circle was fifty ells in diameter. Opposite this 1 I. S. 10, 13, 30. I. K. 123. Baladhuri, 139. Yak. ii. 276, 417; iii. 319. Mst. 262. 118 [CHAP. THE UPPER EUPHRATES. church was a mosque built on the model of the Ka'bah at Mecca. Ibn Bațâțah, 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 'Irâķ, 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 Mustawfî says that the town at its foot was named Abaskhûr (or Abshakhûr). It belonged to Arzan-ar-Rum, and Yâķût adds that the district was called Bâsîn. At the close of the 8th (14th) century Tîmûr took Avnîk after a long siege, and it is frequently mentioned in the history of his campaigns. Some 200 miles west of Arzan-ar-Rûm and on the right or north bank of the Euphrates, is the town of Arzanjân, which Yâķût says was more often called Arzingân. 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. Mustawfî adds that its walls had been restored by the Saljūķ Sultan 'Alâ-ad-Dîn Kayķubâd at the close of the 7th (13th) century, and that they were built of well-cut jointed stone masonry. Arzanjân had an excellent climate, its lands producing corn, cotton, and grapes in abundance. Ibn Bațâțah 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. Bâbirt to the north of Arzanjân is mentioned by Yâķût 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 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. Mustawfî describes it as a great castle, with a town below on the river bank, and many fertile villages were of its dependencies'. 1 I. S. 10. I. R. 89. I. K. 174. Mas. i. 214. Tanbih 52. Yak. i. 205, VIII] 119 THE UPPER EUPHRATES. 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 Abrîş, from the castle of Abrîş which is on its upper course. This is the stream now known as the Chaltah Irmaḥ, which comes down from Divrîk or Dîvrîgî. In Mustawfî and Ibn Bîbî the name is given as Difrîgî, which the Byzantines wrote Tephrike (the form Aphrike also occurs in the Greek mss.), and the earlier Arab geographers shortened this to Abrîķ. The place was celebrated at the close of the 3rd (gth) century as the great stronghold of the Paulicians, a curious sect of Eastern Christians whose Manichæan 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-Baylaşânî, took possession of Tephrike, fortified it, and countenanced or aided by the Caliphs, for some years successfully defied the armies of Constantinople. Ķudâmah and Mas'ûdî, who are nearly contemporary authorities, both refer to the castle of Abrîş as 'the capital of the Baylaşânî'; and 'Ali of Herat (quoted by Yâķūt) writing in the 7th (13th) century has left a curious account of a great cave and a church near Al-Abrûķ (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 Irmaḥ and Divrîk, the Şârîchîchek Şû joins the Euphrates, on which stands the fortress of 'Arabgîr. This place does not appear to be mentioned by any of the earlier Arab geographers, though Ibn Bîbî in his Saljūķ chronicle of the 8th (14th) century names it more than once; also under the form Arabraces it is found in the Byzantine chronicles. "Arabgîr in any case does not represent Abrîş and Tephrike, as has been sometimes erroneously urged. Apparently the earliest occurrence of the name of 'Arabgîr or ‘Arabkîr in any Moslem geographer is to be found in the Turkish Jahân Numâ of Hâjjî Khalfah 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. 691; ii. 252, 403. I. B. ii. 293, 29+. I 20 [CHAP. THE UPPER EUPHRATES. He also mentions Dîvrîkî (as the town is now called), but unfor- tunately we have no description of the old Paulician stronghold'. Malațiyah, which the Greeks called Melitene, was in early days one of the most important fortresses of the Moslem frontier against the Byzantines. Balâdhurî states that its garrison held the bridge, three miles distant from the fort, where the high road crossed the Ķubâķib river near its junction with the Euphrates. The ķubâķib is the river known to the Greeks as the Melas, and called by the Turks at the present time the Tukhmah Șa, and it rises far to the west of Malațiyah in the mountains from which the Jayhân, 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 Arsanâs the river ķubâķib is by far the most important of the many affluents of the upper Euphrates, and the ķubâķib itself has many tributaries that are duly named by Ibn Serapion. The city of Malațiyah was rebuilt by order of the Caliph Manşûr in 139 (756), who provided it with a fine mosque, and he garrisoned it with 4000 men. Istakhrî describes it in the 4th (10th) 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 Yâķût in the 7th (13th) century counts it as of the Greek country. Mustawfi in the next century speaks of Malațiyah 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 Malațiyah was the convent called Dayr Barşûmâ, which ķazwînî describes as greatly venerated by the Christians, and as inhabited by many monks. The fortress of Țarandah, the modern Darandah-under which form it is mentioned in the Jahân Numâ—lay on the upper waters of the ķubâķib, three marches above Malațiyah. A Moslem garrison was placed here, to hold the pass, as early as the year 83 (702), but the post was subsequently abandoned in 100 (719) by order of the Caliph ‘Omar II. In the Byzantine chronicles 1 I. S. 11, 31. Kud. 254. Mas. viii. 74. Tanbih 151, 183. Yak. i. 87. Ibn Bibi, 210, 318. Mst. 162. J. N. 624. Cf. also J. R. A. S. 1895, p. 740, and the corrections given in J. R. A. S. 1896, p. 733. VIII] 121 THE UPPER EUPHRATES. 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 ķubâķib had an important tributary, the Nahr Karâķīs, which joined it from the south, and on the upper waters of the Karâķis stood the great fortress of Zibațrah, which the Byzantines called Sozopetra or Zapetra, the ruins of which are probably those of Vîrân Shahr, some leagues to the south of Malațiyah on the river Sultân Şû, the modern name of the Karâķis. Balâdhurî and Ișțakhrî both speak of Zibațrah as a great fortress on the Greek frontier, many times dismantled by the Byzantines and rebuilt by the Caliph Manşûr and later by Mamûn. Yâķût and other authorities couple together the names of Zibațrah and the fortress Al-Hadath, which will be noticed presently. In the Arab and Byzantine chronicles Zibațrah 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 'Amûrîyah, which will be mentioned in the next chapter. Zibațrah long continued a place of importance, but Abu-l-Fidâ 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-Fidâ found excellent hunting in the oak woods near the formerly well-cultivated lands, the hares here being, he says, of a size not niet with elsewhere. He describes the place as two marches south of Malațiyah and the same distance from Hișn Manşûr, 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 Ħadath in Arabic means 1 1. S. 10, 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 Malațiyah lies two leagues distant to the south of the medieval fortress. The ruins of the old town are at Eskî-Shahr, a league from the ancient bridge, called Ķirķgoz, crossing the Tukhmah Şû 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 Zibațrah and Hadath are discussed by Mr J. G. C. Anderson in the Classical Review for April, 1896, in his paper on The Cam- paign of Basil I against the Paulicians in 872 A, D. 122 [CHAP. THE UPPER EUPHRATES. ‘news,' and more especially “bad news,' and Balâdhurî says that the road thither, of old called Darb-al-Ħadath, “the Road of Bad News,' was changed to Darb-as-Salamah, the Road of Safety,' after the capture of the fortress by the Moslems. Darb-as-Salamah, 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 Mahdî in 162 (779), and again restored by Hârûn-ar-Rashîd, who kept a garrison here of 2000 men. Ișțakhrî 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 Yâķût and others Al-Hadath was called Al-Hamrâ, 'the Red,' because of the colour of the ground thereabout, and the castle stood on a hill called Al-Uḥaydab, “the Little Hump-back.' In 343 (954), after many vicissitudes, it was finally taken from the Greeks and rebuilt by Sayf-ad-Dawlah the Hamdânid, and in 545 (1150) it passed into the hands of Mas'ûd, son of ķilij Arslân the Saljūķ. The river near which Hadath stood was called the Jûrîth or Hûrîth; this Ibn Serapion, in error, gives as an affluent of the ķubâķib (the Malațiyah river), but Yâķût, who writes the name Hûrîth, rightly says that it was a tributary of the Nahr Jayhân, the Pyramus. Ibn Serapion records that the source of the Hadath river was at a spring called 'Ayn Zanîthâ, and that before passing Hadath it ran through a series of small lakes ; further, that the Jûrîth river (as he writes the name) was joined by the river Al-'Arjân, whose sources were in the Jabal-ar-Rîsh, the town of Hadath being supplied by water-channels from the 'Arjân river, to which they again returned. To supplement this Abu-l-Fidâ states that Hadath lay twelve miles distant from a place on the main stream of the Jayḥân 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 Mar'ash (Germanicia) to Al-Bustân (Arabissus), and that it lay on the banks of the present Âà Șā, near Iniklî, the Âķ Şû being in fact one of the head-waters of the Jayhân”. 1 Baladhuri, 189–191. 1. S. 14. Ist. 62. I. H. 120. Yak. ii. 218; iv. 838. A. F. 263. 1 24 [CHAP. THE UPPER EUPHRATES. 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 Jazîrah or Upper Mesopotamia produced little. Mukaddasî 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 Sinjar produced almonds, pome- granatęs, sumach fruit, and sugar-cane; Naşîbîn, walnuts ; Raķķah, olive oil, soap, and reeds for pens. Raḥbah was famous for its quinces ; Harrân for its honey and the preserve called ķubbayt; Jazirah Ibn 'Omar for nuts, almonds, and butter, also excellent horses were reared on its pastures. Hasanîyah on the Little Khâbûr (on the east bank of the Tigris) produced cheese, partridges, fowls, and fruit preserve; the neighbouring Maʻalathâyâ, charcoal, grapes and other fresh fruits, salted meat, hemp seed and hemp stuffs; and finally Âmid in Diyâr Bakr was famous for its woollen and linen fabrics?. The high roads of Upper Mesopotamia are in continuation 1, Baladhuri, 192. Ist. 62. I. H. 120. 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 Muķaddasî 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 Sumaysâț, with the no less remarkable bridge at Al-Hasanîyah, which was built over the Lesser Khâbûr, an affluent of the Tigris (Muk. 139, 147, and see above, p. 93). The stream now known as the Bolam Șa which, after being joined by the Kâkhtah Chay, falls into the Euphrates from the north a short distance above Sumaysâţ, 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 us2 feet span crosses the Bolam Şû just above the junction of the Kâkhtah 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, Reisen in Kleinasien, plates 41, 42, and 43. 2 Muk. 145, 146. VIII] 125 THE UPPER EUPHRATES. of those of 'Irâķ. The post-road from Baghdad to Mosul, going up the eastern bank of the Tigris, entered the Jazîrah province at Takrît; it continued on the left bank of the river, going straight to Jabultâ, whence by way of Sinn and Hadîthah Mosul was reached. This road is given by our earlier Arab authorities and by Mustawfî'. 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 Sinjâr to Karşîsiya' on the Euphrates, the right through Naşîbîn to Kafartûthâ, where again it bifurcated, the right leading to Âmid, the left by Râs-al-'Ayn down to Raķķah on the Euphrates. This main road from Mosul to Âmid is given by Ibn Khurdâdbih and Kudâmah, also-but in marches-by Mukaddasi ; and the same authorities give the cross roads to the Euphrates. Muķaddasî also gives the marches from Mosul straight to Jazîrah Ibn 'Omar by Hasaniyah, and he mentions the road from Âmid by Arzan to Badlîs near Lake Vân?. The post-road up the Euphrates kept along its right or western bank, from Alûsah passing 'Ânah to the river harbour of Al-Furdah. Here it bifurcated, one road running beside the Euphrates up to Fâsh opposite Ķarķîsiyâ, and thence still along the western side of the river to Raķķah; while the left road of the bifurcation at Furdah went straight across the desert through Rusafah to Raķkah, thus avoiding the windings of the Euphrates. Ruşafah, 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 Karşîsiyâ and Raķķah, as already said, branch roads came in, one from Mosul viâ Sinjâr, the other from Naşîbîn viâ Râs-al-'Ayn and Bajarwân; while from Raķķah by Bajarwân a road went through Harrân and Ruha (Edessa) to Âmid. Lastly from Raķķah, viâ Sarûj, the direct road, avoiding the great bend of the Euphrates, reached Sumaysâț; whence the various distances to Hișn Manşûr, Malațiyah, Kamkh and the other fortresses are mentioned in round numbers. Unfortunately, 1 I. K. 93. Kud. 214. Muk. 135, 148, 149. Mst. 195. 2 I. K. 95, 96. Kud. 214, 215, 216. Muk. 149, 150. 126 [CHAP. VIII THE UPPER EUPHRATES. however, these last distances are not given with sufficient exact- ness to be of much use in fixing the positions of Hadath and Zibațrah, about which there is some question, though Muķaddasî often adds some useful indications even as regards these outlying frontier forts?. 1 I. K. 96, 97, 98. Kud. 215, 216, 217. Muk. 149, 150. P!! ові.nas B CHAPTER IX. RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. Bilâd-ar-Rûm or the Greek country. The line of fortresses from Malațiyah to Țarsûs. 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 Saljûķs. The kingdom of Little Armenia. The Crusaders. The chief towns of the Saljûş Sultanate of Rûm. The provinces of the Byzantine empire were known collectively to the Moslems as Bilâd-ar-Rûm, the Lands of the Greeks'; the term 'Rûm' 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 Bilâd-ar-Rûm, abbreviated to Rûm, 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 Saljūķs. 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 128 [CHAP. RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. 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 Saljūķ 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 Hâjjî Khalfah, 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-Thughûr in Arabic), stretching from Malațiyah 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 (Thughur- al-Jazîrah) to the north-east, and those guarding Syria (Thughûr- ash-Shâm) to the south-west. Of the former were Malațiyah, Zibațrah, Hișn Manşûr, Bahasnâ, Al-Hadath, which have been already described in the previous chapter, next Mar'ash, Al- Hârûnîyah, Al-Kanîsah and 'Ayn Zarbah. Of the latter group lying near the northern coast-line of the bay of Iskandarîyah (Alexandretta), and protecting Syria, were Al-Massîşah, Adhanah, and Tarsûs. Mar'ash, the Byzantine Marasion, and it is said occupying the site of Germanicia, was rebuilt by the Caliph Mu'awiyah in the Ist (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. 1 In the eastern part of the Mediterranean the islands of Cyprus (Kubrus) and Rhodes (Rûdis) 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'âwiyah, afterwards Caliph. No geographical details, however, are given. Baladhuri, 153, 236. Yak. ii. 832 ; iv. 29. IX] 129 RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. fortified, and a large Moslem population settled here, for whose use a Friday Mosque was built. It was re-fortified by Hârûn-ar- Rashîd with double walls and a ditch. Its inner castle, according to Yâķût, was known as Al-Marwânî, being so called after Marwan II, the last Omayyad Caliph. In 490 (1097) Mar'ash 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 Hârûn-ar-Rashîd in 180 (796), and the place is described by Iştakhrî 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 (10th) century was con- siderable. About the middle of this century Sayf-ad-Dawlah the Hamdânid prince spent, it is said, three million dirhams (about £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-Fidâ describes the town as lying at the base of a hill crowned by a strong castle, it being one day's march south of Sîs, and south of it, he adds, flowed the Jayhân river. The name 'Ayn Zarbah had in the 8th (14th) century become corrupted into Nâwarzâ. The exact positions of Al-Hârûniyah and Al-Kanisah are unknown, but they lay in the hill country between Marash and ‘Ayn Zarbah. Hârûnîyah, which was one march to the west of Marʻash and considered as its outlying bulwark, took its name from its founder Hârûn-ar-Rashîd 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 Hawķal 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 Yâķût, one thousand five hundred Moslems, men and women, were taken captive. Subsequently Hârûnîyah was rebuilt by Sayf-ad-Dawlah the Hamdânid, but Le S. 9 130 [CHAP. RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. a very ancient again the Christians took it, after which it remained a possession of the king of Little Armenia. Kanîsah, the full name being Kanîsah-as-Sawdâ, “the Black Church,' was fortress built of black stones, and by the Greeks, says Balâdhurî, who adds that Hârûn-ar-Rashîd had it strongły fortified and well garrisoned. It possessed a Friday Mosque and apparently lay to the south of the Jayḥân, for Ișțakhrî describes it as 'at some distance from the sea-shore.' Abu-l-Fidâ adds that it was only 12 miles from Hârûnîyah; 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-Muthaķķab, “the Pierced’; so called, according to Yâķût, 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-Kanîsah, being at the foot of the Lukkâm mountains, near the sea-shore, and in the vicinity of Massîsah. The fortress was built by the Omayyad Caliph Hishâm; others say by 'Omar II; and a Ķurân, written by the hand of ‘Omar II, the most pious of the Omayyad Caliphs, was according to Ibn Hawķal preserved here. Further, Balâdhurî states that when the engineers first came to dig the ditch at Hișn-al-Muthaķķab, 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 Hishậm as a unique gift'. The three cities of Al-Massîsah (Mopsuestia), Adhanah (Adana) and Țarsûs (Tarsus), all of Greek foundation, still exist. Al- Massîşah lies on the Nahr Jayḥân (the river Pyramus). It was conquered by 'Abd-Allah, son of the Omayyad Caliph 'Abd-al- Malik, in the ist (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 Jayhân, called Kafarbayyâ, where the Caliph 'Omar II founded a second mosque and dug a great cistern. A third quarter, lying to the east of the Jayḥân, was built by the 1 Ist. 55, 63. I. H. 108, 121. Baladhuri, 166, 171, 188. Mas. i. 26; viii. 295. Yak. i. 927; iii. 761; iv. 314, 498, 945. A. F. 235, 251. IX] 131 RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. last Omayyad Caliph Marwân II, and named Al-Khuşûş; he surrounded it by a wall with a ditch, and wooden doors closed its gateways. Under the Abbasids the Caliph Manşûr turned an ancient temple into a Friday Mosque, making it thrice as large as the older mosque of ‘Omar II. Hârûn-ar-Rashîd rebuilt Kafar- bayyâ, and its mosque was further enlarged by Mamûn. The two quarters of Kafarbayyâ and Massîşah proper were connected by a stone bridge across the Jayḥân; the town bore the title of Al- Ma'mûrîyah, “the Populous,' or Well-built,' said to have been bestowed upon it by the Caliph Manşûr, who restored Massîsah after it had been partially destroyed by earthquake in 139 (756). At a later date Mașsîşah, like its neighbours, passed into the possession of the kings of Little Armenia. The adjacent city of Adhanah lay on the Nahr Sayḥân (the river Sarus), and on the road thither from Mașsîşah 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 Walîd. This bridge was again restored in 225 (840) by the Abbasid Caliph Mu'tasim. Adhanah had been in part rebuilt in 141 (758) by Manşûr, and Ișțakhrî describes it as a very pleasant city, lying to the west of the Sayḥân, 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 Yâķût, 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 Sayhân and the Nahr Jayhân. 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 Jayḥûn and the Sayḥûn by the Arab geographers, as will be more fully explained later, the rivers Pyramus and Sarus were named the Jayhân and Sayḥân. Both had their sources in the highlands lying to the north of Little Armenia, and the Jayhân—which Abu-l-Fidâ compares for size to the Euphrates, adding that in his day the name was commonly pronounced Jahân-after passing Mașsîşah flowed out to the Mediterranean in the Bay of Ayâs to the north of the port 9-2 132 [CHAP. RÔM OR ASIA MINOR. It was of Al-Mallûn (Mallus, later Malo). The Sayḥân was of lesser size, and Adhanah was the only important town on its banks. however famous for the great bridge, already mentioned, and both the Jayhân and Sayḥân, as reported by Mas'ûdî, were held to have been of the rivers of Paradise'. The most important, however, of all the frontier fortresses was Țarsûs (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 Hawķal states that Tarsus was surrounded by a double stone wall, and garrisoned by 100,000 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 Hawķal 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 (Dâr) for its townsmen, where the warriors for the Faith (Ghâzi) 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 Mahdî and Hârûn-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. 30. The names of both rivers are occasionally, but incorrectly, written Sayhûn and Jayhûn, like their Central Asian prototypes. In the matter of the ancient mouth of the Sarus, it is worth noting that Ibn Serapion (Ms. folio 44 a) states that in his day, at the beginning of the 4th (10th) century, the Sayḥân (Sarus) flowed into the Jayḥân (Pyrainus) five leagues above Mașsîșah, having but one mouth to the sea with the Jayḥân. At the present day the Sayhân 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. 410. IX] 133 RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. garrisoned at first with 8000 troops; and from the celebrated Bâb-al-Jihad, 'the Gate of the Holy War,' the yearly expeditions against the Christians were wont to set forth. The Caliph Mamun, who had died at the neighbouring Badhandûn (Podandos), was buried at Tarsus, on the left-hand side of the great Friday Mosque. Through the city ran the Nahr-al-Baradân (the river Cydnus); the double walls of the town were pierced by six gates, and outside was a deep ditch. Tarsus, Yâķût adds, remained the frontier city of Islam until the year 354 (965), when the Emperor Niķfûr, 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 Niķfûr burnt all the Ķurâns, further he took all the arms away from the arsenals, and Țarsûs 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-Baradân or Baradâ, and Ibn-al-Faşîh states it was also called the river Al-Ghadbân. It rose in the hill country to the north of Tarsus in a mountain known as Al-Aķra“, “the Bald,' and flowed into the Mediterranean not far from the later mouth of the Sayḥân. 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 Salūķîyah (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 ids into the Byzantine country. The first, to the north-east, was the Darb-al-Hadath which led from Mar'ash north to Abulustân, a town in later times known as Al-Bustân (Byzantine Ablastha and the Greek Arabissus), this pass being defended by the great fortress of Hadath (Adata) already noticed in the last chapter. The 1 I. H. 122. I. F. 116. Baladhuri, 169. Mas. i. 264; vii. 2; viii. 72. Yak. i. 553, 558; iii. 526. Tabari, iii. 1237. In Ibn-al-Athir (vi. 340) the name of the Lamos river is incorrectly printed as Nahr-as-Sinn. 134 [CHAP. RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. 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 Cæsar and the Caliph, in addition to being followed more or less exactly in innumerable raiding expeditions whether of the Moslems or the Christians, is carefully described by Ibn Khurdâdbih 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-Salamah, “the Pass of Safety,' and threaded the Pylæ Ciliciæ--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 Khurdâdbih writes:-From Țarsûs it is six miles to Al-“Ullayķ and thence 12 to Ar-Rahwah ('the Water-meadow,' pro- bably the ancient Mopsukrene) and Al-Jawzât, then seven miles on to Al-Jardaşûb, and again seven to Al-Badhandûn (Podandos, the modern Bozanti), where is the spring called Râķah near which the Caliph Mamûn died. And then on from Badhandûn it is 10 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 Aş-Şafşâf, “the Willows' (near Faustinopolis), also Hișn-aş-Şakalibah, “the Fortress of the Sclavonians.' From the King's Camp (where the Pylæ Ciliciæ end) it is 12 miles to the Wâdî-at-Țarfâ, 'the Tamarisk Valley,' thence 20 to Minâ, thence 12 to the river of Hiraķlah (later Arâkliyah, the Greek Heraclia), the town which Hârûn-ar-Rashîd took by storm. From Hiraķlah it is eight miles to the city of Al-Libn, thence 15 to Râs-al-Ghâbah, the Beginning of the Forest,' thence 16 to Al-Maskanîn, thence 12 to 'Ayn Burghûth, 'the Spring of Bugs,' thence 18 to Nahr-al-Aħsâ, “the Underground River,' and thence 18 miles on to the suburb of ķûniyah (Iconium). From ķūniyah it is 15 miles to Al-'Alamayn, “the Double Sign-posts,' thence 20 to Abrumasânah, thence 12 to Wâdî-al-Jawz, ‘Nut River,' and 12 miles on to 'Ammûriyah (Amorion). But there is another route also going from Al-'Alamayn, 'the Double Sign-posts' afore- said, to 'Ammûriyah ; namely from Al-Alamayn 15 miles to the villages of Nașr the Cretan, thence 10 to the head of the lake of, IX] 135 RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. Al-Bâsiliyûn (lake of the Forty Martyrs), thence 10 to As-Sind, thence 18 to Hișn Sinâdah (the fortress of Synades), thence 25 to Maghl, and then 30 miles on to the forest at 'Ammûriyah. From 'Ammûriyah (Amorion) it is 15 miles to the villages of Al-Harrâb, and two on to the river Sâgharî (the Sangarius) of ‘Ammûriyah; thence 12 to Al-'Ilj, “the Barbarian,' and thence 15 to Falâmî-al-Ghâbah, 'Falâmî of the Forest,' then 12 to Hisn-al-Yahûd, 'the Jews' Fortress,' and 18 miles on to Sandâbarî (Santabaris), 35 miles beyond which lies the Meadow of the King's Asses at Darawliyah (Dorylæum). From Darawliyah it is 15 miles to the fortress of Gharûbulî, and three on to Kanâis- al-Malik, 'the King's Churches' (the Basilica of Anna Comnena), then 25 miles to At-Tulůl, the Hills,' and 15 to Al-Akwâr, whence in 15 miles you reach Malajînah (Malagina). From here it is five miles to Işțabl-al-Malik, 'the King's Stables,' and 30 on to Hișn-al-Ghabrâ, “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-Ghabrâ is Niķiyah (Nicæa). This ends the account in Ibn Khurdâdbih 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 Hawķal makes between the two very distinct rivers Alis and Saghirah, the Halys and Sangarius. The names of a number of Greek towns appear, in an Arabicized form, in the 1 I. K. 100-102, 110, 113. Some other variants of this route are given by Ibn Khurdâdbih (pp. 102 and 103), for which the distances have been added by Idrîsî (Jaubert, 308, 309), and compare especially Ramsay, H. G. A. M. pp. 236 and 445. Professor Ramsay (see Geographical Journal for Oct. 1903, p. 383) has identified the famous fortress of the Sclavonians (Hișn-aş-Şaķâlibah) with the ruins of the Byzantine fortress, built of black marble, and now known as Anasha-Kalóahsi, which is perched high on the mountain overlooking, from the south, the vale of Bozanti (Ba:lhandûn, 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 Aş-Şafşâf, “the Willows,' which marked the settlement in the valley below, where the Greek town of Faustinopolis had stood. 136 [CHAP. RÙM OR ASIA MINOR. 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-Țawânah (Tyana), Dabâsah (Thebasa), Malaşûbiyah (Mala- copia), Hiraķlah (Heraclia), Lâdhiş (Laodicea), Kayşarîyah (Cæsarea Mazaka, of Cappadocia), Anțâkiyah (Antioch of Pisidia), ķuțiyah (Cotyæum), Anķurah (Angora), Afsûs (Ephesus), Abidûs (Abydos) and Niķmûdiyah (Nicomedia), with some others. Trebizond, written Țarâbazandah or Ațrabazandah, according to Ibn Hawķal, 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 Malațiyah and other towns on the upper Euphrates. The carrying trade was in the hands of Armenians, according to Ibn Hawķal, 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 Khalîj 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 (Baḥr Țarâbazandah). Its official name, however, was the Baḥr Bunțus or Punțush, 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 Nîţus or Nîţush, 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 Saljūķ 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 1 I. H. 129, 132, 245, 246. I. K. 103. Baladhuri, 161. Tabari, iii. 709, 710. A. F. 34. Yak. i. 401, 499. Mas. i. 260. 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. 103. IX] 137 RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. 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 'Othmân, when Mu'âwiyah 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 'Othmân. The events which followed soon led to the foundation of the Omayyad dynasty. The second siege was in 49 (669), when Mu'âwiyah, established as Caliph, sent his son and successor Yazîd 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 Sulayman, 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-Baţțâl, '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 Hârûn-ar- Rashid, in 223 (838) against 'Ammûriyah (Amorion), described 138 [CHAP. RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. as the most splendid city of the East, the strongest fortress of the Bilâd-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 Khurdâdbih, 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-Usķuf, the Bishop's Meadow,' is frequently mentioned, which from one of the itineraries given by Ibn Khurdâdbih lay some distance west of Podandos. Al-Mațmûrah’, or (in the plural) Al-Maţâmîr, the Cellars,' or 'Grottos,' also frequently occurs, and must be sought for in the neighbourhood of Malacopia. Dhu-l-Kulâ' (the Strong Castle), otherwise spelt Dhu-l-Ķilâ' (the Castle of the Rocks), was a famous fortress, which Balâdhurî states was called 'the Fortress- 1 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 Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. XVIII, 1898) and ‘Byzantines and Arabs in the Time of the early Abbasids, 750 to 813' (published part i. in the English Historical Review for October, 1900, and part ii. in the January number, 1901). The great siege of Constan- tinople during the Caliphate of Sulaymân 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, History of the Later Roman -Empire, ii. 401. The Moslems called Constantinople Al-ķustanținîyah, but in regard to the Byzantine name, from which the modern Turkish Istambûl is said to be derived, it is worth noting that Mas'ûdî, in the early part of the 4th (10th) century, writes (Tanbîh p. 138) that the Greeks in his day spoke of their capital as Bâlin (i.e. Polin--for tóls, 'the city'), also as Istan-Búlin (eis Tv Tról.v), and he notes that they did not generally use the name Constantinople (Al-ķustanținîyah), as did the Arabs. 2 Mazmorra in Sp. 'a dungeon'=Scotch Massamora (v. The Antiquary, ch. xxxiii, note). IX] 139 RÛM OR ASIA MINOR, 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 (Tawânah or Țuwânah), which for a time Hârûn-ar-Rashid strongly garrisoned and where a mosque was built. The town or fortress called Şafşâf, “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 (Hişn-aș- Şaķâlibah)_already mentioned, where according to Balâdhurî certain Sclavonians who had deserted from the Byzantines were quartered to guard the pass by Marwân 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 Baghdad 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 (11th) 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 Saljūķ 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 (1071) Alp Arslân the Saljaķ 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 Arslân had taken Ânî, the capital of Christian Armenia, an event which broke up the older i 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. 102, 105. Baladhuri, 150, 170. Tabari, iii. 710, 1237. Ibn-al-Athir, vi. 341. Ramsay, H. G. A. M. 340, 354, 356. 140 [CHAP. RŮM OR ASIA MINOR. 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 Arslân sent his cousin Sulaymân, son of ķutlumish, into Asia Minor; and then the Saljūķs 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 Saljūķs had raided so far west as Nicæa, 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 ķūniyah, which was conquered by them in 477 (1084), became and remained the centre of their government'. The line of the Saljûş Sultans of ķūniyah lasted over two centuries, from 470 (1077) to 700 (1300), but their real power was ended by the Mongol conquest of Ķûniyah in 655 (1257), the year previous to the fall of Baghdad. The establishment of the Saljūķs in the plateau of Asia Minor was coincident with the rise of the Christian kingdom of Little Armenia in the Taurus 1 Ibn-al-Athir, X. 25, 44; xii. 125. J. N. 621. On the battle of Manzikart see History of the Art of War by C. Oman, pp. 216–221. The history of the Saljūķs in Rûm, and their successors the ten Turkoman Amîrs, ending in the establishment of the Ottoman Sultans, is unfortunately the most obscure period in all the Moslem annals. The Persian historians Mîrkhwând and Khwând- amîr have nothing to add to the bald summary on the Saljûķs of Rûm given by Mustawfî in his Târîkh-i-Guzîdah. Perhaps the fullest account of the dynasty is that given by Ibn Khaldûn 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 Bîbî, lately published by Professor Houtsma, unfortu- nately begins only with the reign of Ķilij Arslân II, in the year 551 (1156), and regarding the first seventy years of Saljûķ 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 Saljūķs after Manzikart. For a summary of all that is known of the Turkoman Amîrs who succeeded to the Sultans of Rûm see Professor Lane-Poole, “The successors of the Saljûķs in Asia Minor' in the J. R. A. S. for 1882, p. 773. IX] 141 RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. country. Sîs, otherwise called Sîsîyah, 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 Sîs the kingdom grew to include all the mountainous country watered by the Sayḥân and Jayhân rivers, down to the Mediterranean, with the cities of Massi- şah, Adhanah, and Țarsûs, as well as much of the coast-line to the west of Țarsûs. Sis, or Sîsîyah, 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 Hârûn-ar-Rashîd. It was afterwards taken by the Byzantines, and when Abu-l-Fidâ wrote in 721 (1321) he alludes to it as having been recently rebuilt by Leo II (Ibn Lâwân), 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 Jayhân. Yâķût 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 Saljûş 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 (1097) resulted in the ex- pulsion of Ķilij Arslân I (son and successor of Sulaymân, the first Sultan of Rûm) from Nicæa, and the rabble of the Crusaders passing by ķūniyah regained the sea at Tarsus, and took ship for Palestine. In the second Crusade Louis VII of France defeated Sultan Mas'ûd (son of Ķilij Arslân) on the banks of the Meander in 542 (1147), but the Franks in their passage onward to the port of Antaliyah suffered great losses in the mountain country. In the third Crusade the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa is said in 586 (1190) to have captured ķûniyah, the Saljūķ capital, from Ķilij Arslân II (son of Mas'ûd), but marching onward Barbarossa was accidentally drowned in a river near Salûķiyah (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. 142 [CHAP. RÛM OR ASIA MINOR. The extent of the country governed by the Saljûķ 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 Saljūķ Sultanate in Rûm as it existed in 587 (1191) are made known to us by the division of his dominions which Ķilij Arslân II made in that year among his eleven sons. Kûniyah (Iconium), as already stated, was the capital, and the second city of the Sultanate was Kaysariyah (Cæsarea Mazaka). Malațiyah (Melitene) was the chief town of the eastern province on the Euphrates boundary. To the north Sîvâs (Sebastia), Nakîsâr (or Nîksâr, the older Neo-Cæsarea), Tūķât and Amâsiyah (Amasia) each became the appanage of a Saljūķ prince, likewise Angûriyah (Angora) to the north-west, and on the western border Burughlû, probably identical with the modern Ulû Burlû, lying to the west of the Egridûr lake. On the southern frontier, lying eastwards of ķûniyah, the chief towns were Arâkliyah (Heraclia), Nakîdah or Nigdah, and Abulustân, later called Al-Bustân (Arabissus). Sultan 'Ala-ad-Dîn, who succeeded in 616 (1219) and was the grandson of Ķilij Arslân II, extended his rule north and south from the shores of the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. He took Sînûb (Sinope) on the former, and on the southern coast made a great harbour at ‘Alâyâ-named after him—where the slips for ship-building and remains of other constructions connected with the great navy of the Saljûķs may still be seen: and on the north- west he extended his power to the town of Şârî Bûlî. His reign was made famous by the writings of the great Şûfî poet Jalâl-ad- Dîn Rûmî, who lived and died at ķûniyah. Thirty years after the death of 'Alâ-ad-Dîn, which occurred in 634 (1237), the Mongol armies broke up the power of the Saljūķs; the four last Sultans were in fact merely governors under the Îl-Khâns of Persia, and in the year 700 (1300) the province of Ram was divided up among the ten Turkoman Amîrs, who originally had been the vassals of the Saljūķ Sultans'. 1 Baladhuri, 170. Yak. iii. 217. A. F. 257. Ibn Bibi, 5. J. N. 621, IX] 143 RŮM OR ASIA MINOR. 622. Idrîsî, who wrote in 548 (1153), and who, according to his own testimony (Jaubert, ii. 300), was at Amorion and visited the cave of the Seven Sleepers in 510 (1116), is the one Moslem geographer who gives us an account of Asia Minor in the time of the Saljûķs. 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 Saljûķ 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 Saljûş Sultans will be found in a series of papers by M. C. Huart entitled 'Épigraphie Arabe d'Asie Mineur,' in the Revue Sémitique, 1894, pp. 61, 120, 235, 324, and 1895, pp. 73, 175, 214, 344; and in the Journal Asiatique for 1901, i. 343, also by M. F. Grenard, 'Monuments Seljoukides de Sivas etc.,' J. As. 1900, ii. 451. See further a paper by Professor Ramsay, with remarks of Sir C. Wilson and others, in the Geographical Journal for September, 1902, p. 257. CHAPTER X. RÚM (continued). The ten Turkoman Amirates. Ibn Batûțah and Mustawfî. Kaysârîyah, and Sîvâs. The Sultan of Mesopotamia. The Amîr of Karamân. Ķûniyah. The Amîr of Tekkeh, “Alâyâ, and Antâliyah. The Amîr of Hamid, Egridûr. The Amîr of Germiyân, Kutâhîyah, and Sivrî Hişâr. The Amîr of Menteshâ, Mîlâs. The Amîr of Aydîn, Ephesus, and Smyrna. The Amîr of Şârûkhân, Magnesia. The Amîr of Ķarâsí, Pergamos. The ‘Othmânlî territory, Brusâ. The Amîr of Ķizil Aḥmadlî: Sinûb. The limits of the ten Turkoman Amirates of the 8th (14th) century very roughly corresponded with the following ancient Greek provinces of Asia Minor. Karâmân or Karamân, the largest, was the older Lycaonia ; on the Mediterranean coast Tekkeh in- cluded Lycia and Pamphylia ; inland Hamid corresponded with Pisidia and Isauria; Kermiyân or Germiyan with Phrygia; and on the coast of the Black Sea ķizil Aḥmadlî, sometimes called Isfan- diyâr, had been Paphlagonia. On the Ægean shores Menteshâ was the older Caria; Aydîn and Şârûkhân combined were the kingdom of Lydia ; Karâsî was Mysia ; and lastly the ‘Othmânlî 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 highlands of Bythia which the 'Othmanlis had recently conquered from the Byzantines. Of the state of Asia Minor under these Turkoman Amîrs we possess an extremely curious account in the travels of Ibn Bațâțah the Berber, who landing from Syria at 'Alâyâ, in 733 (1333), visited many of the petty courts on his way to Șinûb (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] 145 RÛM. ‘Alâyâ he journeyed along the sea-shore to Anțâliyah, and then struck north across the hills to Egridûr in Hamîd, on the lake of that name. From here by a devious road through Lâdhiķ (Laodicea ad Lycum) he travelled to Mîlâs in Menteshâ, and thence right across Asia Minor diagonally, by ķūniyah and ķaysâriyah, to Sîvâs and Arzan-ar-Rûm. Here a lacuna occurs, for the next town mentioned is Birkî in Aydîn, whence Ayâ Sulûķ (Ephesus) was visited. Finally, going north and east, Ibn Batůtah takes Brusâ and other towns on his road to the Black Sea coast at Şinûb (Sinope). His contemporary Mustawfî, in the chapter of his Geography on Rûm, has added some details to the descrip- tion of towns given by Ibn Bațâțah. Mustawfi, however, though writing in 740 (1340) works on earlier sources, and his information gives the state of Rûm under the later Saljūķs, rather than the country as it existed when the ten Amîrs had established their power. At the beginning of the 9th (15th) century the irruption of Tîmûr 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 'Alî of Yazd again adds something to our knowledge of the country, some further details also being given in the pages of the Turkish Jahân Numâ, 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 Saljuk Sultans. Before describing the ten provinces, already named, of the Turkoman Amîrs, some account must be given of the towns lying to the eastward of the boundary of Ķarâmân, which may be taken as marked by the lower course of the Halys (the ķizil Irm of the Turks) continued by a line going south to the Jayhân. East of this boundary Asia Minor in the 8th (14th) century belonged to the Îl-Khâns, 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 Karaman frontier was ķaysariyah (also spelt ķaysârîyah, namely Cæsarea Mazaka, of Cappadocia), which under LE S. IO x] 147 RÚM. (or Şâmşûn, 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 Sanûb or Șinûb (Sinope)", Nîksâr (or Nakîsâr, the Greek Neo-Cæsarea) had been an important place under the Saljūķs, and is frequently mentioned by Ibn Bîbî; Nustawfî describes it as a medium-sized town, with many gardens producing much fruit. Tùķât (also spelt Daķât) lies to the west of Nîksâr on the road to Amâsiyah, and was one of the great governments under the Saljūķs ; further west again lies Zîlah, mentioned by Ibn Bîbî and later authorities. The city of Sîvâs (Sebastia), on the ķizil Irmâķ (Halys), had been rebuilt by Sultan ‘Alâ-ad-Dîn, who used hewn stone for all the new masonry. Mustawfî 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 Bațâțah speaks of Sîvâs 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. Mustawfî gives an account of the high road which went west from Sîvâs to Persia : two stages led to Zârah, a town of some importance, and two more to Âķ Shahr (White Town), a place frequently mentioned in the Saljūķ chronicle. North-west of Âķ Shahr lies Karâ Hişâr (the Black Fortress) which is often referred to by Ibn Bîbî, who calls it Ķarâ Hişâr Dawlah—of the State'—to distinguish this fortress, which is referred to also by Mustawfî, from other places of like name. In the Jahân Numâ it is called Ķarâ Hişâr Shâbîn, from the alum (Shâb) mines that lie near it. From Âķ Shahr the high road to Persia went on in three stages to Arzanjân, and thence it was the like distance to Arzan-ar-Rûm. From here the way went south in three stages to Khanûs (or Khûnâs as Ibn Bîbî writes the name, Khinis being the modern form), whence it was 10 leagues to Malâsjird (Manzikart), this being eight leagues distant from Arjſsh 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. 2 Ibn Bibi, 26, 292, 308. I. B. ii. 289. Mst. 161, 163, 164, 199. J. N. 424, 622, 623 JO-2 148 [CHAP. RÚM. The province of Karamân (or Ķarâmân), the largest of the ten Amirates, took its name from the Turkoman tribe which had settled in this region, and the capital was Lârandah, also called Karamân after the province. Lârandah dated from Byzantine days, and Ibn Bațâțah who visited it in the 8th (14th) century, and spells the name Al-Lârandah, 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 Tîmûr, but afterwards regained its former prosperity. To the south of Lârandah is Armanâk, which is spoken of by Mustawfî 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 Jahân Numâ, together with Selefkeh, the older Arabic Salûķiyah (Seleucia of Cilicia). Under the Otto- man rule these places were included in the province called Îch Îlî, 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 Ich Îlî is in reality only a corruption, truncated, of the older Greek name Cilicia. ķūniyah (Iconium), as already stated, had been the Saljūķ capital, but under the Karamân Amîrs it sank to a city of the second rank. Mustawfî relates that the town possessed a great Aywân, or hall, in the palace which had been built by Sultan Ķilij Arslân, by whom also the castle had been founded. At a later date ‘Alâ-ad-Dîn 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 10,000 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 300 conduits distributed it through- out the city. The neighbourhood of ķūniyah 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 Ķûniyah 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 Safi poet Jalâl-ad-Din Rûmî, already mentioned, which was an object of x] 149 RŮM. pilgrimage. This shrine is noticed by Ibn Bațâțah, who praises the fine buildings and abundant water-supply of ķūniyah. 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 Bîbî in his Saljūķ chronicle incidentally mentions the names of three of the gates of ķūniyah, namely, the Gate of the Horse Bâzâr, the Gate of the Assay-house, and the Gate of the Aḥmad bridge. The fortress of Karâ Hişâr of ķūniyah lies at some distance to the east of ķūniyah, and is mentioned by Mustawfî who says that it was built by one Bahrâm Shâh. Beyond this is Hiraķlah (Heraclea), a name which in later times appears as Arâklîyah, and is frequently mentioned in the Jahân Numâ. To the north of Ķûniyah is Lâdîķ Sukhtah, the Burnt Lâdîş (Laodicea Combusta, the Greek Katakekaumena), which Ibn Bîbî speaks of as the Village of Lâdîķ to distinguish it from the other towns called Laodicea (Pontica and Ad Lycum). The Jahân Numâ refers to Laodicea Combusta as Yurgân Lâdîķ, otherwise called Lâdhiķiyah of Karamân'. In the northern part of the Karaman province is Angora (Greek Ancyra), the name of which is spelt by the earlier Arabic authorities Anķurah, and by later Persian and Turkish authors Angûriyah. 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) Tîmûr defeated in a pitched battle, and took prisoner, the Ottoman Sultan Bayazîd Ilderim. Kûsh Hişâr, or Kûch Hişâr, on the eastern border of the great Salt Lake, is mentioned by Mustawfî as a medium-sized town, and its name also occurs in the Jahân Numa. Some distance east of the southern end of the lake stands Âķ Sarây (the White Palace) built by Sultan ķilij Arslân II in 566 (1171), and described by Mustawfî as a fine town surrounded by fruitful lands. Âķ Sarâ (as Ibn Bațâțah spelt the name) stood on three streams, and its gardens were magnificent, also there were many vineyards within the walls. 1 I. B. ii. 281, 284. Mst. 162, 163. A. Y. ii. 458. J. N. 611, 615, 616. Ibn Bibi, 8, 9, 287, 324. 150 [CHAP. RŮM. 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 Batůtah adds that in his day Âş Sarâ was in the government of the Sultan of Mesopotamia. Some fifty miles east of Âķ Sarâ is Malanķūbiyah (Malacopia), which is mentioned by Mustawfî as a place of importance in the 8th (14th) century. To the north of this is another şarâ Hişâr, described by Mustawfî as of the Nigdah district, and east of this again is Davalů (in the Jahân Numâ the name is written Davahlû), a place already spoken of as at the foot of Mount Arjâish. It occurs more than once in the history of Ibn Bîbî in connection with Ķaysariyah. Mustawfî describes Davalû as a town of medium size, and its walls had been rebuilt by Sultan 'Alâ-ad-Dîn the Saljuķ South of Malanşûbiyah is Nigdah (in Ibn Bibî written Nakîdah) which had taken the place of the earlier Țuwânah (Tyanah), having been built by Sultan ‘Alâ-ad-Dîn. Nigdah is described by Mustawfî as a medium-sized town, and Ibn Bațâțah, 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 Bîbî, a great fortress which, as already said, marked the northern end of the pass of the Cilician Gates. In the 8th (14th) century Mustawfî 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 Amîr of Tekkeh the most important towns appear to have been 'Alâyâ and Antaliyah, famed for their harbours. The first, as already mentioned, had been founded by the Saljūķ Sultan ‘Alâ-ad-Din on the site of the ruins of Coracesium. Ibn Batuțah landed here from Syria in 733 (1333), and describes ‘Alâyâ as at that time the great port for the trade with Alexandria. 1 Ibn Bibi, 5, 34, 44, 279, 314. I. B. ii. 285, 286. Mst. 162, 163, 164, Yak. iv. 635. A. Y. ii. 429. J. N. 617, 620. 202. x] 151 RÛM. In the upper town, very strongly built by 'Alâ-ad-Dîn, was the castle, which Ibn Batůtah carefully examined; but in his day ‘Alâyâ appears to have belonged to the Sultan of Karamân. Antâliyah, the second harbour, lying a hundred miles to the westward of ‘Alâyâ, 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 Yâķût as the chief port of Rům, being strongly fortified and surrounded by fruitful lands, with many vineyards. Here Sultan ķilij Arslân the Saljūķ had built himself a palace on the hill overlooking the sea, and here, too, Ibn Bațâțah found many Christian merchants settled, especially down at the Mînâ 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). Anțâliyah, the name of which occurs in the Crusading chronicles as Satalia or Attaleia, is frequently mentioned in the campaigns of Tîmûr under the form 'Adâliyah. To the west of it, also mentioned by ‘Alî of Yazd, is Istânûs, a town whose name in the Jahân Numâ is written Istanâz'. To the north of Tekkeh the Amîr of Hamîd owned the country round the four lakes of Egridûr, Burdûr, Beg Shahr, and Âķ Shahr. Under the Saljūķs, according to Ibn Bîbî, the seat of government had been at Burughlû, apparently identical with the later Ulû Burlů (to the west of the Egridûr lake), the Byzantine Sozopolis or Apollonia. Anțâkiyah (Antioch of Pisidia), which in the earlier Moslem chronicles is frequently referred to, in Turkish times took the name of Yalâvâch, and was situate in the plain between the lakes of Egridûr and Âķ Shahr. The chief town of the province, according to Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century, appears to have been the city of Egridur (the ancient Prostanna) at the southern end of the lake of that name. Ibn Batůtah 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 تر) 1 In the New Testament Attalia is mentioned in Acts xiv. 25. Yak. i. 388. I. B. ii. 257, 258. J. N. 611, 638, 639. A. Y. ii. 447, 449. 152 [CHAP. RŮM. their goods to neighbouring places, and traded with the towns on the shores of the Âķ 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 Jahân Numâ, had been founded by Sultan 'Alâ-ad-Dîn the Saljūķ. 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 Egridûr lies Burdûr, on the lake of the same name, a small town, according to Ibn Bațâțah, with many streams and gardens, protected by a castle on the neighbour- ing hill. Ispârtah, south of Egridûr, is given in the Jahân Numa as the capital of Hamîd in later times. Ibn Bațâțah writes the name Sabartâ, 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 Âķ Shahr is that which Ibn Khurdâdbih (see above, p. 135). calls Bâsiliyûn, and which the Byzantines knew as the Lake of the Forty Martyrs. To the west of it is the great castle of Ķarâ Hişâr, which in connection with Âķ Shahr is frequently mentioned in the campaigns of Tîmûr. At Âķ Shahr, according to 'Alî of Yazd, the unfortunate Sultan of the 'Othmânlîs, Bayazid Ilderim, whom Tîmûr had defeated at Angora, died broken-heated in 805 (1403), and both this Âķ Shahr and this Karâ Hişâr are mentioned by Mustawfî among the many celebrated places of those names. This Ķarâ Hişâr, now surnamed Afyûn 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-Baţtâl, the champion of the earlier Omayyad wars against the Byzantines, was killed in battle near here. Țabarî, however, our earliest authority, only says that in the year 122 (740) 'Abd- Allah-al-Bațțâl was slain in the Greek country, and no indication of the place is given. 1 Sabartâ or Ispartah is the corruption of the Greek eis Bápòa : cf. footnote, p. 157, on Izmîd and Iznik (Nicomedia and Nicæa). 2 Ibn Bibi, 5, 212, 251, 283. 1. 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-Battâl is given in the Jahân Numa (p. 642) as existing in the uth (17th) century at Sîdî Ghâzî, more than fifty miles north of Ķarâ Hişâr to the east of Kûtâhiyah. At the present day it is shown at Ķîrshahr. In regard to Antioch of Pisidia there was x] 153 RŮM. スチー ​North and west of the Hamîd province was the country governed by the Amîr of Kermiyân, or Germiyân, whose capital was at Kütahiyah (Cotyæum). The Arab chroniclers wrote the name, as already mentioned, ķuțiyah ; but the Byzantine town must early have fallen to ruin, and according to the Jahân Numâ it was the Sultan of Germiyân to whom the later medieval town of Kûtâhiyah owed its foundation. Ibn Batûțah refers to it as inhabited by robbers. At the close of the 8th (14th) century the place is frequently mentioned in the campaigns of Tîmûr, he for a time having made it his head-quarters. A hundred miles east of Katâhiyah, near the upper affluents of the Sangarius, stands the great fortress of Sîvrî Hişâr, where Tîmûr also for a time had his head-quarters. The name in Turkish means “the Pointed Castle' (Kazwînî spells it Sîbrî Hişâr), and it stands above the site of the Roman Pessinus, which afterwards was renamed Justinianopolis Palia. Ķazwînî reports that in the 7th (13th) century there was a famous church here called Bay‘at Kamnânûs, 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 Hişâr lies 'Ammûriyah (Amorion, at the modern Assar ķalʻah), already spoken of (p. 137), which Mustawfî 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 Angûriyah or Angûrah (Angora), and this strange misnomer is repeated in the Jahân Numâ, only that according to the latter authority it was Angøriyah, Angora, that was commonly called 'Ammûriyah. In the south-eastern part of Germiyân is Lâdhiş (Laodicea ad Lycum), which the Turks called Denizlů, 'Many Waters,' from its abundant streams; the place is now known as Eski Hişâr (Old Fort). Ibn Batûțah 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'ķûbî in his History (i. 177) refers to Anțâkiyah-al-Muhtariķah, ‘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' (Anțâkiyah-as-Sawdâ), by which name possibly Antioch of Isauria is intended. 154 [CHAP. RÛM. as a great city, with seven mosques for the Friday prayers, and excellent markets. The Greek women of Lâdhiķ wove cotton stuffs, which they afterwards embroidered finely with gold, and these embroideries were famous for their wear. In the Jahân Numâ the older form of the name is given as Lâdhiķiyah? In the province governed by the Mentesha Amîr, Ibn Bațâțah visited the three neighbouring cities of Mughlah, Mîlâs, and Barjîn. The Amîr lived at Mughlah (the older Mobolla), the capital, according to the Jahân Numâ, which Ibn Baţūtah describes as a fine town. Mîlâs (Mylasa, or Melisos) was also a great city with gardens, much fruit, and plentiful streams. Barjîn (Bargylia, now known as Assarlik), a few miles from Mîlâs, was a newly built town, standing on a hill-top, with a fine mosque and good houses. In the eastern part of Menteshâ, Ibn Bațâțah visited Ķul Hişâr, which under the name of Gul is described by Mustawfî as a medium-sized town, and it is also spoken of in the campaigns of Tîmûr. Ibn Bațâțah 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 Menteshâ was the castle of Hișn Țawâs, at the present time called Daonas, a day and a half distant from Lâdhiķ (Laodicea ad Lycum). Ibn Bațâțah describes Țawâs as a great fortress with a walled town below it. Tradition stated that Șuhayb, a celebrated Companion of the prophet Muhammad, had been born here. North of Menteshâ was the territory of the Amîr of Aydîn, of which Tîrah (Teira) was the capital. Ibn Bațâțah, who visited the Amîr of Aydîn here, says it was a fine city with many gardens and abundant streams. He also passed through Birkî (Pyrgion), one march north of Tîrah, of which he praises the magnificent trees. The city of Aydîn or Guzel Hişâr 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 1 Kaz. ii. 359. I. B. ii. 270, 271, 457. Mst. 162. A. Y. ii. 448, 449. J. N. 631, 632, 634, 643. 2 I. B. ii. 269, 277, 278, 279, 280. Mst. 163. J. N. 638. A. Y. ii. 448. X] 155 RŮM. geographers as Afasûs, or Abasûs, and was famous as the place where might be seen the Cave of the Seven Sleepers referred to in the Ķurân (ch. XVIII, v. 8). In later times the town came to be known as Ayâsulūķ (also written Ayâthulukh or Ayâsalîgh), a corruption of the Greek Agiou Theologou, and so called from the great church to Saint John Theologos, built here by the Emperor Justinian. This church was visited by Ibn Bațâțah 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 Bațâțah states that Ayâsulūķ 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 Aydîn was Smyrna, called by the Turks Azmîr or Yazmîr, which was taken by Tîmûr from the Knights Hospitallers in the beginning of the 9th (15th) century. Ibn Bațâțah, 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 Amîr of Aydîn was wont to send out ships to harass the Byzantines, and plunder the neighbouring Christian towns. Of these last was Fújah (or Fûchah, Phocia) on the coast of the province of Şârûkhân, mentioned later on in the time of Tîmûr as a Moslem castle, but which Ibn Bațâțah writes of in his travels as then in the hands of the infidels,' namely the Genoese. The capital of Şârûkhân was Maghnisiyah (or Maghnisiyâ, Magnesia) which he speaks of as a fine city standing on the hill-side, surrounded by many gardens with abundant streams, and here the Amîr of Şârûkhân held his court. In the campaigns of Tîmûr the province round Maghnî Siyâh (as the name was then written) is called Saruhân-Ilî?. North of Şârûkhân was the territory of the Karâsî (or - 1 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. 110, 228. Yak. i. 91; ii. 806. The legend of the Cave of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus I have already discussed in Palestine under the Moslems, p. 274. 156 [CHAP. RŮM. 2 Karah-Si) Amîr, whose capitals were Bâlîkesrî and Barghamah (Pergamos). Ibn Bațâțah, 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. Bâlîkesrî, 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 Ķarâsî, Dumûr (or Tîmûr) Khân, generally lived here, and his father had built Bâlîkesrî. At a later period the town is frequently mentioned in the campaigns of Tîmûr. From Bâlîkesrî Ibn Bațâțah travelled on to Brusâ, at that time the capital of the 'Othmânlî state, which already had begun to overshadow and absorb all the other Turkoman Amirates. Bruşâ or Brûsah (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 Brusâ 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 'Othmânlî Sultan whom Ibn Bațâțah visited was Orkhân (grandfather of that Bayazîd Ilderim, already mentioned as defeated at the beginning of the following century by Tîmûr), and the chief monument of his capital was the tomb of Sultan ‘Othmân, his father, who was buried in what had formerly been a church. Mikhâlij (Miletopolis, which the Byzantines called Michaelitze), lying about 50 miles west of Bruşâ, is frequently mentioned in the campaigns of Tîmûr, and in the Jahân Numâ. The most important town of the Ottoman territory in 733 (1333), how- ever, was Nicæa, which had been taken from the Byzantines by Sultan Orkhân. Nicæa, which the earlier Arab geographers called Niķiyah, the Turks knew as Yazniş or Iznîķ. Ibn Batutah describes the lake of Yaznîķ 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] 157 RÚM. every two, traversed by drawbridges. To the north of Nicæa lies Nicomedia, which the earlier Arab authorities knew as Niķmûdiyah; the Turks called it Iznekmid, as the Jahân Numâ writes the name, shortened later to Izmîd, which is that now in use. No description of this town is given by Ibn Batůtah or our other authorities? The province of ķizil Aḥmadlî lay along the coast of the Black Sea from the neighbourhood of the Bosporus to Sinope. Travelling from Yaznîk, after passing the river Sangarius, which the Turks called Saşarî, the first large town which Ibn Bațâțah came to was Muțurnî or Mûdurnî (modern Mudurlû, and the ancient Modrene) which he speaks of as a place of considerable size; it is also mentioned in the Jahân Numâ. The town of Bûlî (Claudiopolis), to the north-east of Muțurnî, Ibn Bațâțah describes as standing on a river of some volume; and Kereh- deh (or Geredî) Bûlî, 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. Geredî Bûlî in 733 (1333) was the residence of the Amîr, and appears to have been then the chief town of Kizil Aḥmadlî. In the eastern part of the province stands Ķaştamûniyah (or Kastamûnî, for Castamon) which Mustawfi describes as a medium- sized town. Ibn Bațâțah 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 Sanûb (or Sînůb, 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 1 Iznekmîd is a corruption of the Byzantine eis Nekounõelav: Iznîk of eis Nikacav. I. B. ii. 315, 316, 317, 322. A. Y. ii. 466. J. N. 631, 656, 661, 662. Ramsay, H. G. A. M. 179. The picture Ibn Bațâțah gives of Sultan Orkhân, the founder of the celebrated corps of the Janizaries, is very curious. Ibn Bațâțah states that this chief was already the most powerful of all the Turkoman Amîrs. He possessed a hundred castles, and never stayed a month in any one town, being always out campaigning and inspecting his frontiers. 158 [CHAP. X RÛM. popular veneration was the reputed tomb of Bilâl 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 ķastanûnî, the Turks called Kânırî. 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 Hishâm as far into the Greek lands as this town. ķazwînî, who spells the name Ghanjarah, says that it stood on a river called the Nahr Maşlûb, “the stream which was turned over,'—because unlike other rivers it ran from south to north. He adds that in 442 (1050) Ghanjarah was almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake. Finally, to complete the list of towns in the ķizil Aḥmadlî province, Kûch Hişâr, which is named in the Jahân Numâ, must be mentioned. It lies about midway between Kastamûnî and KânĶrî, and possibly is the Kûsh Hişâr of Mustawfî 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 Sîvâs towards Tabriz (given p. 147), no itineraries that are of any use are forthcoming. In the Jahân Num⺠a certain number of roads are mentioned that radiated from Sîvâs 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. 1 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. 2 J. N. 627, 628. CHAPTER XI. ADHARBÂYJÂN. The lake of Urmiyah. Tabrîz. Sarâv. Marâghah and its rivers. Pasawa and Ushnuh. Urmiyah city and Salmas; Khoi and Marand. Nakhchivân. Bridges over the Araxes. Mount Sablân. Ardabîl and Âhar. The Safîd Rûd and its affluents. Miyânij. Khalkhâl and Fîrûzâbâd. The Shâl river and Shâh Rûd district. The mountainous province of Adharbâyjân—the name of which is pronounced Azarbîjând 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 Khurâsân road through the Jibal province (Media); and the remoteness of Adharbâyjân was also increased, according to Mukaddasî, 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 Marâghah. Tabrîz, however, soon regained its pre-eminence under the Îl-Khâns, but again under the first 1 See Map III. p. 87. The older form of the name in Persian was Adhar- bâdhagân, a name which the Greeks corrupted to Atropatene. Mukaddasî (p. 373) describes Adharbâyjân, Arrân and Armenia as forming part of a single great province, which he designates as the Işlîm-ar-Riħâb, “the region of the high plains'-in distinction to the mountains (Jibâl) of Media, and the lowlands (Aķûr) of Mesopotamia. 160 [CHAP. ADHARBÂYJÂN. Şafavid kings was eclipsed by Ardabil. At a later date, in the 11th (17th) century, when Isfahân was made the capital of all Persia by Shâh 'Abbâs and Ardabîl fell to decay, Tabrîz was reinstated once more in the position of chief city of Adharbâyjân, 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 Tabrîz, 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 Chîchast, the name by which the lake is referred to in the Shâh Nâmah, and which was still in use as late as the times of Mustawfî. Mas'ûdî and Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century call it the Buhayrah Kabudhân, a name derived from the Armenian and meaning the Blue Lake' (gaboid being 'blue' in that language). Istakhrî calls it the lake of Urmiyah (being followed in this by Muķaddasî), otherwise the Buḥayrah- ash-Shurât, “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 Marâghah, and on its shores were many most fertile districts. In the middle of the lake was an island, called the Kabûdhân island by Ibn Serapion, with a small town, inhabited by boatmen. Its waters were full of fish according to Istakhrî (Ibn Hawķal, on the contrary, says there were none), and there was a curious fish found here known as the Water-dog (Kalb-al-Ma); in winter time storms raised great waves, and the navigation was very dangerous. By Abu-l-Fidâ the lake is referred to as the Buḥayrah Tilâ—but the latter name is of unknown signification ; Ķazwînî speaks of the salt and the Tâtiyâ (tutty of zinc) which were produced here and largely exported. Mustawfî who, as already said, more generally writes of it as the Chîchast lake, also calls it the Daryâ-i- Shûr, 'the Salt Lake,' or else refers to it as the lake of Țarůj or Țasûj, from the name of an important town on its northern shore. XI] I6I ADHARBÂYJÂN. He and Hâfiz Abrû both refer to the island (a peninsula, when the waters are low) of Shâhâ, where there was a great castle crowning a hill, the burial-place of Halâgû and other of the Mongol princes. The fortress of Shâhâ is mentioned in the 3rd (9th) century, for Ibn Mashkuwagh when relating the events of the Caliphate of Mutawakkil, grandson of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd, speaks of Shâhâ and Yakdur, two castles then held by rebel chieftains of these parts. In the 7th (13th) century Hâlâgû rebuilt the castle of Shâhâ—which Hâfiz Abrû calls the Kalʻah-i- Tilâ of the Urmiyah lake—and stored here all his treasures, the plunder of Baghdad and the provinces of the Caliphate. This castle subsequently becoming his burial-place it was known in Persian as Gûr ķalʻah, “the Castle of the Tomb,' and when Hâfiz Abrû wrote in the time of Tîmûr it was entirely uninhabited'. The city of Tabrîz lies some thirty miles east from the lake shore on a river which debouches near the Shâhâ 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-Rawâd 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 Tabrîz to Zubaydah, the wife of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd, but the earlier chronicles give no support to this statement, moreover it is nowhere recorded that this princess ever visited Adharbâyjân. Muķaddasî in the 4th (10th) century describes Tabrîz as a fine town, with a Friday Mosque, well watered by numerous streams, and surrounded by fruitful orchards. Yâķût who was here in 610 (1213) speaks of it as at that time the chief town of Adharbâyjân, ķazwînî adding that it was famous for its 'Attábî (or tabby) silks, its velvets and woven stuffs. The Mongols | The name Urmiyah is now commonly pronounced Urûmiyah, and this is the spelling given by Ibn Serapion, Ms. 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 Shâh Nâmah (Turner Macan, Calcutta, 1829), p. 1860, line 4, and p. 1927, line 6 from below, for Khanjast (a clerical error), Chîchast' is to be read, the two names only differing by a shifting of the diacritical points. Le S. II 162 [CHAP. ADHARBÂYJÂN. who captured Tabrîz in 618 (1221) were promptly bought off, and the city thus escaped the usual sack; and, as already said, under the subsequent Îl-Khân dynasty it became the largest town of these parts. Mustawfî gives a long account of Tabrîz. 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 6000 paces in circuit, with ten gates, and continued thus till the 8th (14th) century, when Ghâzân Khân 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 Valiyân in its circuit, and measured 25,000 paces round. Mustawfî gives the names of the inner and outer gates of Tabrîz (the mss. vary considerably in these), and he states that Ghâzân Khân was buried in 703 (1303) in the great suburb of Shâm, which he had laid out. His successors added many fine mosques and erected public buildings within the city and in the suburb of Rashîdî, which occupied the slopes of the hill of Valiyân. The orchards of Tabrîz were watered by the river Mihrân Rûd, which rose in Mount Sahand lying to the south of the city. Round Tabrîz 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 Bațâțah, who visited Tabrîz in the year 730 (1330), speaks of the Shâm quarter lying outside the town, with its fine college built by Ghâzân Khân and the oratory. He entered the city by the Baghdâd gate, and notes the market of Ghâzân, 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 Wazîr ‘Alî Shâh of Gîlân; its court was paved with marble, and to the tank a channel brought water. The walls were faced with enamelled tile-work (Kashânî-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 Mihran Rad, which ran 1 Muk. 378. Yak. i. 822. Kaz. ii. 227. Mst. 153–155. J. N. 380. I. B. ii. 129. XI] 163 ADHARBÂYJÂN. through the suburbs of Tabrîz, and the Sard Rûd (the Cold River), flowing to the south-west, which like the first named took its rise in Mount Sahand to the south of Tabrîz, both joined the Sarâv river at a short distance to the north of the city. The Sarâv Rûd, which was also called the Sarkhâb river, rose in the mountains of Sablân Kûh, 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 Sarâv river flowed out into the Urmiyah lake at a point about 40 miles to the westward of the city of Tabrîz. The two mountains of Sahand and Sablân, and the rivers that flowed down from them, are described in much detail by Mustawfî. The town of Sarâv or Sarâb, which gave its name to the river, lies on the road from Tabrîz to Ardabîl, and according to Mustawfî was surrounded by the four districts of Warzand, Darand, Barâghûsh, and Saķhîr. The earlier Arab geographers spell the name of the town Sarât (for Sarâb), and Ibn Hawķal describes it as a fine place with many mills, surrounded by fields and orchards where much corn and fruit was grown. In Sarât were found numerous hostelries and excellent markets. Yâķût, who spells the name Sarâv 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 Mustawfî wrote a century later; he adds that it lay three days' march from Tabrîz and two from Ardabîl. On a left (south) bank affluent of the Sarây river stood the town of Awjân or Ujân, which was ten leagues from Tabrîz on the road to Miyânah. Yâķût who had been here in the 7th (13th) century describes Ûjân as a walled town with an excellent market. It had, however, been ruined by the Mongols, and in Mustawfi's day was rebuilt by Ghâzân Khân, who at one time had resided here. He renamed it Shahr-i-Islâm, 'the City of Islam,' and enclosed it with a wall 3000 paces in circuit built of mortared stones. The surrounding districts were very fertile, growing cotton, corn, and much fruit. Its river, called the Âb-i-Ūjân, rose in an eastern spur of Mount Sahand. To the south-west of this mountain, and about 60 miles from Tabrîz, being four leagues from the shore of the lake, was the great II-2 164 [CHAP. ADHARBÂYJÂN. village of Dâkharraķân, as Ibn Hawķal and the Arab geographers spell the name, which the Persians write Dih Khuwârķân. Yâķût gives Dih Nakhîrjân as an alternative reading, explaining this as meaning the village (Dih) of Nakhîrjân, treasurer of Chosroes, king of Persia. Mustawfî describes it as a small town, surrounded by dependencies and eight villages, where much fruit and corn was grown! The city of Marâghah stood about 70 miles south of Tabriz, on the river Şâfî, which flowed south down to it from Mount Sahand, and then turned west to reach the lake. Marâghah, an abbreviation for Kariyat-al-Marâghah, “the Village of the Pastures,' is said to have been called Afrâzah Radh by the Persians. In the 4th (10th) century Marâghah is described by Ibn Hawķal as a town of the size of Ardabîl, at that time the chief city of Adharbâyjân ; he adds further that Marâghah 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. Marâghah 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. Mukaddasî speaks of its castle and fortifications, with a great suburb lying outside these. Yâķût records that its fortifica- tions were built under Hârûn-ar-Rashîd and restored by the Caliph Mamûn. Under the earlier Mongols, as we have already seen, Marâghah became the capital of Adharbâyjân, and Mustawfî describes it as a great city surrounded by numerous and fertile districts, some of which he names, amply watered by many streams. Outside Marâghah stood the great observatory built by the astronomer Nâșir-ad-Dîn of Țùs, where by order of Hûlâgû the celebrated Îl-Khânî 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. ķazwînî mentions the castle, called Ruwîn Diz, which lay three leagues distant from Maraghah, having a stream flowing on either 1 Ist. 190. 1. H. 248, 253. Yak. i. 131, 198; ii. 425, 636; iii. 64. Mst. 155, 158, 204, 205, 217, 218. XI] 165 ADHARBÂYJÂN. side of it, and within the castle a famous garden called Umîdâbâd with its own cistern to irrigate it. A league from here stood the village of Janbadhaḥ, with a hot spring, of which many wonders were related. The Şâfî river, which flowed into the lake to the west of Marâghah, mingled its waters in flood-time with those of the Jaghtû river and its affluent the Taghtû, both of which as de- scribed by Mustawfî 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 Laylân (or Naylân), among fruitful orchards, and inhabited in the time of Mustawfî by Mongols. Some way to the south of Laylân, according to the distances given in the Itineraries, was the village of Barzah, where the road coming up from Sîsâr (in the Jibâl province) bifurcated. To the right one way went on north-east to Marâghah; 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 Baswâ, by the Persians pronounced Pasawâ, which Yâķût had visited, and he states that in his day the inhabitants were mostly robbers. Mustawfî praises its fruitful orchards, and to the north-west of it lay the town of Ushnuh, which in the time of Ibn Hawķal was inhabited by Kurds. In the 4th (10th) 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. Yâķût, who had visited it, speaks of its fine gardens, and Mustawfî, who spells the name Ushnuyah, describes it as a medium-sized town of the mountain region which he calls Dih Kiyâhân'. 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 Zardûsht or Zoroaster. The town, according to Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century, was of the same size as Marâghah, being a pleasant place and surrounded by vineyards; its markets were well supplied with merchandise, among the rest being the clothiers' market, Ist. 181. 1. H. 238, 239. Muk. 377. Yak. i. 284, 564, 626; iv. 476. Kaz. 350, 358. Mst. 158, 159, 218. 166 [CHAP. ADHARBÂYJÂN. 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 10,000 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 Salmâs. Mukaddasî describes this as a fine town with good markets and a Friday Mosque built of stone; the population of the place in the 4th (10th) century was of Kurd origin. Yâķût says that in the 7th (13th) century Salmâs lay for the most part in ruin; but the Wazîr ‘Alî Shâh, Mustawfî writes, rebuilt its walls 8000 paces in circuit during the following century, in the reign of Ghâzân Khân, 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 Țarûj or Țasůj, which is apparently identical with the modern Tursah. Mustawfî, as already said, often speaks of the Salt Lake of Țasůj or Țarûj, and the town therefore shared with Urmiyah the honour of giving its name to this sheet of water. In the 8th (14th) century Țasůj must have been an important place, it was warmer than Tabrîz and damper, being so near the lake, and it was surrounded by gardens and orchards. To the north-east of Salmâs lies Khawî, pronounced Khoi, on a stream that flows north to the river Aras (Araxes). Khawî was a strongly fortified and flourishing town according to Yâķût and Kazwînî, 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. Mustawfî says that the enceinte of its town walls measured 6500 paces, and that its people were a white- skinned race like the Khatâi (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 Mukaddasî in the 4th (10th) century as a small fortress with a mosque, and a market in the suburb, which was surrounded by gardens. Yâķût says that it was ruined by XI] 167 ADHARBÂYJÂN. the Kurds who had carried off most of its inhabitants after plundering the town. Its river according to Mustawfî was called the Zûlû (or Zakvîr), and a part of it was said to flow for four leagues underground. Mustawfî states that in his day Marand was only half its former size, but was still famous for the rearing of the Ķirmiz-worm (cochineal), used for making the red dye, and that round the town were 60 villages that were of its dependencies'. Nakhchivân, or Naķjawân, to the north of the Aras river, was generally counted as of Adharbâyjân. It is identical with Nashawâ of the Arab geographers, and is often mentioned in the Itiner- aries, but no description of the town is given. Nakhchivân 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 Mâst Küh. In Nakhchivan stood the dome built by Diyâ-al-Mulk, son of Nizâm-al-Mulk, the great Wazîr of Malik Shâh the Saljūķ, and 'Alî of Yazd describes the famous bridge of Diyâ-al-Mulk (the ruins of which still exist) which crossed the Aras at the fortress of Karkar on the road to Marand, about 15 miles from Nakhchivân. A little lower down on the Aras is Julfah, otherwise written Jalâhah, which was destroyed by Shâh 'Abbâs of Persia in 1014 (1605), when he transported all its Armenian inhabitants to the new suburb which he built to the south of Isfahân and named Julfah from the older Julfah on the Araxes. Among other towns on the banks of the Aras river Mustawfî mentions Urdûbâd (which still exists), near where a river joins the Aras from the south, on whose banks stood the castle of Dizmâr, which is also mentioned by Yâķût. Still lower down the Aras lay the town of Zangiyân in the Murdân Na'îm district, where a second bridge, still in existence, crosses the Araxes. This is called the Pûl-i- Khuda-Âfarîn in Persian, the Bridge of Praising God,' which Mustawfî says had been built by one of the Companions of the prophet Muhammad in the year 15 (636). The Murdân (or Murad) Na'îm territory comprised in its circuit over 30 villages”. i Ist. 181. I. H. 239. Muk. 377. Kaz. i. 180; ii. 354. Yak. i. 218; ii. 502 ; iii. 120; iv. 503. Mst. 156—159, 218. 2 Yak. iv. 262, 767, 784. Mst. 157, 159, 206. A. Y. i. 398, 399; ii. 573. 168 [CHAP. ADHARBÂYJÂN. The city of Ardabîl stood on the upper waters of the river called Andarâb by Mustawfî, and the Ardabîl river, after being joined lower down on its left bank by the Âhar river, flowed into the Araxes some way below the bridge of Khudâ-Âfarîn. The rivers of Ardabîl and Âhar rose on the eastern and western slopes, respectively, of the great mountain called Sablân Kûh, which overhangs Ardabil, and from whose southern slopes the Sarâv river, as already mentioned, takes its course westward to the Urmiyah lake. Mount Sablân is mentioned in the 4th (10th) century by Ibn Hawķal, who erroneously considered it as higher than Damâvand, some miles to the north of Tihrân. Its slopes were covered with trees, and here stood villages and many towns, which are enumerated by Mustawfî. 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 Sablân also were two other peaks, Kûh Sarâhand north of Âhar, and Siyâh Kûh (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 Adharbâyjân in the 4th (10th) century. It is described by Ișțakhrî 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 Ardabîl honey was famous. Muķaddasî speaks of the fortress, and the markets of Ardabîl 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) Ardabîl was sacked by the Mongols and left a ruin; but just before this, when Yâķût was here, it was a most populous city. Ardabîl had been known anciently by the Persian name of Bâdhân Fîrûz. When Mustawfî wrote in the 8th (14th) century, though no longer the chief town of Adharbâyjân, it had recovered much of its former splendour; and in the roth (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 Tabrîz and afterwards to Isfahân. XI] 169 ADHARBÂYJÂN. Âhar which lies 150 miles west of Ardabil, on the Âhar river, is named in the lists of the earlier Arab geographers, and described by Yâķût as a well-built city, to the north of which lay Mount Sarâhand. It was surrounded by many small towns standing on the hill-slopes, the names of which are recorded by both Yâķût and Mustawfî, but these are difficult now to recognise or identify. The surrounding district was known as Pishkin (at the present day Mishkîn), from the name of the ruling family who flourished here in the 8th (14th) century. The town of Pîshkîn lay one march from Âhar, and originally had been known as Varavî. The river Andarâb, just above where the Âhar river joined it, Mustawfî says, was crossed by a fine bridge that had been built by 'Alî Shâh, the Wazîr of Ghâzân Khân the Mongol'. The Safîd Rûd, or White River, with its many affluents, drained all the south-eastern part of Adharbâyjân. Its main stream for most of its length formed the frontier dividing Adharbâyjân from the Jibâl province, and the river finally flowed out to the Caspian Sea through the province of Gîlân. Ișțakhrî and other Arab writers give the name as the Sabîd-rûdh. Mustawfî says that in his time it was known to the Mongols as the Hùlân Mûlân (more exactly Ulân Mören), which in Mongolian means 'Red River’; and at the present day part of the Safîd Rûd is known as Kizil Uzen, which in Turkish also signifies 'Red Stream.' Mustawfî writes that the Safîd Rûd rose in the highlands of Kurdistân, in a mountain called Panj Angûsht (in Persian) or Besh Parmaḥ (in Turkish), and both names mean the Five Fingers.' Flowing north the Safîd Rûd first received the Zanjân 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 Miyânij river, formed by the confluence of many streams coming down from the west. North of Miyânij the Safîd Rûd turned west, receiving on its left bank the united streams of the Sanjîdah and Gadîv rivers coming down from Khalkhâl to the south of Ardabîl, and next the Shâl river from the Shâh Rûd district of Khalkhâl. Below this on its right bank, and coming from the Jibâl province (as will be described in 1 Ist. 181. I. H. 237, 238, 240, 266. Muk. 374, 377. Yak. i. 197, 367, 409, 461; iv. 918. Mst. 156, 157, 204, 205, 217. 170 [CHAP. ADHARBÂYJÂN. Chapter XV), the Ţârum river joins the Safîd Rûd, and next the river Shâh Rûd (not to be confused with the district of Shâh Rûd just named) coming from the country of the Assassins, and then finally, after piercing the mountain barrier, the Safîd Rûd reaches the Caspian Sea at Kawtam in the province of Gîlân. The Miyânij river, as already said, was the most important left bank affluent of the Safîd Rûd. It came from the west, rising in the country south of Ūjân (see p. 163), and in the Garm Rud district received on its left bank the waters of the Garm Rûd (Hot River), a stream which rose in the hills to the south of Sarâv. Below the town of Miyânij the main stream receives on its right bank the waters of the Hasht Rûd, “the Eight Streams,' which have their sources in the hills to the east of Marâghah; and, in the time of Mustawfî, where the Hasht Rûd joined the Miyânij river, there spanned it a great masonry bridge of thirty- two arches. The town of Miyânij or Miyânah, “the Middle Place,' which stands at the junction of all these streams, was an important centre from the earliest times. Ibn Hawķal writes of it as very populous in the 4th (10th) century, and its district-in later times known under the name of the Garm Rûd-produced great quantities of fruit. Muķaddasî, who gives the modern form of the name Miyânah, praises its store of goods, and Yâķūt, who had visited it in the 6th (12th) century, extols its situation. In the following century, when Mustawfî 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 Miyânah bug at the present day is a terror to travellers), but the Garm Rûd district comprised over a hundred fertile villages, and much corn was grown. The three rivers called Sanjidah, Gadiv (or Kadpů, in the Jahân Numá), and Shâl, joined the Safîd Rûd from the north, coming down from the Khalkhâl district. Khalkhâl was also the name of the chief town of this district, the position of which is given in the Itinerary as 12 leagues south of Ardabîl. Fîrûzâbâd, 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 Mustawfî had in former times been the XI] 171 ADHARBÂYJÂN. residence of the governor, but when it fell into ruin Khalkhâl city took its place. The exact position of Fîrûzâbâd, however, cannot now be fixed. The small towns of Kalûr and Shâl, which are still to be found on the map, were of the Shâh Rûd district, and lay on the Shâl river (now called the Lesser Shâh Rud) which rose in the Shâl hills. Mustawfî mentions a number of other places in Khalkhâl, the names of which, however, cannot now be identified'. The few products of Adharbâyjân 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 Jibâl province, for these roads all start from various points on the great Khurâsân road which traverses the latter province. 1 Ist. 189. I. H. 246, 253. Muk. 378. Yak. i. 239; iv. 710. Mst. 156, 158, 198, 215, 218. J. N. 384, 388. CHAPTER XII. GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. The Gîlâns. Daylam and the Ţâlish districts. Barvân, Dûlâb, and Khashm. Lâhîjân, Rasht, and other towns of Gîlân. The district. of Mûghân. Bajarvân and Barzand. Mahmûdâbâd. Warthân. The province of Arrân. Bardhâʻah. Baylaşân. Ganjah and Shamkûr. The rivers Kur and Aras. The province of Shirvân. Shamâkhî. Bâkûyah and Bâb-al- Abwâb. The province of Gurjistân, or Georgia. Tiflîs and Ķarș. The province of Armenia. Dabîl or Duwîn. The lake of Vân. Akhmất, Arjîsh, Vân, and Bitlîs. Products of the northern provinces. The Safid Rud, 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 Safîd Rûd, with the great amphitheatre of forest-clad foot-hills surrounding it on the south and west, is the small province of Gîlân, which the Arabs called Jîl or Jîlân, and which comprised three very different districts'. The alluvial delta lands are those more especially called Jîl or Jîlân by the Arab geographers, who when referring to the whole province often give the name in the plural form, Jîlânât, 'the Gîlâns, which may then be taken to include the mountain districts. To the south and west, the mountain range bordering on the districts of Țâliķân and Ţârum in the Jibâl province, was the Daylam country, generally also given in the plural form as Ad-Daylamân; and this country became famous in history as the original home of the Buyids, or Daylamites, whose chiefs were masters of Baghdâd, and of the Caliphate for the most part, 1 For Gîlân see Map v, at the beginning of the following chapter. CH. XII] GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. 173 during the 4th (10th) 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 Ţâlish country, a name which Yâķût gives under the plural form_Țâlishân or Tîlshân. To the east, on the Țabaristân frontier, was the mountain range of Ar-Rûbanj, beyond which came the hill district belonging to the great Kârin family, whose chiefs had from time immemorial been rulers of these fastnesses, as will be further mentioned in Chapter XXVI. When Mukaddasî wrote in the 4th (10th) century, and the Buyid supremacy was at its height, all Gilân, together with the mountain provinces to the eastward and along the shore of the Caspian, namely, Ţabaristân, Jurjân, and Ķûmis, 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 Safîd Rûd delta gave their name to the whole of the adjacent district, which was commonly known as the Jilân province. More exactly, however, Jilân 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 Rudhbâr, but its situation is unknown. Muķaddasî on the other hand says the capital was known as Barvân, but unfortunately it no longer exists and none of the Itineraries give its exact position. Barvân, Muķaddasî adds, had neither good houses nor good markets, and possessed no Friday Mosque. Where the governor resided was called the Shahrastân, and the merchants living here were wealthy, so that it was a flourishing town. Of Jîlân, Muķaddasî gives Dalâb 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-Fidâ Dalâb is 1 Ist. 204, 205, 206. I. H. 267, 268. Muk. 353. Yak. i. 174, 812; ii. 179, 711; iii. 571. Mst. 147, 191. A. F. 426. The name of Tâlish is written with either the soft t, or the hard Arabic !; and in the plural as Tâlishận or Țilshân, also ſawâlish in Mustawfî. 174 GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. [CHAP. the same as Kaskar, and in the only Itinerary of this country that has come down to us, Muḥaddasî gives Důlâb as lying four marches from Baylamân, a small town like a farmstead accord- ing to Abu-l-Fidâ, which appears to have been one of the chief places in the Ţâlish country. Two marches from the afîd Rûd, and four from Baylamân, was the town of Khashm, the residence of the Alid chief (the Dâ‘î 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. Muķaddasî 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 Gîlân, according to Mustawfî, were Lâhîjân and Fûmin. Abu-l-Fidâ also mentions Lâhîjân, which lies to the eastward of the mouth of the Safîd Rûd. 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 Kûtam, nearer the mouth of the Safîd Rûd, was the harbour for ships coming from other parts of the Caspian; it is mentioned by Yâķût and Abu-l-Fidâ, 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. Fûmin with its district lies further inland, and to the west of the Safîd Rûd. It is counted as the chief town of the mountain region of Daylam, and Mustawfî writes of it as a large place standing in a fertile district growing much corn and rice. Silk was also produced and manufactured here. Mustawfî is one of the earliest authorities to describe Rasht, now the capital of Gîlân, 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 i Ist. 204, 205. Muk. 355, 360, 373. A. F. 429 (where, in error, Bay- lamân is printed Bîmån). Yak. ii. 831. For the Dâ'î dynasty of Alids (Hasanids), see G. Melgunof, Das südliche Ufer des Caspischen Meeres, p. 53. XII] 175 GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. Tulim, and Mustawfî gives this as the name of an important town in the 8th (13th) century. According to Abu-l-Fidâ it was the chief city of the Jîlân 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 Gîlân, Mustawfî mentions the little town of Isfahbad, which Yâķūt spells Isfahbudhân, 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 Țabaristân under the earlier Caliphs'. Manghan. Mùghân, Mughkân, or Mûķân? is the name of the great swampy plain which stretches from the base of Mount Sablân to the east coast of the Caspian Sea, lying south of the mouth of the river Aras, and north of the mountains of Țâlish. It was some- times counted as part of the Adharbâyjän province, but more often formed a separate district. The capital of Mûghân in the 4th (10th) century was a city of the same name, the position of which it is difficult to fix. Muķad- dasî speaks of Mûķân city as lying on two rivers, with gardens all round, and as almost of the size of Tabrîz. From his de- scription it is not improbable that this Mūķân city was identical with Bajarvân, which Mustawfî names as the older capital of the district, and which in his day had already gone to ruin. The position of Bajarvận he gives in his Itineraries as four leagues north of Barzand, a name which is still found on the map. Further, Moslem tradition connected Bajarvân with the Fountain of Life, said to have been discovered near here by the prophet Khidr, 1 Yak. i. 298; iv. 316. A. F. 426, 429. Mst. 191, 192. J. N. 343, 344. 2 For Mûghân and the north-west frontier provinces see Map III, p. 87. 176 GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. [CHAP. otherwise Elias. As already stated, to the south of Bajarvân lay Barzand, which is described as a great city by Ibn Hawķal, and Muķaddasî 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. Mustawfî mentions both Bajarvân 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 Mûķân plain Mustawfî names the three towns of Pîlsuvâr, Maḥınûdâbâd, and Hamshahrah. Pîlsuvâr, which stood on a stream coming down from Bajarvân, lay at a distance of eight leagues from the latter place, and it is said to have been so called after the Amîr Pîl-Suwâr sent here by the Buyids, whose name signified 'great rider or soldier.' Mahmûdâbâd in the plain of Gâvbârî, near the Caspian, was twelve leagues beyond Pîlsuvâr, and Mustawfî adds that it had been built by Ghâzân Khân the Mongol. The neighbouring Hamshahrah was two leagues from the coast, and originally had been known as Abra- shahr, or Bûshahrah, having been founded, says Mustawfî, by Farhad, son of Gûdarz, 'whom they identify with Nebuchadnezzar.' To the north of Bajarvân, in earlier times, was Balkhâb, 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 Warthân, at the crossing into the Arrân country. In the 4th (10th) century Warthân 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 Warthân had been built by order of Zubaydah, wife of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd?. Arrân. The provinces of Arrân, Shirvân, 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 1 I. H. 251. Muk. 376, 378. Yak. i. 454, 562; iv. 686. Mst. 159, 160, 198. J. N. 392. 2 I. H. 251. Muk. 376. Yak. iv. 919. Mst. 160, 198. J. N. 393. XII] 177 GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. 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 Tîmûr 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 Arrân 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 Mustawfî calls it. The earlier Arab geographers write the name Al-Rân (pronounced Ar-Rân) to give it the appearance of an Arabic word, and the capital town in the 4th (10th) century was Bardhâʻah, the ruins of which still exist. Bardhâʻah, later written Bardâ', Ibn Hawķal describes in the 4th (10th) 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 Tharthûr. Near by the town, in the Kur, was caught the fish called Sarmâhî (otherwise Shûr-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 Warthân. The fertile district round Bardhâʻah was known by the name of Al-Andarâb, 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 very Sunday outside Bardhâʻah at the Bâb-al-Akrâd, the gate of the Kurds'; and the market-place stretched a league in length. It was called locally Al-Kurkî (from the Greek Kuriakos, “the Lord's day'), and Sunday, we are told, was here commonly known as the day of the Kurkî. Bardhâʻah 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 hammâms, or hot-baths; and in Omayyad times the Treasury of the province was kept at LE S. I 2 178 GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. [CHAP. Bardhâ‘ah. In the 7th (13th) century, when Yâķût wrote, Bardhâ'ah had already fallen to ruin, though Mustawfî in the following century still refers to it as a considerable town on the river Tharthûr. At the crossing of the Kur, probably below the junction of the Tharthúr, and 18 leagues, counted as a day's march, on the direct road from Bardhâʻah to Shâmâkhî in Shirvân, was the town of Barzanj, much frequented by merchants, where goods were stored for import and export'. The city of Baylaşân, known in Armenian as Phaidagaran, became the capital of Arrân after the decay of Bardha'ah. Though all traces of the town have now apparently disappeared, its approximate position is clearly given by the Arab itineraries. Baylaşân lay 14 leagues south of Bardhâʻah 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 Hawķal in the 4th (10th) 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) Baylaşân 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 Tîmûr, 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 Barlâsî, from the Barlâs tribe, from which Tîmûr was sprung. Two other cities of Arrân are also mentioned, both of hich lie to the north-west of Bardhâʻah, on the road to Tiflîs. The first of these is Ganjah (now better known as Elizabetpol), which the Arab geographers write Janzah, and its river is called by Kazwînî the Ķirdķâs. Further to the north-west again lay Shamkûr, the ruins of which still exist, and this town in the 3rd 1 Ist. 182, 183, 187, 188. 1. H. 240, 241, 244, 251. Muk. 374, 375. Yak. i. 558, 562. Mst. 160. Kaz. ii. 344. XII] 179 GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. (9th) century was known as Mutawakkilîyah, from having been rebuilt by orders of the Caliph Mutawakkil in the year 240 (854)”. The two rivers bounding the province of Arrân, 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 Ķâlîķalâ country of western Armenia, and after passing along the northern frontiers of Adharbâyjân joins the river Kur (according to Mustawfî) in the Ķarâbâgh country in the eastern part of Arrân. 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 Shamkûr, and here, according to Mustawfi, sends off a branch, or canal, which ends in the great Shamkûr swamp or lake. The Kur, after being joined by the Aras river some distance below Bardhâ‘ah, flows out to the Caspian in the Gushtâsfî district ? Siroản. Beyond the Kur river, and along the Caspian where the Caucasus range sinks to the sea, is the Shirvan province, of which the capital was Ash-Shamâkhiyah, now called Shâmâkhî or Shâmâkhâ. In the 4th (10th) century Muķaddasî 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 Shah. Much corn was grown here, and in the neighbour- hood, according to Moslem tradition as reported by Mustawfî, was to be seen both the Rock of Moses (referred to in the Ķurân, XVIII. 62) and the site of the Fountain of Life, already mentioned as also localised in Bajarvân. Two other towns of the Shirvân Kud. 213 1 No trace of the ruins of Baylaşân appear on the Russian ordnance map. I. K. 122. Ist. 187, 189. 1. H. 244, 251. Muk. 376. Yak. i. 797; iii. 322. Kaz. ii. 345, 351. A. Y. ii. 543, 545. Mst. 160. 2 In the Jahân Numá (396, 397) a long description of both the Aras and the Kur, with their various affluents, is given. This serves to correct Mustawfî, also to elucidate the campaigns of Tîmûr 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. 213, 215. I 2-2 180 GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. [CHAP. province are mentioned by Mukaddasî and other early authorities, the sites of which have not been fixed, namely Shâbarân, 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 Shâmâkhî on the road to Darband. The northernmost place in Shirvan was Bâb-al-Abwâb, “the Gate of Gates,' as the Arabs called Darband, the famous port on the Caspian. Ibn Hawķal says that in the 4th (10th) century the town was larger than Ardabil, then the capital of Adharbâyjân. 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 Bâb-al-Abwab, which was here the frontier town of Islam, for the place in early days was surrounded by infidel folk. Yâķût 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 Baḥr-al-Khazar, took its name, were the most important. Yâķût 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 Anûshirvân of Persia in the sixth century A. D. The river Samûr, which flows into the Caspian a short distance to the south of Darband, is described by Muķaddasî under the name of the Nahr- al-Malik, “the King's River,' otherwise the Nahr-as-Samûr, and there was a bridge of boats (Jisr) across it, some 20 leagues from Darband, on the road coming up from Shâmâkhî. The port of Bâkůh, or Bâkuyah (modern Bâků), lies south of X11] 181 GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. Darband, and Istakhrî refers to its well-known naphtha springs. Yâķût and others describe these in detail, the produce was worth a thousand dirhams (£40) a day; the naphtha flowed continuously, and all the ground was on fire round and about. Mustawfî speaks of the castle of Bâkuyah, which being high placed above the town kept it in shadow at midday. To the south of Bâkůh was the Gushtâsfî 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 ķabalah, where according to Muķaddasî there was a mosque on a hill. Kabalah is more than once mentioned in the campaigns of Tîmûr, Mustawfî adding that both silk and corn are of its produce Gurjistân. Gurjistân, which we call Georgia, and Abkhâs, otherwise Abkhasia, were lands that only became Moslem districts after the campaign of Tîmûr in these parts, at the close of the 8th (14th) century. Tiflîs, the capital of Gurjistân, on the upper waters of the river Kur, was, however, well known to the geo- graphers of the 4th (10th) century. Ibn Hawķal describes it as possessing double walls, strongly fortified, with three gates. There were natural hot-baths in Tiflîs 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, Muķaddasî writes, connected the two quarters. The neighbouring district of Abkhâs, or Abkhâz, was according to Muķaddasî to be counted as of the Jabal-al-Kabķ, the Caucasus. Here stood the village of Jonah, Ķariyat Yûnis, 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 Mustawfî, who further mentions Ķars as one of the chief towns of Georgia”. 1 Ist. 184, 189, 190. I. H. 241, 251. Muk. 376, 379, 381. Yak. i. 437, 477; iii. 225, 282, 317; iv. 32. Mst. 159-161. Kaz. ii. 389. A. Y. i. 406. 2 Ist. 185. I. H. 242. Muk. 375–377. Mst. 161, 202. Yak. i. 78, 350, 857. Mustawfî always writes of Jibål Alburz, 'the Alburz mountains,' in 182 GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. [CHAP. Armenia. Great Armenia (spelt Armîniyah, 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 Dabîl, otherwise called Duwîn or Tovin, now marked by a small village to the south of Erivan, near the Aras river. In the 4th (10th) century Dabîl was a larger town than Ardabîl, 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 Dabîl to the south, across the Araxes. As already said (p. 94) Moslem tradition identified Jabal Jûdî, in Upper Mesopotamia, as the mount on whose summit the Ark of Noah had come to rest. Ararat, in Armenia, they called Jabal-al-Hârith (of “the Labourer' or 'Ploughman,' or else Al-Hârith 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 Hâ- rith,' and Ișțakhrî 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 Dabîl cut firewood on their slopes, and hunted the abundant game here, and Muķ- addasî adds that a thousand hamlets were situated among the spurs flanking the great mountain. The wool stuffs of Dabil, dyed red with the ķirmiz insect, were famous. In the 4th (10th) century Muķaddasî describes Dabîl 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 Damâvand is the highest peak) lying to the north of Țihrân. XII] 183 GÎLÂN AND THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. a great suburb surrounded by gardens. Ânî, the older capital of Christian Armenia, which was taken and sacked in 456 (1064) by Alp Arslân the Saljūķ, is mentioned by Mustawfî as a town in the mountains where much fruit was grown. At some distance to the north-east of Dabîl 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 Mustawfil. The lake of Vân, or of Arjîsh as it is called by the earlier authorities, was naturally the best known of the Armenian lakes, having on its shores the cities of Akhlât, Arjîsh, Vân, and Vasțân. Istakhrî describes it as twenty leagues in length, and it was cele- brated for the fish called țirrîkh (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 Khurâsân, for Yâķût says he bought some of this salt fish in Balkh. The waters of the lake were salt and bitter. Akhlâț, or Khilâț, at the western end of the lake, was one of the largest cities of Armenia. Mustawfî 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 Mustawfî praises the gardens of the neighbouring district. Above Akhlâț was the great mountain called Koh Sîpân, visible, says Mustawfi, fifty leagues away, and its summit was always snow-clad. Arjîsh, 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 Wazîr ‘Alî Shâh by order of Ghâzân Khân in the 8th (14th) century, and the country round was famous for its corn lands. Further to the east was the town of Bârkîrî, or Bahargîrî, near Band-i-Mâhî (the Fish Dam), on the road from Arjîsh to Khuwî (Khoi) in Adharbâyjân, and it is described by Mustawfî as having a strong castle crowning a hill. Its river came down from the Alâțâķ pastures, where the Îl-Khân, Arghûn, had built his great summer palace in the midst of I. H. 244• i Ist. 188, 191. Muk. 374, 377, 380. Yak. ii. 183, 549. Mst. 126, 161, 164. A. Y. i. 414, 415; ii. 378. Ibn-al-Athir, x. 25. 184 GÎLÂN 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 Vastâm or Vasțân 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 Badlîs (Bitlis), described by Muķaddasî as situated in a deep gorge where two streams met. A castle built of stone protected the town, and according to Yâķût 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 ķirmiz, an insect that fed on the oak trees growing throughout Adharbây- jân, and gave its name to the 'cramoisie' silks, being the origin of our words 'crimson' and 'carmine.' Ibn Hawķal and Muķad- dasî both describe the ķirmiz. The former says it was a worm like the silkworm, spinning for itself a cocoon exactly like the silkworm's cocoon ; Muķaddasî, on the other hand, writes that the ķirmiz 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 țirrîkh fish from lake Vân already noticed, were the chief exports, and might all be found in great store at Dabîl. The town of Bardhâʻah was also celebrated for the silk produced in its neighbourhood, and from the countryside, as from Bâb-al- Abwâb, 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?. ii. 352. 1 Ist. 188, 190. 1. H. 245, 248. Muk. 377. Yak. i. 526; ii. 457. Kaz. Mst. 164, 165, 205, 226. J. N. 411, 412. A. Y. i. 685, 688. 2 I. H. 244. Muk. 380, 381. Б ВС ៗនៅល SANDO La rihat уелство 2920 Kulasi : пEysrii ио ismisjifist THA отвЈdeil A ΓΙΙΓΕ И А Н О А 3 aiSUHA ЬКОАТИСЕ- WITH MA CHAPTER XIII. JIBÂL. The province of Al-Jibâl, or 'Irâķ 'Ajam, with its four districts. Ķirmasîn or Kirmânshâhân. Bisutûn and its sculptures. Kanguvâr. Dînavar. Shahrazûr. Hulwân. The great Khurâsân road. Kirind. Kurdistân under the Saljûks. Bahâr. Jamjamâl. Alânî and Alîshtar. Hamadân and its districts. Darguzîn. Kharaķânayn and the northern Âvah. Nihâvand. Karaj of Rûdrâvar, and Karaj of Abu-Dulaf. Farâhân. 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-Jibâl, the Mountains.' This name afterwards fell out of use, and during the 6th (12th) century under the later Saljûķs, the province came by a misnomer to be called 'Irâķ ‘Ajamî, which means Persian 'Irâķ, being so named to distinguish it from the older 'Irâķ of the Arabs, which was Lower Mesopotamia'. How this change in the name came about would appear to have been as follows. Al-'Irâķ, 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 16 'Ajam or 'Ajamî 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 'Ajamî soon became specialised to mean “the Persian foreigner,' and as the equivalent of 'Persian' is in use at the present time. Jibal is in Arabic the plural of Jabal, 'a hill.' Abu-l-Fidâ (p. 408) has the double name; he writes 'Bilâd-al-Jabal (Provinces of the Mountain) which is called by the people 'Irâķ-al-'Ajam (Persian ‘Irâķ).' 186 [CHAP. JIBÂL. by the Arabs to the two chief provincial cities, Kafah and Başrah, which hence were known as Al-'Irâķayn-meaning 'the Two (capitals of) 'Irâķ. This was the older and classical usage ; but in the latter part of the 5th (11th) century the Saljūķs had come to rule over all western Persia, having their capital at Hamadân, and they also governed Mesopotamia, where the Abbasid Caliph resided. From him they received the title of Sulțân of the Two 'Irâķs, which seemed fitting to their case, and the second of the two 'Irâķs soon came to be understood as meaning the province of Jibâl, where the Saljuķ prince more especially resided, which thus by the vulgar came to be known for distinction as Persian 'Irâķ This is the account of the matter given by Yâķût, who states that the Persians in his day, but incorrectly and as a modern usage, called the province Persian 'Irâk. âķ. Yâķût himself uses the older name of Al-Jibâl, for which his contemporary ķazvînî, writing also in Arabic, gives the Persian equivalent of Kuhistân (the Mountain province). The name Jibâl, however, apparently became completely obsolete after the Mongol conquest, and Mus- tawfî in the 8th (14th) century nowhere uses it. He divides the older Jibâl province into two parts, the smaller being Kurdistan on the west, the larger moiety Persian 'Irâķ on the east; and the name of 'Irâķ is still in use at the present day, for that part of the older Jibâl province which lies south-west of Tihrân is now locally known as the 'Irâķ district?. Four great cities-Ķirmîsîn (later Kirmânshâh), Hamadân, Ray, and Isfahân—were from early days the chief towns of the four quarters of this province. In Buyid times, namely in the 4th (10th century, according to Ibn Hawķal, the offices of the government were at Ray; at the close of the next century Hamadân became the capital under the Persian Saljūķs; but at all times Isfahân would appear to have been the largest and generally the most flourishing city of the Jibâl 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 Kirmânshâh, which since the days of the Saljūķs has been commonly known as Kurdistân, signifying the land of the Kurds. 1 Yak. ii. 15. Kaz. ii. 228. Mst. 141. XIII] 187 JIBÂL. T The capital city of Kirmânshâhân, a name generally curtailed to Kirmânshâh, was by the earlier Arabs known as Ķirmîsîn (written also ķirmâsîn and Ķirmâshîn). In the 4th (10th) century it is described by Ibn Hawķal as a pleasant town surrounded by trees, with running waters, where fruit was cheap and all commodities abundant. Mukaddasî, who is the first to mention the Persian name of Kirmânshâhân, 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. Kazvînî in the 7th (13th) century speaks of Ķirmîsîn as standing close to Kirmânshâhân, as though these were twin cities ; Yâķût, 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 Bihistân. The Mongol invasion in the 7th (13th) century effected the ruin of Kirmânshâh, which Mustawfî 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 Ķirmîsîn (since his time become obsolete), and he too is chiefly concerned with describing the Bihistân or Bisutûn 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 Kirmânshâh, near the Khurâsân road, and they consist of remains dating from the Achæmenian kings (5th century B.c.) and the Sassanians (7th century A.D.). They are described in the 4th (10th) century by Işțakhrî and Ibn Hawķal, who write the name of the mountain Bîhistûn and Bîsutûn, adding that the sculptures were to be found near the village of Sâsâniyân, doubtless the same village which Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century called Vastâm or Basțâm and which is now known as Țâķ-i-Bustân, “the Garden Arch.' Here the well-known sculpture of Darius receiving the tributary kings, with the trilingual cuneiform inscription, is referred to by Ibn Hawķal, 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 188 [CHAP. JIBÂL. there is a spring of water gushing out at the foot of the great mountain and, according to Ibn Hawķal, repeated by all later Persian authorities, they represent King Khusraw Parvíz on his celebrated horse Shibdâz (or Shabdîz), while above him stands the beautiful Queen Shîrîn, 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. Yâķût who quotes the travels of Ibn Muhalhal, 4th (10th) century, and Mustawfî, give in some detail the popular legends of their time. The story of Khusraw and Shîrîn, and of her lover the sculptor Farhâd who in despair slew himself, will be found localised in many of the neighbouring places; the incidents are well known, both from the Shâh Namah of Firdûsî, and from Nizâmi's great poem (which Mustawfi quotes) called the 'Loves of Khusraw and Shîrîn'.' Overhanging Kirmânshâh to the north, and on the left hand of one travelling along the great Khurâsân road, was the isolated hill called Sinn Sumayrah, 'Sumayrah's Tooth,' whence the northern road started leading to Dînavar and the Adharbâyjân 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 Nihâvand. Eastward beyond Bîsutûn, on the great Khurâsân road, lies the village of Siḥnah, as mentioned by Istakhrî, and still existing though not to be confused with the modern town of Siḥnah to be spoken of later. Beyond Siḥnah village lies Kanguvâr, which the Arabs called Kasr-al-Lusus, 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 Nihâvand. There was here, according to Ibn Rustah and others, a great arched building standing on a platform, and dating from the days of Khusraw Parvîz, being constructed with columns and of mortared brickwork. The town of Kanguvâr was of considerable size, and had a Friday Mosque 1 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. Bihistân is the older form. Bisutûn, meaning without pillars’ in Persian, i.e. unsupported, is probably the result of popular etymology. X11] 189 JIBÂL. built by Manis the chamberlain of the Caliph Muķtadir. Yâķūt asserts that the platform, where the Sassanian buildings stood, was 20 ells above the ground level, and Mustawfî adds that the great stones for its construction had been brought from the mountain of Bîsutûn'. About 25 miles to the westward of Kanguvâr are the ruins of Dînavar, which in the 4th (10th) century was the capital of the small independent dynasty named after Hasanawayh, or Hasanûyah, the Kurdish chief of the dominant tribe settled in these parts. At the time of the Moslem conquest of Persia Dînavar had received the name of Mâh-al-Kufah, because (as Yafķûbî writes) its revenues were apportioned to the payment of the state pensions of the inhabitants of Kûfah’; and Mâh Kûfah for a time became the common name for the city and its surrounding territory. Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century describes Dînavar as two-thirds the size of Hamadân, and the population as more urbane and better mannered than the Hamadân people. Mukaddasi adds that the markets were well built, the surrounding gardens being 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. Dînavar was still an inhabited town when Mustawfî 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 Tîmûr, who according to 'Alî of Yazd left some of his troops in garrison here. Probably in the neighbourhood of Dînavar, but the site appears to be as yet unknown, stood the great castle of Sarmâj, described by Yâķût as impregnable, being built of hewn stones by Hasanawayh, who died here in 369 (979), after a glorious reign, according to Ibn-al-Athîr, of nearly fifty years. In the next century Sarmâj was taken after a four years' siege in 441 (1049) by Tughril Beg the Saljūķ, who, however, had to bring together an army of 100,000 men before he could force his brother Yunnal out of this almost impregnable stronghold. very fruitful. i 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 Șihnah or Sihnah. Mst. 168. 2 Ykb. 171. I. H. 260. Mst. 167. Yak. iii. 82. A. Y. ii. Muk. 394 190 [CHAP. JIBÂL. About sixty miles north of the ruins of Dînavar 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 Siḥnah, however, according to the itineraries of Ibn Khurdâdbih and Ķudâmah, stood, during the middle-ages, the city of Sîsar, a name which Yâķût rightly says means in Persian ‘Thirty Heads.' The neigh- bourhood of Sîsar abounded in springs and was known as the Sad-Khâniyah—'the Hundred Houses’ or Heads of Water- from the number of these springs. The Caliph Amîn had built a fortress here, which his more celebrated brother Mamûn 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. Sîsar was counted as one of the 24 sub-districts of Hamadân; and it is possible that the modern name of Siḥnah may be merely a corrup- tion of Sad-Khâniyah, shortened to Sî-Khânah, “Thirty Houses,' but of this there is no direct evidence. Four marches north-west of Dînavar was the town of Shah- razûr, standing in the district of the same name. Ibn Hawķal, in the 4th (10th) century, mentions Shahrazûr 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 Yâķût) describes in the 4th (10th) century the many towns and villages of this district, and the chief town, he says, was known among the Persians as Nîm-Râh, or the Half-way House,' because it stood at the middle stage between Madâin (Ctesiphon) and Shîz, the two great fire-temples of Sassanian times. The neighbouring mountains were called Sha'rân and Zalam, where according to ķazvînî a species of 530. Ibn-al-Athir, viii. 518, 519; ix. 380. According to Yâķût (iv. 405) the Persian word Mah is synonymous with ķaşbah (chief town) in Arabic. The prefix Mâh, which occurs in the older names for Dînavar and Nihâvand, is in Old Persian Mada, 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 Dînavar have been lately visited, and are described by De Morgan, Mission en Perse, ii. 95, 96. XIII] 191 JIBÂL. grain was grown that was deemed a powerful aphrodisiac. The Kurds in this region, when Ibn Muhalhal visited the place, numbered 60,000 tents, and when Mustawfî wrote in the 8th (14th) century Shahrazûr was still a flourishing town, and in- habited by Kurds'. The great Khurâsân road, which, as already described in our first chapter, went eastwards from Baghdad to the uttermost limits of Moslem lands, after crossing the Mesopotamian plain entered the mountainous region of Persia at Hulwân, a town of the Jibâl province, which however was sometimes counted as of Arabian 'Irâķ. Ibn Hawķal says that in the 4th (10th) century Hulwân was half the size of Dînavar, 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. Mukaddasî 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 Kazvînî wrote, Hulwân 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 Khurâsân road, and four leagues above Hulwân towards Kirind, lay Mâdharûstân, where according to Yâķūt might be seen a great arched building surmounting a platform. This had formed part of the palace of the Sassanian king Bahrâm Gûr, who laid out a paradise round it that, in Yâķût's days, had long gone to ruin. Six leagues beyond this comes the town of Kirind, which is apparently first mentioned by Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century; he couples Kirind with the neighbouring village called Khúshân, which however has now completely disappeared, though Mustawfî describes it as in his day more 1 1. K. 120. Kud. 212. I. H. 263, 265. Yak. iii. 216, 340; iv. 988. Kaz. ii. 266. Mst. 167. The district of Shahrazûr still keeps the name, the old city stood where are the ruins now known as Yasîn Tappah. 192 [CHAP. JIBÂL. populous even than Kirind. These two places lie together at the head of the Hulwân 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-Kalfah (the Meadow Castle), which Ibn Hawķal describes as a great walled town surrounded by populous and fertile districts. Ya‘ķûbî states that in these pastures the Abbasid Caliph kept his stud of horses. Four leagues beyond these pastures the high road passed Țazar, where, according to Muķaddasî, might be seen the remains of a palace of the Chosroes, built Yâķût records by one Khusrûjird, son of Shahân. Tazar had good markets, and it appears to be identical with ķașr Yazid (Yazid's palace or castle), mentioned by other authorities. Six leagues beyond Țazar again was Az- Zubaydîyah, a fine healthy place' according to Ibn Hawķal, the position of which on the high road shows it to be identical with the present village of Hârûnâbâd. Here the Khurâsân road turns east, and crossing the plain of Mâyidasht (or Mâhîdasht) runs direct to Kirmânshâh. The Mâyidasht plain is described by Mustawfî 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 Harsîn with a small town at its base, which still exists, lying about 20 miles to the south-east of Kirmânshâh?. As regards the origin of the Kurdistân province, it is stated that about the middle of the 6th (12th) century Sulțân Sanjar the Saljûķ divided off the western part of the Jibâl province, namely the region which was dependent on Kirmânshâh, and giving it the name of Kurdistân put it under the government of his nephew Sulaymân Shâh, surnamed Abůh (or Ayûh), who, at a later period —that is from 554 to 556 (1159 to 1161)-succeeded his uncle as chief of the house of Saljûķ and Sultan of the Two 'Irâķs. This is the account given by Mustawfî, who states that under Sulayman Shâh Kurdistân flourished greatly, and its revenues then amounted to two million gold dînârs (equivalent to about a million sterling), 1 I. H. 168, 256, 262. I. R. 165. Ykb. 270. Muk. 123, 135, 393. Kaz. ii. 239, 302. Mst. 138, 168. Yak. iii. 537; iv. 382. J. N. 450. The ruins of Hulwân exist at the village now called Sar-i-Pul (Bridge-head), where a bridge crossed the stream. XIII] 193 JIBÂL. which was near ten times the sum yielded by the province in the 8th (14th) century under the Mongols, when Mustawfî was their revenue officer. Sulaymân Shâh made Bahâr -a town that still exists, lying some eight miles to the north of Hamadân-his capital; and here there was a strong castle. In Mongol times a second capital was built, by Uljaytû Sulțân, at Sulțânâbâd Jamjamâl (or Chamchamâl) near the foot of the Bisutûn moun- tain, and this town Mustawfî describes as standing in a rich country where much corn was grown. Of Jamjamâl, or Cham- chamâl, the position is given in his itineraries (four leagues from Sihnah village, and six from Kirmânshâh) and its ruins still exist, being marked on the map at the spot indicated. The town is frequently mentioned by 'Alî of Yazd when describing the marches of Tîmur through Kurdistân. Among other towns which occur in the description of the campaigns of Tîmûr, and which are noticed by Mustawfî, are Darband Tâj Khâtûn, “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 ‘Alî of Yazd, who writes the name of the first as Darband- Tâshî-Khâtûn, these two Darbands would appear to have stood on the western frontier of Kurdistân (between Shahrazûr and Hulwân), among the hills that here dominate the plains of Mesopotamia. Mustawfî also mentions four other towns in Kurdistân, namely Alânî, Alîshtar, Khuftiyân, and Darbîl, as important places in his day, but it is not easy now to identify their sites. Alânî, for which some mss. give the reading Alâbî, in the 8th (14th) century was presumably one of the chief towns of the province, though no other authority but Mustawfî 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 Alîshtar also was an ancient fire-temple called Ardahish (Arûkhsh or Arakhash). Unfortunately none of the Itineraries give its position; but the plain of Alîshtar still exists, and probably one of its ruined sites is the town mentioned by Mus- tawfî. It is doubtless identical with the town of Lîshtar or Lâshtar mentioned by Ibn Hawķal and others as lying 10 leagues south- LE S. 13 194 [CHAP. JIBÂL. west of Nihâvand, being 12 leagues north of Sâbûrkhwâst. On the other hand the reading of the name Alîshtar is, it must be admitted, extremely doubtful; many of the best mss., also the Turkish Jahân Numâ, give Al-Bashr, and a variety of other forms occur. Nothing is known of Khuftiyân (for which the Jahân Numâ gives Haķshi- yân, and the mss. a variety of readings) except that it was a strong castle surrounded by villages lying on the banks of the Zâb river; but whether this was the Upper or the Lower Zâb is not indicated. Its site is unknown and the same is the case with Darbîl (or Dizbîl), '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'. Hamadân (which name the Arabs wrote Hamadhân) is the ancient Ecbatana, the capital of the province of Media. Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century describes Hamadhân 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. Muķaddasî adds that the town possessed three rows of markets, and that in one of these stood the Great Mosque, a very old structure. Yâķût, who has some notes on Hamadân, written shortly before it was laid in ruins by the Mongol invasion of 617 (1220), states that there were twenty-four Rustâķs, or sub- districts, dependent on the city, and these he enumerates. The list is again given by Mustawfî 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. Mustawfî 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 Shahristân. This ancient citadel of Hamadân like that of Isfahân—to be noticed later-is named Sârûş by Ibn Faşîh, but the meaning of the word is not explained. The goldsmiths' market 1 I. H. 259, 264. Yak. i. 276; iii. 5. Mst. 167, 192. A. Y. i. 584, 585, 599, 640. J. N. 450. Neither Bahâr, Alânî, Khuftiyân, Darbîl, nor the two Darbands, are mentioned by any of the earlier Arab geographers. 2 Hamadhân represents the Hagmatâna of the Achæmenian inscriptions, which the Greeks wrote Ecbatana. XIII] 195 JIBÂL. in Hamadân was famous, built on the site of the former village of Zamîn Dîh; and the city walls measured 12,000 paces in circuit. Originally, says Mustawfî, Hamadân comprised five cities, namely ķalah Kabrît, 'Sulphur Castle,' ķalʻah Mâkîn, Girdlâkh, Khurshid, and Kurasht. He adds, this last, formerly a large town, is now entirely ruined.' Of Hamadân, too, were the following five great districts, with their villages; namely, Farîvâr near the city, next Azmadîn, Sharâmîn, and A'lam; with, lastly, the district of Sard Rûd and Barhand Rûd. It must, however, be added that the readings of these names are uncertain, as the mss. vary considerably!. Three leagues from Hamadân (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 Bahrâm Gûr, described by Ibn Faķîh. 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 (Farsîyah) 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 (Nâûs-az-Zabîyah), and Ibn Faşîh gives a long anecdote concerning King Bahrâm Gûr 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 Hamadân rises the great mountain of Alvand, or Arvand as Yâķût writes the word, and this form of the name appears as the mint city on silver dirhams of Abu-Sa‘îd, the Mongol Îl-Khân, dated 729 (1329). Mustawfî gives a long account of Kûh 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 Hamadân, after crossing the Alvand pass, on the high road 1 J. H. 256, 260. Muk. 391. I. F. 219. Yak. iv. 988. Mst. 151, 152. The Turkish Jahân Numâ (p. 300) repeats the enumeration of districts and villages from Mustawfi. 13-2 196 [CHAP. JIBÂL. to Kanguvâr, stands Asadâbâd, which Ibn Hawkal describes as a populous city; and Muķaddasî adds that a league distant from it was to be seen the arch (Aywân), in a building which Yâķût refers to as the Mațâbikh-al-Kisrâ, "the Kitchens of Chosroes.' Asadâbâd had a mosque, and good markets; its district was very fertile and produced honey. Mustawfî says that 35 villages were of its dependencies'. The plain in which Hamadân stands drains to the north and east, its numerous streams uniting to form the head-waters of the river Gâvmâhâ (or Gâvmâsâ) whose course will be described later when speaking of the Ķum river. To the north of Hamadân lies the district of Darguzin, and north of this again that of Kharraķân. Mustawfi in the 8th (14th) century writes of Darguzîn 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 Hamadân. The A'lam district, he adds—and Yâķût confirms him—was wrongly called Al-Amr by the Persians : it was a high plateau lying between Hamadân and Zanjân, where grapes, cotton, and corn grew abundantly. Kharraķân, more often called Khar- raķa nayn, the two Kharraķâns,' lay north of the A'lam district. It comprised many villages, which Mustawfî enumerates (but the readings in the Mss. are uncertain), and the chief town which still exists was Âvah, or Abah of Hamadân, so named to distin- guish it from Âvah of Savah, which will be noticed later. This, the northern Âvah, sometimes also written Âvâ, is mentioned by Yâķût, and it is referred to as early as the 4th (10th) century by Mukaddasî. The Kharraķân river, according to Mustawfì, during the spring freshets poured its waters into the stream of the Khushk Rûd which ultimately lost itself in the great desert in the Ray district. In the summer time, however, the Kharraķân river never flowed beyond the boundaries of its own immediate district, its waters drying up in irrigation channels. The city of Nihâvand, lying about forty miles south of Hama- dân, was an important place dating from Sassanian times. After the first Moslem conquest, which was effected by the troops from 1 1. H. 256. I. F. 255. Muk. 393. Yak. i. 225, 245; iv. 110, 733. Kaz. ii. 236, 311. Mst. 152, 202. 2 Muk. 25, 51, 386. Yak. i. 316, 408. Mst. 152, 217. J. N. 301, 305. XIII] 197 JIBÂL. Başrah more particularly, the town and its district received the name of Mâh-al-Basrah, for its revenues were allotted to the payment of pensions in Başrah, just as those of Dînavar were paid to Kûfah (see above, p. 189). Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century speaks of the rich merchandise sold in its markets, whither the saffron of the neighbouring district of Rûdhrâvar was brought for distribution. Nihâvand had then two Great Mosques, the old and the new. Yaķût adds the tradition that many Arabs coming from Başrah had settled here in early days; and the city was famous for the manufacture of perfumes. Mustawfî 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, Malâir, Isfîdhân, and Jahûķ. About half-way between Hamadân and Nihâvand lay the rich district of Rûdhrâvar, 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 Yâķût. Mustawfî generally spells the name Rûdârûd, and of its towns he mentions Sarkân and Tuvî, both of which still exist; and Tuvî, at the present day, is the name commonly given to the district'. To the eastward of Nihâvand lay the district of the two Îghârs (Al-Ighârayn) 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 Mustawfî that the town lay beneath the Râsmand mountains (almost certainly to be iden- tified with the present range called Râsband), its site must be sought for near the head-waters of the stream which flows past Sârûk to join the modern Karâ Şû. Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century speaks of Karaj as smaller than Burûjird, 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 Bâb Masjid-al-Jami', '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 Rûdhrâvar are doubtless those described by De Morgan, Mission en Perse (ii. 136), which he names Rûdîlâvar. 198 [CHAP. JIBÂL. 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 Hârûn-ar-Rashîd and his son Mamûn. Abu Dulaf together with his descendants settled in this district, which with that lying round Burj, 12 leagues distant towards Isfahân, had been granted to them as Îghârs—that is ‘fiefs in perpetuity,' paying a fixed yearly tribute to the Caliph, but free of all other taxes. Yâķût states that the Persians pronounced the name of Karaj Karah, and Farrazîn was the name of a castle not far from the gate of Karaj. Mustawfî, who refers to the river as the River of Karah—the Karah Rûd-says that the Râsmand 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 Margzâr of Kîtû, which lay under the protection of the Farrazîn castle. The Râsmand mountain is described as a black rock towering up like the hill of Bisutûn, with glens at its base, and it was ten leagues in circúit. The site of Burj, the second city of the Îghârayn, has not yet been identified. Its position, however, is approximately known. Ibn Hawķal 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_Sârûk of the Farâhân district, noticed by Yâķût and Mustawfî, being counted by them as belonging to Hamadân. Dawlatâbâd, 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 This lake, according to Mustawfî, the Mongols named Jaghân Nâûr, meaning ‘Salt Lake.' It is doubtless for export. 1 1. H. 258, 262. Muk. 394. Yak. i. 420, 548; iii. 873; iv. 250, 270. Mst. 151, 204. XIII] 199 JIBÂL. identical with the present lake of Tualâ. Lastly, to the south- east of Hamadân, and about half-way between that city and Nihâvand, lies the small town of Râmîn, which is noticed by Yâķût as of this district, but it is not further described by any other authority'. 1 Yak. iii. 867, 887; iv. 683. Mst. 151. At the present day the chief town of this district, now famous for its carpets, is Sultânâbâd, founded by Fatḥ ‘Alî Shâh at the beginning of the nineteenth century; it is commonly known as Shahr-i-Naw (New Town). CHAPTER XIV. JIBÂL (continued). Little Lur. Burûjird. Khurramâbâd. Shâpûrkhwâst. Sîrawân and Șaymarah. Isfahân and its districts. Fîrûzân; Fârifan and the river Zandah Rûd. Ardistân. Kâshân. Ķum, Gulpaygân, and the Ķum river. Âvah and Sâvah. The river Gâvmâhâ. South of Hamadân lies Luristân, 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 Kârûn, and the towns of Great Lur will be more conveniently described in the chapter on Khûzistân, although the district of Great Lur also is by some authorities regarded as forming part of 'Irâķ 'Ajamî. The chief towns of Little Lur, as enumerated by Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century, were Burûjird, Khurramâbâd, and Shâpûr- khwâst. Burūjird is described by Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) 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 Hamulah, the Wazîr of the Abu Dulaf family just mentioned, built the Friday Mosque here. When Mustawfî 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. ‘Alî of Yazd, who always writes the name Vurdjird, frequently refers to it in describing the campaigns of Tîmûr, by whose orders the castle, called the Kalʻah Armiyân, was restored. 1 1. H. 258, 262. Yak. i. 596; ii. 737. Mst. 151. A. Y. i. 587; ii. 515 CHAP. XIV] 201 JIBÂL. The name of Khurramâbâd, since the time of Tîmûr the most important place in Little Lur after Burdjird, does not occur in any of the Arab geographers of the middle-ages; and it has often been suggested that Khurramâbâd was identical with the town of Shâpûrkhwâst, a place frequently mentioned in earlier days. That this, however, is not the case, is proved by the mention, separately, of both towns by Mustawfî, who further indicates the position of Shâpůrkhwâst. Khurramâbâd, when Mustawfî 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 Şaymarah: but this statement cannot be accepted as quite exact. In regard to Shâpůrkhwast, which the Arab geographers wrote Sâbûrkhwâst, this also had been a town famous for its dates since the time of Ibn Hawķal. In the 4th (10th) century Sâbûrkhwâst with Burûjird and Nihâvand came under the power of Hasanawayh, the Kurdish chief who had established his government at Dînavar (see above, p. 189), and at Dizbaz, the castle of Sâbûrkhwâst, which rivalled Sarmâj 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 Sâbûrkhwâst is frequently mentioned in the chronicles relating to the doings of the Saljaķs, and in 499 (1106) the Atabeg Mankübars came into possession of the city, together with Nihâvand and Lîshtar (Alîshtar). Writing in the early part of the 8th (14th) century Mustawfî (in the Guzîdah) gives the information that in his day there were, in Little Lur, three populous cities, namely Burûjird, Khurramâbâd, and Shâpûrkhwâst (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 Burūjird, 'the road (coming from Nihâvand and going to Isfahân) branches to the right to Shâpûrkhwâst,' 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 Hawķal and Muķaddasî; for the former states that from Nihâvand it was 10 leagues (south) to Lâshtar, and thence 12 on to Sâbûr- 202 [CHAP. JIBÂL. khwâst, 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. Muķaddasî adds that from Sâbûr- khwâst to Karaj of Abu Dulaf was four marches, it being the same from Sâbûrkhwâst to Lur?. To the west of Little Lur, and on the frontier of Arabian 'Irâķ, lay the two districts of Mâsabadhân and Mihrajânķudhaḥ, of which the chief towns were, respectively, Sîrawân and Saymarah. The ruins of both towns still exist, and Mâsabadhân is in use as the name of the region to the south of the Mâyidasht plain. Sîrawân (or As-Sîrawân) was, according to Ibn Hawķal, 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 Dastabûyah; moreover the date palm, as already said, flourished here. Ķazvînî refers to mines of salt, sulphur, vitriol, and borax as being found in the Mâsabadhân district. Situated some fifty miles to the eastward, Şaymarah was not unlike Sîrawân, and it remained a populous town to a later date than the latter, its position being better chosen. The Mihrajânķudhaķ district lying round it was celebrated in the 4th (10th) century for great fertility; and Muķaddasî refers to its numerous population. 'Dates and olives, nuts and snow are all found here abundantly,' Yâķût writes, and on the road between Şaymarah and the neighbouring hamlet of Tarḥân was a wonderful bridge, 'twice as great as the bridge between Hulwân and Khâniķîn.' When Mustawfî 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 Jibâl province, and not far distant from the borders of the Great Desert, stands Isfahân (the 1 I. H. 259, 264. Muk. 401. Yak. ii. 572; iii. 4, 82, 225. Ibn-al-Athir, ix. 174 ; X. 274. Mst. 151, 195; also Guzîdah (Gantin), 1. 622, and ms. f. 1596, 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 Sâbûrkhwâst, Shâburkhast, and Shâpôrkhwâst. The exact site of the ruins has not been identified. 2 I. H. 263, 264. Muk. 394. Ykb. 269. Kaz. ii. 172. Yak. iii. 443, 525. Mst. 151. XIV] 203 JIBÂL. name being spelt Işbahân by the Arabs and by the Persians Ispahân), 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 Zâyindah Rûd. At the present day Isfahân 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 Zâyindah Rûd. Here there were two cities side by side ; namely, to the east Jay, otherwise called Shahristânah'; girt by a wall with a hundred towers; and two miles to the west- ward of this Al-Yahûdîyah, '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 (gth) century, describes the city of Jay as measuring half a league across, and covering an area of 2000 Jarîbs (about 600 acres). There were four gates, Bâb Khawr or of the Creek,' otherwise Bâb Zarîn Rûd, for this was the earlier spelling of the name of the river ; then Bâb Asfîj, Bâb Ţîrah, and the Yahûdîyah 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 Sârûķ, the name likewise of the Hamadân citadel, as above stated, which Ibn Rustah says dated from before the Flood. Ibn Hawķal and Muķaddasî in the next century describe both Jay and Yahûdîyah. In each city was a Great Mosque for the Friday prayers; and Yahûdîyah alone equalled Hamadân in size, being indeed the largest city in the Jibâl province, Ray only possibly excepted. Isfahan was already a great commercial centre, and its silks, especially the ‘Attâbî (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 Jibâl. Al-Yahûdîyah, according to Muķaddasî, 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 (Darb), was built mostly of unburnt brick, and it had both open and covered markets. The i Shahristân, or Shahristânah, means, in Persian, 'the Township,' and is a common name for the capital city. 204 [CHAP. JIBÂL. Great Mosque was in one of the markets, built with round columns, having a minaret on the ķiblah (Mecca) side, 70 ells in height. The neighbouring township of Jay, a couple of miles to the eastward, was according to Muķaddasî called Al-Madînah, 'the City,' the Arabic equivalent of Shahristânah, and imme- diately below its ancient fortress, in the 4th (10th) century, the river was crossed by a bridge of boats. In 444 (1052) Isfahân was visited by the Persian traveller Nâşir-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 Yâķût wrote, in the beginning of the 7th (13th) century, both Yahûdîyah 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 Manşûr Rashid, who, as the chronicles relate, having been deposed by his uncle Muḥammad Muķtafî in 530 (1136), was afterwards killed in battle and brought to be buried outside the gate of Isfahân. Yahûdiyah, however, after the Mongol invasion, recovered a part of its former glory, and was a populous thriving city when Abu-l-Fidâ wrote in 721 (1321), having, he says, the suburb of Shahristân a mile distant to the eastward, which occupied part of the older site of Jay. His contemporary, Mustawfî, gives us a long account of Isfahân and its districts, mentioning the names of many places that still exist; and his description proves that Yahûdîyah 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 Shâh ‘Abbâs, the past glories of which are to be seen at the present day. According to Mustawfî the city walls, 21,000 paces in circuit, dated from the 4th (10th) 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, Karrân (the Karrân Gate is given by XIV] 205 JIBÂL. Chardin as opening on the east side), Kûshk, Jûbarah (this was the eastern quarter when Chardin wrote, and the Jûbarah 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). Mustawfî writes that the most populous quarter under the Saljūķs had been that known as Julbârah (the Gulbâr quarter of Chardin, round the present Maydân-i-Kuhnah or 'Old Square'), where stood the College and Tomb of Sultan Muhammad the Saljûk, and here might be seen a block of stone weighing 10,000 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 Tîmûr conquered Isfahân at the close of the 8th (14th) century, the name of the citadel which he occupied is given as ķalʻah Țabarik (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 Shâh the Saljûķ erected another strong castle—the Shâh-Diz, “the Royal Fort'-on the summit of a mountain close to Isfahan in the year 500 (1107), and ķazvînî adds a long anecdote relating the circumstances that brought about its foundation. At the beginning of the roth (16th) century, Persia came under the rule of Shâh Ismâîl the Safavid, and at the close of the century Shâh ‘Abbâs the Great transferred his capital from Ardabîl 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 Zâyindah Rûd. Shâh 'Abbâs also added other new quarters and suburbs to Isfahân, 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. 2 1 History, however, does not record that this Sultan Muhammad-he reigned from 498 to 511 (1104-1117) and was a son of Malik Shâh-made any conquests in India ; possibly Mustawſî has mistaken him for Mahmûd of Ghaznah. 2 I. R. 160, 162. I. H. 161. Muk. 386, 387, 388, 389. N. K. 93. Yak. i. 295; ii. 181; iii. 246; iv. 452, 1045. A. F. 411. A. Y. Mst. 142. 206 [CHAP. JIBÂL. The eight districts round Isfahân, which Mustawfî carefully enumerates with their villages, still exist, and the same names appear in Ya*ķûbî and other early authorities of the 3rd and 4th (9th and 10th) 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 Marbîn district was to the west of Isfahân, 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 Burkhwâr district, of which Jaz (modern Gaz) was the largest village; while to the north-east was the district called Kahâb, the fourth on the northern river bank. South of the Zâyindah Rûd, and to the south-east of the old Shahristânah city, was the district of Baraân, with the Rûdasht district beyond it lying further down the river, of which last the chief centre was Fârifân, a large town in the 8th (14th) century, though now only a village, standing near the great Gâv-Khânah swamp. The Karârij district is south of Baraân; and westward of this, higher up the right bank of the Zâyindah Rûd, is the great Khânlanjân district, the last of the four to the south of the river, of which the chief town was Fîrûzân. Of this city no trace apparently remains, but it was a considerable town ‘in two parts’ in the 8th (14th) century, situated on the Zâyindah Rûd, and Ibn Baţâţah, who passed through it, says it lay six leagues distant from Isfahân. The Khânlanjân district was already famous in the 4th (10th century for its plentiful fruits and the fertility of its lands. Its name is often written Khâlanjân or Khûlanjân, and it was also known as Khân- al-Abrâr, the Caravanserai of the Benefactors. As the name of a town Khânlanjân is doubtless identical with Fîrůzân aforesaid, and in the Itineraries this is the first stage southward from Isfahân on the western road to Shîrâz. In the 5th (11th) century Nâșir- i. 431. Kaz. ii. 265. The description of Isfahân fills volume VIII (see especially pp. 122, 126, 147, 153, 212, 227, 229, for passages referred to) of the Voyages du Chevalier Chardin en Perse (Amsterdam, 1711). For modern Isfahân see Houtum-Schindler, Eastern Persian 'Irâș (1897), pp. 18, 19, 120, I 22. XIV] 207 JIBÂL. i-Khusraw passed through Khânlanjân on his way to Isfahân, and noticed on the city gate an inscription bearing the name of Tughril Beg the Saljūķ'. The main stream of the Isfahân river, at the present time generally called the Zandah Rûd, is known as the Zâyindah Rûd or the Zarîn-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 Jûy-Sard, “the Cold River,' and this rose in the Zardah-Kah, '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 Kârûn river of Khůzistân; and here, according to Mustawfî, were also the Ashkahrân mountains, which marked the frontiers of Great Lur. Below the town of Fîrûzân in Khânlanjân, the Zandah Rûd receives an affluent, almost equal to its main stream in volume, which comes down from near Gulpaygân (Jurbâdhaķân); then after passing Isfahân, and irrigating its eight districts, the Zandah Rûd somewhat to the eastward of Rûdasht flows finally into the swamp of Gâv-Khânah on the borders of the Great Desert. According to popular belief, which is mentioned already by Ibn Khurdâdbih in the 3rd (9th) century, the river, after sinking into this swamp, rose again to the ground surface 90 leagues away in Kirmân, thence reaching the sea; but Mustawfî not unnaturally discredits the story, because of the high mountains lying between Isfahân and Kirmân, and though he states that it was said that bits of reeds thrown into the Gâv- Khânah marsh reappeared in Kirmân, he adds ‘but this account is incredible? Nâyin, which lay to the north of the Gâv-Khânah 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. 201. Ykb. 275. Muk. 389, 458. Yak. i. 294; ii. 394; iii. 839. Mst. 143, for the most part repro- duced in J. N. 291. I. B. ii. 42. N. K. 92. Khânlanjân is famous also as the place of refuge of Firdûsî, when he fled from the wrath of Sultan Mahmûd of Ghaznah. An account of his reception by the governor of Khânlanjân is given in a copy of the Shâh Nâmah 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 Nâșir-i-Khusraw (Appendix iv. p. 298). 2 I. R. 152. I. K. 20. Mst. 201, 202, 214. 208 [CHAP. JIBÂL. 6 of it towards Yazd, were all included in the province of Fârs during the middle-ages, as will be explained in Chapter XVIII, but Ardistân, some miles north-west of Nâyin, was counted as of the Jibâl province. As early as the 4th (10th century, Istakhrî 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 Ardistân, some ancient ruins were attributed to King Anûshirwân the Just, and Mukaddasî 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 Uzvârah by Yâķût, who states that there were many vaulted buildings, also the remains of a fire-temple that had become the castle of Ardistân, and here according to tradition Anûshirwân had been born. Mustawfî however, who spells the name Zuvârah, attributes all these remains, including the fire- temple, to King Bahmân, son of Isfandiyâr; 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 Ardistân and Kâshân were the Kargas Küh, 'the Vulture Hills, which Muķaddasî describes as the highest mountains in the Great Desert of Persia. The neigh- bouring Siyâh Kûh, Black Hills,' were of almost equal height and ruggedness :- black evil-looking mountains'; and both, says Istakhrî, were famous hiding-places for robbers. In a valley of the Vulture Hills was a fine spring called the Ab-i-Bandah, which gushed out from a cleft that was completely enclosed by rocks. About half-way between the Kargas Küh and the Siyâh Küh 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 Ișțakhrî, 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 Muķaddasî relates were never allowed to go out of repair, and there were shops in the caravanserai for the sale of provisions. Mustawfî describes the Kargas Küh as XIV] 209 JIBÂL. standing solitary, being joined to no other range, and some ten leagues in circuit. In their rocky heights the vultures nested, and the ibex (waʻl), that could live long without water, was found here in great numbers. To the west of Ardistân is the town of Națanz, or Națanzah, which appears to be mentioned by no Arab geographer before the time of Yâķût. Mustawfî states that its castle was called Washâķ, after one who was governor of Națanz, though originally this castle had borne the name of Kamart. Close to Națanz also was the large village of Țarķ, almost a town says Yâķût, and here according to ķazvînî the people were celebrated for their skill in carving bowls out of ivory and ebony; these being largely exported'. The city of Kashân is mentioned by Istakhri 'as a pleasant town, clay built, like Ķum. The earlier Arab geographers always spell the name Ķâshân (with the dotted ķ). The place became famous throughout the east for its tile-work, which took the name Kâshî (for Ķâshânî), this being still the common term for the well-known enamelled blue and green tiles so much used in mosque decoration. According to Muķaddasî Kâshân was the reverse of famous for its scorpions; and Yâķût, who refers to the beautiful green bowls of Ķâshî-ware which were in his day largely exported, speaks of the population as all fanatical Shî'ahs of the Imâmite sect. Mustawfî asserts that Kâshân had originally been built by Zubaydah, the wife of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd ; and he praises the palace of Fîn, lying near Kâshân, for its tanks and water- courses, which were supplied by the river from Kuhrûd. The Kâshân 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 Ķumm according to Arab orthography), to the north of Kashân, is now famous among the Shîʻahs for its shrine, said to mark the tomb of Fâțimah, sister of the sixth Imâm 'Alî-ar-Ridâ, a contemporary of Hârûn-ar-Rashid, whom they assert to have died here of poison on her way to join her brother in Khurâsân. Already in the 4th (10th) century Ibn Hawķal describes ķum as peopled by Shi'ahs; it was then a 1 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. 14 210 [CHAP. JIBÂL. walled town, with fertile gardens round it, celebrated for pistachio nuts and filberts. The ancient name of ķum according to Yâķût had been Kumandân, curtailed by the Arabs to ķumm. 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. Mustawfî states that the walls of ķum measured 10,000 paces in circuit, and, like Âvah, 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 ķumn lay in ruins, and it is to be remarked that neither he nor any earlier authorities make any mention of the tomb of Fâțimah, although the city is always noted as being a centre of the Shî‘ah sect'. The river of ķum_rose in the Gulpaygân district near the mountains of Khânsâr, as Mustawfî writes the name, and these ranges are the watershed between the Ķum river and the left- bank tributary of the Isfahân river already mentioned. Jurbâdh- aķân is the Arab name for Gulpaygân, of which the older form was Gurbâyigân, and Mustawfî explains the name to mean the place of roses,' writing it Gul-âbâd-ikân and goes on to praise its fertility and the excellent water, 50 villages being of its depend- encies. Muķaddasî refers to Jurbâdhaķân as lying about half-way between Karaj of Abu Dulaf and Isfahân, and the village of Khân- sâr which gave its name to the district, Yâķût adds, was of its neighbourhood. The town of Dalíjân lies further down the Ķum river; and according to Yâķût the name was pronounced Dulayjân or Dulaygân. Formerly it had been a flourishing place, but when Mustawfî wrote it had fallen to ruin. After passing the city of Ķum, the Ķum river joined the waters of the great stream coming down from Hamadân, called the river Gâvmâhâ, or Gâvmâsâ, which itself a short distance above Ķum had received on its right bank the Âvah river, and on its left bank the river passing Sâvah. 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 ķum. i Ist. 201. I. H. 264. Muk. 390. Yak. iv. 15, 175. J. N. 305. Mst. 150, 217. XIV] 211 JIBÂL. The town of Âvah (called Âvah of Sâvah to distinguish it from Âvah near Hamadân, see p. 196) lay a short distance to the west of ķum. The Âvah river took its rise in Tafrîsh, which Mustawff 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 Âvah is mentioned by Mukaddasî, who names it Âvâ or Âvah of Ray; and Yâķût, who speaks of it as a village or a small town, writes the name Abah, adding that its population were ardent Shîfahs. In the 8th (14th) century Mustawfî describes Âvah 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 ķum, he describes an isolated hill, called Kûh 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 10 leagues'. The city of Sâvah, lying midway between Hamadân and Ray on the great caravan road which traversed Persia (the Khurâsân road), was a place of importance as early as the 4th (10th) century, when Ibn Hawķal describes it as noted for its camels and camel- drivers, both much in demand throughout the land by pilgrims and travellers. Muķaddasî 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 Sâvah were Sunnîs, and Yâķût writes that in his day they were perpetually at feud with their neighbours of Âvah, who were Shîahs. Sâvah 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 Yâķût had seen, and describes as having had no equal throughout all Persian 'Irâķ. This library is also referred to by Kazvînî, 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 1 Ist. 195, 198. Muk. 25, 51, 257, 386, 402. Yak. i. 57; ii. 46, 392, 584. Mst. 147, 150, 206, 216. 14-2 212 [CHAP. JIBÂL. 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 Madâin. In Moslem legend Sâvah was famous for the great lake which had been here before the days of Islâm, 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 Mustawfî writes. He adds that in his day the walls of Sâvah had been recently rebuilt of burnt brick, being then 6200 ells in circuit. Four leagues to the west of Sâvah was the shrine of the prophet Samuel, and when Mustawfî wrote the population of the town had nearly all become Shî‘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 Sâvah river was called the Muzdaşân, from a town of this name which stood on its banks. This stream rose at Sâmân, a large village on the border of the Kharraķân district of Hamadân (see p. 196), lying in a rich country producing corn and grapes. From Sâmân the river came to Muzdakan (also spelt Muşdakân), a town which Mustawfî describes as 3000 paces in circuit, with a cold climate, being in the hill country. Yâķût speaks of a celebrated Rubât-guard-house or monastery—at Muzdaķân, where many Șûfîs had their abode; and the town was a stage on the great caravan road crossing Persia. After passing through Savah, Mustawfî tells us, the Muzdaķân river divided, part of its waters sinking underground into a great pit, while a moiety joined the Gâvmâhâ. The long river called the Gâvmâhâ (or Gâvmâsâ as some mss. write the name), which Mustawfî carefully describes for us, is now known as the Kârâ Șū— Black Water--along a part of its course. It had its head-waters, as already said, in the Hamadân plain, where divers streams came down from Asadâbâd, the Alvand mountain, and the Farîvâr 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 Sâvah and Âvah, 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] 213 JIBÂL. droughts. The Gâvmâhâ eventually mingled its stream with the river of ķum coming from Gulpaygân, and Mustawfî adds that their surplus waters after passing a place called Haftâd Pulân, * Eighty Bridges,' finally escaped and were lost in the Great Desert. The Gâvmâhâ river was to its district, says Mustawfi, what the Zandah Rûd 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'. 1 1. H. 258. Muk. 392. Yak. iii. 24; iv. 520. Kaz. ii. 258. Mst. 148, 149, 152, 217. The dam on the Gâvmâhâ was built by Shams-ad-Dîn, prime minister (Şâḥib-Dîvân) of Sulțân Aḥmad, son of Hâlâgû, the third Îl-Khân of Persia. CHAPTER XV. JIBÂL (continued). Ray. Varâmîn and Țihrân. ķazvîn and the castle of Alamât. Zanjân. Sultânîyah. Shîz or Satûrîķ. Khûnaj. The districts of Țâliķân and Țârum. The castle of Shamîrân. The trade and products of the Jibal province. The high roads of Jibâl, Adharbâyjân and the frontier pro- vinces of the north-west. At the north-eastern corner of the Jibâl 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 (10th) century Ray appears to have been the chief of the four capital cities of the Jibâl province; 'except for Baghdâd, indeed, it is the finest city of the whole east,' Ibn Hawķal writes, 'though Naysâbûr in Khurâsân 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 Muḥammad, afterwards the Caliph Mahdî, who had lived here during the reign of his father Manşûr, and had rebuilt much of the city. His son Hârûn-ar- Rashîd was born here, and under its official title of Muḥam- 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 Hawķal mentions five gates; the gate of the Bâtâķ Arch opening (S.W.) on the Baghdad road, Båb Balîsân (N.W.) towards Ķazvîn, Bâb Kühak (N.E.) towards Țabaristân, Bâb Hishâm (E.) on the Khurâsân road, and Bâb Sin (S.) towards Ķum. The CHAP. XV] 215 JIBÂL. markets of the city lay at, and outside, these gates, and the most frequented were in the suburbs of Sârbânân 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 Sûrķanâ running past the Rûdhah suburb; and the other, the river Al-Jilânî, flowing through Sârbânân. Yâķût also mentions the Nahr Mûsâ (River of Mûsâ), coming down from the mountains of Daylam, which may therefore be identical with the Jîlânî or Gîlân river, aforesaid. Muķaddasî refers to two great buildings in Ray, one the Dâr-al-Battikh, the water-melon house,' a name commonly given to the city fruit-market, the other the Dâr-al- Kuttub, or library, lying below Rûdhah in a khân (caravanserai), where, however, there were not many books, according to his account. In the 4th (10th) century both Ibn Hawķal and Muķaddasi 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 Yâķût states was built by the Caliph Mahdî 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 Yâķût 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-Madînah, “the City' proper. The Outer City was that part more especially known as Al-Muḥammadiyah, 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 Yâķût its castle was known as Az-Zubaydîyah (some mss. give the name as Az-Zaybandi), which had been the palace of Prince Mahdî 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 Kalah-al-Farrukhân, also known as Al-Jawsak, 'the Kiosque,' and during the 4th (10th) century Fakhr-ad-Dawlah the Buyid, who disliked the old palace on the hill-top, built himself a great 216 [CHAP. JIBÂL. house in the midst of gardens, which was afterwards known as Fakhrâbâd'. The most celebrated in early days of the many fertile districts round Ray were the following :-Rûdhah (or Ar-Rudhah), with a large village of the same name beyond the city suburb; Varâmîn, which afterwards took the place of Ray as the chief city of this part of the Jibâl province; Pashâviyah, still existing under the form Fashâviyah ; lastly, ķûsîn and Dizah, with the districts of Al- Kașrân, 'the Two Palaces '—the outer and the inner-Dîzah being the name of two large villages or towns lying one day's journey from Ray, to wit, Dîzah of ķașrân, and Dîzah of Varâmîn. All these hamlets according to Ibn Hawķal, with some others that he names, were like small towns, each with a population of over 10,000 men. In the year 617 (1220) Ray was taken, plundered, and burnt by the Mongol hordes, and from this great calamity it never recovered. Yâķût, 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 Yâķût describes as 'varnished smooth like the surface of a bowl.' The Shafi'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 Gâzân Khân the Mongol, by imperial decree, according to Mustawfî, 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 Varâmîn and Ţihrân, 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 Varâmîn lie at some distance to the south of Ray, while to the north of the city, Mustawfî says, was the hill of Țabarik-presumably not that on which the castle 1 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 Mahdî was called Zubaydîyah (if this indeed be the true reading) after the future wife of his son Hârûn-ar-Rashîd is not clear. 3 I. H. 270, 289. Yak. ii. 572, 833, 893, 894. XV] 217 JIBÂL. already mentioned as built by the Caliph. Mahdî had stood- where a silver mine was worked at much profit to the state. This castle of Țabarik, according to the chronicle of Zahîr-ad-Dîn, was founded by Manûchahr the Ziyârid at the beginning of the 5th (11th) century. Yâķût states that it was destroyed in 588 (1192) by Țughril II, the last Saljuş Sultan of 'Irâķ, and a long account is given of the siege of this famous stronghold. The Țabarik hill, he adds, lay on the right of the Khurâsân road to a traveller leaving Ray, while the Hill of Ray (presumably the site of the castle built by Mahdî) lay to the left of one leaving the city gate. Mustawfi describes the shrine of the Imâm Zâdah 'Abd-al-'Azim as situated close to Ray, and this Mashhad, or place of martyrdom, is still the most venerated sanctuary of modern Țihrân; the saint being a certain Husayn, son of ‘Alî-ar-Ridâ, the eighth Imâm. One of the famous districts near Ray was called Shahriyâr, and Mustawfî 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 Shahriyâr or Ray-Shahriyâr is the name which ‘Alî of Yazd, when describing the campaigns of Tîmûr, gives to Ray. Varâmîn, 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 Țihrân, which in the 7th (13th) century is merely mentioned as one of the largest villages of Ray. The early Țihrân (also spelt Tihrân with the soft t) had many half-underground houses, 'like Jerboa holes' according to ķazvînî, and the people of its twelve wards were always fighting, each ward against the other. Mustawfî in the next century describes Țihrân 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 Âķâ Muhammad Shâh, founder of the ķajar dynasty! The rivers that water the plain in which Ray, Varâmîn, and Țihrân stand, flow thence to the neighbouring border of the Great 1 Kaz. ii. 228, 250. Mst. 143, 144, 205. Yak. iii. 507, 564. A. Y. i. 583, 586, 597. Zahîr-ad-Dîn (Dorn, Muhammadanische Quellen, i. p. 15 of the Persian text) states that Țabarik means “a hillock,' being the diminutive of Țabar which signifies' a hill or mountain ’ in the Țabaristân dialect. Țabarik of Isfahân has been noticed on p. 205. p. Donaldson Tenis es ist begraben azien Jesenicima * falschi, 218 [CHAP. JIBÂL. Desert and there are lost. One of the chief streams was the Nahr Mûsâ 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-Khâtûn, 'the Lady's Bridge,' and so called, it was said, in memory of the lady Zubaydah, wife of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd. The ruins of this bridge still exist not far from Țihrân. Kazvînî also mentions the Nahr Sûrîn, whose waters were carefully avoided by the Shî'ah population of Ray, because the body of the murdered Yahyâ, grandson of 'Alî Zayn-al-'Âbidin the fourth Imâm, had been washed in it, and thus polluted the stream for evermore. The chief river of Ray, how- ever, according to Mustawfî, was the Jâyij Rûd, which, rising in the Jayij range under Damâvand, divided into forty channels on reaching the plain of Ray. On the western border of this plain lies the district of Sâûj Bulâgh-meaning 'Cold Springs' in the Turkish dialect—which is described by Mustawfî as having been an important place under the Saljûķs. In the time of the Mongols it paid revenues to the amount of 12,000 dînârs, and the chief among its numerous villages was Sunķurâbâd (which still exists), an important stage on the itinerary given by Mustawfî. Sâûj Bulâgh district was watered by the Garm Rûd, which, rising in the mountains to the east of ķazvîn, irrigated the districts of Ray and Shahriyâr, 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". Kazvîn (otherwise Kazwîn) lies about a hundred miles north- west of Țihrân, immediately below the great mountain chain, and from the earliest times was an important place, guarding the passes that led across the Țabaristân 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 ķazvîn was the chief fortress against these fierce infidels, and was strongly garrisoned by Moslem troops. Already in the times of the 1 Kaz. i. 181. Mst. 144, 148, 196, 216: and see British Museum Ms. Add. 23,543, f. 1796. J. N. 292, 304. Xv] 219 JIBÂL. Omayyad Caliphs, Muḥammad, son of Hajjaj-the latter being the celebrated governor of Arabian 'Irâķ—had been sent by his father at the head of an army against the infidels of the Daylam mountains. This Muḥammad had halted at ķazvîn, and built here the first Friday Mosque, which Yâķût 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 Hârûn-ar-Rashid. Ibn Hawkal in the 4th (roth) century describes ķazvîn 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 Țâliķân and Daylam. The two chief rivers of Kazvîn, according to Yafķûbî, were the Wâdî-al-Kabîr (the Great Stream), and the Wâdî Sayram. There were the remains of many fire-temples in this neighbour- hood, and Muķaddasî praises the grapes grown in the gardens round the place. Of the double town the two quarters were called the Madînah Mûsâ and the Madînah Mubârak, otherwise the Mubarakîyah. The Caliph Hâdî (elder brother of Hârûn-ar- Rashid), whose name was Mûsâ, had built here the town quarter named after him, Madînah Mûsâ. This was during the Caliphate of his father Mahdî ; and afterwards Hârûn-ar-Rashid (who suc- ceeded Hâdî) on his way to Khurâsân had halted in Kazvîn, where he laid the foundations of the new mosque and built the city walls. Mubârak the Turk, a freedman either of the Caliph Mamûn or of Mu'tasim, was the builder of the Mubarakiyah fortress at Mubarakâbâd, otherwise called the city of Mubârak. Throughout the middle-ages ķazvîn 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 Kazvîn, gives a long account of the place, derived in part from local traditions. He states that on the site of later ķazvîn there had stood an ancient Persian city, built by King Shâpûr and called Shâd Shâpûr-the Joy of Sapor.' Near its ruins the two Moslem cities of Madînah 220 [CHAP. JIBÂL. Mûsâ and Mubârakâbâd (Mubârak, he says, was a freedman of the Caliph Hâdî) were subsequently built, and Hârûn-ar-Rashid surrounded all three towns by a great fortified wall. This wall was only completed in 254 (868) by the Turk commander Mûsâ ibn Bughâ in the reign of the Caliph Mu'tazz; and it was afterwards rebuilt in burnt brick by Şadr-ad-Dîn, the Wazîr of the Saljûķ Sulțân Arslân II, in 572 (1176). Mustawfî further states that 300 villages were of the dependencies of ķazvîn, and of these the most important were Fârisjîn and Sagsâbâd, both mentioned in his itinerary. He also names a number of streams which irrigated the ķazvîn territory, namely the Kharûd, with the Buh Rûd and Kardân Rûd both flowing from Tâlişân, and the Turkân Rûd coming from the Kharraķân district (see p. 196). According to ķazvînî 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 Ķazvîn'. Dastuvâ (or Dastabâ) under the Omayyads holds the position of a mint city, and is the name of a great district, of which Yazdâbâd was the chief village. In Omayyad times Dastuvâ had belonged in part to Ray, in part to Hamadân, and we are told that the direct post-road from Ray to the Adharbâyjân province lay through it, avoiding ķazvîn. The name is no longer found on the map, but Dastabâ must have been to the south of Kazvîn, of which city in later days, under the Abbasid Caliphs, it came to be counted as a dependency. To the north-west of Kazvîn, on the summits of the mountains dividing this district from that of Rûdbâr, which lay along the 1 I. H. 259, 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. 145, 146, 196, 217. As his name implies, ķazvînî (like Mustawfî) was a native of ķazvîn, and Mustawfî in his history (the Guzîdah) has left a long account of his birth-place, which M. Barbier de Meynard has translated in the Journal Asiatique for 1857, ii. p. 257. Kazvînî (ii. 291) gives a rough ground plan of the town, which is figured in concentric circles of walls. The inner circle was the Shahristân, and this was surrounded by the great city (Al-Madînah-al-'Užmâ), which in turn was enclosed by gardens, depicted as encircled by arable fields; the latter traversed by the two rivers. XV] 221 JIBÂL. river Shâh Rûd in Țabaristân, stood the famous castles of the Assassins (Ismailians), fifty in total number Mustawfi says, of which Alamût was the capital and Maymûn Diz the strongest fortress. The name Alamût is said to mean ‘the eagle's nest' or 'the eagle's find' in the Țabaristân dialect, and the first to build a castle here was a Daylamite king whose hunting eagle had by chance once perched on the crag. Kazvînî, 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. Alamût lay six leagues distant from Kazvîn, and its later fortress was built by the 'Alid missioner Hasan, surnamed Ad-Da'i-ilâ-l-Haķk, in 246 (860). In 483 (1090)-or 446 (1054) according to ķazvînî—it came into the possession of Hasan Sabâḥ, surnamed the Old Man of the Mountain, and for 171 years was the chief stronghold of his followers. Alamût was taken and dismantled in 654 (1256) by order of Hûlâgû Khân 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 Ismâîlians, still exist in the mountains to the north of Kazvîn'. Abhar and Zanjân, two cities often named together, lay on the high road west of Kazvîn, and were famous from early times. Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) 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 1 Kaz. ii. 200. Mst. 147. In the Guzîdah (chapter iv, section ix, part 2) Mustawfî gives the history of the Ismâîlians or Assassins in Persia ; and this has been translated, with notes, by Defrémery, in the Journal Asiatique (1849, i. 26). He gives in a list (p. 48) the names of the Ismâîlian fortresses taken and destroyed by order of Hûlágû, but the position of most of these is un- known. Girdkûh and Lanbasar were the last strongholds to fall. Alamût, however, appears not to have been entirely destroyed by Hâlâgû, or perhaps it was rebuilt later, for it served as a state prison under Shâh Sulaymân the Şafavî, as is mentioned by Chardin (Voyage en Perse, X. 20). In the last century Colonel Monteith visited the ruins, and has described them in the 7. R. G. S. for 1833 (p. 15). 222 [CHAP. JIBÂL. a great platform, and ķazvînî reports that it was famous for its water- mills, also for the so-called 'Abbâsî pear grown here, in shape like an orange and very sweet. According to Yâķût the Persians pronounced the name Avhar. Mustawfî records that the fortress was rebuilt under the Saljūķs by the Atabeg Bahâ-ad-Dîn Haydar, and hence was known as the Haydarîyah. The city walls measured 5500 paces in circuit, and the Abhar river, after watering the district, flowed towards Ķazvîn, becoming lost in the desert plain. The city of Zanjân lay about 50 miles to the north- west of Abhar, and on the Zanjân river, which flowed west to the Safîd Rûd. Zanjân is described by Ibn Hawķal as larger than Abhar; and it was on the high road into Adharbâyjân. The Persians, Yâķût says, pronounce the name Zangân, and Mustawfi states that the place was founded by King Ardashîr Bâbgân, being first named Shahîn. Zanjân had been ruined during the Mongol invasion; its walls, however, were still 10,000 paces in circuit, the district was most fertile, and its revenues amounted to 20,000 dînârs. Mustawfî adds that the language talked here, in the beginning of the 8th (14th) century, was still 'almost pure Pahlavî,' by which a local Persian dialect is doubtless indicated'. About half-way between Abhar and Zanjân, in the centre of the great plain forming the watershed between rivers flowing west to the Safîd Rûd and east to the Great Desert, lie the ruins of the Mongol city of Sultânîyah, which, founded by Arghûn Khân, was completed by Uljaytů Sulţân in 704 (1305) and made the capital city of the Îl-Khân dynasty. Abu-l-Fidâ states that its Mongol name was Kungurlân, and according to Mustawfi nine cities were of its dependencies. Its walls were 30,000 paces in circuit, and in the central fortification stood the great sepulchre of Uljaytû, adorned with many carvings in stone. The ruins of this domed tomb (or mosque) still exist, but of the city nothing now remains, although Mustawfî says that in his day Sulțânîyah contained finer buildings than any other town in Persia, Tabrîz alone excepted. On the Abhar road five leagues east of Sulțânîyah lay the village of ķuhûd, which the Mongols call Şain Kalah, Mustawfî writes, and under the latter name - Şâin's Fortress' 1 I. H. 258, 271, 274. Muk. 378, 392. Kaz. ii. 191. Yak. i. 104; ii. 573, 574, 948; iv. 1017. Mst. 146, 147, 217. Xv] 223 JIBÂL. the place still exists, Şâin, otherwise called Bâtû Khân, being the grandson of Changîz Khân. The strong castle of Sarjahân stood on the mountain spurs half-way between Şâin Kalah and Sulțânîyah. 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 ķazvîn. Yâķut describes Sarjahân, which was of the Ţârum district, as one of the strongest fortresses that he had seen; but when Mustawfî wrote it was in ruins, the result of the Mongol invasion, its munitions of war and garrison having been transferred to Şâin Kalʻah. To the west of Sulțânîyah lay the two small neighbouring towns of Suhravard and Sujâs, which were still of some importance when Mustawfî was here in the 8th (14th) century, though now entirely gone to ruin. Ibn Hawķal writes in the 4th (10th) century that Suhravard with its Kurdish population was then as large as Shahrazûr, it was a walled town and well fortified, lying to the south of Zanjân on the road to Hamadân. Sujâs, or Sijâs, 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 Jarûd and Anjarûd (at the present day they are known under the names of Ijarûd and Angurân), and Sujâs lay five leagues west of Sulțânîyah in the midst of more than a hundred villages settled by Mongols. In the mountain near was the grave of Arghûn Khân, made a Kurugh or 'inviolate sanctuary' after the custom of the Mongols, and his daughter Uljaytů Khâtûn had built here a khânķâh or convent for Darvishes'. On the western border of the Jibál province, near one of the head-streams of the Safîd Rûd, are the remarkable ruins called Takht-i-Sulayman-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. 40, 70, 203. A. F. 407. Mst. 144, 145, 148, 149, 196. Both Sujâs and Suhravard have apparently now disappeared from the map; though Sir H. Rawlinson writes (7. R. G. S. 1840, p. 66) that Sujâs was in his time a small village lying 24 miles S.E. of Zanjân he further adds that Suhravard is now lost.' 224 [CHAP. JIBÂL. have been identified with the city of Ash-Shîz, mentioned by the early Arab geographers, which Mustawfî also describes under the name of Satûrîş. At Shîz, Ibn Khurdâdbih, 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 Madâin (Ctesiphon), and halting at the half-way stage of Shahrazûr, 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 Shîz was the birth-place of Zoroaster. Yâķût reports that the Persian name was Jîs, otherwise Gazn, of which Shîz was an Arab corruption. He then quotes a long account from Ibn Muhalhal, who in 331 (943) wrote a description of Shîz, which he had visited in search of gold mines said to exist in its mountains. The town walls of Shîz, he states, surrounded a lake, that was unfathomable, about a Jarîb (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 Shîz. The same place is described by Mustawfî who gives it as the chief town of the Anjarûd district, and adds that the Mongols called it Satûrîş. 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. Mustawfî relates that Abaķah Khân the Mongol had built himself a palace here, for there were excellent pasture grounds in the neighbourhood'. In the north-western angle of the Jibâl province, on the high road from Zanjân to Ardabîl, lay the important commercial town of Khûnaj, according to Ibn Hawķal noted already in the 4th (10th) I. F. 286. Kaz. ii. 267. Yak. iii. 353. Mst. 148. Sir H. Rawlinson (7. R. G. S. 1840, p. 65) would identify Takht-i-Sulaymân or Shîz with the northern Ecbatana of the Greek writers. 11. K. 119. Xv] 225 JIBÂL. century for its fine breed of horses, sheep, and oxen. Yâķut, who had visited the town, gives the alternative spelling of Khûnâ, but he adds that it was more generally called Kâghadh Kunân, the Paper Factory'—for the people augured evil of the name Khânâ which signified 'bloody' in Persian. Mustawfi, who in his itinerary gives the position of Kâghadh Kunân as lying six leagues south of the Safîd Rûd, and fourteen north of Zanjân on the direct road to Ardabîl, 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 Safîd Rûd. 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 Khûnaj has not, apparently, been identified. Along the southern slope of the great range dividing the Jibâl province from Daylam and Ţabaristân to the north, were the three districts of Pushkil-Darrah, Tâliķân, and Ţârum, 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 Mustawfî, lay to the west of Kazvîn, and south of Țâliķân. It comprised forty villages whose revenues had formerly gone to the up-keep of the Friday Mosque in Kazvîn. The name Țâliķân- the district lying between the Sulțânîyah plains and the northern mountain range—has disappeared from the map, but At-Țâliķân (as it is generally written) is frequently mentioned by the earlier Arab geographers. Muķaddasî refers to it as a most populous and fertile region; and expresses his wonder that the Sulțân (the Governor of Daylam) does not live here instead of in the mountain valleys, “but his people will not have it,' he adds. Ķazvînî refers to the abundant olives and fine pomegranates grown in Țâliķân, and Yâķût names some of its villages. Of these last Mustawfî 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 Ţâliķân region belonged rather to Gîlân. To the north of Zanjân, likewise along the foot of the hill spurs, lies the Ţârum district, which with the Arab geographers is LE S. 15 226 [CHAP. JIBÂL. generally found in the dual form At-Târumayn, the Two Țârums,' 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 Rûd, and its many tributaries irrigated this fertile district. Yâķût, 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 Vahsûdân family, and the last of these native chiefs had been dispossessed by Rukn-ad-Dawlah the Buyid. Mustawi mentions Firůzâbâd as the capital town of Lower Țârum, Andar (or Aydî) being the chief place in Upper Târum, with the fortress called Kalah Tâj, and he names five districts, each comprising numerous villages. As being in Lower Țârum, but the position is nowhere given, Mustawfî mentions the great castle of Shamîrân, or Samîrân as the name is spelt by Yâķût, who had himself visited its ruins. Yâķût quotes also a long account from Ibn Muhalhal, who passed through Samîrân 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 Vahsûdân family, a child, whose mother the Buyid chief married. At about this date Muķaddasî, who spells the name of the castle Samîrûm, describes it as being of the Salârvand 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 Nâșir-i-Khusraw visited Samîrân on his pilgrimage to Mecca. This was in 438 (1046) and he describes it as the capital of Țârum in Daylam. It apparently lay three leagues west of the junction of the Shâh Rûd with the Safid Rûd on the high road to Sarâv in Adharbâyjân. Above the lower town was an immense ss, crowning a rock with its triple wall, garrisoned by a thousand men, water being obtained by an underground conduit. Yâķût, who saw Samîrân 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 Alamût. 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 Târum. Its site, however, does not appear to have been identified XV] 227 JIBÂL. by any modern traveller. Another fortress of this district is also mentioned by Yâķût, bearing the name of ķilât, which was situated in the Ţârum mountains, on the frontier of Daylam between Ķazvîn and Khalkhâl. 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. Yâķût states that this castle had belonged to the chief of the Assassins at Alamût, but like Samîrân its site as yet remains unidentified'. In the matter of the manufactures and products of some of the chief towns of the Jibâl province Mukaddasî 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 ķazvînî, being made from the fine-grained hard wood known as khalanj, which came from the Țabaristân forests. Ray also was famous for its melons and peaches, and for a kind of saponaceous clay, much used in washing the head. In ķazvîn well-made clothes were to be bought, also leathern sacks used on journeys as wallets. Bows for archery were exported, also the calamint herb. Ķum was noted for its chairs, bridles, stirrups, and various stuffs ; much saffron, too, came from its district. Ķâshân 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. Hamadân and its neighbour- hood produced cheese, and much saffron; and the skins of foxes and martens were exported. T'in is named as found near here, and various stuffs, as well as good boots, were made in the city. Finally from Dînavar came famous cheeses. The chief highway through the Jibâl province was part of the great caravan road, commonly called the Khurâsân road, which, as already described in the introductory chapter, went from Baghdâd to Transoxiana and the farther east. Entering the 1 I. H. 253. Muk. 360. Yak. i. 63, 811; ii. 499, 500; iii. 148, 492, 533; iv. 156. Kaz. ii. 268. Mst. 149, 150, 198, 217. J. N. 297. N. K. 5. 2 Muk. 395, 396. Kaz. ii. 250. 15-2 228 [CHAP. JIBÂL. province at Hulwân this high road passed through it diagonally, coming first to Ķirmîsîn (or Kirmânshâh), then to Hamadân, from which town Sâvah was the next point, thence finally north to Ray, beyond which it passed eastward out of the Jibâl province into Ķůmis, and through this to Khurâsân. Of the Khurâsân 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 10th) 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 Muķaddasî, who gives the distances by the day's march (Marḥalah). After the Mongol conquest and the establishment of the dynasty of the Îl-Khâns in Persia, Sulțânîyah became the capital, and hence the centre of the road system. In the itineraries of Mustawfî, therefore, instead of starting from Baghdad and going east, the roads start from Sulțânîyah, and towards Baghdad the reverse direction is of course followed. From Hulwân to Hamadân (to revert to the older order of the route) the stages are however practically the same in both systems. But from Hamadân, instead of going by Sâvah to Ray, the Mongol high road goes north direct to Sultânîyah across the Darguzîn and Kharraķân districts. No great towns, however, are passed, and the stages on the road, as given by Mustawfî, being names of villages, are all extremely uncertain'. From near Kirmânshâh, at the hill called 'Sumayrah's Tooth,' Sinn Sumayrah (see p. 188), the road to Maraghah in Adhar- bâyjân and the north turns off from the great Khurâsân road, running first to Dînavar and thence to Sîsar (probably identical with the modern Siḥnah town, see p. 190) and the Jibâl frontier. This route, of which the continuation through Adharbâyjân will be described presently, is given by both Ķudâmah and Ibn Khurdâdbih, and the earlier portions of it are found in Ibn Hawķal. From Kirmanshah (Kirmîsîn), from Kanguvâr and from Hamadân, roads branched to the right, going south-east to Nihâvand, 11. R. 165–169. 1. K. 19-22. Kud. 198—200. I. H. 256—258. Muk. 40o—-4O2. Mst. I92. Xv] 229 JIBÂL. whence, and from Hamadân direct, the way went by Burûjird to Karaj of Abu Dulaf and thence on to Isfahân. Mustawfi gives the stages from Kanguvâr to Nihâvand and then on by a devious route to Isfahân; while from Karaj Muķaddasî gives the direct road to Ray going viâ Âvah and Varâmîn?. The present high road from Isfahân to Țihrân (past Ray) goes up through Ķâshân and ķum; 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 ķâshân and to ķum. Muķaddasî, however, at the close of the 4th (10th) century, already gives the route direct through Ķâshân and ķum, as it goes now- adays. In Mustawfî the road after passing these two towns turned to the left through Âvah to Sâvah, whence Sulțânîyah was reached, the great high road from this new capital to Ray being joined at the stage of Sûmghân, 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 Adharbâyjân province is given by Ibn Hawķal and others, also those from Zanjân north to Ardabîl. The stages on this route, however, are found in fullest detail in Mustawfî. Between Sulțânîyah and Ray the road passed through Abhar to Fârisjîn, leaving Ķazvîn to the north, and thence reached a stage called Sumghân (the reading of this name is uncertain), where it bifurcated. The Khurâsân high road went straight onward by the shrine of 'Abd-al-'Azim to Ray, and thence to Varâmîn ; while branching to the right southwards, the Isfahân road went first to Sagzâbâd (or Sagziâbâd), and thence on to Sâvah as already described. Of the roads through Adharbâyjân, in early times under the Caliphate, as already noticed, the great northern branch starting from the Khurâsân road at Hamadân went to Sîsar, and thence on to Barzah in Adharbâyjân, 60 miles south of the Urmîyah lake, where it bifurcated 4. To the right the main road passed to Mst. 195. 1 I. K. 119, 120. Kud. 199, 200, 212. I. H. 256, 257, 258. Muk. 401, 402. 2 I. R. 190, 191. I. K. 58, 59. I. H. 289, 290. Muk. 491. Mst. 199. 3 I. H. 252, 258. Muk: 383. Mst. 196, 198, 199. 4 See Map III, p. 87. 230 [CHAP. JIBÂL. the east of the lake by Marâghah to Tabrîz, and thence east through Sarâv to Ardabîl. The left branch at the bifurcation at Barzah kept to the west of the lake, going by Urmîyah city to Khuwî, and thence by Nakhchivân (Nashawâ) to Dabîl, the capital of Armenia. From Tabrîz there was the cross-road by Marand to Khuwî, and thence on by Arjîsh to Khilâț at the western end of the Vân lake. This last section is given by Iștakhrî and Mukaddasi only! From Ardabîl, north, the road went across the Mûghân district to Warthân, where the Araxes was crossed, and thence by Bay- laķân to Bardhâ'ah. From this town one road went by Shamkûr north-westwards up the Kur river to Tiflîs in Georgia ; while to the right by Barzanj, at the crossing of the Kur, another road led to Shamâkhâ, the capital of Shirvân, and thence on to Bâb- al-Abwâb, otherwise Darband. A road from Dabîl, the capital of Armenia, to Bardhâʻah is also given by Muķaddasî and others, but the stages are not easy to identify”. The Mongol road system which went through Adharbâyjân to the north-western frontiers, as described by Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century, started from the new capital Sultâniyah, and at Zanjân bifurcated. To the right, the northern branch passed through Khủnaj or Kâghadh Kunân, crossed the Safîd Rûd, and by Khalkhâl city came to Ardabil, from whence Bajarvân, the capital of Mûghân, was reached. From Zanjân, and crossing the Safîd Rûd by a stone bridge (called the Kanțarah Sabîd Rudh), this road is also given in part by Istakhrî and Ibn Hawķal, with a cross-road from Miyânij. Continuing on from Bajarvân Mustawfî first notices the branch road, east, to Mahmûdâ- bâd, and then mentions the stages on the main road, which went from Bajarvân by Bardhâ‘ah and Shamkûr to Tiflîs. Returning to the bifurcation at Zanjân, the left branch, as described by Mustawfi, went up to Miyânij in Adharbâyján, and thence by Ujân to Tabriz, following the line given in the con- trary direction) by the earlier Arab geographers. From Tabrîz Mustawfî likewise gives the road on to Arjîsh on the lake of Vân, 1 I. K. 119-121. Kud. 212, 213. Ist. 194. I. H. 252—254. Muk. 382, 383. 2 I. K. 121, 122. Kud. 213. Ist. 192, 193. I. H. 251. Muk. 381. Xv] 231 JIBÂL. whence, bearing away from the left road along the lake shore to Khilâț, he records the distances going north-west to Malâsjird, and on by Arzan-ar-Rûm (Erzerum) through Arzanjân to Sivas, the capital of the Saljûķ province of Rûm. Finally, starting from Tabriz and going north-east, Mustawfì gives the cross-road to Bajarvân, which went by Âhar, crossing two passes; and along this line, he tells us, the Wazîr 'Ali Shâh had recently built a number of Rubâts or guard-houses? 1 Mst. 198, 199. Ist. 194. I. H. 252. CHAPTER XVI. KHŮZISTÂN. The Dujayl or Kârûn river. Khûzistân and Ahwâz. Tustar or Shustar. The Great Weir. The Masruķân canal. “Askar Mukram. Junday Shâpûr. Dizfûl. Sûs and the Karkhah river. Bașinnâ and Mattâth. Karķûb and Dûr-ar-Râsibî. Hawîzah and Nahr Tîrâ. Dawraķ and the Surraķ district. Þișn Mahdî. The Dujayl estuary. Râmhurmuz and the Zutt district. Territory of Great Lur. Îdhaj or Mâl-Amîr. Sûsan. Lurdagân. Trade and products of Khûzistân. The high roads. The province of Khůzistân comprises all the alluvial lands of the river Kârûn, known to the Arabs as the Dujayl of Al-Ahwâz, with its many affluents'. This river was called the Dujayl (Little Tigris) of Al-Ahwâz, past which city it flowed, in order to distinguish it from the Dujayl canal of the Tigris to the north of Baghdad. Khûzistân means 'the Land of the Khûz,' a name otherwise written Hûz or Hûz; and the plural of Huz, in Arabic, is Ahwaz, which was the capital city, Al-Ahwâz being the shortened form of Suķ-al-Ahwaz, “the Market of the Hûz people.' The name Khûzistân for the province is now become almost obsolete, and at the present day this district of Persia is known as 'Arabistân, 'the Arab Province. Its great river, too, is no longer called the Dujayı, being now known as the Kârûn, a name which is said to be a corruption of Kúh Rang, 'the Coloured Hills,' namely the mountains from which it descends; the name Kârûn, however, appears to have been unknown to the medieval Arab or Persian geographers. The upper waters of the Dujayl or Kârûn river ramify 1 For Khûzistân see Map II, p. 25. CHAP. XVI] 233 KHŮZISTÂN. 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 Kuh Zard, 'the Yellow Mountain' (see p. 207); from which, on the other versant, the main stream of the river Zandah Rûd 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 Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century counts as the capital of Khůzistân, whence he calls the river the Dujayl of Tustar. Tustar the stream bifurcates, but coming together again at 'Askar Mukram, thence flows past Ahwaz, where it is joined by the Junday Sâbûr or Dizfůl river. The Dizfal takes its course from Burûjird in Lesser Lur (see p. 200), and its upper waters were known as the Ķar'ah (or ķaw'ah). After being joined by another river, called the Kazkî, the main stream flowed past the city of Dizfûl to join the Dujayl, as we have seen. Another great affluent of the Dujayl ran further to the westward, namely the river of Sûs, otherwise called the Karkhah. This rose in the mountains of Lesser Lur, and was joined by the Kûlků, also by the river of Khurramâbâd. After a long course these united streams, flowing down past the city of Sûs, came to the Hawîzah country to the west of Ahwâz 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 Khůzistân rivers found their way out to the Persian Gulfi. Al-Ahwaz, the capital of the province, had originally been known by the name of Hurmuz-Shahr (variously given in the MSS. as Hurmuz Awshîr and Hurmuz-Ardashîr), this being the Persian name. Muķaddasî 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 Muķaddasî writes of it as possessing in his day many great warehouses, where merchandise was collected 1 I. S. 32. I. R. 90, 91. Yak. ii. 496, 555. Mst. 204, 214, 215, 216. J. N. 286. XVI] 235 KHzISTAN. embroidered cotton stuffs of all kinds were made here, the brocade (Dîbâj) 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 Shâpûr (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 (Shâdhurwân) 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 Muķaddasî a bridge of boats (Jisr) stretched over it, carrying the high road which went west from Tustar towards ‘Irâķ. 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. Mustawfî 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 Baţûtah calls the Dujayl (or Kârûn) the Nahr-al-Azrak, 'the Blue River,' and speaks of the bridge of boats, like those at Baghdad and Hillah,' which crossed the river west of the town from the Dizfûl 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 1 Ist. 89, 92. 1. H. 172, 174, 175. Muk. 405, 409. Yak. i. 847. Mst. 168. 1. B. ii. 24. The story of Valerian, and the building of the Great Weir by Sapor I, is narrated by Țabarî (i. 827), who, with unusual accuracy, gives the name of the Roman Emperor as Alariyânâs (the Greek form is Oủadeplavós). Mas'ûdî (ii. 184) in error gives these events under the reign of Sapor II. 236 [CHAP. KHŮZISTÂN. above the city, which should water the lands to the eastward. This canal, now called the Âb-i-Gargar, was in the earlier middle- ages known as the Masruķân or Mashruķân, and according to Ibn Muhalhal--a traveller of the 4th (10th) century, quoted by Yâķût—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 Shuţayt, or 'Little River,' in the reach immediately below Shustar) is rejoined by the Masruķân branch some 25 miles south of Shustar, at a point near the ruins of Band-i-ķîr. These mark the site of the city called 'Askar Mukram, which, throughout the middle-ages, was the most important town on the Masruķân, and the canal throughout its course passed through and irrigated lands planted with sugar- canes, the finest, it was said, in all Khûzistân. In the early part of the 9th (15th) century, Hâfiz Abrû and ‘Alî of Yazd, writing after the time of Tîmûr, 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 Masruķân, or Âb-i-Gargar), was then called the Dů Dânikah 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 Chahâr Dânikah or 'Four Sixths. At the present day a canal, called the Mînaw, 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 Dashtâbâd canal mentioned by Mustawfî; and it is referred to by Hâfiz Abrû, who says that the Chahâr Dânikah was divided near the city into two streams, of which only one re-united below with the Dû Dânikah (or Masruķân). According to tradition the Masruķân had been originally dug by Ardashîr Bâbgân, founder of the Sassanian monarchy. Mustawfî mentions the city of Masruķân as standing on the canal bank; and south of this, as already said, at a point half-way between Tustar and Ahwaz, the Masruķân stream poured back into the Dujayl near the city of 'Askar Mukram. The Masruķân district was famous for a particularly ex- cellent kind of date, as well as for the sugar-cane already alluded to. XVI] 237 KHUZISTẤN. Askar Mukram took its name from the camp (‘Askar) of Mukram, an Arab commander sent into Khûzistân by Hajjaj, the celebrated viceroy of 'Irâķ under the Omayyads, to put down a revolt. Mukram encamped near the ruins of a Persian town originally called Rustam Kuwâd, a name corrupted by the Arabs into Rustaķubâdh; 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- Ķîr, 'the Bitumen Dyke,' where the Âb-i-Gargar (the Masruķân) runs into the Kârûn. In the 4th (10th) century 'Askar Mukram was a town occupying both banks of the Masruķân 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 Mustawfî the older Persian town had been called Burj Shâpûr, after King Sapor II, who had rebuilt and enlarged it; Mustawfî 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 Khûzistân. According to Ibn Serapion, and other early authorities, the Masruķân channel, in the 4th (10th) 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 Hawķal, in the previous century, describes how he himself travelled down the bed of the Masruķân, at a season of low water, going by this route from 'Askar Mukram to Ahwâz; 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 Masruķân cannot now be followed, for in this alluvial country the lapse of a thousand years has completely changed the face of the land. Below Ahwâz city, in the 3rd (9th) century, began the broad reach of the Dujayl called the Nahr-as-Sidrah—'the Lotus Canal'—which, after 238 [CHAP. KHŮZISTÂN. receiving many affluents, ended at Hișn Mahdî, near the head of the Kârûn tidal estuary'. Eight leagues north-west of Tustar, on the road to Dizful, lie the ruins now called Shâhâbâd, which mark the site of the city of Junday Sâbûr, or Jundi Shâpûr. Under the Sassanians Junday Sâbûr had been the capital city of Khûzistân, and as late as the time of the Caliph Manşûr it was famous for the great medical school founded here by the Christian physician Bukht-Yishu“, 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 Khurâsân and the further east, though already by the 4th (10th) century Muķaddasî speaks of Junday Sâbûr 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‘ķûb, son of Layth the Șaffârid, who having made this city his capital, died here in 265 (878). Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century describes Jundi Shâpûr as still a populous town, famous for its sugar-cane, though at the present day an almost uninhabited ruin alone marks the site. Dizful, the Diz Bridge' or the Castle Bridge,' lies on the Diz river to the west of Junday Sâbûr. The city took its name from a famous bridge, said to have been built by Sapor II, and called ķanțarah Andâmish by Istakhrî. The remains of it still exist. The city was in the 4th (10th) century also known as ķașr (the Castle of) Ar-Runâsh; Mukaddasi, however, sometimes refers to it merely as the town of Al-Kanţarah, the Bridge. The place and its famous bridge had various other names. Thus Ibn Serapion calls it Ķanțarah-ar-Rûm, 'the Roman Bridge,' and the Diz he names the river of Junday Sâbûr. , Again, Ibn Rustah writes of ķanțarah-ar-Rûdh, the River Bridge,' and in Ibn Khurdâdbih we find ķanțarah-az-Zâb, Zâb being according to him the name of the Diz river. In the 8th (14th) century 1 I. S. 32. Ist. 90, 92. I. H. 172, 173, 175. Muk. 409, 411. A. Y. i. 588, 591, 599. Hfz. 82 a. Mst. 169, 170. Yak. i. 411, 412; ii. 676. Ham- zah, 47. XVI] 239 KHUZISTÂN. 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 Andâlmishk (or Andamish) Bridge. The town of Dizfûl occupied both banks of the river, and above the town 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 Dizfûl were famous, and the narcissus grew here abundantly. 'Alî of Yazd gives the name of Zâl to the river, and he describes the bridge at Dizfal (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 Kârûn opposite Band-i-Ķir ('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 Sâbûr than is now the case. At its junction, in the middle-ages, with the Dujayl, and probably to the north of Ahwâz, lay the two fertile districts, with their chief towns, called Great and Little Manâdhir, which Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century describes as surrounded by palm-groves and growing much corn'. The country to the north and east of Dizfûl and Tustar, was, in the earlier middle-ages, known as the Lur Plain (Şaḥrâ 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 Jibâl province, as already noticed in Chapter XIV. In the 4th (10th) century, when Ibn Hawķal 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 1 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. III. Mst. 169. A. Y. i. 588, 591. For the various physicians of the name of Bukht-Yishûó who, though Christians, served the Abbasid Caliphs from Manşûr to Hârûn-ar-Rashîd as court physicians, see Ibn Abi Usaybî‘ah (edited by A. Müller), i. 125–143, 202. 2 Ist. 88, 94. I. H. 171, 176. Muk. 409. 240 [CHAP. KHUZISTÂN. To the south-west of Dizfûl lie the ruins of Sûs, 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 Sûs, 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 Karkhâ, or Karkhah, which now gives its name to the river flowing by the mounds of Sús, lies some distance above these, and on the right or western bank. Muķaddasî 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 Sus, 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 Bașinnâ, which lay a short day's journey south of Sûs, on a canal (or possibly a minor affluent of the Karkhah river), which was known as the Dujayl or ‘Little Tigris' of Başinnâ. It was a great place for trade, and the veils of Bașinnâ were celebrated all over the Moslem w id; 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 Muķaddasî. Near Basinnâ, and also about 1 Ist. 88, 92, 93. I. H. 174. Muk. 405, 407, 408. Mst. 269. A. F. 311. Yak. iv. 252 (where Karajah is printed in error for Karkhah). 242 [CHAP, KHŮZISTÂN. the Lotus river (Nahr-as-Sidrah). From the east, but lower down, is the junction of the Dawraķ river, or canal, on which lay the city of this name, the capital of the Surraķ district. The town was called Dawraķ-al-Furs, 'of the Persians'; it was very spacious, with fine markets where goods of all sorts were warehoused, and the pilgrims from Fârs and Kirmân 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 (10th) century wonderful Sassanian buildings were still to be seen at Dawraḥ, also a fire-temple, according to Ibn Muhalhal. In the district near Dawraķ were the two cities of Mîrâkiyân and Mîrâthiyân, which Muķaddasî describes. The first lay on a tidal canal, and was surrounded by excellent lands; while Mîrâthiyân consisted of two quarters, with a Friday Mosque in each of them and markets that were much frequented. In the 4th (10th) century much of the water of the southern swampy lands of the Khûzistân district drained out to the Persian Gulf by channels running south from Dawraḥ, and these entered the sea at Bâsiyân. Near this town must have been the creek and island of Dawraķistân, mentioned by Yâķût and ķazwînî, 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 Dujayl'. The Dujayl below Ahwaz 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 Sūķ Baḥr, a town where, until the time of the Caliph Muậtadir in the middle of the 4th (10th) 1 Ist. 93. I. H. 176. Muk. 407, 412. Yak. i. 411; ii. 371, 618, 620. Mst. 169. Kaz. ii. 130, 246. Both Nahr Tîrâ and Manâdhir must have been important places in Omayyad days, for between the years go and 97 (709–716) both were mint cities. XVI] 243 KHUZISTÂN. century, there had been toll-barriers, vexatious and unlawful dues being here exacted. The town of Saķ-al-Arba'â (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 Sūķ-al-Arba'â was the more populous, and here was the mosque. The neighbouring town of Jubbâ 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 Hișn Mahdî, with a mosque standing in the midst of its guard-houses (Rubât), said to have been built by the Caliph Mahdî, father of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd. Hișn Mahdî stood a few miles above the point where the Adudî canal branched off to the westward, joining the head of the Dujayl estuary with the Blind Tigris at Bayân, 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 Sulaymânân, and this was a dangerous passage for ships, which appear to have reached Ahwaz more safely by threading the various canals and rivers going up by Bâsiyân to Dawraķ and thence into the Lotus river. The fortress of Hișn Mahdî, 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 Hawîzah country and the Dawraķ river flowed in from the north-west and the east. Above this point began the Lotus channel, going up to Ahwâz, from which city Hișn Mahdî was 20 leagues distant'. Three days' march east of Ahwaz is the city of Râmhurmuz, still known by the name which it received from King Hurmuz, grandson of Ardashîr Bâbgân. In the 4th (10th) century it was famous for the silkworms reared here, and raw silk was largely exported. In Râmhurmuz 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- 1 I. S. 30. Kud. 194. Ist. 93, 95. I. H. 172, 176. Muk. 412, 419. Yak. i. 185; ii. 12; iii. 193. 16-2 244 [CHAP. KHUZISTÂN. 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 Sawwâr, who had also founded a similar institution at Başrah. Râmhurmuz got its water by a canal from the Ţâb river, but this in summer-time often ran dry, and the town was everywhere so infested by gnats that according to Muķaddasî mosquito curtains were a necessity. Mustawfî, in the 8th (14th) century, says that the name Râmhurmuz 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 Râmhurmuz, on the road to Arrajân and not far from the river Ţâb, which here marked the boundary of Fârs, was the Ha mah or district of the Zuţt, otherwise known as the Jât tribes from India (identical it is said with the Gipsies). This district was watered from the Ţâb river, and here stood the two populous villages called Az-Zutt and Al-Khâbarân. Beyond this, and two marches short of Arrajân, close to the Fârs frontier on the road coming from Arrajân to Dawrak, was the little town of Asak, where, according to Istakhrî, there was a small volcano. The place stood in the midst of palm-groves, and much dúshâb, or syrup of raisins, was made here and exported. Near Asak also were Sassanian remains, namely, a great Aywân or domed hall, a hundred ells in height, built by King ķubâdh over a spring. East of Asak, and a few miles short of Arrajân, but to the west of the bridges over the Ţâb river, was the market town of Sanbîl in the midst of its district, which thus lay along the borders of Fârs. The Lur districts lay east and north of Tustar along the upper course of the Dujayl (Kârûn river) and its numerous affluents. The country to the east and south of the upper Kârûn (which here makes a great bend and doubles back, between its source in the mountains west of Isfahân, and the point north of 1 Ist. 92, 93, 94. I. H. 175, 176. Muk. 407, 413. Yak. i. 61. Mst. 169. By a strange error Yâķût (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] 245 KHUZISTÂN. Tustar, where it finally turns south and flows down towards the Persian Gulf) Mustawfî describes as the Great Lur district, and this lay contiguous to the Shůlistân district over the border in Fârs. The chief town of Great Lur was Îdhaj, otherwise called Mâl- Amîr. Muķaddasî describes it in the 4th (10th) century as one of the finest towns of Khůzistân; and it stood near the hills, where, at a place called Asadâbâd, was the palace of the governor. In winter snow fell here abundantly, and was stored to be carried to Ahwâz for sale during the summer. The fields being irrigated by the rains the pistachio-trees produced fine crops of nuts. Ibn Bațâțah, who visited the place in the beginning of the 8th (14th) century, says that Îdhaj was already then more commonly known as Mâl-al-Amîr, 'the Amir's property,' a name which it still bears, Îdhaj having now become obsolete. Îdhaj was further famous for its great stone bridge over the Dujayl, which Yâķût describes as one of the wonders of the world. This, the ruins of which still exist, was known as the Kanțarah Khurrah Zâd, being so named after the mother of King Ardashîr, 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 (10th) century by the Wazîr 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 150,000 dînârs (£75,000) were spent upon the work. Yâķût says that earthquakes were frequent in the neighbourhood of Îdhaj; also there were many mines, a certain alkali being found here, called Ķūķalî, which was a sovereign remedy for the gout. He adds that an ancient fire-temple was to be seen at Îdhaj, which until the reign of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd had been constantly in use. Occupying both banks of the river, and four leagues to the north-west of Îdhaj, was the small town called Sûsan, otherwise 'known as 'Arůj (or ‘Arûh). Round this place stretched extensive gardens, producing grapes, citrons, and oranges, and Mustawfî says that the mountains, on which snow still lay in summer, were only four leagues distant. ‘Arûj, or Sûsan, was also known as Jâbalak, and this place according to some authorities is to be identified 246 [CHAP. KHUZISTÂN. with ‘Shushan the palace of the Book of Daniel. About 150 miles east of Mâl-Amîr, on the frontier of Fârs and near the eastern- most of the affluents of the Kârûn river, is Lurjân (otherwise Lurdagân or Lurkân, all forms of the name of Lur), which Istakhri describes as the capital of the Sardân (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 Fârs, on the borders of which it lay? The main produce of Khůzistân was sugar, for the sugar-cane grew in almost all parts of it, and Muķaddasî states that in the 4th (10th) century, throughout Persia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, no sugar but that exported from Khûzistân was to be found. He says that Ahwâz, the capital, was renowned for a special kind of kerchief, such as women mostly wear; and Tustar produced the brocades (Dîbâj) 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 Sûs 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. Bașinnâ was famous for its curtains; Ķurķûb for felt rugs; and Nahr Tîrâ for long face-veils. In Khûzistân 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 Ahwaz, to which the traveller from Başrah journeyed either by water along the 'Adudi canal, or by land across the salt marsh (Sabkhah) from 'Askar Abu Ja'far, opposite Ubullah, to Hișn Mahdî; and thence through Sûķ-al-Arba'â to Ahwâz”. The distances between the various cities of Khûzistân are given by Istakhrî and Muķaddasî in much detail. From Ahwaz a road went west to Nahr Tîrâ, and on thence to Wâsit in 'Irâķ. The northern road from the capital passed through ‘Askar Mukram 1 Ist. 103, 126. I. H. 182, 197. Muk. 414. Kaz. ii. 201. Yak. i. 416; iv. 189. Mst. 151. I. B. ii. 29. For Sûsan compare Sir H. Layard and Sir H. C. Rawlinson in J. R. G. S. 1839, p. 83; and 1842, p. 103. 2 Muk. 416. 3 Kud. 194. Muk. 135. XVI] 247 KHŮZISTÂN. to Tustar, whence by Junday Sâbûr and Sûs it struck westward to Ţîb, whence again there was a high road to Wâsit. From Junday Sâbûr Muķaddasî gives the route through the Lur mountains to Gulpaygân in the Jibâl province, north-west of Isfahân; and from "Askar Mukram another road (given by Ķudâmah and others) went east to Îdhaj, whence across the mountains this likewise reached Isfahân'. From ‘Askar Mukram, and from Ahwaz, two roads converged on Râmhurmuz, whence continuing eastwards the frontier of Fârs was reached on the Ţâb river over against Arrajân. These roads are given by Ķudâmah and most of the other authorities, being a part of the high road from Başrah to Shîrâz. Istakhri also gives another route, chiefly by water, from Hișn Mahdî to Arrajân, which passed by Bâsiyân on the coast to Dawraḥ, and thence by Asak to Arrajân. The stages north from Râmhurmuz to Îdhaj are recorded by Muķaddasî, who also describes a route from Râmhurmuz across the Lur mountains to Isfahân. A second route passed from the Lur plains (north of Dizfûl) by Sâbûrkhwâst 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 Mukaddasî, went across the mountains from Arrajân in seven days' march to Sumayram (in Fârs), south of Isfahân, keeping along the frontier of Khûzistân and Fârs. Kud. 197 1 Ist. 96. I. H. 178. Muk. 418—420. I. R. 187, 188. ? Kud. 194. I. R. 188. Ist. 95. I. H. 177. Muk. 401, 420, 453, 459. ИALAЯЯА BESTAXAT2AD3 WAHA 121 Зоит уоя 4 Isriгisudo И А тг хон з ои! yoЯЧ ИАОЯА 2 опE2ңіз. І aubria ОЯТНЗА VÀ UỶ THC. ТэЯ Inst XUSHU MALOAJJAL РА SUOMAVAL ат». 11. Issно siti29, du MA L И АЯГАЯ бяцЧАнг NITI Півде liter skiver isiibrisse ос A17ASUM тадо ЯА114 ха 8 ИАМ CHAP. XVII] 249 FÂRS. included Yazd with its district, also the district of Rûdhân (between modern Anâr and Bahramâbâd), both of these having formed part of the Istakhr Kûrah. After the Mongol conquest, however, Yazd was of the Jibâl province, while at the present day it is counted as forming part of Kirmân, as is also the case with the former district of Rûdhân. In old Persian Khurrah has the meaning of ‘Glory'; Ardashîr Khurrah and Shâpûr Khurrah, therefore, signify the districts which commemorate the glory of the founder of the Sassanian kingdom, Ardashîr, and of his famous son, Sâbûr or Shâpûr, the Greek Sapor. Lastly, the Arab geographers commonly divide Fârs between two regions, namely, the Hot Lands and the Cold Lands (Jurúm and Sarúd), 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 Garmsîr and the Sardsîr, “the hot' and 'the cold region, which are also the terms employed by Mustawfîl. Shîrâz, the capital of Fârs, 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 Muķaddasî points out, Shîrâz 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 80 leagues from each of the four corners of the province. The chronicles state that Shîrâz was founded in the year 64 (684) by a certain Muhammad, brother or cousin of Hajjaj, the famous governor of 'Irâķ under the Omayyads; and it grew to be a large city in the latter half of the 3rd (9th) century when the Şaffârids had made it the capital of their semi-independent principality. In the 4th (10th) century Shîrâz is described as being nearly a league across, with narrow, but crowded markets. The city had then eight gates, the Gates of Istakhr, Tustar, Bandâstânah, Ghassan, Sallam, Kuvâr, 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 1 Mukaddasî (p. 421) alone divides Fârs into six (in the place of five) Kûrahs; making a separate district of the country round Shîrâz. Ist. 97, 135. Baladhuri, 386. Muk. 447. 250 [CHAP. FÂRS. a Bîmaristân, or hospital, also the palace built by 'Adud-ad-Dawlah, the Buyid, who according to the Fars Nâmah established a library here. Half a league south of Shîrâz, this same Buyid prince, 'Adud- ad-Dawlah, surnamed Fanâ Khusraw, had built himself another palace and surrounded it by a new town, named after himself, Kard Fanâ 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 Fârs from many distant lands. A yearly festival was held at Kard Fanâ 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 (10th) century it had fallen to ruin. As a suburb it came to be known as Sûķ-al-Amîr (the Amir's Market), and the rents on shops are said to have produced 20,000 dînârs (£10,000) yearly. The walls of Shîrâz were first built by Şamşâm-ad-Dawlah or by Sultân-ad-Dawlah (son and grandson of 'Adud aforesaid), being originally eight ells thick, with a circuit of 12,000 ells, and no less than eleven gates. In the middle of the 8th (14th) century, these walls having fallen to ruin, Malımûd Shâh Injú, the rival of the Muzaffarids, repaired them, building also bastions of burnt brick. When Mustawfî knew Shîrâz the city was divided into seven- teen quarters, and had nine gates. These were the Gates of Istakhr ; of Dârak (or Darâk Mûsâ), called after the mountain of this name, two leagues distant from Shîrâz, where the winter snow was stored in pits for use in summer-time; then the Gate of Baydâ ; of Kâzirûn; of Sallam ; of ķubâ (for which some mss. give Fanâ or ķanâ); next Bâb-i-Naw (the New Gate); and lastly, Bâb-i- Dawlah and Bâb-i-Sa'adah, 'the Gate of Government' and 'the Gate of Felicity.' Mustawſî, who gives the list, further remarks that Shîrâz 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 Ruknâbâd, which had been dug by Rukn-ad-Dawlah the Buyid, father of ‘Adud mentioned before, and from the canal of the Sa'dî orchard. In spring, torrents flowed down through the city from Mount Dârak; and thence drained into Lake Mâhalûyah. XVII] 251 FÂRS. There were three chief mosques: first the Old Mosque-Jâmi 'Atîķ-built by the Şaffârid ‘Amr, son of Layth, in the latter half of the 3rd (9th) century, and this mosque, Mustawfî states, was never empty; next, and dating from the latter half of the 6th (12th) century, was the New Mosque, built by the Salghârî Atabeg Sa'd ibn Zangî; and lastly there was the Masjid Sunķur, in the Barbers' Square, built by the first Atabeg of the Salgharids. The hospital of 'Adud-ad-Dawlah still existed, and Shi'ahs visited the shrine of Muḥammad and Aḥmad, sons of the seventh Imâm Mûsâ-al-Kâzim. The account which Ibn Bațâțah, the contem- porary of Mustawfi, gives of Shîrâz bears out the preceding. He, too, speaks of the Old Mosque, the north door of which was known as the Bâb Hasan, 'the Gate Beautiful,' and of the shrine of Aḥmad, where there was a college. Further, he eulogises the five streams that flowed through the city; one, that of Ruknâbâd, 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'dî, who had died in 691 (1292), about half a century before the time of Ibn Bațâțah's visit. Sa'dî 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'dî had built on the Ruknâbâd stream. At the close of the 8th (14th) century, Shîrâz had the good fortune to escape a siege by Tîmûr, who defeated the Muzaffarid princes at the battle of Pâtîlah in the plain outside. The city suffered little damage, according to ‘Alî of Yazd, for Tîmûr camped at the garden called Takht-i-Karâchah, outside the gates of Sallam and Sa'adah, opening towards Yazd. The same authority states that the other eight gates were then closed, and he also mentions the Red Castle Hill (Kah Kalat Surkh) near Shîrâz, the position of which is unknown. Of famous castles near Shîrâz Mustawfî mentions ķalʻah Tîz, 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'. 1 The reading of the name is uncertain. Tîr, Tabr, Babr, Bîr and Tasîr or Tashîr, with many other variants occur in the mss. of Mustawfî. Ist. 124. 252 [CHAP. FÂRS. Shîrâz 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 Istakhrî : Abu-l-Fidâ and Ibn Bațâțah refer to it as Jamkân; in the Fårs Nâmah and in Mustawfî it has the name of Mâhalûyah, and at the present day it is known as the Lake of Mâhalû. The water is salt, and from the salt-pans along its shore Shîrâz 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 Kahrjân lying along its southern borders, while to the south-east was the city of Khawristân, otherwise called Sarvistân, where the date palm flourished and corn was grown, also other produce of both the hot and the cold regions. Kûbanjân, according to the Fars Namah and Mustawfî, was a small town near Sarvistân?. The longest river in Fârs is the Nahr Sakkân, which rising some 30 miles to the north-westward of Shîrâz 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 Fîrûzâbâd river from the north, discharges itself into the sea a little to the south of Najſram? The name Sakkân is said by Ișțakhrî 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 Sittajân, Thakkân, and Sikân, while Mustawfi generally has Zakkân or Zhakkân. In the Fârs Nâmah and later . Muk. 429, 430, 456. F. N. 71 a, b. Yak. iii. 349; iv. 258. Mst. 170, 171, 179, 203. I. B. ii. 53, 77, 87. A. Y. i. 437, 594, 609, 613. The garden of Takht-i-ķarâchah, “the Throne of Ķarâchah,' was so named after the Atabeg Karâchah, who became governor of Fârs on the death of Atabeg Châûlî in 510 (1116). It is said to be identical with the garden now known as Takht-i- ķajar. 1 1. K. 52. Ist. 122, 131. Muk. 422, 455. F. N. 73 a, 80 b. Mst. 172, 226. A. F. 43. I. B. ii. 61. Yak. ii. 193, where Jîkân (for Jankân) is a clerical error. 2 Its upper course is now known as the Ķârâ Aghâch, 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.R.G.S. 1883, p. 712. XVII] 253 FÂRS. writers, the district where the river had its source is named Mâşaram ; according to Iștakhrî it rose in Rustâķ-ar-Ruwayḥân, which is the plain south of Juwaym and Khullâr. These are two important villages, lying 5 and 9 leagues distant respectively from Shîrâz, on the road to Nawbanjân, to the north of the Dasht Arzin plain. Near Juwaym, as already said, one of the Shîrâz streams took its rise. According to Mustawfî, Khullâr 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 (Marghzâr), and the Lake of Dasht Arzin, which in the season of rains was 10 leagues across, was of sweet water; this, however, as often as not, dried up in summer. According to Ișțakhrî, the lake produced much fish, and Mustawfî adds that the forest near here abounded with lions! The Sakkân river, 10 leagues south of Shîrâz, passed the town of Kavâr or Kuvâr, 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-Baṣrî, the theologian. Mustawfî states that Khabr was larger than Kuvâr, and that near by was the famous castle of Tîr-i-Khudâ, “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 Şimkân, the town of Şimkân being near its left bank at the junction of a great affluent coming from Dârâbjird on the east. According to Mustawfi, Şimkân 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 b, 80 b, 81 a. Yak. ii. 457. Mst. 177, 179, 214, 226. 2 Ist. 105, 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 Sîmâkûn, and often by mistake written Akun on the maps. See E. Stack, Six Months in Persia, ii. 232. 254 [CHAP. FÂRS. 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 (Chinâr) 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 Hîrak, a large village of the dependencies of Şimkân. Near the right bank of the Sakkân river, and south of the Șimkân district, were the three towns of Kârzîn, Ķîr and Abzar, the surrounding district being known as ķubâd Khurrah, 'the Glory of ķubâd,' in memory of one of the Sassanian kings. Istakhrî speaks of Kârzîn 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 Dârâbjird district, lies south of Șimkân, and east of Kârzîn, surrounded by a fertile plain. It was famous for its great castle, lying five leagues distant from the town, called Kalah Khûrshah, which Nizâm-al-Mulk, the great Wazîr of the Saljūķs, had re-fortified, it having been originally built by Khûrshah, 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 Muķaddasî 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 Îrâhistân, and near the town stood the strong castle called Samîrân (or Shamîrân), which Mustawfî characterises as 'a nest of robbers and highwaymen.' The surrounding districts were famous pasture grounds, especially those lying between Juwaym 1 Ist. 125. Muk. 422. F. N. 72 a, 73 a, 82 b, 83 a. Mst. 172, 179. According to the Fårs Namah (folio 78 a) and Mustawfî (p. 177) there would appear to have been another district called Kûrah ķubâd Khurrah on the banks of the Țâb river above Arrajân. Ist. 107. F. N. 69 a, 82 b. Mst. 175, 179. The name of the castle is written Khurûshah, Khûrshah, and Kharashah, in the various mss., also Kharshad and Kharshar, but no mention of it occurs in the older Arab geographers. 256 [CHAP. FÂRS. across. Bâb Bahrâm opposite, Bâb Hurmuz to the north, and Bâb Ardashîr to the south. The name Jûr, in Persian pronounced Gur, 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 Amîr should be said to be residing in Gûr, 'the grave. Hence Jûr was renamed Fîrûzâbâd—the Abode of Luck'—and so it is called at the present day. Mukaddasî, who gives the story, speaks of the great town square (Raḥbah), and the beautiful rose gardens of Fîrûzâbâd, also of the well-cultivated country round, stretching a day's march 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 ķalʻah Sahârah (or Shahârah). The Firûzâbâd river is named by Istakhrî the Tîrzah; the Fârs Nâmah and Mustawfî call it the Burâzah (or Barârah) river. It rose in the Khunayfghân district, and was said to have been turned from its original course by Alexander the Great, who, when besieging Jûr, flooded the country round and made the lake, which was subsequently drained by Burâzah the Sage, in the reign of King Ardashîr. 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 Burâzah. Kazvînî says there was a celebrated fire-temple in Fîrûzâbâd, and refers to a wonderful spring of water that gushed out at the city gate; the red roses of Jûr, too, he adds, were famous the world over. The country to the north was, as already said, the district of Khunayfghân, or Khunayf- ķân, which the Persians pronounced Khunâfgân ; and among the hills there was a large village of this name, whence a difficult and stony road led down to Fîrûzâbâd'. The coast of the Ardashîr Khurrah district was known as the Sîf (or shore), and there were three Sîfs, all of the hot region, or Garmsîr, lying along the Persian Gulf. These were named re- spectively the Sîf 'Umârah to the eastward of ķays island; the Sîf Zuhayr on the coast south of Îrâhistân and round Sîrâf; and lastly the Sif Muzaffar to the north of Najîram; the 'Umarah, i Ist. 105, 121, 123. Muk. 432. F. N. 70 a—72 b, 79 6, 82 a. Mst. 172, 179, 219. Kaz. ii. 121. XVII] 257 FÂRS. 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 Fârs. In the 4th (10th) century Sîf ‘Umârah was famous for an impregnable castle on the sea, called ķal'ah-ad-Dîkdân (or Dîkbâyah), also known as Hişn Ibn ‘Umârah, 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 ķays, or as the Persians wrote the name, Kîsh, which in the course of the 6th (12th) century became the trade centre of the Persian Gulf after the ruin of Sîrâf, which will be described presently. A great walled city was built in Ķays 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 ķazvînî, the heat was greater than the hottest room in the bath (Hammâm): none the less ķays was a very populous town. The island lay about four leagues from the coast, where the port of embarkation was Huzû, to which, in the 7th (13th) century, a caravan road came down from Shîrâz through Lâghir. Huzû, though much ruined when Yâķût wrote, had been a strong for- tress in the 4th (10th) century under the Buyids, who made it their state prison. Close to the town was the village called Sâviyah (with variants in the mss. Tâbah or Tânah and the true reading is unknown) .. 1 Ist. 116, 140. I. H. 188. Yak. ii. 711; iv. 333, 974. F. N. 746. Mst. 171, 173, 180. Kaz. ii. 161. The name of the island is spelt Ķays, ķaysh, and Kîsh (with dotted ķ or undotted k). The stages on the road down from Lâghir to Huzû are given by Mustawfî (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 Lâghir 6 to Fâryâb district, thence 6 to the city of Șaj (ṣaḥ, Haj, Daḥ, with many other variants), thence 5 to Âb-Anbár-i-Kinâr, thence 5 to Haram (Sîram or Marmaz), thence 6 down many steep passes to the village of Dârûk (Dârzak, Ùrak or Dâvrak), thence 6 to Mâhân (Hâmân or Mâyân), and thence 6 by the pass of Lardak to Huzû on the sea-shore.' The district Mustawfî calls Fâryâb is evidently identical with Bârâb, half-way between Kâriyân and Kurân, as given by Muḥaddasî (p. 454). The city of Şaj is a puzzle, none being known in this region, but possibly we should read LE S. 17 258 [CHAP. FÂRS. To the westward of Sîf ‘Umârah along the sea-shore was the Zuhayr coast, of which Kurân, inland, was the chief town, Sîrâf, and Nâband being its famous harbours; and the region went as far as Najſram beyond the mouth of the Sakkân river. Inland of this was the Îrâhistân district. According to Ișțakhrî, Kurân produced an edible clay, green in colour, that tasted like beet- root. Mustawfî counts Kurân as of Îrâhistân, and says its lands only produced dates. Due south of it was the district and town of Mîmand, not far from the port of Nâband, which last stood at the head of a creek known as the Khawr or Khalîj of Nâband. Mîmand, according to Mustawfî, 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 Nâband, was the port of Sirâf, the chief emporium of the Persian Gulf in the 4th (10th) century, prior to the rise of ķays island into pre-eminence. Sîrâf, Istakhrî says, nearly equalled Shîrâz 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 This author writes that a merchant of his acquaintance here had spent 30,000 dînârs (£15,000) on his house, and the Sîrâf merchants were accounted the richest in all Fârs, 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 Samîrân. Muķaddasî speaks of Sîrâf as commercially the rival of Başrah ; 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 Fârs Nâmah states that its final ruin was the work of Rukn-ad-Dawlah Khumârtagîn, the the sea. Jamm (Ist. 106). This route, unfortunately, is not reproduced in the Jahân Numâ, nor is it given by any Arab geographer. The coast of the Banî-aş-Şaffâr would appear to have been identical with the ‘Umârah coast, to judge by what Iștakhrî (p. 141) and Yâķût (iii. 217) write. 1 Ist. 104, 141, 152. Yak. i. 419; ii. 489; iii. 212, 217. Mst. 172, 173 A. F. 322. XVII] 259 FÂRS. Amîr of ķays island, who made the latter the port of call, though he had his war-ships still built at Sîrâf; but when Yâķūt 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 Nâband for shelter, as the harbour of Sîrâf was already silted up. Yâķût adds that the name of Sîrâf was in his time pronounced Shîlâv by the natives. Najiram, a port of some importance to the westward of Sîrâf, beyond the mouth of the Sakkân river, was at the beginning of the Muzaffar coast, which stretched thence as far as Jannâbah in the Kûrah (district) of Arrajân. Najîram possessed two mosques when Muķaddasî wrote, with good markets, and cisterns for storing rain-water. The Dastaķân district was also of the Sif Muzaffar, and in the 4th (10th) century its chief town was called Şaffârah. The district itself appears to have been in the neigh- bourhood of Jannabah, but the exact position of the town of Saffârah is unknown'. Near the frontier of the Arrajân district, the river of Shâpûr 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 (10th) century Ișțakhrî speaks of this place as about the size of Arrajân; 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 Shâpûr 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 Shâpûr river, in a gorge, being 12 leagues from Jannâbah on the coast, and four from 1 Possibly this Dastaķân district is identical with the coast of the Banî-aş- Şaffâr, already mentioned. Ist. 34, 106, 116, 127, 141, 154. Muk. 422, 426, 427. F. N. 736, 74 a. Yak. iii. 211, 217. Mst. 172. The ruins of Sîrâf are described by Captain Stiffe in the J. R. G. S. 1895, p. 166. 17-2 260 [CHAP. FÂRS. the pass that leads down from Darîz. Tawwaj was a famous place at the time of the first Moslem conquest, and its mosque dated from those early days; but when Mustawfî wrote, it had become a complete ruin. The important town of Ghundîjân, in the district of Dasht Bârîn, was of this neighbourhood. The position of Ghundîjân, of which apparently no ruins now exist, is given in the Fârs Nâmah as standing four leagues from Jirrah and 12 from Tawwaj; and the author speaks of the Jirrah river as flowing by 'a part of Ghundijân.' In the 4th (10th) century the town is said to have equalled Istakhr (Persepolis) or Jannâbah in size; carpets and veils were made here, and the district was counted as of the hot region. Mukaddasî describes a stream among the Ghundijân 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 Ghundijân, according to Mustawfî, consisted mostly of shoemakers and weavers, and in his day the name Ghundîjân had taken the place of Dasht Bârîn in the common speech for the district. In the neighbourhood was a strong castle, called Kalah Ram Zavân (or Dam Darân, with many other variants), where great cisterns had been dug for storing water. The district of Bushkânât lay half-way between Ghundîjân and the Mândistân desert (see p. 255) to the north of Najſram. According to Mustawfî there were no towns here, but dates grew and were the chief crop, for Bůshkânât was of the hot region of the Gulf. 1 Muķaddasî and Yâķût with many of the older authorities state that Dasht Bârîn was the name of the town, Ghundîjan being that of the district. Originally, however, this can hardly have been the case, since the name Dasht Bârîn, meaning "the Plain ’ of Bârîn, 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 Ghundîjan fell out of use, the name Dasht Bârîn may have taken its place, being used then for town or district indifferently, as Mustawfî remarks later, but contrariwise of the name Ghundîjân. Ist. 106, 128, 130, 152, 153. Muk. 422, 423, 432, 435, 445, 448. F. N. 73 a, 76 a, 79 6, 82 b, 86 a. Mst. 171, 177, 179, 218. Yak. i. 199, 890; ii. 576; iii. 5, 820. Tawwaj is often included in the Shâpûr Khurrah district by the earlier geographers. XVII] 261 FÂRS. The island of Khârik, which lay off the mouth of the Shâpûr river. was included in the Ardashîr Khurrah district, and was a port of call for ships sailing from Başrah to Kays island and India. Yâķût had visited the island, and says that from its hills Jannâbah and Mahrubân, both on the coast of the Arrajân 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 Ardashîr Khurrah district; but Khârik and ķays were commercially the two most important, and of the others named some are not easy to identify. Uwâl was the chief of the Bahrayn islands, on the Arabian coast, and it is mentioned in the annals of the first Moslem conquest. Bûshahr (Bushire of the present day) first appears in the pages of Yâķût, and opposite to it on the mainland, as stated by Balâdhurî, was Rîshahr or Râshahr of Tawwaj. The island called Lâwân (Allân, Lân, or Lâr are all variants), by the distances given, must be the present island of Shaykh Shu'ayb lying to the west of Kays, and Abrûn island is doubtless the modern Hindarâbî which with Chîn (or Khayn) lies near ķays. The great island at the narrows of the Gulf now called Kishm, also the Long Island (Jazîrah Țawîlah), is probably that referred to in our medieval authorities under the various names-possibly merely manuscript variants--of Banî (or Ibn) Kawân, Abarkâfân, and Abarkumân. Yâķūt states that it was also known as Lâft. The island of Khâsik or Jâsik was one of its neighbours, or was possibly merely another name for Kishm (the Long Island). Its population were hardy boatmen, and according to ķazvînî 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 Kirmân will be spoken of in the chapter treating of that province'. 1 Ist. 32. I. K. 61. Baladhuri, 386, 387. Yak. i. 395, 503; ii. 387, 537 ; iv. 341, 342. Mst. 181, 222. Kaz. ii. 117. CHAPTER XVIII. FÂRS (continued). The district of Shâpûr Khurrah. Shâpûr city and cave. The Ratîn river. Nawbanjân. The White Castle and Sha‘b Bavvân. The Zamms of the Kurds. Kâzirûn and its lake. The rivers Ikhshîn and Jarshîş. Jirrah and the Sabûk bridge. The Arrajân district and Arrajân city. The Ţâb river. Bihbahân. The river Shîrîn. Gunbadh Mallaghân. Mahrubân. Sînîz and Jannâbah. The river Shâdhkân. The district of Sâbûr Khurrah, 'the Glory of Shâpúr' (Sâbûr, as already said, being the Arabic form of the Persian name), was the smallest of the five Kûrahs or districts of Fârs, and its limits were comprised within the basin of the upper Shâpûr river and its affluents. The chief town of the district in early days was the city of Shâpûr, the name of which had originally been Bishậpûr', more commonly known as Shahristân, “the town-place' or 'the capital.' Ibn Hawķal states that Shâpûr city was in his day as large as Ișțakhr and more populous, but Muķaddasî in the latter part of the 4th (10th) 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 Kâzirûn. Shâpúr, 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 1 In the mss. the name is generally (but probably incorrectly) written Nashậpûr or Nishậpûr. Bishậpûr stands for Bih-Shâpûr, the older form being Wih-Shâpûr, meaning the good Sapor' or 'the excellence of Sapor.' This prefix Bih occurs in other place-names ; cf. Bih Ardashîr, or Guwashir, in Chapter XXI, p. 303. CHAP. XVIII] 263 FÂRS. called Dunbulâ, and the town wall had four gates, namely those of Hurmuz, Mihr, Bahrâm, and lastly the City gate (Bâb-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 Fars Namah describes Shâpúr as having completely fallen to ruin; and when Mustawfî wrote a couple of centuries later the name of Shâpûr or Bishậpûr had been transferred to the neighbouring Kâzirûn district. Mustawfî apparently knew the Shâpûr river under the name of the Shahriyâr Rad, and the city, he says, had been named Dîndâr by its first founder, the mythical King Tahmurath, the Devil-binder.' Afterwards Alexander the Great laid it in ruins, and King Shâpûr rebuilt it, when it was known, according to Mustawfî, as Banâ Shâpûr, and later as Nâshậpûr or Bishậpûr. Its crops were famous in the 8th (14th) century: the iris, violet, jasmine, and narcissus grew abundantly, and much silk was woven here. Mustawfî further refers to the well-known colossal statue of King Shâpûr in the cave near the ruins. This he describes as 'a black statue of a man, larger than life, standing in a temple (Haykal); 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 (10th) century Muķaddasi refers to the cave, which, he says, lay one league distant from the city of Nawbandajân. 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 ten spans in length, while the total height was eleven ells?. The upper course of the Shâpûr river was called the Nahr Ratîn by the Arab geographers, and it came from the Upper Khumâyijân or Khumâyigân district, of which one of the principal villages, ac- cording to Mustawfî, was Dîh ‘Ali. Lower Khumâyijân was counted 1 I. H. 194. Muk. 432, 444. F. N. 746, 75 a, where the name is spelt Bishâvûr and Bîshâpûr. Mst. 175, 176. C. A. De Bode, Travels in Luristan (London, 1845), i. 214. 264 [CHAP. FÂRS. as of the Istakhr Kûrah (the Persepolis district, to be de- scribed in the next chapter) lying round Baydâ on an affluent of the Kur river, and both these Khumâyijân 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 Khumâyijân was the district of Anburân with the city of An-Nawbandajân, otherwise called Nûbandagân or Nawbanjân. This place, when Istakhrî wrote, was larger than Kâzirûn, the climate was hot and the date palm grew here. Muķaddasî speaks of its fine markets, of the gardens with their abundant water-supply, also of its mosque. In Saljūķ times Nawbandajân had fallen to ruin, but in the 5th (11th) century the town was rebuilt by the celebrated Atabeg, the Amîr Châûlî '. Two leagues distant from Nawbanjân began the famous valley, one of the four earthly paradises of the Moslems, called Sha'b Bavvân, the waters of which drained to the Kur river in the Istakhr Kurah. 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 Mustawfî, 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 Nawbanjân is the great mountain fastness called the White Castle—ķalʻah Safîd, and Isfid Diz-or the Castle of Isfandiyâr, occupying a flat-topped table-mountain, many miles in circuit, bounded by precipitous sides. Muķaddasî possibly mentions it under the name of the ķașr Abu Țâlib, which, he says, was called 'Ayân. The Fårs Namah states that ķalʻah Safîd had been rebuilt by a certain Abu Nașr of Tîr Murdân in the earlier years of the Saljūķs, and that at the beginning of the 6th (12th) century it was in the 1 The Amîr Châûlî (often written jâûlî), whose name so frequently occurs in the Fårs Nâmah and Mustawfî in connection with the rebuilding of towns or castles in Fârs, and the reconstruction of river dams, was governor of the province for Sultan Muhammad the Saljûķ. Atabeg Châûlî Saķâuh (meaning “the Falcon') received the surname of Fakhr-ad-Dawlah, and died in 510 (1116) after having been the semi-independent governor of both Kirmân and Fârs for nearly a score of years. XVIII] 265 FÂRs. 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 Nishnâk. The summit was a level plain, with many springs and gardens, and fruit grew here abundantly. The siege of Kalah Safid by Tîmûr, at the close of the 8th (14th) century, made it famous in history. He was marching from Bihbahân to Shîrâz, and took the place by storm, after a two days' investment, in the spring of 795 (1393). One march east of Nawbanjân, on the road to Shîrâz, lay Tîr Murdân, a small town surrounded by six villages, of which the most important was called Karjan (or Jarkan), lying five leagues from Nawbanjân. The surrounding region was well watered, very fertile, and much honey was exported. To the west of Nawbanjân, on the road to Arrajân, was the town of Anburân, in this district; also the Bâsht ķûțâ district, with the town of Bâsht, which still exists. Two rivers, the Darkhîd and the Khûbdhân, traversed this region. The Nahr Khawrâwâdhân, otherwise the Khûbdhân river, had on its banks the town of the same name, distant four leagues from Nawbanjân, and Khûbdhân town in the 4th (10th) century was a populous place, with a mosque and good markets. Four or six leagues west of this river, and two stages distant from Nawbanjân, was the small town of Darkhîd, 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 Darkhîd river was a sufficiently large stream to be unfordable. The Khûbdhân river was an affluent of the river Shîrîn, which will be noticed when describing the Arrajân district, and either the Khûbdhân river or the Darkhîd was crossed by a great bridge, built by a certain Abu Țâlib of Nawbanjân, who had erected the castle of 'Ayân mentioned in the previous paragraph. Istakhrî and Muķaddasî 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 1 Ist. IIO, NIT, 120, 127. Muk. 434, 437, 447. F. N. 766, 78 a, 81 b. Mst. 177, 178, 219. A. Y. i. 600. Dizakî Nishkuman and Astâk are variants of the name of the lower castle in the MSS. Kalóah Safîd is well described by Macdonald Kinneir, Persian Empire, p. 73. 266 [CHAP. FÂRS. or impossible now to identify with any of the existing streams shown on our maps. The bridge is described by Muķaddasî 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 (10th) century, and Yâķût in the 7th (13th) century apparently refers to it as still existing. Many of these places are also men- tioned by ‘Alî of Yazd, in describing the march of Timur from Bihbahân to Shîrâz'. In this mountain region of Fârs, known later as the Jabal Jilůyah, the five Kurdish tribes, called collectively the Zamm-al- Akrâd, had in the 4th (10th) century their pastures and camping grounds. Muķaddasî 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 Kâzirûn, from the latter half of the 4th (10th) century when Shâpür fell to ruin, became the most important town of the Shâpûr district. Ibn Hawķal describes it as in his time smaller than Nawbandajân, but well-built, the houses being of stone set in mortar. Mukaddasî, 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 (Dâr) for the merchants, the rooms in which produced a yearly rent of 10,000 dirhams (£400). The houses of the town, Muķaddasî tells us, were all like palaces, each with a garden ; the mosque crowned a hillock. According to Mustawfî Kâzirûn had originally consisted of three neighbouring villages, named Nûrd, Darbast, and Rahshân, built on the water conduits of these names, which, it is stated, were still preserved in the town quarters. The dates of Kâzirûn were Muk. 435, 1 The spelling of the names varies greatly. Khawrâwâdhân is contracted to Khûbdhân, also written Khwâbdhân, Khabâdhân and Khâvdân, or Khâvarân in ‘Alî of Yazd. Darkhîd is also written Darkhuwîd, but Dakhûnad (as given by Mukaddasî) is probably only a clerical error. Ist. 110, 120. 440. F. N. 76 a, b, 79 a, 80 b. Mst. 176, 218. Yak. i. 905 ; ii. 487; iii. 838. Ibn-al-Athîr, viii. 122, 202. A. Y. i. 600. 2 Ist. 98, 113. Muk. 435. Yak. ii. 821. Mst. 176, 206. Zamn means in Kurdish 'a tribe' (more correctly written Zûmah), and by mistake the word has often been given as Ramm. See the translation by Prof. De Goeje of Ibn Khurdâdbih, p. 33, footnote. XVIII] 267 FÂRS. excellent, especially of a kind called Jîlân, and a cotton stuff, known as Kirbâs, was exported largely. The neighbouring pastures, called Marghzâr Narkis, the narcissus meads,' were famous. The district round Kâzirûn was known as the Shůl country, according to Ibn Baţùțah, who passed through here in the year 730 (1330), and at the present day this region is called Shůlistân. In the plain, a short distance to the east of the city, lies the Kâzirûn lake, which in the 4th (10th) century was known as the Buḥayrah Mûz, or Mûrak (for the reading of the name is uncertain). It was 10 leagues in length, very salt, and contained much fish. The two famous passes on the road above the lake going up to Shîrâz, which are now known to travellers as the Old Woman's Pass and the Maiden's Pass (Kutâl Pîr-i-Zan, and Kutâl-i-Dukhtar), are named by Mustawfî, the Hûshang Pass, which lies three leagues from Kâzirûn, and the Mâlân Pass, which is above it and is likewise very steep'. The roads down to the coast from Kâzirûn lead by Darîz to Kumârij, and thence by Khisht on the Shâpûr river to Tawwaj, which has been described in the previous chapter (p. 259). Dariz was a small town, and already in the 4th (10th) century famous for its linen weavers ; Khisht, lying beyond it, had a strong castle, according to Muķaddasî, and was surrounded by broad lands. The Fårs Namah mentions Khisht and Kumârij together, and Mustawfî gives the people of both places a bad character as being inveterate robbers. A short distance below Khisht the river Shâpûr received on its left bank the waters of the Jirrah river, which was known as the Nahr Jarshỉk to the Arab geographers, and the latter, a few miles before it fell into the Shâpûr river, was joined on its left bank by the tributary stream called by them the Nahr Ikhshîn. The Ikhshîn river took its rise among the valleys of the Dâdhîn country, and according to Istakhrî, its waters, which were sweet and drinkable, had the property of dyeing to a green colour any cloth that was steeped therein. The Jarshîş river rose in the 1 Ist. 122. I. H. 197 Muk. 433 Mst. 176, 180, 200, 226. Of the three town quarters of Kâzirûn variants in the mss. are Nûr, Darîst, and Rahibân or Rahiyân. I. B. ii. 89. The Fårs Nâmah (f. 806) writes the name of the lake Mûr very clearly. It is sometimes called Daryachih Shûr, “the Salt Lake.' 268 [CHAP. FÂRS. hills to the south of Jirrah, in the Mâșaram country (which according to Mustawfî 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 Kanțarah Sabûk. The river next watered part of the Dâdhîn district, and finally, after receiving the Ikhshîn river, fell into the Shâpûr river some distance above Tawwaj. The Fârs Nâmah and Mustawfî state that the country at the head-waters of the Jirrah river, near the town of Jirrah, formed part of the Ghundîjân district, and this gives a clue to the position of Dasht Bârîn, which, as we have seen on a previous page, belonged to the Ardashîr Khurrah district. The city of Jirrah is described by Muķaddasî as crowning a hill- top, and possessing many palm gardens. Yâķūt states that the common people in his day pronounced the name Girrah, which is confirmed by the Fârs Nâmah and Mustawfî; they also refer to its corn crops and dates, for all the lands round the city were extremely fertile The Arrajân district is the westernmost of the five Kûrahs of Fârs, and Arrajân, its chief town, lay at its westernmost border, on the Ţâb river, which on this side forms the boundary between Fârs and Khûzistân. The ruins of Arrajân lie a few miles to the north of the present town of Bihbahân, which has taken its population and become the chief town of the district since the close of the 6th (12th) century. In the 4th (10th) century Arrajân 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 Ahwaz, Rishahr, and Shîrâz gates, then the gate of Ar-Ruşafah, the gate of the Maydân (or Square), and lastly Bâb-al-Kayyâlîn or the ‘Gate of the Weighers. The mosque and market streets were magnificent. Soap was largely manufactured in the town. Near Arrajân, and crossing the Ţâb river on the high roads into Khûzistân, were two famous bridges, the remains of which still exist. One was said to have been built by a certain Daylamite physician of Hajjaj, governor of 'Irâķ under the Omayyad 1 Ist. 120, 127, 152. Muk. 433, 434, 435. F. N. 75 b, 76 a, 79 b. Mst. 176, 177, 218, 219. Yak. ii. 36, 67. XVIII] 269 FÂRS. Caliphs, and is described by Istakhrî 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 ķanțarah Thakân, stood a bow-shot from the city of Arrajân on the road to Sanbîl. The second stone bridge was more than 3000 ells in length, and dated from the times of the Sassanian kings, being known as the ķanțarah-al-Kisrawîyah or “the Bridge of the Chosroes.' It was on the road leading to the village of Dahlizân. In a hill near Arrajân, according to Kazvînî, was a cave whence bitumen (Mumiyâ) was taken from a spring, and this was celebrated all the world over for its medicinal properties, while in the town of Arrajân itself a fathomless well called the Bîr Şâhik 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 Arrajân was then called Arkhân or Arghân by the common people, and at the end of this century ‘Alî of Yazd refers to the river Ţâb as the Âb-i-Arghûn. Arrajân had suffered much, according to Mustawfi, on its capture in the 7th (1 3th) 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 ķal'ah Țighûr, and another Diz Kilât, and the garrisons of these places had frequently plundered the city and its districts. By the latter half of the 8th (14th century, Arrajân had fallen completely to ruin, and it was replaced shortly after this by the town of Bihbahân, situated some half-dozen miles lower down the Ţâb river. Bihbahân, the name of which occurs in none of the Arab geographers, is first mentioned by ‘Alî of Yazd, in his description of the march of Tîmûr from Ahwâz to Shîrâz in the spring of 795 (1393), and from this date onward Bihbahân has been the chief town of the region formerly known as the district of Arrajân'. Muk. 425 1 Ist. 128, 134, 152. I. R. 189. I. K. 43. Kaz. ii. 94, 160. Mst. 177, 178. A. Y. i. 600. In his Mirât-al-Buldân (Tihrân lithograph, A.H. 1294, vol. 1. p. 306) the Sanî'-ad-Dawlah says that Bihbahân was first settled by the Kûhgilâ nomads, by order of Tîmûr, these having migrated from 270 [CHAP. FÂRS. The river Ţâb of the Arab geographers is now known as the Jarâhîyah, Jarâhî, or Kurdistân river, for by some confusion the name of Ţâb has, at the present day, been transferred to the Khayrâbâd affluents of the Hindiyân or Zuhrah river, a different stream which flows out to the Persian Gulf at Hindiyân. The Ţâb river of the middle-ages had its source, if we may accept the combined authority of Istakhrî and Muķaddasî, 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 Khûzistân, the Ţâb was joined on its left bank by the river Masîn, the village of Masîn lying near the point of junction, and the combined streams flowed on to Arrajân. Below this city the Ţâb watered the Rîshahr district, and then curving round abruptly to the south reached the sea to the west of Mahrubân. The Masîn river above-mentioned also rose in the mountains near Sumayram, and flowed past a place called Sîshat, according to the Fårs Namah and Mustawfî, before it joined the Ţâb. It is said to have been 40 leagues in length, and was a sufficiently broad river not to be easily fordable. Near the upper course of the Ţâb was the district of Bilâd Shâpûr, or Balâ Sâbûr, of which the chief town was called Jûmah, which stood on the frontier between Fârs and Khûzistân. The district had been very fertile, but when Mustawfî wrote the lands had already gone out of cultivation. Along the course of the Ţâb river, according to the Fars Namah, was also the region called Kůrah ķubad Khurrah, but all earlier authorities give this as the name of the district round Kârzîn, as has been already described on p. 254". Kûfah. For the ruins of Arrajân, 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, Luristan, i. 295, 297. The name of the first bridge is often given as ķanțarah Rakân or Takân in the mss. Ibn Hawķal (p. 170) further mentions a wooden bridge as crossing the Ţâb river, passing at a height of ten ells above the the water level. 1 Ist. 119. Muk. 24, 425. F. N. 77 6, 78 a, 79 a. Mst. 176, 177, 218. The Arab geographers evidently confounded the upper course of the Arrajân river (the Ţâb) and its affluent (the Masîn) with the streams which we know to be the upper branches of the Kârûn. It is to be further noted that the Arrajân river, in its lower course near the Persian Gulf, has evidently changed its XVIII) 271 FÂRS. Below Arrajân the Ţâb river, as already said, curved round the Rîshahr district (not to be confounded with Rîshahr of Bushire mentioned above, p. 261); and here, besides the town of Rîshahr, lying half-way between Arrajân and Mahrubân, there was a town called Daryân (otherwise Dayrján or Darjân) which in the 4th (10th) century had fine markets and lay in a fertile district. Rîshahr continued to be an important place in Saljûķ times, and the Fârs Nâmah speaks of its castle, and states that ships were built here. According to Mustawfî the Persians called the place Barbiyân, and the original name, he says, had been Rîşahr. 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 Kilât, one league away, which as just mentioned had formerly been a castle of the Ismailians. Near Rîshahr was Hindîjan, a small town and district on the lower course of the Arrajân river, and Muķaddasî relates that this Hindîjan or Hinduwân town was a great market for sea fish and possessed a fine mosque. In the Hindîjân 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 ķazvînî 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 Shîrâz, there had been a toll-house in Saljuķ times'. Jallâdgân, otherwise pronounced Jallâdjân, was a neighbouring district lying between the lower courses of the rivers Ţâb and , Shîrîn. The river Shîrîn—'the Sweet Water'-rose in the hills called Jabal Dinâr of the Bâzranj or Bâzrang district, and passed through the district of Furzuk, lying four leagues south-east of Arrajân. According to Ali of Yazd, Tîmûr, marching from bed since the 4th (10th) century. Muķaddasî speaks of it as debouching near Sînîz, but this is possibly only a clerical error for 'near the Tustar' river, in other words the estuary of the Dujayl. 1 Ist. 112, 113, 119, 121. Muk. 422, 426, 453. F. N. 78 a, b. Mst. 177, 178. Yak. iv. 963, 993. Kaz. ii. 186. Hindîjân, Hinduwân, and Hindiyân appear to be all intended for the same place. For Habs the mss. give Khabs, Jîs, Jins and every possible variation ; it was a post-stage, as men- tioned in the Itineraries. 272 [CHAP. FÂRS. Bihbahân to Shîrâz, crossed the Shîrîn river on the day after leaving Bihbahân; four days later he reached the Khâvdân river (already noticed, p. 265, under the name of Khûbdhân), and thence marched to Nawbanjân. We have seen that the Khûb- dhân river was a tributary of the Shîrîn, and this last appears to be identical with the stream now known in its upper course as the Khayrâbâd river (with many affluents), and lower down as the Zuhrah river, which is the river marked on modern maps as the Ţâb, or Hindiyân. On one of the tributaries of the river Shîrîn was situated Gunbadh Mallaghân, an important place lying on the road from Nawbanjân to Arrajân which is now called Dù Gunbadân, the Two Domes,' and still shows extensive ruins. Of this neighbourhood were the Dînâr hills, and the district of Bâzrang already mentioned; also Şarâm, 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 Mallaghân, however, was of the hot region, and famous for its date palms. The name is also spelt Gunbad Mallajân or Malaķân, and Muķaddasî in the 4th (10th) century speaks of the village here as in ruins. According to the Fårs Nâmah 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 Kalʻah Khing being especially mentioned. Mustawfî states that the neighbouring district was known as Pûl Bûlû (some mss. give Pal Lala) and was very fertile, producing famous apricots; and he declares the castle of Gunbad Mallaghân was so strong that one man might hold it against an army'. Not far from the mouth of the river Shîrîn-which, as already said, is the modern Ţâb or Zuhrah river--lay the port of Mahrubân, close to the western frontier of Fârs, and this was the first harbour reached by ships bound to India after leaving Bașrah and the 1 Ist. u1, 112, 113, 119, 120. Muk. 435. F. N. 76 b, 77 a, 786, 79 a, 83b, 85 b. Mst. 176, 177, 178, 179, 218. Yak. iii. 5; iv. 630. A. Y. i. 600. Hfz. 316. De Bode, Luristan, i. 258. To the north of Dû Gunbadân is the castle now known as ķalóah Arû; possibly this is the place named Khing in the Fårs Namah. XVIII] 273 FÂRS. Tigris estuary. Mahruban was accounted the port of Arrajân, and in the 4th (10th) century was very populous, and had a fine mosque and good markets. According to Mustawfî the Persians called it Mâyruyân, or Mahruyân ; linen was made here, and dates were exported, but the shipping was always the chief source of income. Nâșir-i-Khusraw touched at Mahrubân in 443 (1052), 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‘ķûb, son of Layth the Șaffârid. Water was stored in cisterns, there were three great caravanserais for travellers who landed here for Arrajân, and the commerce of the place was considerable. The next port down the Gulf, east of Mahrubân, was Sînîz or Shînîz, whose ruins lie on the creek now called Bandar Daylam. Istakhrî describes the place as larger than Mahrubân in the 4th (10th) century. There was a small bay (Khawr), and the town lay half a league from the open sea ; the climate here was very hot, and date palms grew abundantly. Mukaddasî speaks of the mosque and the palace of the governor, and of the markets as being well provided with wares. According to Yâķût, Sînîz was half ruined by the Carmathians, who sacked the port in 321 (933). The Fars Namah 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 (Hişâr), and the oil for lamps that came from its district was exported far and wide'. South of Sînîz was Jannâbah (or Jannâbâ), the ruins of which still exist, lying near the mouth of the river which the Arab geographers called the Nahr-ash-Shâdhkân. Jannâbah according to Istakhrî was extremely hot, and its creek (Khawr) was not a safe anchorage. The town was larger than Mahrubân and had excellent markets; further, it was celebrated as the birth-place of Abu Tâhir the Carmathian. The Persians called the place Ganfah, or Ab-i-Gandah, from its ‘foul water,' and four neigh- bouring villages lying on the sea-coast were counted as of its 1 Ist. 34, 128. Muk. 426. N. K. 90. Yak. i. 502 ; iii. 221. F. N. 78 6, 79 a. Mst. 178. LE S. 18 274 [CHAP. XVIII FÂRS. the sea. dependencies. The river Shâdhkân rose in the Bâzrang district, and, passing through the Dastaķân plain, flowed thence out to 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 Jannâbah. In point of fact, however, no large stream now exists here, though Mustawfî 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: 1 Ist. 32, 34, 119, 128. Muk. 426. F. N. 786. Mst. 178, 218. 276 [CHAP. FÂRS. 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 (10th) century Șamșâm-ad- Dawlah, son of 'Adud-ad-Dawlah the Buyid, was forced to send an army against Istakhr under the Amîr ķutlumish; 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 Fars Nâmah 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 Iștakhr Yâr, 'the Friend of Istakhr,' the ķal'ah Shikastah, “the Broken Castle, and the Castle of Shankavân. Collectively these castles were called Sih Gunbadhân, 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 Maydân, on the hill-top, which had also been planned and con- structed by Adud-ad-Dawlah'. The Pulvâr river-which the Arab geographers call the Furwâb, and which in Persian is written Purvâb—-rises to the north of Ûjân or Uzján at Furvâb village in Jawbarķân. Flowing at first east- ward, it turns to the south-west above Pasargadæ at the tomb of Cyrus, which the Moslems call the Shrine of the Mother of King Solomon (Mashhad-i-Mâdar-i-Sulaymân), 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-Amîr. The river Kur rises in the district of Kurvân, a little to the south of Ûjân, and not far therefore from the source of the Pulvâr river, but it takes at first the opposite direction. Flowing towards the north-west it makes a great circular sweep, passing under the Shahriyâr bridge, on the summer road 1 Baladhuri, 388. I. H. 194. Muk. 435. F. N. 67 6, 81 b, 83 a. Mst. 173, 174, 178, 179. Hfz. 85 6. The ruins of the three castles still exist, and one of them was visited by J. Morier, Second Journey through Persia (London, 1818), pp. 83, 86. De Bode, Luristan, i. 117. 278 [CHAP. FÂRS. aforesaid, who also effected a much needed restoration of the Band-i-Amîr?. The great lake of Bakhtigân 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 Bakhtigân, the northern part of the lake being called the Buhayrah Bâsafûyah or Jûbânân. The waters were salt, and abounded in fish, which supplied the Shîrâz market, and the lake shore was covered with reeds that, when cut, served as fuel. The Jafûz 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 Shîrâz, on the road to Kirmân which went along the southern shore of Bakhtigân. Muķaddasî speaks of Khurramah in the 4th (roth) century as a town with broad lands and a castle crowning a hill-top; this last was very strong and well built, according to Mustawfî writing in Mongol times, and the Fars Nâmah refers to its cisterns?. The south-eastern end of Lake Bakhtigân 'was of the Dârâbjird district, and here lay Khayrah and Nîrîz, which will be spoken of in the next chapter. Near the eastern end, in what is now a waterless desert, stood in the 4th (10th) century the two important towns of Great and Little Şâhak or Şâhik, a name which the Persians wrote Châhik (meaning 'a small pit' or 'well) At Great Şâhik the two roads-one along the north side of Bakhtigân lake, from Istakhr; the other by the southern shore, from Shîrâz- came together, and from Great Şâhik one single road went on to Kirmân. Muķaddasî describes Great Şâhik as a small town, famed for its calligraphists, who wrote fine copies of the Ķurân. In the neighbourhood, according to Mustawfî, were steel and iron mines, and the Fârs Nâmah speaks of the excellent swords made here. On the road from Great Şâhik to Istakhr, and lying on the 1 Ist. 121. Muk. 444• F. N. 79 b. Mst. 216, 218. Hfz. 32 a. Yak. iii. 107 2 Ist. 122, 135. Muk. 437. F. N. 80 a, 82 6, 87 b. Mst. 174, 179, 225, 226. XIX] 279 FÂRS. the map. northern shore of that part of Lake Bakhtigân which was called Bâsafûyah or Jûbânân, were two towns of importance during the middle-ages, all traces of which seem to have disappeared from The easternmost, lying six or eight leagues from Great Şâhik, was the city of Budanjân, known as Ķariyat-al-Âs, “the Myrtle Village, which Mustawfî gives under the Persian form of Dîh Mûrd. The country round produced plentiful corn crops, and the myrtle, after which the town was called, flourished here. To the westward of Ķariyat-al-Âs, and six or seven leagues further on the road towards Istakhr, was Ķariyat ‘Abd-ar-Raḥmân, other- wise called Abâdah, a city standing in the district of Barm. The town possessed fine houses and palaces, and ķazvînî 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 Saljūķ times Abâdah 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 Pulvâr ; it is overlooked from the north by Iștakhr with its three castles, and was divided further into various districts. Lower and Upper Kirbâl lay near the western end of the Bakhtigân lake; Hafrak and Ķâlî came higher up the Kur river, and the meadow lands of Ķâlî bordered the banks of the Pulvâr. In the Hafrak district (spelt Habrak in the older mss.) was the strong castle of Khuvâr, near the village of the same name. The place is men- tioned by Istakhrî, and several times in the Fârs Nâmah, where its position is given as half-way between the 'Adudî dam on the Kur, and Abâdah on Lake Bakhtigan, being 10 leagues from either place. Khuvâr is referred to also twice by Yâķût, 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 1 I. K. 48, 53. Kud. 195. Ist. 101, 131. Muk. 437. F. N. 66 a, 68 a, b, 83 a. Mst. 175, 179. Kaz. ii. 160. Besides the city of Abâdah (or Abâdhah) there was the village of the same name, on the road from Iștakhr to Isfahân, which will be mentioned later. 280 [CHAP. FÂRS. the Fârs Nâmah 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 Jamshîd, below the Achæmenian ruins?. Above Marvdasht came the Kâmfîrûz district, for the most part on the right bank of the Kur, of which the chief town was, and is, Baydà. Al-Baydâ 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. Baydâ was so called because it 'glistened from afar,' and Ibn Hawķal adds that its name among the Persians had been Nasâtak, meaning, according to Yâķût, Dâr-i-Isfîd or 'White Palace.' Part of the Moslem army had camped here, when besieging Iştakhr city; and Bayda was as large a place as this last in the 4th (10th) century, Muķaddasî 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 Kâmfîrûz district comprised many villages, which Işțakhrî names, and its oak (Balût) 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 Kâmfîrûz district was the district of Râmjird, of which the chief city was Mâyin. Half-way between Shîrâz and this place was the town called Hazâr or Âzâr Sâbûr, otherwise Naysâbûr, which is often mentioned in the 4th (10th) century. Muķaddasî describes it as a small town, possessing broad lands, irrigated by underground channels; and it was the first stage out from Shîrâz going to Mâyin, on the summer or mountain road from Shîâz to Isfahân. Mâyin, the capital of Râmjird, is described by Muķaddasî as a populous city with fruitful lands. Mustawfî reports that under the Mongol dynasty its revenues amounted to 52,500 dînârs (about £17,500 in the Îl-Khânid currency). There was in the town a famous shrine of a certain Shaykh Gul Andâm; and at the foot of the pass, on the road north, was the Mashhad of Ismâîl, son of the seventh Imâm Mûsâ-al-Kâzim. The district of Râmjird owed its great productiveness to the irrigation canals F. N. 66 b, 67 6, 83 a, 846, 86 a, b. Mst. 174, 175, 179, 180. Yak. i. 199; ii. 480. 1 Ist. 104 XIX) 281 FÂRS. taken from above the dam on the Kur at Band-i-Mujarrad, which, as already stated, the Atabeg Châûlî had restored. In Râmjird also was the castle called Sa‘îdâbâd, crowning the summit of a steep hill, the road up being one league in length. In old days it was called Isfîdbâdh (the White Place), and in the times of the Omayyad Caliphs it had frequently been held against their armies by rebel chieftains. Finally Ya‘ķub, son of Layth the Şaffârid, 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 Isfîdbâdh is possibly a misreading, being sometimes written Isfandyâr, and it is apparently identical with the Isfîdân of the Fârs Nâmah and Mustawfî, near which vas the village of ķumistân, with a great cavern in the adjacent hill'. Near the left bank of the Kur river, not far from Mâyin, stood the town and castle of Abraj (often miswritten Íraj), which is mentioned by Ișțakhrî as of this district, and the place is still to be found on the map. The Fârs Nâmah and Mustawfî 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 Ūjân, or Uzjân, which lies one march north of Mâyin, is mentioned by Mustawff, but no details are given. Ûjân is probably identical with the place named Ņūsgân (for Hûsjân) by Ķudâmah, where the name is printed in error Khûskân, and in the text of Muķaddasî, again, it is misprinted Harskân”. Mst. 174, i Kud. 196. Ist. III, 117, 126, 132. 1. H. 197. Muk. 432, 437, 458. F. N. 66 a, 68 a, 81 b. Mst. 174, 175, 180. Yak. ii. 561 ; iii. 93, 838. The fortress of Sa ‘îdâbâd is probably the modern Manşûrâbâd, as described by H. Schindler, P.R.G.S. 1891, p. 290. 2 Kud. 196. Ist. 102, 136. Muk. 457, 458. F. N. 666, 83 a. 179. Abraj, as given in the Fårs Nâmah, is undoubtedly the true pronuncia- tion, Îraj (as printed in the texts of Ișțakhrî and Mukaddasî) being due to a clerical error in the mss., and this has been adopted by Yâķût (i. 419). The old castle exists above Abraj, and is now known as Ishkanvân, which recalls the name of Shankavân mentioned above (p. 276) as one of the three castles of Iștakhr. See Schindler, P. R. G. S. 1891, p. 290. 282 [CHAP. FÂRS. The most direct road from Shîrâz to Isfahân went by way of Mâyin, and thence by Kûshk-i-Zard through Dîh Girdû and Yazdikhwâst to ķůmishah on the frontier of Fârs. From Mâyin the road went up the pass, going north to the crossing of the Kur river at the Shahriyâr bridge, near which was the guard-house of Salâh-ad-Dîn in the plain called Dasht Rûn or Dasht Rûm. North of this, again, according to Mustawfî, came the Mother and Daughter Pass (Garîvah-i-Mâdar-wa a-Dukhtar), and then Kûshk-i- Zard, the Yellow Kiosque,' which is probably identical with the ķașr Ayin, or A‘în, of Istakhrî and Muķaddasî. The plains of greater and lesser Dasht Rûn were famous as pasture grounds, and the arable lands gave four crops a year, these being watered by the Kur river and its affluents. Kushk-i-Zard is first mentioned in the Fârs Nâmah, where the name is more generally written Kushk-i-Zar, or the Golden Kiosque.' To the north again, between Kûshk.i- Zard and Dîh Girdû, stretched the even more fertile pasture lands of the Urd or Âvard district, the chief towns of which, according to Istakhrî, were Bajjah and Taymaristân (written Țaymarjân in the Fars Namah). Mustawfi mentions Dih Girdû, and it appears in the Fars Namah as Dih Gawz (for Jawz), 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 Dîh Girdû must be equivalent to Ișțakhrân of Ķudâmah and Iştakhrî. Along the eastern borders of the Dasht Ûrd plain lie Iklîd, Sarmaḥ, and Abâdah village, then Shûristân and Sarvistân village, half-way between Dih Girdû and Yazdikhwâst. Iklîd had a fine castle according to the Fârs Nâmah, and like Sarmaḥ was famous for its corn lands. The name of Sarmaķ is spelt Jarmaḥ by Muķaddasî; 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 Abâdah, a stage on the present post-road from Shîrâz to Isfahân, is first mentioned in the Fârs Nâmah, and later by Mustawfî; the same also is to be said of Shûristân which lies on a salt river flowing east to the desert. The village of Sarvistân, Muķaddasî states, had a mosque in the 4th (10th) century, and the place was well supplied with water from the neighbouring 6 XIX] 283 FÂRS. sur- hills. The name of Yazdikhwâst, the town lying to the north of this, first occurs in the Fârs Nâmah, but it is doubtless the same place mentioned by Muķaddasî under the curtailed form of Azkâs. Mustawfî gives Yazdikhwâst with Dih Girdû, but adds no particulars. The name is often spelt Yazdikhâs?. Kümishah, which Muķaddasî spells Ķûmisah, was, as already said, on the northern frontier of Fârs, and it was often counted as belonging to Isfahân. Mustawfî mentions the clay-built castle of Ķūlanjân which defended it, and tells us that it was rounded by fruitful districts. To the westward of Yazdikhwâst is situated the town of Sumayram near the head-waters of the Ţâb river, and through it passed the western road from Shîrâz to Isfahân. Mukaddasî 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. Yâķût states that the name of this castle was Wahânzâd. The western road from Shîrâz to Isfahân passed through Baydâ in the Marvdasht plain, and thence went on to Mihrajânâvâdh (or Mîhrajânâbâd), which Mukaddasî 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 Kûrad and Kallâr (already mentioned as on the Kur), two neighbouring towns, famous according to Mukaddasî and Mustawfî for their corn lands and the fruit trees of the cold region. Ișțakhrî refers to their well-built houses, but apparently all trace of these two places has disappeared?. The shortest of the three roads from Shîrâz to Isfahân is that already described, by Mâyin and the Dasht Rûn plain, and this is called the Winter Road in the Fârs Nâmah. The Summer 11. K. 58. Kud. 196. Ist. 103, 132. Muk. 437, 458. F. N. 651, 66 a, 80 b, 81 a, 83 a, b, 84 a, b. Mst. 174, 175, 179, 200. Yak. i. 197. I. B. ii. 52. 2 Ist. 126. F. N. 66 a, 84 a, b. Muk. 389, 437, 457, 458. Mst. 175. Yak. iii. 151 ; iv. 942. It is to be remarked that while Muķaddasî (p. 458) in his itinerary refers to Kûrad and Kallâr as though these two villages stood close one beside the other, in the Fårs Namah itinerary (f. 846) Kallâr is placed five leagues north of Kûrad. 284 [CHAP. FÂRS. Road was much longer, and was the easternmost of the three, going by Istakhr through Kamîn and past the tomb of Cyrus to Dîh Bîd, where, to the right, a road branched off to Yazd. The Isfahân road continued westward through Sarmaḥ and Abâdah village to Yazdikhwâst and Ķūmishah. Kamîn, not far from the eastern bank of the Pulvâr river, was according to Mustawfî 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 Pulvâr, is Pasargada 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 Fårs Namah anyone attempting to take up his abode within its walls suddenly became blind. The surrounding pasture lands were called the Marghzâr of Kâlân. Dîh Bîd, "Willow Village,' the next stage north of this, where the road forked, is given by Muķaddasî and the other Arab geographers as Ķariyat-al-Bìdh, and to the north again, about half-way between Istakhr and Yazd, stood the city of Abarķůh. Abarķûh or Abarķûyah--sometimes shortened to Barkûh-is said by Ibn Hawķal to have been a fortified town one-third the size of Istakhr, with great markets, and Muķaddasî refers to its fine mosque. Mustawfî 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 Abarķůh were no Jews. In the town itself Mustawfi describes the tomb of the famous saint called Tâûs-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 Mustawfî, it was invariably destroyed by a supernatural power, lest the saint's bones should become the object of idolatrous worship. In the neighbourhood of Abarķuh was the village of Marâghah (or Faraghah), where there were magnificent cypress trees, celebrated all the world over as XIX] 285 FÂRS. larger and finer than those even of Balkh, or of Kishmar in ķuhistân'. 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 Jûmah (of Yazd). Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century describes the place as a well-built and well-fortified city, with two iron gates—Bâb Izad and Bâb-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. Ķazvînî and others speak of the heavy silk stuffs that were woven in Yazd, all of most beautiful patterns. Mustawfî 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 Anjîrah, ‘Fig Village,' then at the second stage Khazanah (often incorrectly printed Kharânah), 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 Sâghand. This last, according to Ibn Hawķal, 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, 'Uķdah, and Nâyîn 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 Nâyîn to Isfahân. Nâyîn according to Mustawfî was defended by a castle, and the circuit of its walls was 4000 paces. Our authorities, however, give no details about any of these places, merely mentioning their names. I. H. 196. Muk. 437, 457. F. N. 81b, 846. Mst. 174, 175, 180, 200. J. N. 266. The phenomenon of the roofless tomb is also described by Ibn Bațâțah (ii. 113) as a characteristic of the shrine of Ibn Hanbal in Baghdâd, and Professor Goldziher has some interesting remarks on this curious superstition in his Muhammedanische Studien (i. 257). 2 Ist. 100. I. H. 196, 294, 295. Muk. 424, 437, 493. Kaz. ii. 187. Mst. 153. Yak. iii. 694 ; iv. 711, 734. 1 Ist. 129. 286 [CHAP. FÂRS. About 75 miles south of Yazd, and half-way between that city and Shahr-i-Bâbak, is the town of Anâr, from which Bahrâmâbâd is 60 miles distant in a south-easterly direction, and both towns are now included in the Kirmân province. During the middle- ages, however, the whole of this district forrned part of Fârs and was known as Ar-Rûdhân, of which the three chief towns were Abân (now Anâr), Adhkân, and Unâs (near Bahrâmâbâd)'. Unâs, the chief town of the district, was, according to Istakhrî, of the size of Abarkůh, 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 Unâs was very strong, and had eight gates, which Muķaddasî 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 Radhân district is said to have extended over 60 leagues square. Originally, as at the present day, it had been included in Kirmân, but in the 4th (10th) century it was added to Fârs, and according to the Fârs Namah this arrangement continued down to the time of Alp Arslân the Saljük, who, after conquering all these regions in the middle of the 5th (11th) century, finally re-annexed Rudhân to Kirmân? Between Rûdhân and Shahr-i-Bâbak is the small town of Dîh 1 Our authorities state that Abân was 25 leagues from Fahraj (which is five leagues S.E. of Yazd); the town of Ar-Rûdhân lay 18 leagues beyond Abân, and Unâs was one short march or two post-stages (Barîd) from Ar-Rûdhân. Further, Unâs lay one long march and two leagues (or one Barîd) from Bîmand, which last was four leagues west of Sîrjân ; and from Ar-Rûdhân to Shahr-i-Bâbak was three days' march, the first march being to Kariyat-al-Jamâl, *Camels' Village.' These distances, plotted out, show that the positions of modern Anâr and Bahrâmâbâd respectively coincide with medieval Abân and Unâs; while the town of Ar-Rûdhân, which is presumably the place elsewhere called Adhkân, must have stood between the two, near the modern village of Gulnâbâd. Ist. 135, 168. I. K. 48. Muk. 457, 473. Yâķût confuses the matter : he mentions (iii. 92;) the town of Anâr as though it were identical with Unâs, which from the distances given above is impossible ; Anâr is here probably merely a clerical error for Unâs, which in another passage (i. 367) he counts as of Kirmân. ? Ist. 100, 126. Muk. 437, 438, 462. F. N. 646. Yak. ii. 830. Anar is still most fertile and produces a considerable surplus of grain, which is exported. XIX] 287 FÂRS. > Ushturân or in Arabic Kariyat-al-Jamâl, 'Camels' Village, where, Muķaddasî relates, there was a tall minaret to the mosque, and fine gardens lying on a stream below the town. Shahr-i-Bâbak, the city of Bâbak or Pâpak, father of Ardashîr, the first Sassanian monarch, was a town often counted as of Kirmân. The place still exists, and it is mentioned by Istakhrî, Mukaddasi, and others, who however give us no details. Mustawfî includes it in Kirmân, and says that corn, cotton, and dates grew here abundantly. Two stages west of Shahr-i-Bâbak, on the road to Iștakhr, is the small town of Harât, which the Fars Nâmah couples with Şâhik (already mentioned, p. 278). Istakhrî speaks of Harât as being, in the 4th (10th) century, larger than Abarķûh; it exported much fruit, according to Muķaddasî, chiefly apples and olives, and had excellent markets, with streets round its mosque, and a fine stream of water traversed its gardens. Harât had but one gate; and Muķaddasî names the little town of Far'a as of its neighbourhood. Writing in the 7th (13th) century ķazvînî states that the Ghubayrâ plant (possibly the penny-royal) grows abundantly in the gardens of Harât, 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 Şâhik, on the borders of the Dârâbjird district, is the town of Kuțruh, still a place of some importance, where, according to the Fårs Nâmah and Mustawfî (who spells the name Kadrû), there were excellent iron mines?. 1 Major Sykes (Ten thousand Miles in Persia, p. 78) found the ruins of a fire-temple near Shahr-i-Bâbak. Ist. 102. 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 Harât village is identical in spelling with Herât, the famous city of Khurâsân. CHAPTER XX. FÂRS (continued). The Dârâbjird Kûrah or Shabankârah district. Dârâbjird city. Darkân and îg. Nîrîz and Iştahbânât. Fasâ, Rûnîz, and Khasû. Lâr and Furg. Târum. Sûrû. The trade and manufactures of Fârs. The high roads across Fârs. The Dârâbjird Kûrah was the easternmost of the five districts of Fârs, and it almost exactly corresponded with the province of Shabânkârah, which, under the Mongol dominion, was divided off from Fârs and formed a separate government. The Shabân- kârah according to the author of the Fars Namah (who, however, does not apply this name to the Dârâbjird district) were a tribe descended from the Fadlûyah, a family of Daylamite origin, and they had been of the Ismailian sect of the Shî'ahs. In Saljūķ times they and the Kurds had waged successful war against the Atabeg Châûlî, and after the decay of Saljuķ power the Shabân- kârah took possession of the eastern region of Fârs, to which they gave their name. The Shabankârah 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 Dârâbjird'. 1 The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Sir H. Yule, London, 1874, 2nd ed., i. 84. Shabânkârah appears in the chronicle of Ibn-al-Athîr (x. 362) spelt Ash- Shawânkârah. The chiefs of the tribe who opposed Atabeg Châûlî in the beginning of the 6th (12th) century were Fadlûh and his brother Khasrû. This last name is probably that more correctly written Hasûyah (possibly for Hasanûyah) in the Fårs Namah. CHAP. XX] 289 FÂRS. The capital of the district, under the Caliphate, was the city of Dârâbjird or Dârâbgird, which Iştakhrî describes as a walled town with a water-ditch, having four gates, and in the midst of the town stood a rocky hill. Mukaddasî 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 Dârâbjird was the celebrated ķubbat-al-Mûmiyâ, 'the Bitumen or Naphtha Dome,' closed by an iron door and only opened once a year, when an officer of the Sulțân went in and gathered in a box the twelve months' accumulation of the precious Mûmiyâ, which was then sealed up and despatched to Shîrâz for the royal use. At the beginning of the 6th (12th) century, according to the Fårs Namah, Dârâbjird city was then mostly in ruins, though there was a strong fortress in its midst. Round about extended the famous meadow lands (Marghzâr) of Dârâbjird, and in the neighbourhood was a hill where rock salt, of seven colours, was dug out. According to Mustawfî there was a strongly fortified pass near Dârâbjird, com- manded by a great castle, known as Tang-i-Zînah". Under the Shabânkârah, the capital of the Dârâbjird province was removed to Dârkan (or Zarkân), to the north of which stood the fortress of Îg (or Avîg). The Arab geographers of the 4th (10th) century mention these, writing the names Ad-Darkân or Ad-Dârâkân and Îj, and Iștakhrî says there was a mosque in his day in both these places. Mustawfî, who generally spells the name Zarkân, and refers to the castle as the Kalʻah Avîg, says that the surrounding district was very fertile, growing cotton, corn, dates, and other fruits. According to him the castle of Avîg had been first fortified in Saljūķ times by the Khasůyah tribe, and Yâķût adds that fruit from here was exported even as far as to the island of Kîsh (Kays). To the north-east of Îg are the town and district of Nayrîz (or Nirîz) at the eastern end of Bakhtigân; to which lake, at times, it has given its name. Muķaddasî speaks of the Great Mosque of Nayrîz in the market street, and the ruins of this building, bearing 1 Ist. 123, 155. Muk. 428. F. N. 686, 81 a, 86 b. Mst. 181. The Bitumen Dome, or one similar, is stated by Ibn-al-Faķih (p. 199) to have been near Arrajân; see p. 269. LE S. 19 290 [CHAP. FÂRS. the date 340 (951) still exist. Close to the shore of the lake stands the town of Khîr (spelt also Khayâr and Al-Khayrah), which is mentioned, from the 4th (10th) century onwards, as a stage on the road along the south side of Lake Bakhtigân going from Shîrâz to Kirmân. Mustawfî and the Fars Nâmah name the district round Khayrah Mîshkânât; it was famous for its raisins (kishmish), and both Nîrîz and Khayrah were protected by strong castles'. Half-way between Khayrah and Ig lies the town of Istahbânât, a name which the Arab geographers also spell Al-Istahbânân or sometimes Al-Işbahânât, which is shortened by the Persians into Ișțahbân. Mustawfî describes it as a town buried in trees, with a strong castle in its vicinity. It had been laid in ruins by the Atabeg Châûlî, who had, however, subsequently caused it to be rebuilt; and the castle in the 8th (14th) century was occupied by the Khasûyah tribe. The town of Fasâ, pronounced Pasâ by the Persians, was in the 4th (10th) century the second city of the Dârâbjird district, being almost of the size of Shîrâz. 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. Muķaddasî states that the Great Mosque, built of burnt brick and with two courts, rivalled that of Medina for splendour. The Fârs Nâmah speaks of Fasâ as being almost of the size of Isfahân. The Shabânkârah had ruined it, but the city had been rebuilt by the Atabeg Châûlî. Mustawfî adds that anciently the city was called Sâsân, and it had been built triangular in plan. Its water-supply, which was abundant, was taken from underground channels, for there were no wells. Shaķķ Mîskâhân and Shaķķ Rûdbâl (or Rûdbâr) were of its dependencies, and in the neighbourhood stood the strong castle of Khwâdân, where there were great cisterns for storing water?. i Ist. 107, 108, 132, 136, 200. Muk. 423, 429, 446, 455. F. N. 686, 69a, 6. Mst. 181. Yak. i. 415; ii. 560. Captain Lovett, J. R. G. S. 1872, p. 203. 2 Ist. 108, 127, 136. Muk. 423, 431, 448. F. N. 69 a, 70 a, 82 b, 83 a. Mst. 175, 179, 181. J. N. 272. XX] 291 FÂRS. The town of Kurm lies some miles north of Fasâ, on the road to Sarvistân, and is given thus in the Itineraries. According to the Fârs Nâmah its district and that of Rûnîz (or Rabanz) belonged to Fasâ; the latter district forming part of the Khasů territory, which Muķaddasî marks as lying one march south-west from Dârâbjird on the road to Juwaym of Abu Aḥmad (see above, p. 254). The earlier geographers give the form of the name as Rûnîj (or Rûbanj), and it is probable that this town is identical with the present Khasů (or Kusů). Mustawfi speaks of Kurm and Rûnîz as two towns enjoying a warm climate with an abundant water-supply; and according to Muķaddasî the Khasû (or Khashû) territory extended far to the eastward, for besides Rúnij it included the towns of Rustâķ-ar-Rustâķ, Furg, and Târum. Mustawfî counts Khasû as belonging to Dârâbjird'. Due south of Rûnîz is the small town of Yazdikhwâst, which is mentioned by Muķaddasî and Yâķût as of the Dârâbjird dependencies, and south of this again is the city of Lâr. Lâr is not mentioned by any of the earlier Arab geographers, nor does the name occur in the Fârs Nâmah, which dates from the beginning of the 6th (12th) century. Mustawfî, in the earlier part of the 8th (14th) century, is our first authority to speak of Lâr, as the name of a district (vilâyat) 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 Bațâțah visited Lâr city about the year 730 (1330), and describes it as a large place, with many gardens and fine markets. Under Shâh Shujậof the Muzaffarid dynasty at the close of the 8th (14th) century, and later under the Tîmûrid princes, Lâr became a mint city, which proves it to have been in those days a place of some size and importance. Ist. 108, 116, 132. Muk. 422, 423, 454, 455. F. N. 696. Mst. 181. The pronunciation Rûbanj, adopted in the text of Muķaddasî, is apparently on the authority of Yâķût (ii. 828), who carefully spells the word letter for letter. The mss. of the Fårs Namah and Mustawfî almost invariably give Rûnîz (for an older form Rûnîj), which is still the name of a district in these parts. It seems probable therefore that Rabanj, as printed in Iştakhrî and Muḥaddasî, is a clerical error, and that by a shifting of the diacritical points we should everywhere read Rûnîj, or Rûnîz, in the place of Rûbanz and Rûbanj. 1 1. K. 52. 19-2 292 [CHAP. Fârs. Furg, which lies three marches south-east of Dârâbjird, is still a considerable town. Muķaddasî, 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 (10th) 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 Fârs Nâmah writes the name Purk or Purg, and says that its castle was impregnable, being built of stone and very large. Mustawfî adds that both corn and dates were grown in Burk (as he writes the name) most abundantly. Rustâķ-ar-Rustâķ is described by Mukaddasî 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 Dârâbjird? The town of Târum, also spelt Țârum, like the district of this name in the Jibâl province (see above, p. 225), lies two marches east of Furg, on the road to the coast. Muķaddasî 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 Fârs Namah it was nearly the size of Furg, and had a strong castle well supplied with cisterns. From Țârum the caravan road went almost due south to the coast, where lay the port of Sûrû, or Shahrů, over against the island of Hurmuz. Mustawfî names the port Tusar, but the reading is un- certain. The Arab geographers speak of Sûrû as a village of fisher- men, having no mosque, and dependent for the water-supply on wells dug in the neighbouring hills. There was, Muķaddasî adds, much trade with ‘Omân across the gulf, and the place, which he speaks of as a small town, lay exactly on the Kirmân frontier”. 1 Muk. 428, 454, note n. F. N. 69 a, 83 a. Mst. 181. 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. 2 Ist. 167. I. H. 224. F. N. 69 a. Muk. 427, 429. Mst. 181, 201. XX] 293 FÂRS. The trade and manufactures of the province of Fârs, in the 4th (10th) century, are carefully described by both Iștakhrî and Muķaddasî. At this time, as already stated, the chief port of Persia, on the gulf, was Sîrâf. 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 Barbahâr. Istakhrî gives the imports of Sîrâf 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 Fârs has been celebrated for the so-called attar of roses (“Ațar or 'Ițr 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 Jûr or Fîrûzâbâd. The rose- water was exported, Ibn Hawķal writes, to all parts of the world, namely, to India, China, and Khurâsân, also to Maghrib or North- west Africa, Syria, and Egypt. Besides the essence of roses, Jûr also produced palm-flower water, and special perfumes distilled from southernwood (in Arabic kaysům, the Artemisia abrotanum), saffron, lily, and willow flowers. The city of Shâpûr and its valley produced, according to Muķaddasî, ten different kinds of perfumed oils, or unguents, made from the violet, water-lily (Ninúfar), 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 Fârs 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 Sulțân, on which his name or cypher was embroidered. These were known as Țarâz, and the town of Tawwaj was famous for their manufacture, as was also Fasâ, where peacock-blue and green stuffs, shot with gold thread, were embroidered for the royal use. The remaining products of Fârs may best be grouped under the cities producing them. The looms of Shîrâz produced a variety of fine cloths for making cloaks, also gauzes and brocades, 294 [CHAP. FÂRS. and stuffs woven of raw silk (kazz). 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, Shâpûr exported various medicaments, as well as sugar-canes, shaddocks, nuts, olives, and other kinds of fruit, and osiers. Kâzirûn and Darîz produced linen stuffs and fine gauzes, an imitation of the Egyptian brocades known by the name of dabîş, and fringed towels. Ghundijân, the capital of Dasht Bârîn, produced carpets, curtains, cushions, and the Țarâz embroideries for the Sultan's use. Arrajân was famous for a kind of syrup, 'made from raisins, which was called dibs, or dúshâb. Good soap was also manufactured here, also thicker woollens and napkins, and the town was an emporium for Indian goods (Barbahâr). The neighbouring port of Mahruban exported fish, dates, and excellent water-skins. At Sînîz the special kind of gauze known as ķasșâb was made, also linen stuffs, for which Jannâbah was also famed. Istakhr manufactured stuffs for veils, while the towns of the Rudhân district produced excellent cloth, a particular kind of sandal called Shimshik, water-skins, and divers condiments. Yazd and Abarķúh yielded cotton stuffs. In Dârâbjird 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 Múmiyâ or bitumen, from Arrajân and Dârâbjird, has already been mentioned. Ișțakhrî describes a boneless fish, said to be excellent eating, which lived in the moat of Dârâbjird. 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. Fasâ 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 Fasâ, and much felt was made, the tents of this material known as khargâh being largely exported. Lastly in Fârs, according to Ibn Hawķal, there were silver mines at Nâyin ; iron and quicksilver were found in the hills of xx] - 295 FÂRS. Istakhr, besides lead, copper, sulphur, and naphtha in divers regions. No gold-mine was known. Dye-stuffs of various kinds were common throughout Fârs, so that the land, he says, was full of dyers and their dye works'. The high roads of Fârs 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 Yafķûbî, one of our best authorities for the Road Books, is entirely wanting for Fârs, and Ibn Rustah also for the most part fails us, but beginning with Ibn Khurdâdbih and Ķudâmah in the 3rd (9th) century, we have İştakhrî and Muķaddasî in the 4th (10th) 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 Fars Namah, whose description is for the geography of this period an immense gain which unfortunately is lacking to us for the rest of Persia. Mustawfî, also a Persian authority, registers in the 8th (14th) century the changes effected by the Mongol conquest, and at the close of this century ‘Alî of Yazd describes in detail the march of Tîmûr from Ahwaz to Shîrâz, which lay along one of the trunk roads. In this province the roads all radiated from Shîrâz, and it will be convenient first to describe those leading down to the coast. Sîrâf, ķays 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 Shîrâz this road went by Sarvistân and Faså to Dârâbjird, Furg, and Ţârum, whence turning due south it struck the coast, in early times at Sûrû, or Shahrû, or, as Mustawfî calls it, Tûsar. Not far from here, in Şafavid days, the port of Bandar ‘Abbâs which still exists was founded, as will be noted later. Of this road we have five separate accounts?. 1 Ist. 152—155. I. H. 213—215. Muk. 442, 443• 2 I. K. 52, 53. Ist. 131, 132, 170. Muk. 154, 155. F. N. 85 a. Mst. 200. 296 [CHAP. FÂRS. The next road, running almost due south from Shîrâz, went in early times to Sîrâf. 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 ķays, and this is the route described by Mustawfî. Mukaddasi also gives an important by-road, going south-west from Dârâbjird, on the Hurmuz route, to Sîrâf, and this cuts across the road from Shîrâz to ķays island given at a later date by Mustawfî. Starting from Shîrâz all these routes went by Kavâr to Júr or Fîrûzâbâd. Here the older road branched to the right, going down to Sîrâf. The road given in the Fârs Nâmah turned to the left at Fîrûzâbâd, going by Kârzîn to Lâghir, whence, through Kurân, Sîrâf was reached. The route given in Mustawfî leaves the city of Fîrûzâbâd a few leagues to the eastward, and goes down like the Fårs Namah road to Lâghir, where, branching south-east and to the left, it passed through Fâryâb and the desert to Huzû, the port opposite ķays island. Unfortunately this road from Lâghir to Huzû is only found in Mustawfî, 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 Dârâbjird, given by Muķaddasî, goes by Juwaym of Abu Aḥmad to Fâryâb or Bârâb, a stage on Mustawfi's route, and then to Kurân, on the Fârs Nâmah route, whence it led direct to Sîrâf'. The western road to the coast followed in its upper section the present track from Shîrâz to Bushire, for it passed by Kâzirûn and Darîz to Tawwaj, the important commercial town of the 4th (10th) century, and thence to the port of Jannâbah. The Fârs Nâmah gives an important variant to this route, going by the Mâșaram country to Jirrah, and thence by Ghundîjan to Tawwaj; at Ghundîjân, however, a branch turning off south went down to the port of Najîram, which lies some distance to the west of Sîrâf. Mustawfî only gives the road westwards from Shîrâz as far as Kâzirûn, in his day Tawwaj was in ruins, and at that time the chief port on the Persian Gulf was ķays island'. 1 Ist. 128, 129. Muk. 454, 455. F. N. 86 a, b. Mst. 200, also v. supra, p. 257, note i. 2 Ist. 130. Muk. 453, 454, 456. F. N. 86 a. Mst. 200. XX] 297 FÂRS. The most fully detailed of all the roads in Fârs is that going from Shîrâz, north-west, to Arrajân and Khůzistân, 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 ‘Alî of Yazd de- scribing in the reverse direction the march of Tîmûr in 795 (1393) from Ahwaz through Bihbahân to Shîrâz, when, on his way, he stormed the great White Fortress of ķalʻah Safîd. Leaving Shîrâz, the high road to Khûzistân, as described in the Road Books, goes north-west by Juwaym (Goyun) to Nawbanjân, and thence through Gunbadh Mallaghân to Arrajân, whence by the great bridge over the Tâb river it reached Bustânak on the frontier of Fârs. Muķaddasi and the earlier geographers add the distances from Arrajân to the port of Mahrubân, and thence south-east along the coast to the port of Sînîz and on to Jannâbah'. From Shîrâz to Isfahân there were three separate routes in use during the middle-ages. The westernmost turned off to the right, at Juwaym, from the Arrajân road, going to Baydâ in the Marvdasht plain, and thence by Kúrad and Kallâr to Sumayram and Isfahân. This route is described by Ibn Khurdâdbih and Muķaddasî. The middle route is the summer road through the hill country, which goes from Shîrâz to Mâyin, and thence by Kůshk-i-Zard and Dîh Girdû through Yazdikhwast 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 Shîrâz north-eastward to Ișțakhr and thence to Dîh Bîd. Here a main route went off to the right going by Abarşûh to Yazd, while the road to Isfahân turned to the left, and passing through Surmaſ and Abâdah village joined the summer road at Yazdikhwast, whence by ķumishah Isfahân was reached. This winter road, which at the present time is the usual post-road from Shîrâz to Isfahân, is given by Muķaddasî and the Fârs Nâmah: the stages to Yazd are enumerated by nearly all our authorities'. 1 I. K. 43, 44: Kud. 195. I. R. 189, 190. Ist. 133, 134. Muk. 453, 455. F. N. 856. Mst. 201. A. Y. i. 600. 2 By the Western Road: I. K. 58. Muk. 457, 458. By the Summer Road or Hill Road: Kud. 196, 197. Ist. 132, 133. Muk. 458. F. N. 83b. Mst. 298 [CHAP. XX FÂRS. The roads from Shîrâz to Shahr-i-Bâbak and thence on to Sîrjân, one of the capitals of Kirmân, followed two routes, one to the north of Lake Bakhtigân, the other passing along the southern shore of the lake. The northern route went first from Shîrâz to Istakhr (Persepolis), and from here to Shahr-i-Bâbak we have two roads, one direct by Harât village, the other by Abâdah city to Şâhik, where it joined the road along the southern shore of the lake. This last left Shîrâz, going eastward by the northern side of Lake Mâhalû to Khurramah, whence by the southern shore of Bakhtigân it reached Khayrah. From here the Fârs Nâmah gives the distances of a branch road to Nîrîz and ķuțruh. The main road went from Khayrah to Great Şâhik, where, as already said, it was joined by the route from Istakbr along the northern lake shore, and from Great Şâhik it crossed a desert tract, going north-east to Shahr-i-Bâbak. Both by the northern and the southern shore of Lake Bakhtigân 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 Road: Muk. 458. F. N. 84 b. By the Yazd Road : I. K. 51. Ist. 129. Muk. 457. F. N. 86b. Mst. 201. 1 The road viâ Harât : Muk. 455, 456, 457. The road viâ Abâdah and north lake shore : I. K. 53. Kud. 195. Ist. 130, 131. F. N. 846. The road viả Khayrah and south lake shore : I. K. 48. Muk. 455. F. N. 85 a. Mst. 201. For the roads which centred in Sîrjân, coming up from Fârs, see the next chapter, note 1, p. 302, and Chapter XXII, p. 320. CHAPTER XXI. KIRMÂN. The five districts of Kirmân. 'The two capitals. Sîrjân, the first capital, its position and history. Bardasîr, the second capital, now Kirmân city. Mâhân and its saint. Khabîș. Zarand and Kühbinân, Cobinan of Marco Polo. The province of Kirmân, as Ișțakhrî 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 Fârs. Yâķût states that under the Saljūķs Kirmân 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 Tîmûr at the close of the 8th (14th) century. Muķaddasî in the 4th (10th) century divides the province of Kirmân into five Kûrahs or districts, called after their chief towns; namely (i) Bardasîr, with the sub-district of Khabis to the north; next (ii) Sîrján, on the Fârs frontier ; then (iii) Bam and (iv) Nar- mâsîr on the desert border to the east; and lastly (v) Jîruft 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 Kirmân frontier, round about Sîrjân, ran out like a sleeve' into the lands of the Fârs province, as 300 [CHAP. KIRMÂN. Istakhrî puts it, and according to some early accounts Shahr- i-Bâbak was herein included as of the Kirmân province'. The present capital of the province is the city of Kirmân, 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 Kirmân province had two capitals, namely Sîrjân and Bardasîr, of which the latter town is identical with the modern city of Kirmân, standing near what is still known as the Bardasîr district. Sîrjân, the older Moslem capital of Kirmân, was already the chief city under the Sassanians. The Arab geographers always write the name As-Sîrjân or Ash-Shîrajân (with the article), and though no town of the name now exists, the district of Sîrjân still occupies the western part of the Kirmân province, with Sa'idâbâd for its chief town. The recently discovered ruins at Ķal'ah-i-Sang?, on a hill spur some 5 miles to the east of Saʻîdâbâd, on the Bâft road, are evidently the site of Sîrjân, 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 Sîrjân city; and though the modern Sîrjân district covers but a portion of the older Kûrah, it has preserved for us the ancient name. After the Arab conquest Sîrjân, continued to be the capital of the Moslem province until the middle of the 4th (10th) century, when all southern Persia came under the power of the Buyids. The governor they sent to Kirmân was a certain Ibn Ilyas, and he for an unknown reason changed his residence to Bardasîr (the modern Kirmân city), and later, with the transference of all the government offices thither from Sîrjân, this last fell to be a place of secondary importance. When Iştakhrî wrote, however, Sîrjân was still the largest city of Kirmân. He states that there was little wood used 1 Ist. 158, 163, 165. Muk. 460, 461. Yak. iv. 263. 2 ķalʻah-i-Sang, otherwise known as ķal-ah-i-Baydâ (the Stone or the White Fort), occupies a limestone hill rising some 300 feet above the plain, and egg- shaped, being about 400 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 Thousand Miles in Persia (London, 1902). XXI] 301 KIRMÂN. in its houses, since these were all built with vaulted roofs. Muķaddasî describes the place under the Buyid rule as larger and more populous than Shîrâz. 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 (Muķaddasî cites their names, some of which however are uncertainly written in the mss.), and near that called Bâb Hakîm, '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 Tâhir, sons of Layth the Şaffârid. Yâķût, who states that when he wrote—7th (13th) century- Sîrjân was the second city of Kirmân and contained forty-five mosques, large and small, asserts that the town in his day was known under the name of Al-Kaşrân, “the Two Palaces,' but he gives no explanation. The name of Sîrjan frequently occurs in the chronicles of Ibn-al-Athîr and Mirkhwând, when relating the history of the Buyids and Saljuķs. Mustawfî, after the Mongol conquest, described it as having a strong castle and its lands grew both cotton and corn. Sîrjân afterwards passed into the possession of the Muzaffarid princes, who reigned in Fârs at Shîrâz, but conquered all Kirmân from the Karakhitay dynasty at the beginning of the 8th (14th) century. In the year 789 (1387) Tîmûr marched into Fârs, appeared in force before Shîrâz, re- ceived the submission of the Muzaffarid princes, and was induced when he left Fârs to conquer Irâķ, to reinstate some of them as tributaries. Left to themselves, however, they fomented rebellion, and in 795 (1393) Tîmûr again entered Fârs, overthrew the Muzaffarid forces in a pitched battle, and appointed his own son Prince 'Omar Shaykh governor of Fârs and Kirmân. Many districts, however, especially in Kirmân, refused to submit to Tîmûr, and Gûdarz, the governor of Sîrjân, 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 ķalah (castle) of 302 [CHAP. KIRMÂN. Sîrjân 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 Sîrjan 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 Tîmûr at the royal camp before Âmid in Upper Mesopotamia. This was in 796 (1394) and for another two years Sîrjân still held out, the garrison ultimately yielding to famine rather than to force of arms; and by order of Tîmûr, when Gûdarz 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. Sîrjân was left a ruin, and though Hâfiz Abrû, writing in the reign of the successor of Tîmûr, still speaks of Sîrjân as the second city of Kirmân (second to Bardasîr), with a strong castle crowning a high rock, the name of Sîrjân after this date disappears from history, and its exact site has only quite recently been discovered in the ruins of ķalah-i-Sang, as already said'. As mentioned above, the modern capital of the province is Kirmân city, and this, though not the first Moslem capital, appears to have been an important town from early Sassanian Hfz. 140 a. 1 Ist. 166. Muk. 464, 470. Yak. iv. 106, 265. Mst. 182. A. Y. i. 618, 667, 784. Mîrkhwând, pt. iv. 170; pt. vi. 48, 69. The position of Sîrjân is given by the Arab geographers in marches from various known places, often with an equivalent total in farsakhs or leagues. Unfortunately in the Kirmân province the stage-by-stage itineraries, with details of places passed (as we have for the Jibâl province, and the whole of Fârs), are lacking. The following, however, is a summary of the distances recorded, and they agree with the position of ķal'ah-i-Sang for Sîrjân city. From Shahr-i-Bâbak on the north-west, where the high roads coming up from Shîrâz and Iștakhr united, Sîrjân was distant 24 and 32 leagues by different roads, and was 38 to 46 leagues, or three long marches, from Great Şâhik. From Rustâķ-ar- Rustâķ (one short day's march north-west of Furg) Sîrjân was four marches, and from Nîrîz five and a half marches distant. Going east and south-east, the road from Sîrjân to Jîruft measures six marches or 54 leagues; while to Râyin it was five marches, and to Sarvistân (to the south-east of Râyin) 45 or 47 leagues. Finally, from Sîrjân to Mâhân was counted as three marches, and to Bardasîr (Kirmân city) two marches. The authorities for these distances are as follows:-1. K. 48, 49, 53, 54. Kud. 195, 196. I. F. 206, 208. Ist. 131, 135, 168, 169. Muk. 455, 464, 473. XXI] 303 KIRMÂN. times. In regard to its origin, we have it stated by Hamzah of Isfahân, an historian of the 4th (10th) century, that King Ardashîr, the founder of the Sassanian dynasty, built a city called Bîh- Ardashîr, meaning "the good place of Ardashîr’; this name the Arabs corrupted in their pronunciation to Bihrasîr (or Bihdasîr) and Bardasîr (or Bardashîr); while the Persians, as Muķaddasî informs us, pronounced it Guwashîr, from Wîh-Artakhshîr the more archaic form of Bîh-Ardashîr. Yâķût adds that the name was in his day spelt Juwâsîr, Juwashîr, or Gawâshîr, these being all equivalent to, and used indifferently with, the Arabic form Bardasîr”. This city of Bardasîr, which became the new capital of the Kirmân province under the Buyids, is without doubt identical in every respect with the modern city of Kirmân, as is proved by its position as given in the Itineraries, and from the description by the Arab geographers of various buildings in Bardasîr, and natural features, all of which still exist, and are to be recognised in Kirmân city. The Arab and Persian chronicles, it will be seen, fully bear out the identification, for after the 4th (10th) century Bardasîr, indifferently called Guwashîr, becomes in their narratives the capital of Kirmân, and these names are in time replaced by the city of Kirmân,' or briefly Kirmân, the province-as is so often the case-giving its name to the capital. Muķaddasi, writing at some length upon Bardasîr, 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 Ilyas, and hither the aforesaid Ibn Ilyas was accustomed to ride up every night to sleep on the height. At the town gate was a second fortress (Hișn) surrounded by a ditch, which was crossed by a bridge; and in the centre of the town was a third castle (Kalah) overlooking the houses, alongside of which i Hamzah, 46. Muk. 460, 461. Yak. i. 555 ; ii. 927 ; iv. 265. The pronunciation Yazdashîr sometimes given is merely a clerical error, from a mis-setting of the diacritical points in the Arabic writing. At the present day Bardasîr is the name of the small district lying to the south-west of modern Kirmân city, of which the chief town is Mâshîz. As the name of a town Bardasîr is unknown. For another instance of Bih or Wih in Persian place. names, see above p. 262, note. 304 [CHAP. KIRMÂN. 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, Bâb Mâhân, Bâb Khabis, and Bâb Zarand; the fourth was the Bâb Mubarik, 'the Blessed Gate,' or possibly so called after somebody of the name of Mubârik, or Mubarak. Muķaddasî adds that the place was full of gardens, wells were common, and underground channels gave an abundant water- supply?. From the time when Ibn Ilyâs in the reign of 'Adud-ad- Dawlah removed the government offices (Dîvân) to Bardasîr, this town, as already said, remained the chief capital of Kirmân, and followed the fortunes of the province, which, as a rule, was annexed by whoever was the ruler of Fârs. In the early part of the 5th (11th) century, the Buyids fell before the rising power of the Saljūķs, who were masters of the Kirmân province from 433 to 583 (1041 to 1187). Under them, though Sîrjân is one of their chief cities, Bardasîr continued as the “Dâr-al-Mulk' or official capital of this governorship. In the Saljûķ chronicle written by Ibn Ibrâhîm the name of the capital is given some- times as Bardasîr, sometimes as Guwashîr ;. while in the corresponding chapters of the Rawdat-as-Şafa, Mîrkhwând in- variably refers to the Saljūķ capital as the city of Kirmân,' or more briefly as Kirmân, and the name Bardasîr is nowhere men- tioned by him. The two names, therefore-Bardasîr and Kirmân -were for a time used indifferently to denote one and the same place. Ibn-al-Athîr, for example, under the year 494 (1101), relates how Îrân Shâh the Saljūķ was expelled from the city of Bardasîr, which same is the city of Kirmân?' In 583 (1187) the province of Kirmân was overrun by the 1 Muk. 461. 2 Ibn-al-Athîr, x. 219. This passage has a fallacious appearance of being conclusive evidence that Bardasîr was later Kirmân 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 Kirmân' (Madinah Kirmån) merely means the capital (city) of Kirmân (province), and is ambiguous. In an earlier volume, Ibn-al-Athîr (iii. 100) relating how, under the Caliphate of ‘Omar, Sîrjân was first taken by the Arab armies, adds the words 'which same is the (capital) city of Kirmân' (Madinah Kirmân), though Sîrjân certainly is not the modern city of Kirmân, as might be inferred at first sight from this passage. XXI] 305 KIRMÂN. Ghuzz Turkomans, whọ plundered and half-ruined Bardasîr, and temporarily made Zarand the capital of the province. The power of the Saljūķs was then on the wane, and in 619 (1222) all Kirmân passed under the sway of the short-lived dynasty generally known as the Ķârâkhitay. Ķutluķ Khân, the first prince of this line, is described by Mîrkhwând as taking possession of the city of Kirmân,' 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 Turkâbâd, outside the city of Kirmân.' On the other hand, both Mustawfî in his Guzîdah, and Ibn Ibrâhîm in the Saljūķ chronicle, state that ķutluķ Khân, in the year 619 (1222), took possession of the city of Bardasîr' (or Guwashîr as the Guzîdah has it), thus becoming ruler of all the Kirmân kingdom. Lastly the contemporary authority of Yâķût gives Bardasîr as the name at this time (13th century A.D.) of the capital of Kirmân'. The Mongol conquest of Persia did not materially affect Kirmân, and the daughter of the last prince of the Ķârâkhitay in the first years of the 8th (14th) century married the Muzaffarid ruler of Fârs, who afterwards took over the province of Kirmân, under Mongol overlordship. Mustawfi, speaking of the capital Guwashîr, otherwise Bardashîr, describes the Old Mosque às dating from the close of the ist 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 Ilyas, called Bâgh-i-Sîrjânî, namely, the garden of him who came from Sîrjân,' which when he wrote in 730 (1330) was still flourishing. Ibn Ilyâs, Mustawfî adds, had also built the castle on the hill, already recorded as having been described by Mu- ķaddasî, and within the town there was the mosque called the Jâmi'-i-Tabrîzî, founded by Tûrân Shâh, the Saljūķ, and the celebrated shrine over the grave of the saint Shâh Shuja' Kirmânî. A somewhat later authority, Hâfiz Abrû, states that Turkhân Khâtûn, daughter of ķutluķ Khân of the Ķârâkhitay, in the year 666 (1268), erected a magnificent Jâmi' (Friday Mosque) in 1 Mst. Guzîdah, Chapter IV, section x, Reign of Burâķ Hâjib. Ibn Ibrâhîm, 4, 54, 200, 201. Mîrkhwând, part iv. 104, 105, 128, 129. Yak. iv. 265. LE S. 20 306 [CHAP. KIRMÂN. Kirmân, 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 Bardasîr (or Guwashir) and Kirmân'. These descriptions of Bardasîr given by our various authori- ties, from Muķaddasî in the 4th (10th) century down to Hafiz Abrû 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 Kirmân. Thus, as we have seen, Muķaddasî mentions the three fortresses or castles for which the city was famous, and in the Saljūķ chronicle frequent reference is made by Ibn Ibrâhîm to the castle on the hill (Kalʻah-i-Küh), to the old castle, and to the new castle,—which are evidently identical with the three places described by Muķaddasî. In modern Kirmân 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 ķal'at-i-Dukhtar or the ‘Maiden's Fort,' which is attributed to King Ardashîr 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 ķalah Ardashîr, 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 Tûrân Shâh, mentioned by Mustawfî, still exists under the name of Masjid-i-Malik; while another building, connecting Kirmân city with the time when it was still called Bardasîr, is the magnificent green (or blue) dome, the Ķubbat- i-Sabz, which, until quite recently, covered the tomb of Turkhân Khâtûn, the daughter of ķutluķ Khân, already mentioned, of the Ķârâkhitay. 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 Kirmân, governing in the name of her husband-a nephew of ķutluķ Khân—and of her two sons, whom in turn she allowed nominally to succeed to the throne. Mîrkhwând states that she died 1 Mst. 182. Hfz. 139 b, 140 a. 2 A plan of Kirmân city is given by Major Sykes (p. 188), also a view of these two ancient forts (p. 190), in Ten Thousand Miles in Persia. XXI] 307 KIRMÂN. 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 ķutluķ Khân, whom his sister Turkhân Khâtûn afterwards set aside'. Of other towns in the Bardasîr district the Arab geographers give on the whole but meagre accounts; groups of villages, so common in Fârs, did not exist, and generally in Kirmân each town was separated from its neighbour by a wide stretch of desert country. A score of miles to the south-west of Kirmân city lies Baghîn, and a like distance beyond this Mâshîz, both on the road from Kirmân to Sîrjân. At the present time these are the only towns in this quarter, and both are frequently mentioned by Ibn Ibrahîm, in the Saljūķ chronicle, when relating events of the latter half of the 4th (10th) century. It is curious therefore that neither Baghîn nor Mâshîz should be mentioned by any of the earlier Arab geographers, nor by Mustawfî, nor, apparently, by any of the Persian authorities who have described the campaigns of Tîmûr. Two short marches to the south-east of Kirmân city lies the town of Mâhân, at the present day celebrated for the shrine at the tomb of Ni'mat-Allah, the Șûfî 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 Hâfiz. In the 4th (10th) century Muķaddasî describes Mâhân 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. 1 The Ķubbat-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 Târân Shâh, who reigned from 477 to 490 (1084 to 1097). Ibn Ibrâhîm, 28, 34, 177, 187, 189, 190, 194. Mîrkhwând, part iv. 129, 130. See also Stack, Persia, i. 202, 204. Schindler, * Reise in Persien,” Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde (Berlin), 1881, pp. 329, 330. 20-2 308 [CHAP. KIRMÂN. Ghubayrâ and Kughûn, two towns lying one league apart, of which apparently no trace remains at the present day, were to the south of Mâhân, being one march west of Râyîn (which still exists). In the 4th (10th) century Muķaddasî de- scribes Ghubayrâ 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 Ilyas, already many times mentioned. Both this place and Kughûn had fine mosques and the water was from underground channels. Some fifty miles east of Kirmân, and on the borders of the Great Desert, lies Khabîs, which was counted as three marches distant from Mâhân. The level was low, for the desert is here far below the plateau of central Persia on which the city of Kirmân stands, and Khabîs, as Istakhrî remarks, is very hot, and the date palm was conse- quently much grown. Muķaddasî 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 Kirmân is the city of Zarand, and half-way between the two, during the middle-ages, lay the town of Janzarûdh, of which apparently no trace remains. Mukaddasî describes Janzarûdh 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 Muķaddasî speaks of the castle near by, which Ibn Ilyâs, the governor, had recently built. Zarand was in the 4th (10th) century a place of considerable size, it had six town gates, and the mosque was in the Maydân or public square, which was surrounded by market streets. kind of fine gauze, used for linings and called bițânah, was made. These Zarandî gauzes were largely exported to Fârs and ‘Irâk, and in the 4th (10th) century were in great repute. 1 Ibn Ibrâhîm, 66, 108, 109, 121. Ist. 234. Muk. 462, 463. Col. C. E. Yate, Khurasan and Sistan, p. u. Major Sykes (Persia, p. 41) found a grave-stone in Khabîs 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 Khabîs sub- district Mukaddasî (p. 460) mentions the four towns of Nashk, Kashîd, Kûk, and Kathrawâ, but no details are given of position, and apparently all trace of them is now lost. Here a XXI] 309 KIRMÂN. Fifty miles north of Zarand lies Râvar on the border of the Great Desert, and west of this is Kabinân, which was visited by Marco Polo. Both towns are described by Muķaddasî, who says that Râvar in the 4th (10th) century was larger than Kabinân, and had a strong fortress, which served to protect the frontier. Kûbinân or Kühbanân 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 Bihâbâd, a name which Muķaddasî writes Bihâvadh, and he couples it with Kavâķ, a populous hamlet, which lay three leagues distant, both places being of the cold region and possessing many gardens. Bihâbâd still exists, but ķavâķ no longer appears on the map. Yâķût in the 7th (13th) century states that both Kuhbanân and Bihâbâd were in his day celebrated for the tútiyâ or tutty (an impure oxide of zinc), which was manufactured and exported hence to all countries. Mustawfî in the next century also refers to Kühbinân, 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 (10th) century this was one of the notable exports of the Kirmân province, and Muķaddasî states that because it came out of the crucible in finger-like pieces, it was commonly known as Tútiyâ Murázibiy, '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'. 1 Ist. 233. I. H. 224, 292. Muk. 462, 470, 493. Yak. i. 767; iv. 316. Mst. 183. See The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Yule, i. 127--130, for the descrip- tion of the manufacture of tutty, which Major Sykes (Persia, p. 272) saw made in Kühbanân at the present time, and in the identical manner above described. The name of Râvar is often miswritten Zåvar by a clerical error; and similarly Kühbanan appears under the forms of Kuhayûn and Kühbayân from a misplacing of the diacritical points. Banán is the Persian name for the wild pistachio, Kühbanân therefore signifying the mountain where this tree grows. 310 [CHAP. XXI KIRMÂN. Some fifty miles west of Kühbanân, and on the edge of the desert half-way between that town and Yazd, lies at the present day the hamlet of Bâfķ. There are in the Kirmân province two towns of very similar names, Bâfķ aforesaid, and Bâft or Bâfd, the latter lying 80 miles south of Kirmân city, and 200 miles distant from the northern Bâfķ. The confusion is worse confounded by the fact that (northern) Båfķ is often now pronounced Bård, and hence is identical in name with the town south of Mâshîz, for dialectically the change of the dotted into d or t is common in Persian. A town of Bâfd is mentioned by Yâķût as a small city of the Kirmân province, lying on the road to Shîrâz, and of the hot country. Ibn Ibrâhîm in the Saljûạ chronicle mentions the names of both Bâft and Bâfķ, but neither by him nor by Yâķût are details afforded sufficient to identify the places'. i Yak. i. 474. A. F. 336. Ibn Ibrâhîm, 31, 43, 67, 90, 158, 159, 164, 172. Stack, Persia, ii. 13. CHAPTER XXII. KIRMÂN (continued). The Sîrjân district. Bam and Narmâsîr districts. Rîgân. Jîruft and Ķama- dîn, Camadi of Marco Polo. Dilfarîd. The Bâriz and Kafs mountains. Rûdhkân and Manâjân. Hurmuz Old and New, Gombroon. The trade of the Kirmân province. The high roads. The Sîrjân district--of which Sîrjân city, the older capital of the Kirmân province, which has already been described in the previous chapter, was the chief town---lay to the west of the Bardasîr district, and on the frontier of Fârs. Mukaddasî 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 Sîrjân city are known. Four leagues west of Sîrjân, and close to the Fârs frontier, was Bîmand, described in the 4th (10th) 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-Bâbak (north), from Rûdhân (north-east), and from Şâhik (west)-whence these all converged on Sîrjân. Mukaddasî 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 Sîrjân, on the road to Râyîn, was a place called Shâmât, 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 Kühistân. One march again east of Shâmât was Bahâr, and another day's march led to Khannab, both places growing many dates. Beyond Khannâb lay Ghubayrâ, already 312 [CHAP. KIRMÂN. described as of the Bardasîr district. Two days' march to the south-east of Sîrjân, on the road to Jîruft, stood a town the name of which is written either Vâjib or Nâjat (with some other variants). Muķaddasî 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 Mâhân, at the border of the Great Desert, on the eastern frontier of Kirmân. Ibn Hawķal describes Bam in the 4th (10th) century as larger and healthier than Jîruft, the town being surrounded by palm-groves. Near by stood the celebrated castle of Bam, held to be impregnable, and there were three mosqués, the Masjid-al-Khawarij, the Mosque of the Clothiers (Al-Bazzâzîn), and the Castle Mosque. Cotton stuffs were largely manufactured here and exported ; also napkins, the cloths for turbåns, and the scarfs for head-wear known as Țaylasân. Muķaddasî records that the city wall, which made a strong fortification, had four gates, namely, Bâb Narmâsîr, Bâb Küskân, Bâb Asbîkân, and Bab Kûrjin. 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 Jarjân bridge. A celebrated bath- house stood in the Willow street (Zuķâk-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. Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century still refers to the strong castle of Bam, and speaks of its climate as rather hot? Râyîn, lying due south of Mâhân, and about 70 miles north- west of Bam, is described by Mukaddasî as a small town, with its Ist. 168, 169. Muk. 464, 465. For Nâjat Ibn Hawķal reads Nåjtah, and Bakhtah, Fakhtah, or ķakhtah, are the variants in Ibn Khurdâdbih ; all of which may possibly be merely clerical errors for Báft, the town mentioned in the last chapter (p. 310), which still exists approximately in the position indicated. 2 The ancient fort of Bam, which stands at the present day, is described by Major Sykes (Persia, pp. 216, 218). The ruins of the medieval town are on the river bank at Guzârân, about a mile distant from the fort. 1 I. K. 49, 54. XXII] 313 KIRMÂN. mosque standing in the market-place, and gardens extending all round the habitations. At one-third of the way from Râyîn to Bam stood the neighbouring towns of Avârik and Mihrkird (or Mihrîjird), of which the former still exists, the name being now pronounced Abârik. Between the two, in the 4th (10th) century, stood a castle built by the Buyid governor, Ibn Ilyâs. The water- supply was from a river, and the houses were clay-built. Between Abârik and Bam stands Daharzîn, which Muķaddasî writes Dârzîn, other spellings being Dârjîn and Dayrûzîn. It had a fine Friday Mosque, and was a pleasant place, surrounded by gardens irrigated from a neighbouring stream'. The Narmâsîr district (in Persian Narmâshîr) lay south-east of Bam and on the desert border ; its capital, the city of Narmâsîr, stood half-way between Bam and Fahraj. Fahraj still exists and in the 4th (10th) century, Narmâsîr was an important town; Muķaddasî speaks of its many fine palaces, and of its numerous population. Merchants from Khurâsân trading with 'Omân lived here, for Narmâsîr stood on the Pilgrim road from Sîstân to Mecca and was a mart for Indian goods. Narmâsîr was then smaller than Sîrjân, but fortified, and it had four gates, Bâb Bam, Bâb Sûrķân, the Gate of the Oratory (Muşallâ), and lastly the Gate of the Kiosque (Kûshk). 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 ķalʻah Kůsh-va-Rân (the name unexplained), and at the Bam gate were three forts called Al-Akhwât, “the Sisters.' Palm-groves and gardens surrounded the town. At the present day no town of Narmâsîr appears on the map, but the ruins at the site called Chugukâbâd, "Sparrow-town,' lying on the right bank of the sluggish river which winds through the Narmâsîr 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 Narmâsîr as a populous city. Twenty miles due south of Fahraj is Rikân (also spelt Rikân or Rîghân), the fortifications of which Muķaddasî describes. The Abârik 1 I. H. 223, 224. Muk. 465, 406, 470. Mst. 182. Yak. iv. 700. and Dârzîn are described by Major Sykes (Persia, p. 214). XXII] 315 KIRMÂN. 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 neighbouring valley of Darfârid, and according to Muķaddasî 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, Bâb Shâpûr, Bâb Bam, Bâb Şîrjân, and Bâb-al-Musallâ, “the Oratory Gate.' The Great Mosque, built of burnt brick, was near the Bam gate, at some distance from the market streets. Muķaddasî adds that Jîruft was in his time a larger city than Işțakhr, and that its houses were mostly built of clay bricks on stone foundations. Yâķût states that the fertile district round Jîruft was called Jirdûs, and Mustawfî 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 Ibrâhîm in the Saljūķ chronicle during the 6th (12th) century frequently refers to Kamâdîn, a place at the gate of Jîruft 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 Khitây, from Hindustân and Khurâsân, from Zanzibar, Abyssinia, and Egypt, also from Greece, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Adharbâyjân,' which were all to be found for buying and selling in the storehouses of Ķamâdîn. The Persian ķamâdîn 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 Jîruft and ķamâdîn, after the close of the 7th (13th) century, disappear from history, and the map no longer bears these names. Round Jîruft was the Rûdhbâr district, mentioned by the Arab geo- graphers, which reappears in Marco Polo under the name of ‘Reobarles'.' 6 1 For the ruins of Shahr-i-Daķiyânâs, lying on the right bank of the Halîl Rûd, a short distance to the west of modern Sarjâz, see Keith Abbott in J.R.G.S. 1855, p. 47 ; and Sykes, Persia, p. 267. Ist. 166. I. H. 222. Muk. 466, 316 [CHAP. KIRMÂN. One march to the north-east of Jîruft, and half-way to Dârjîn, 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 Ķariyat-al-Jawz, ‘Nut Village. According to Idrisî—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 Kirmân, until, falling to ruin, the administration had been transferred to Sirjân, which remained the capital of the province under the later Sassanians. The position of Hurmuz-al-Malik is indicated by Muķaddasi and other early geographers, but they give no details; Idrîsî 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 Dilfarîd, which Muķaddasi calls Darfânî, and Ibn Hawķal Darfârid. It lay in a fruitful valley producing crops of both the hot and cold regions, and, as already stated, was the granary of Jîruft. One march to the north-west of this again was the Jabal-al-Mafadin- ‘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 Jîruft was the hill country called Jabal Bâriz, described as clothed with great forests in the 4th (10th) 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 Saffârid princes; it was afterwards famous for its iron mines. Nearer the coast, and to 470. Yak. ii. 57. Mst. 182. Ibn Ibrâhîm, 48, 49, 83. Schindler, J.R.A.S. 1898, p. 43 ; and The Book of Ser Marco Polo (Yule), i. 98. 1 Ist. 161, 189. I. H. 219, 225. Muk. 473. Idrisi, Jaubert, i. 423, and text in Paris Mss. Arabes, No. 2221, folio 1576; No. 2222, folio 104a. Yak. ii. 151. Major Sykes (Persia, p. 444) would identify Hurmuz-al-Malik (which no longer exists under this name) with Carmana omnium mater of Ammianus Marcellinus. ? Ist. 165, writes the name, probably merely by a clerical error, Durbây. I. H. 221, 222. Muk. 467, 471. A. F. 335. 318 [CHAP. KIRMÂN. Jâmi' Sayyân. One march from here, in the sandy plains nearer the coast, was the town of Darahķân ; 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 Valáshgird and Manûjân runs a river with many tributaries, now known as the Rûdkhânah-i-Duzdî: it is mentioned by Istakhrî as the Nahr-az-Zankân, and by Yâķût as the Râghân river. Muķaddasî refers to the populous town of Rûdhkân, which probably stood on its course, as surrounded by gardens growing date palms and orange-trees. To the north-east of Manūķân, and on the road to Rîgân, being three marches from the port of Hurmuz, stood the twin cities of Bâs and Jakîn, each with its mosque and market. Nahr or Jûy-Sulaymân (Solomon's Brook), a popu- lous town, one march west of Rîgân, is referred to by Muķaddasî as of the Jîruft 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-ķufs, Muķaddasî mentions the town of Kühistân, for distinction called after a certain Abu Ghânim. 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-Jîr, according to Istakhrî, “ 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 Minâb, vulgarly Minao. In the 4th (10th) century Old Hurmuz was already the seaport for Kirmân and Sijistân, and in later times, when New Hurmuz had been built on the island, this place supplanted ķays, just as ķays had previously supplanted Sîrâf, 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. Muķaddasî praises the markets of Hurmuz, its water was from underground 1 Ist. 169. Muk. 466, 467. Yak. iv. 330. XXII] 319 KIRMÂN. channels, and its houses were built of unburnt brick. On the sea-shore, half a day's march distant, was Al-'Arşah, “the Camp,' presumably at the entrance of the Hurmuz creek. The adjacent island is mentioned by Ibn Khurdâdbih, in the middle of the 3rd (9th) century, under the name Urmûz (which Mustawfî spells Urmûş), and this is doubtless the later island of Jirûn. 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 Jirûn (or Zarûn), which lay one league distant from the shore. At this period New Hurmuz was visited by Ibn Bațâțah, and it is described by his contemporary Mustawfî, who notes the abundance of the date palms and sugar-cane growing here. Ibn Bațâțah states that Old Hurmuz in his day was known as Mûghistân, and the new town had taken the name of the island, being called Jirûn. 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, Tîmûr 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 Jirûn. These seven castles, as enumerated by ‘Alî of Yazd, were, ķalʻah-Mînâ, “the Castle of the Creek,' at Old Hurmuz, Tang-Zandân, Kushkak, Hişâr- Shâmîl, ķal'ah-Manûjân (the town already mentioned), Tarzak, and Taziyân. 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 Shâh ‘Abbâs renamed Bandar ‘Abbâs; it is the present harbour for Kirmân, and probably occupies the position of Sûrû or Shahrû mentioned above in the chapter on Fârs. The name Gombroon is said to be a corruption of Gumruk (from the Greek Kovu epki), which became the common term for a 'custom-house' throughout the East. In the Turkish Jahân Numâ it is referred to as ‘Gumrû, the port of Hurmuz, whence to the city of Lâr (in Fârs) it is four or five days' march'.' 1 I. K. 62. Ist. 163, 166, 167. I. H. 220, 222, 223. Muk. 466, 473. 320 [CHAP. KIRMÂN. Commercially Kirmân stood far behind Fârs, and the Arab geographers give us no detailed account of the trade of the province. Kirmân as a whole, Muķaddasî states, grew dates and dhurrah as food-stuffs; dates were exported to Khurâsân, and indigo to Fârs, while the cereal crops raised in the Valâshgird district were taken down to Hurmuz, and thence shipped to more distant countries'. The geographers of the 3rd and 4th (9th and 10th) centuries give far less detail concerning the high roads of Kirmân than is the case when they are treating of the Fârs province. Further, as a rule, only the inexact measurement of the day's march (marḥalah) is given, and for most of the roads the reckoning from stage to stage in leagues (farsakh) is wanting. The roads from Fârs into Kirmân converged on Bîmand, which, as already said, lay four leagues to the west of Sîrjân. From the north-east, one road from Unâs and the Rûdhân district came down to Bîmand (given by both Istakhrî and Muķaddasî); while from Great Şâhik to Bîmand (and Sîrjân) we have two roads, both measured in farsakhs, one by Shahr-i- Babak (given by Ibn Khurdâdbih only), and another leading directly across the desert to Bîmand, to which there are two alternative routes, one (Ibn Khurdâdbih) by Ķariyat-al-Milḥ, 'Salt Village,' the other by Rubât-Pusht-Kham, ‘Crook-back Guard-house' (Kudâmah and Iştakhrî). Further, Muķaddasî gives the road from Nîrîz (in marches) to Bîmand and Sîrjân ; while both he and Işțakhrî describe the route from the south-west which came up from Rustâķ-ar-Rustâķ in somewhat over four days? march, going direct to Sîrjân”. From Sîrjân to Bardasîr (Kirmân 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, 810. J. N. 258, 260. The name of the king who transferred the capital to the island is variously given as Shams-ad-Dîn, Ķutb-ad-Dîn, or Fakhr-ad-Dîn. The island of Hurmuz was taken by the English in 1622 ; for its present state see Stiffe, Geographical Magazine, 1874, i. 12, and J.R.G.S. 1894, p. 160. The name is spelt indifferently Hurmuz, and Hûrmûz. 1 Muk. 470. 2 I. K. 48, 53. Kud. 195. Ist. 131, 168. Muk. 455, 473. Mst. 201. XXII] 321 KIRMÂN. mentioned in between, although, as already remarked, both Mâshîz and Baghîn must have been near the road followed, and both these places are frequently mentioned as existing in the 4th (10th) century by Ibn Ibrâhîm, who wrote in the 11th (17th) century. From Bardasîr (Kirmân) it was two marches to Zarand, Janzarûdh lying half-way between the two. From Sîrjân to Mâhân it was three days' march, and thence three more to Khabîş, but the intermediate stages cannot be identified'. From Sîrjân, eastward, the great caravan road towards Makrân went through a number of towns that no longer exist, coming to Râyîn, thence on by Darzin, Bam, and Narmâsîr to Fahraj on the desert border. The stages along this road are given in farsakhs (leagues) by both Ibn Khurdâdbih and Ķudâmah, besides the stations by the day's march (marḥalah) in two of our other authorities. From Sîrjân south-east to Jîruft, in spite of the route being described in leagues by Ibn Khurdâdbih, and in marches by Istakhrî, none of the places mentioned, except Darfârid, can be surely identified; for, possibly with the exception of the southern Bâft, 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 Jîruft the road turned south, and passing through Valâshgird and Manùķân, came to the coast at (Old) Hurmuz. According to Istakhrî, at Valâshgird a branch struck off westward to the frontier of Fârs, passing through a series of towns or villages that have now entirely disappeared, and unfortunately even the terminus of this road on the Fârs frontier cannot now be fixed %. From Old Hurmuz, up to Rîgân and Narmâsîr, Muķaddasî gives the route in marches, passing through the towns of Bâs and Jakin ; while going south from Râyîn to Jîruft the distances through Darjîn and Hurmuz-al-Malik are given in marches by Istakhrî4 ? Ist. 169. Muk. 473. Mst. 201. 2 I. K. 49. Kud. 196. Ist. 168. Muk. 473. Ist. 169. 4 Ist. 169. Muk. 473. 3 I. K. 54. Le S. 21 CHAPTER XXIII. THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. The extent and characteristics of the Great Desert. The three oases at Jarmak, Nâband and Sanîj. The chief roads across the Desert. The Makrân province. Fannazbûr and the port of Tîz. Other towns. Sind and India. The port of Daybul. Manşûrah and Multân. The river Indus. The Țûrân district and ķuşdâr. The Budahah district and Kandâbîl. The Great Desert of Persia stretches right across the high plateau of frân, 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 Makrân, which border the Persian Gulf. Thus it measures nearly 800 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 100 miles across, dividing Kirmân from Sistân, 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- Mafâzah, 'the Wilderness,' and carefully define its limits. On the west and south-west it was bounded by the Jibâl province, by the 1 The general outline of the Great Desert is given in Map 1 (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 visi (p. 335). At the present day the Desert, as a whole, is known as the Lâț or Dasht-i-Lût (Desert of Lot); the saline swamps and the dry salt area being more particularly known as the Dasht-i-Kavîr, the term Kavîr being also occasionally applied to the Desert as a whole. The etymology of the terms Lüț (the Arab form of the Biblical Lot) and Kavîr is uncertain ; see Major Sykes, Persia, p. 32. ܕܨܝܬ entrܪܝ ܀ ܀ ܂܂܀ ° TRAAI THAROHT MAMA (1158. 30MIVO Brigin armystar Tar a: M CHAP. XXIII] THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. 323 district of Yazd (originally counted as part of Fârs) and by. Kirmân, south of which it spread out among the ranges of the Makrân coast. To the east and north-east lay Khurâsân with its dependent and adjacent provinces; namely Ķūmis to the north of the Desert, and next a corner of Khurâsân proper; then Kühistân, and below this Sijistân at the narrow part opposite Kirmân, Sijistân being coterminous with what is now known as the Balûchistân desert, which in the middle-ages was considered as a part of Makrân. Both Ibn Hawķal and Mukaddasî write of the Desert from personal experience, for each had crossed its wastes on more than one occasion. Ibn Hawķal 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. Muķaddasî 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 (10th) century were carefully maintained along the main tracks at distances of a day's march. He, Muķaddasî, 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 (sabkhah), 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 Balús (Balúchỉ tribesmen), whose fastnesses were in the Ķufs mountains of the Kirmân 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 Muķaddasi's day, had in part curbed these Balûch brigands, by carrying off a tribe of them to 21-2 324 [CHAP. THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. across. Fârs as hostages, and caravans were after this tolerably safe, if they had a guide and letters of protection from the Sultan. These Balûş, Muķaddasî adds, went mostly on foot, but possessed a few dromedaries (jammaz). 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 Nabķ, 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 Muķaddasî, namely in the year 444 (1052), Nâșir-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 Bîyâbân, “the waterless land,' but he notes its two chief charac- teristics and dangers, namely the moving sands (Rig-ravân) and the salt swamps (Shûristân), the latter often as much as six leagues He travelled from Nayin in the Jibâl province to the central oasis at Jarmaḥ, and thence on to Țabas in Ķühistân, 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 Amîr Gîlakî, of Țabas, as in his day keeping such order throughout the Desert that the Ķufs robbers, whom he calls the Kufâj, 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 Hawķal and Mukaddasî'. 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 1 I. H. 287, 288. Muk. 488, 489. N. K. 93, 94. Yak. iv. 147. XXIII] 325 THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. were known as Jarmaḥ, Nâband (still so called), and Sanîj ; this last according to Muķaddasî 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 Țabas in Ķühistân, is the oasis now called Jandak or Biyâbânak, which in the middle-ages was known to the Arabs as Jarmaḥ, and in Persian was written Garmah. It consisted of three hamlets called Jarmak (or Garmah), Biyâdaķ (or Piyâdah in Persian), and Arâbah. Ibn Hawķal names the whole settlement Sihdih, “Three Villages'; and Nâşir-i-Khusraw says there were from ten to twelve hamlets here in the 5th (11th) century. At Piyâdah also there was a small fort, garrisoned by the Amîr Gîlakî, 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 Hawķal says, all lay within sight of water, the population in the 4th (10th) century numbering over 1000 men. Later authorities add nothing to these details, and in fact down to the time of Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century the accounts are almost identical, all copying Ibn Hawķal. Nâband, the second oasis, still bears this name, and it lies at the northern end of the narrow part of the Desert, between Râvar in Kirmân and Khûr in Ķühistân. Ibn Hawķal describes Nâband as possessing a Rubâț 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 Narmâsîr in Kirmân to Zaranj, the capital of Sijistán. Here there is a small valley with springs, which is now known to the Persians as Nașratâbâd, but which the Balûchîs still call Ispî or Isfî. This name is identical with the reading Isbidh for this oasis, which is otherwise called Sanîj, or Sanîg, by Muķaddasî. He counts it as a town of Sijistân, while according to Ibn Hawķal it belonged rather to Kirmân. It was, 326 [CHAP. THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. as already said, the only city in the Desert according to the Arab geographers, and Mukaddasî 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 (10th) century. From the western side, starting from Isfahân and from Nâyin, two roads converged on Jarmaḥ; the first (given by Muķaddasî) is in eight stages, while from Nâyin it was five stages to Jarmaḥ, and there were water- tanks and domes all along the way at distances of a few leagues apart. From Jarmaḥ, Muķaddasî is our authority for a direct road due north to Dâmghân in Ķûmis; the distance was 90 leagues, it being 50 leagues across to a place called Wandah, and thence 40 on to Dâmghân. From Jarmaḥ, going eastward, it was four days' march to a place called Naw Khânî, or Nawjây, with water-domes all along the route at every three or four leagues. At Nawjây the roads bifurcated, going north-east to Turshîz, and south-east to Țabas, both in the Ķühistân province. The distance from Nawjây to Turshîz was four stages, the half-distance being at Bann Afrîdùn (now known as Dih Nâband, a place not to be confused with the oasis of Nâband, just described); and from Jarmaḥ to this Bann Afrîdûn, Muḥaddasî also gives a route across the Desert direct, in seven days' march, with a tank (ħawd) at each stage. From Nawjây, going south-east, Țabas was reached in three marches. The distances between Tabas and Turshîz viâ Bann Ibn Khurdâdbih gives in leagues; elsewhere, and as a rule on the Desert routes, only the stages by the day's march (marhalah) are given? From Yazd to Țabas, direct, the way went by Anjîrah and Khazânah to Sâghand 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 Biyâbânak (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 Nâband and Isfî, or Nașratâbâd, have been visited lately by Major Sykes (Persia, pp. 36, 416). 2 Ist. 231. 1. H. 291. I. K. 52. Muk. 491. XX11] 327 THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. tioned as of Fârs (see p. 285). From Sâghand Ibn Khurdâdbih gives the six stages in leagues to Țabas, an itinerary which is duplicated by Ibn Hawķal and Muķaddasî, but going by the day's march, and following a not quite identical route. Two stages from Sâghand was the guard-house called Rubâț Âb- Shuturân, ‘of the Camel-stream,' the water coming from an under- ground channel, and flowing into a pool. Muķaddasî describes the guard-house as a fine building of burnt brick, with iron gates, and it was well garrisoned. It had been built by Nâşir-ad-Dawlah Ibn-Sîmjûr, a famous general of the Buyids, who was governor in these regions during the middle of the 4th (10th) century. Three marches beyond this guard-house the Desert ended ; and here the road, as described by Ibn Hawķal (repeating Işțakhrî), leaves Țabas 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 Bîrah, of the district called Shûr, meaning 'the Salt-water,' which was on the frontier of Kirmân near Kûhbanân. From here the passage was made in seven or eight stages—each halt at a watering-place-to Kurî, a village on the Desert border of Ķühistân, situated a few miles to the south-east of Țabas. On this, which was known as the Shûr route, Istakhrî 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, Muķaddasî states that there was a road direct from Kuh- banan to Kurî, in 60 leagues, with water in tanks at every second march. Râvar, as described in Chapter XXI, lies some leagues east of Kühbanan on the Kirmân frontier, and from this place a road went in five marches to Nâband, the oasis mentioned above, and thence in three marches on to Khûr in Ķühistân. There were the usual water-tanks at every three or four leagues along this 1 I. K. 51. Ist. 236. 1. H. 235. Muk. 491, 493. 328 [CHAP. THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. route also. The town of Khabîs, three marches from Mâhân on the Kirmân border, was already almost within the Desert limits (see p. 308); and from here a road is given which reached Khawst (modern Khúsf) in Kühistân in ten marches. The frontier of Ķühistân was reached two marches before Khawst, at the village of Kükûr, where the Desert ended; and on this road, at a place where was the tomb of a certain Al-Khârijî, 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 Narmâsîr in Kirmân to Zaranj, the capital of Sîstân, the way crossed the narrow part of the Desert, going by the oasis of Sanîj or Ispî, 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 Sanîj. Ibn Khurdâdbih gives each stage of this route in leagues, Istakhrî mentioning the day's march only, but the latter gives also a second route to Sanîj by what he calls “the New Road' but this was a longer way. From Sanîj it was seven or eight days' march to the city of Zaranj, the frontier of Sîstân being crossed at Gâvnîshak, which was not far from Kundur, a place that is still marked on the map. Between Gâvnîshak and Kundur, and three or four stages south of Zaranj, was a Rubâț or guard-house, built by 'Amr the Saffârid in the 3rd (9th) century, which according to Istakhrî was known as ķanțarah Kirmân, 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" 1 Ist. 232, 233, 234. I. H. 292, 293, 294. Muk. 491, 492 2 I. K. 49, 50. Ist. 237, 251, 252. I. H. 296, 306, 307. Muk. 492. Sir F. Goldsmid, Eastern Persia, i. 256. XXIII] 329 THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. The province of Makrân. The arid ranges of the Makrân 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, Makrân was never a rich, or, politically, an important province. The chief product of Makrân was the sugar-cane, and the particular kind of white sugar, known to the Arabs as Al-Fânîdh (from the Persian Pânîd), and made here was largely exported to neighbouring lands'. The earlier geographers name many towns as in Makrân, but give scant descriptions of them. The chief commercial centre was the port of Tîz on the Persian Gulf, and the capital of the province was Fannazbûr or Bannajbûr, which lay inland, at the place now known as Panj-gûr. Bannajbûr, according to Muķad- dasî, had in the 4th (10th) century a clay-built fortress, protected by a ditch, and the town was surrounded by palm-groves. There were two city gates, Bâb Tîz opening south-west on the road to the gulf port, and Bâb Tûrân opening north-east on the road to the district of that name, of which the capital was Ķuzdâr. A stream brought water to the city; and the Friday Mosque stood in the market-place, though, according to Muķaddasî, the people were really only Moslem in name, being savage Balûşis (Balûchîs) whose language was a jargon”. The ruins of the great port of Tîz lie at the head of what was a fine harbour for the small ships of the middle-ages. Mukaddasî describes Tîz as surrounded by palm-groves, and there were great warehouses in the town, and a beautiful mosque. The population 1 I. H. 226, 232, 233. Muk. 475, 476. Yak. iv. 614. The sites of the various medieval towns in Makrân are ably discussed by Sir T. H. Holdich in the Geographical Journal for 1896, p. 387, and, in the present state of our information, his conclusions cannot be bettered. 2 ķannazbûr, or ķannajbûr, as the name has often been printed, is merely a clerical error for Fannazbûr, by a doubling of the diacritical points over the first letter. Ist. 170, 171, 177. I. H. 226, 232. Muk. 478. Panj- gûr, 'Five Tombs,’ is so called after the five martyred warriors of the first Arab conquest. It lies one march west of ķalíah Nâghah, and the surrounding district is also called Panj-gûr. Sykes, Persia, p. 234. 330 [CHAP. THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. 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 Makrân the Arab geographers give only the names, and no descriptions. The names of the well-known town of Bampûr, and Fahraj its neighbour, occur in Muķaddasî as Barbûr (for Banbûr) and Fahl Fahrah, Yâķût giving the last under the form Bahrah. The town of Kaşarķand, north of Tiz, is still-a place of some importance; and Kaj, some distance to the east of this, is mentioned as Kîj or Kîz. The names of Jâlk and Dazak also occur; and Khwash or Khwâș, which is probably the modern Gwasht, lying to the east of Khwâsh in the Sarhad district (already mentioned, p. 317). Râsk was, in the middle-ages, a town of some note on account of its fertile district called Al- Kharûj, but, from the Itineraries, there is doubt whether it can be identical with the present township of this name. Armabîl and Kanbalî were two important towns, on or near the coast, about half-way between Tîz and Daybul at the Indus mouth. Istakhrî 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. Muk. 478. Yak. i. 907. For the present ruins of Tîz see Sykes, Persia, 101, 110, also Schindler, J.R.A.S. 1898, p. 45. See also the history of Afdal Kirmânî, Houtsma, 2. D.M.G. 1881, pp. 394 and 402. 2 Fahraj a few miles to the east of Bampûr in Makrân, and Fahraj a few miles to the east of Narmâsîr in Kirmân, must not be confused. There was also Fahraj near Yazd. 3 Ist. 170, 171, 177, 178. 1. H. 226, 232. Muk. 475, 476. Yak. i. 769; iv. 332. The spelling Armayîl for Armabîl is a frequent clerical error of the MSS. The ruins of Armabîl are probably at Lus Bela, and those of Kanbalî at Khayrokot. Sir T. Holdich, J.R.G.S., 1896, p. 400. The earlier Arab geographers in point of fact knew little about Makrân, and the later ones add nothing worth mentioning. Yâķût only repeats what his predecessors of the 4th (ioth) century have said. All that ķazvînî (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] 331 THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. 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-Manşûrah, called Brahmanâbâd 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 Mihrân, 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 Sindarûdh, where there was a famous idol temple. Ișțakhrî, 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-Zuţt, 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 Makrân, and close to the Indian border, the Arab geographers describe two districts; namely, Tûrân, of which the capital was ķuşdâr, and Budahah to the north of this, of which the capital was Kandabil. Kuşdâr, also spelt Al-Ķuzdâr, is mentioned among the earlier conquests of Sultan Mahmûd of Ghaznah. Ibn Hawķal describes it as standing on a river (wâdî), 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. Muķaddasî 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. 171, 172, 173, 175, 180. 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 Kurâchî. Manşûrah 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 denote the great province to the east of Makrân, which is now in part called Balûchistân and in part is in- cluded in modern Sind. Sindarûdh is the River of Sind. 332 [CHAP. THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. . on the other, which was called Bûdîn, dwelt the merchants, whose shops in the market were much frequented by the Khurâsân folk. Muķaddasî adds that the houses were clay-built, and there were underground channels for the water-supply, but this was bad in quality and scanty. Țûrân, the name given to the ķuşdâr district, was often held to include the lands to the north, known as the Budahah district, of which the chief town, ķandâbil, has been identified with the present Gandava, lying south of Sîbî and east of Kelat. Kandâbîl is described by Ibn Hawķal as a large city, standing solitary in a plain, and no date palms grew here. Of its dependencies was the town of Kîzkânân, or Kìkân, which from its position in the Itineraries is to be identified with modern Kelat. Both these towns were often described as of ſûrân, 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 Bâlis, or Wâlishtân, with the towns of Sîbî and Mastanj; but these were held by the early geographers to be included in Sijistân, and will therefore be noticed in the next chapter. The routes across Makrân 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 Khurdâdbih, 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 Narmâsîr in Kirmân, he gives the 14 stages to Fannazbûr, the capital of Makrân; and thence, eastward, the names of three halting-places on the road to ķuşdâr. An almost parallel route, but in the contrary direction, is given by Muķaddasî, from ķuşdâr to Juy or Nahr Sulaymân, which lay 20 leagues east of Bam, but this road keeps north of Fannazbûr, passing by Jalk and Khwâş". 1 I. K. 56. Ist. 171, 176, 178. I. H. 226, 232, 233. Muk. 476, 478. 2 I. K. 55. Muk. 486. XXIII] 333 THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRÂN. From the port of Tîz it was five marches to Kîz, and then two marches on to Fannazbûr, to which city a road also came in from ķaşarķand, but by an indirect route. From Kîz, and from ķaşarķand, it is given as six marches to Armabîl, then two to ķanbalî, and thence four on to Daybul at the mouth of the Indus It was reckoned as fourteen marches from Fannazbûr to Day- bul. The distances in round numbers are given from ķuşdâr to ķandâbîl, and to Kîzkânân (Kelat), also from these places on to Sîbî and Mastanj in Wâlishtân; and the Itineraries close by a summary of the number of days' march that it took to reach Multân and Manşûrah, the cities on the Indus, from ķuşdâr and from ķandâbîl, and from the frontiers of Wâlishtân beyond Sîbî? 1 Ist. 178. I. H. 233. Muk. 485. 2 Ist. 179. I. H. 233, 234. Muk. 486. CHAPTER XXIV. SIJISTÂN. Sijistân, or Nîmrûz, and Zâbulistân. Zaranj, the capital. The Zarah lake. The Helmund river and its canals. The ancient capital at Râm Shah- ristân. Nih. Farah, and the Farah river. The Khâsh river and the Nîshak district. Karnîn and other towns. Rûdbâr and Bust. The districts of Zamîn Dâwar. Rukhkhaj and Bâlis, or Wâlishtân. Ķandahâr, Ghaznah, and Kâbul. The silver mines. The high roads through Sijistân. Sistân, which the earlier Arabs called Sijistân from the Persian Sagistân, 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 Kandahar country, along the upper waters of the Helmund, were known as Zâbulistân. Sîstân was also called Nîmrûz 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 Khurâsân. Ișțakhrî describes the Sijistân 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 Khwash river, the Farah river, and the river from the neighbourhood of Asfuzâr (Sabzivâr of Herât), which is now known as the Hârûd. In Persian legend, Sîstân and Zâbulistân 1 Ist. 244. I. H. 301. sein INTE Brander BonVORG Malaur 70 adidasM WAHYAR SULAZYATA Invisde ali va TAVAS piisa R 09 D N CHAP. XXIV] 335 SIJISTÂN. It was were famous as the home of Zâl, the father of the national hero Rustam, whose exploits are still current among the people. In the times of the early Abbasid Caliphate, Sîstân further became known to fame as the place of origin of the Şaffârid 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 Tîmûr, 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 Madinah Sijistân, 'the City of Sijistân,' the Persian form being the equivalent, Shahr-i-Sistân, which was in use when Tîmûr 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. situated near the Sanârûdh canal, a great branch from the Helmund, which flowed out to the westward, and in flood-time reached the Zarah lake. Ya‘ķubî, in the 3rd (gth) century, describes Zaranj as four leagues in circumference, and in the next century we have a detailed notice of the city by Ibn Hawķal. 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 Zâhidân and Shahristân, 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, J.R.G.S. for 1873, pp. 280, 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 Coveted Lands, ii. 228. Near Zâhidân is still seen the remains of a tower about 80 feet high, called the Mîl-i-Zâhidân, having a spiral staircase, and two partly legible Kufic inscriptions. This tower, tradition says, was destroyed by Tîmûr; see G. P. Tate, in J.R.A.S. 1904, p. 171. Nașratâbâd, the modern capital of Sîstân, lies a few miles to the south of these ruins; it was known at first under the name of Nâşirâbâd, 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-Nașrîyah. 336 [CHAP. SIJISTÂN. 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 Fârs, and known as the Fârs gates, were individually called the Bâb-al-Jadîd and the Bâb-al--Atîk, 'the New Gate' and 'the Old Gate. To the north, towards Khurâsân, was the Bâb Karkůyah, called after the neighbouring town of Karkûyah; the Bâb Nîshak was on the eastern road, toward Bust; while the Bâb-aț-ſaâm, '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-Jami', was in the outer town, standing near the two south-western gates, on the Fârs road, and the prison stood near it, beside the old Government House. Between the Nîshak and the Karkûyah 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 Şaffârid prince. His elder brother Yarķûb, 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 Bâb-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 (fandůķ), 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 Sûķ 'Amr, built by the second Şaffârid prince, the rents from which, amounting every day to over 1000 dirhams (£40), were divided between the Great Mosque, the town hospital (Bîmaristân), 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 Fârs gates of the inner wall, to the gate of the outer suburb. wall. Throughout Zaranj water was plentiful, being brought from XXIV] 337 SIJISTÂN. the Sanârûdh 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 Aowed 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 Sardâb, 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 Hawķal 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 (10th) 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 (Kalʻah), and the two famous minarets of the Great Mosque, one of which had been built by Ya‘ķub the Saffârid. The city continued to flourish for many centuries, and even during the Mongol invasion of the year 619 (1222), when Changîz Khân sent his hordes to ravage Sistân, 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, Mustawfî 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 Gurshâsf, and to have been afterwards restored by King Bahman, son of Isfandiyâr. Mustawfî praises the gardens of Zaranj, which produced excellent and abundant fruit, these gardens being irrigated from the Black Canal (Siyâh Rûd) which LE S. 22 338 [CHAP. SIJISTÂN. was taken from one of the branches of the Helmund river. At the end of the century, however, in 785 (1383), Tîmûr appeared with his armies before the city, which, as already said, was then known as Shahr-i-Sîstân (Sîstân city), and its fate was not long left in doubt. Tîmûr had already taken and destroyed the neigh- bouring fortress, called the Kalah or Hişâr Zarah, which probably stood to the north of Zaranj, near the borders of the lake. The capital of Sîstân 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 Auctuating in size, according as the rivers were in flood or drought? It is described by Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century as having a length of 30 leagues (100 miles), counting from a place called Kurîn in Ķühistân to the Sijistân frontier post near ķanțarah Kirmân, at the third stage on the road from Zaranj to Narmâsîr (see above, p. 328). The lake was reckoned as the equivalent of a day's journey (marḥalah, 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 Yâķût rightly characterises as the i Baladhuri, 392, 394. Ykb. 281. Ist. 239-242. I. H. 297—299, 301. Muk. 305. Mst. 183. A. Y. i. 362. 2 A number of sketch maps, showing the present condition of the Helmund delta and the lake, are given by Major Sykes, Persia, 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 100 miles from east to west by about 30 miles across. Sykes, Persia, p. 365. XXIV] 339 SIJISTÂN. river of the thousand affluents.' He spells the name Hindmand, Hîdmand being a common variant probably due to clerical error, also Hîrmand (or Hîrmîd), and by this name Mustawfî describes the river, which he also calls the Ab-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 Bâmiyân, which now forms part of Afghanistân, but which, in the middle-ages, was known as the district (or kingdom) of Ghûr. Taking a south-westerly course it passed down through the broad valley known as the Zamîn-Dâwar to the city of Bust, where it was joined on its left bank by the Kandahâr river, which watered the country called Rukhkhaj. Bust was the first city the river came to of Sijistân 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-Ța‘âm, 'the Victuals Canal,” which irrigated the lands and farms outside the Bâb-at- Ta‘âm, the gate of Zaranj already mentioned, which lands in part were of the Nîshak district. The next canal was called the Nahr Bâsht Rûdh; and the third was the Sanârûdh, which, starting from the main stream of the Helmund one league from Zaranj, was the waterway to the capital, so that, as Ibn Hawķal 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 Mîlâ. 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'. 1 Ist. 242—244. I. H. 300, 301. Muk. 329. Yak. i. 514; iv. 272, 992, 993. Mst. 216, 226. Mukaddasî refers to the lake under the name of Buhayrah-aș-Sanat, but this possibly is merely a clerical error. 22-2 340 [CHAP. SIJISTÂN. Zaranj, according to the earlier Arab geographers, had not been originally the capital city of Sijistân under the ancient Persian kings. Their capital had stood at Râm Shahristân, otherwise called Abrashahriyâr, a city that had already in the 4th (10th) 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 Kirmân, 'near Darâk and over against Râsak, 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 Ķühistân frontier and close to the border of the Great Desert, is the town of Nih, or Nîh, which is named by earlier Arab geographers as belonging to Sîstân. Muķaddasî 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 Yâķût and Mustawfî, who, however, add no details, except to state that it was founded by King Ardashîr Bâbgân, 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 Asfuzâr (Sabzivâr of Herât), and is now known as the Hârûd, does not appear to be mentioned by the 1 Ist. 242. I. H. 300. Muk. 306. Yak. iv. 871. Mst. 183. The position of Râm Shahristân is not certain. Sir H. Rawlinson (J.R.G.S. 1873, p. 274) would place it at Râmrûd, 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 Lands, ii. 270. The ruins of Nih are described by Major Sykes, Persia, p. 413. XXIV] 341 SIJISTÂN. Arab geographers. They notice, however, the Farah river, which takes its rise in the mountains of the Ghûr district. This, the Wâdî Farah, after leaving the hill country, soon entered the pro- vince of Sijistân, and came to the city of Farah, which Ibn Hawķal 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. Muķaddasî adds that the city of Farah was in two quarters, occupied respec- tively by the orthodox Moslems, and by the Khârijite sectaries. One stage south of the city was the bridge over the river called the ķanțarah Farah (Pûl-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 Bîrûnî, 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 Sijistân and Ķühistân. The modern double town of Lâsh-Juvayn, at the present time a place of much importance, is mentioned by Muķad- dasî, under the form Kuwayn (for Guvayn), as a small city, strongly fortified, in which there was no Friday Mosque, for its inhabitants were all Khârijite sectaries; but except as a stage on the high road, no medieval authority other than Mukaddasî describes the place, and the name Lâsh 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 Karkûyah. This last was one stage north of Zaranj, and gave its name, it will be remembered, to the northern city gate. Karkûyah was peopled by Khârijites, according to Yâķût, and many ascetics lived here, but it was chiefly remarkable for its great fire-temple, so much venerated by all the Magians of Persia. Þazvînî, writing at the XXIV] 343 SIJISTÂN. courses. and famous for its date palms. When Yâşût wrote the name had already come to be more generally pronounced Khâsh, as at the present day. The most famous city of the district, but a smaller place than Khwash, was Ķarnîn or Al-Karnîn, the birth- place of the Şaffârid princes Ya‘ķûb and 'Amr, sons of Layth, the famous coppersunith. Karnîn was situated out in the desert plain to the north-west of Khwâsh, and one march from it on the road to Farah. They showed here, Ibn Khurdâdbih remarks, the relics of the stall of Rustam’s horse. Muḥaddasî speaks of Ķarnîn as a small place, but well fortified, having a stream going through the town, which had a Friday Mosque, and possessed suburbs. Mustawfî also refers to it, adding that both corn and fruit were grown in the neighbouring lands, which were very fertile. Half-way between Žarnîn and Farah stood the little town of Jizah, about equal to the former in size, which Ibn Hawķal describes as possessing many villages and farms, for it stood in a very fertile country, amply irrigated by underground water- The buildings of the town were of sun-dried bricks; and Yâķût adds that in his day the people pronounced the name Gizah. The whole district along the Khwâsh river, known as Nîshak, was, as already said, extremely populous in the 4th (10th) century. Harûrî, 'a populous village belonging to the Sultân,' which still exists, lies on the river bank below Khwash, where the high road coming in from Bust crossed the Khwash river by a bridge of burnt brick. The village of Sarûzan was the next stage on the way to Zaranj, and between these two was situated Zânbûķ, a strongly fortified hamlet, which Muķaddasî 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-Tâķ, the Arch.' It was very populous, and Muķaddasî records that grapes in abundance were grown here and in the adjacent farmsteads. Abu-l-Fidâ in the 8th (14th) century, quoting from Ibn Sa'id, states that this place, which he names Hisn-at-Tâķ (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 (Kalʻah 344 [CHAP. SIJISTÂN. or Hişâr-i-Zarah), as having been captured by Tîmûr immediately prior to his attack on Zaranj. In the days of the first Moslem conquest another fortress is mentioned as of this region, namely, Zâliſ, which is given as lying five leagues from both Karkûyah 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 Harûrî 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 Rûdbâr. This place is apparently mentioned by Balâdhurî, at the time of the first Moslem conquest, for he speaks of a town called Ar-Rûdhbâr of Sijistân as lying in the direction of ķandahâr; and near this Ar-Rûdhbâr was Kishsh (or Kiss), which appears to be the place called Kâj, or Kuhîch, at the present day. Radhbâr is elsewhere only incidentally mentioned by the Arab geographers; possibly it is identical with the Rûdhbâr described by Istakhrî as of the Fîrûzķand 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-Zâliķân, otherwise spelt Şâlaşân, or Jâliķân. It is described by Ibn Hawķal 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 (10th) century it was of about the size of Karnîn. Bust (or Bast) on the Helmund, at the junction of the river from the Kandahar district, has always been an important place. Istakhrî mentions that at its gate was the great bridge of boats, ‘like those used in 'Irâķ,' across which the high road came in from Zaranj. Bust was the second largest city of Sijistân in the 4th (10th) century, the people were in easy circumstances, and are described as dressing after the fashion of the men of 'Irâş, and as being for the most part merchants who traded with India. The neighbouring lands were extremely fertile, growing dates and 1 Baladhuri, 393, 395. 1. H. 301, 302, 303, 304. I. K. 50. Muk. 306. Yak. ii. 72, 486; iv. 272. Mst. 183. A. F. 343. A. Y. i. 370. XXIV] 345 SIJISTÁN. grapes; and Bust was accounted the chief town of all the mountainous country of eastern Sijistân, which included the two great districts of Zamîn-Dâwar and Rukhkhaj. Muķaddasî states that the city and its fortress, surrounded by great suburbs, stood one league above the junction of the river Khardarûy (the modern Argandâb) 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 Yâķût 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 Tîmûr, 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 Sîstân'. The broad valley, down which the Helmund flows from the mountains of Hindû Kush to Bust, still bears the name, Zamîn- Dâwar, by which the Arab geographers refer to the district. This is the Persian form of which the Arabic equivalent is ‘Ard- ad-Dâwar or Balad-ad-Dawar, 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 Sharwân, with numerous great villages and farmsteads. The chief town of the district was Dartal, Dartall, or Tall as Iștakhrî writes the name, which appears to be identical with the city of Dâwar described by Muķaddasî. It was a fine large town, with a fortress, garrisoned by horse guards, who in the 4th (10th) century, held this as the frontier post on the road towards the Ghûr 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- Zûr, where the great idol called Zûr, or Zûn, had been taken as | Baladhuri, 394, 434. Ist. 244, 245, 248. I. H. 302, 304. Muk. 297, 304. Yak. ii. 10, 612; iv. 184. A. Y. i. 370. 346 [CHAP. SIJISTÂN. booty by the Arabs, this idol being all of gold, with eyes of corundum (yaşút). One march yet higher up the Helmund, and on the same bank as Dartall, was Darghash, while Baghnîn 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 Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century describes them as then living very contentedly in the Zamîn-Dâwar country, “after the Turk fashion. A fifth town of the Zamîn-Dâwar was Khwâsh (spelt like the place on the river of that name, just mentioned), which Istakhrî 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 Sarwân or Sharwân, which Ibn Hawķal describes as of the size of Karnîn, but more populous and prosperous. Great quantities of fruit, dates and grapes especially, were exported from its district, and that of Fîrûzķand, which latter lay south of the Sharwân district and one march to the eastward of Bust'. The Rukhkhaj district, occupying the country round about Kandahâr, lay to the eastward of Bust along the banks of the streams now known as the Tarnak and the Argandâb. The capital of Rukhkhaj in the middle-ages was Banjaway, the Arabic form of Panj-wây, 'Five Streams, which is still the name of the district west of Kandahâr, near the junction of the two rivers Tarnak and Argandâb. 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 Sîbî. It probably was not far from Kandahâr, 1 Baladhuri, 394. Ist. 244, 245, 248. I. H. 302, 304. Muk. 305. Yak. ii. 541; iv. 220. None of these towns of the Zamîn-Dâwar now exist, but Dartall, the capital, must have occupied approximately the site of modern Girishk. XXIV] 347 SIJISTÂN. but the distance between the two cities is nowhere given. One league to the west of Banjaway city was the fortress of Kühak, '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 Sîbî road, lay the town of Bakrâwâdh (for Bakrâbâd, which Iştakhrî and Ibn Hawķal give as Takînâbâdh, 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 Kandahâr river. The city of ķandahâr (or Al-Ķunduhâr) is frequently men- tioned in the accounts of the first Moslem conquests of the places near the Indian frontier. Balâdhurî says it was reached from Sijistân 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 ķandahâr occurs-generally as of Hind or the Indian frontier—in Muḥaddasî, Ibn Rustah, and Ya‘ķûbî. Unfortunately no early Itinerary takes us to ķandahâr, and in the systematic accounts of the province by Işțakhrî and Ibn Hawķal the name is altogether wanting. Possibly Banjaway replaced it during the earlier middle-ages, for Yâķût 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 (1 3th) century, and then again by Tîmûr at the close of the next century'. The district round Sîbî was known to the Arab geographers as Bâlis, otherwise Bâlish, or Wâlishtân. The capital city according to Istakhrî was Sîbî, spelt Sîvî or Siwah, but the governor generally resided at Al-ķașr (the Castle), a small town situated one league distant from Asfanjây, or Safanjavî, the second city of the district, the exact site of which has not been identified, but which lay two marches north of Sibî on the road to Banjaway of Rukhkhaj. The town of Mastang, or Mastanj, is also mentioned by Istakhri and Muķaddasî, who name a number of other villages of this 1 Baladhuri, 434, 445. Ist. 244, 250. 1. H. 301, 302, 305. Muk. 303. Yak. iv. 331. A. Y. i. 376. Dr H. W. Bellew, From the Indus to the Tigris, p. 160. 348 [CHAP. SIJISTÂN. 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 Mahmûd of Ghaznah, who at one time was master both of India on the east and Baghdâd on the west. Unfortunately no adequate description has come down to us of Ghaznah at the time when it was rebuilt and adorned by Mahmûd with all the plunder of his Indian raids. A generation before this Istakhrî describes the place as like Bâmiyân, 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. Muķaddasî 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. Muķaddasî adds that all the country between this and Kâbul was known as Kâbulistân. It was about the year 415 (1024) that Mahmûd 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 Ghûrid Sultan ‘Alâ-ad-Dîn, surnamed Jahân-sûz, 'world incendiary,' to revenge his brother's death at the hands of Bahrâm Shâh 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 Mahmûd in the mosque nevertheless appears to have been spared, or else it was restored, for Ibn Bațâțah 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 Mustawfî 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 importancer. 1 Ist. 179, 244. 1. H. 301. Muk. 297. 2 Ist. 280. I. H. 328. Muk. 296, 297. I. B. iii. 88. Mst. 184. Unfortunately 'Utbî, in his History of Mahmúd of Ghaznah, gives no detailed XXIV] 349 SIJISTÂN. As we have seen, the whole of the great mountainous district of the upper waters of the Helmund and the Kandahâr rivers was known to the Arabs as Zâbulistân, a term of vague application, but one which more particularly denoted the country round Ghaznah. On the other hand Kâbulistân was the Kâbul country, lying more to the north on the frontiers of Bâmiyân; and this is the division found in the accounts of the conquests of Tîmûr. Already in the 3rd (9th) century Ya‘ķûbî describes Kâbul as much frequented by merchants, who brought back from this country the Kâbulî Ahlîlaj, or myrobalan of the larger sort'. Yafķûbî says the chief city was then known as Jurwas, while Işțakhrî in the next century gives the name as Ţâbân. Kâbul, however, appears also to have been the name in common use, but more especially for the district. There was here a famous ķuhandiz 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 (nil) being brought here for export to the value of a million gold dînârs yearly (about half-a-million sterling); further, most of the precious stuffs of India and China were warehoused here. As early as the 4th (10th) 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. Muķaddasî mentions, too, a wonderful well in the castle; and for him Kâbul is especially the country of the myrobalan. He counts Kâbuli- stân as an outlying region of Sijistân. Ķazwînî, in the 7th (13th) century, states that Kâbul was then famous for the breed of she- description of the capital. See the article on Ghaznah by Sir H. Yule in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed.), x. 560, where a plan is given. 1 Myrobalan was a name applied during the middle-ages 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 Kâbul. The Arabs named the drug (for this it came to be) Ahlílaj or Halilaj, and Ibn Bayțâr in his Dictionary of Drugs (translated by Dr J. Sontheimer, i. 163 ; ii. 572) has two articles about it; see also Dozy, Supplément aux Dictionnaires Arabes, s.v. Ihlilaj, and Glossary of Anglo-Indian Terms, by Yule and Burnell, s.v. Myrobalan. 350 [CHAP. SIJISTÂN. camels, known as Bactrian (Bukhtî), the best in all central Asia. Ibn Bațâțah, who visited Kâbul 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-Afghan). The Kâbul river is an affluent of the Indus, and is formed by the junction of two streams coming down from the Hindû Kush range, the mountains to the north of Kâbul'. At the eastern source are the celebrated silver mines, known to the Arabs as Banjahîr (for Panj-hir, or 'Five Hills,' in the dialect of the country), from which large quantities of the precious metal were obtained, and Banjahîr became a mint city under the Saffârid princes in the 3rd (9th century, the dirhams, of course, bearing the name also of the Abbasid Caliph. Banjahîr city is described by Ibn Hawķal as standing on a hill, and inhabited by 10,000 miners, who were an unruly folk, much given to evil living. Jârbâyah was a neigh- bouring town, also lying on the Banjahîr, or Kâbul river, which thence flowed out towards the plains of India, past Farwân, a large town with a mosque. Mukaddasî further mentions the town of Shiyân in the district of Askîmasht, where there was a wondrous spring, and a fine mosque built by the Arab general ķutaybah-ibn-Muslim, who had commanded the troops at the time of the first Moslem conquest. Yâķût 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 300,000 dirhams (£12,000) in the mere digging of a new shaft. The ruin of the place was due to Changîz Khân; and when Ibn Bațâțah, 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. i Hindû Kush, in Persian, means (the Mountain that) ‘kills the Hindus.' Ibn Batâtah (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] 351 SIJISTÂN. The products of Sijistân were few in number; and all that Muķaddasî records is that date-baskets, called zanabil, were made here for export, also ropes of palm-fibre and reed-mats'. The high roads in Sijistân all centred in Zaranj, to which in the first place led the desert road from Narmâsîr viâ Sanîj, which has been described in the last chapter. From Zaranj north- wards, a road went to Herât, passing through Karkûyah, 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 Asfuzâr (or Sabzivâr of Herât), the first town in Khurâsân. The distances in leagues along this road unfortunately are not given, only the stages of each day's march, for which Istakhrî and Ibn Hawķal 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 Harûrî on the Khwâsh 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 Zamîn-Dâwar country of the upper Helmund, and another to Banjaway of Rukhkhaj, in the neighbourhood of Kandahâr. At Banjaway there was again a bifurcation of the roads, one going north-eastward to Ghaznah, and a second to Sîbî, through the town known as Asfanjây. 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 :. 1 Ykb. 290, 291. Ist. 278, 280. I. H. 327, 328. Muk. 297, 303, 304, 324. Yak. i. 473; ii. 904, 905; iii. 454. Kaz. ii. 162. A. Y. i. 558. I. B. iii. 85, 89. Mst. 188. Ist. 248, 249. I. H. 304, 305. 3 Ist. 249-252. I. H. 303-307. Muk. 349, 350. 2 I. R. 174. Muk. 350. CHAPTER XXV. ĶÚHISTÂN. The province called Tunocain by Marco Polo. Ķâyin and Tûn. Turshîz and the Pusht district; the Great Cypress of Zoroaster. Zâvah. Bûzjân and the Zam district. Bâkharz district and Mâlin. Khwâf. Zîrkûh. Dasht- i-Biyâd. Gunâbâd and Bajistân. Țabas of the dates. Khawst, or Khûsf. Birjand and Mûminâbâd. Tabas Masînân and Duruh. The province of Ķ ühistân, like Sijistân, was generally held to be a dependency of Khurâsân by the Arab geographers. Ķühistân 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 Sijistân, lying to the east of Ķühistân on the Helmund delta. Ķühistân, as Ibn Hawķal remarks, has for the most part a cold climate from its elevation, and the date palm only grew at Țabas Gîlakî on the edge of the Great Desert. In the 4th (10th) 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 (Tùn and ķâyin) to be the designation of the whole country'. The chief town of ķühistân was ķâyin, which Ibn Hawķal describes as protected by a strong fortress, surrounded by a ditch; and the governor's house stood here, also the Friday Mosque. Muk. 301. i Ist. 273, 274. I. H. 324, 325. Marco Polo, Yule, i. 87, 131. The name is spelt Ķühistân by the Arabs (with dotted ķ), and Kühistân in Persian, where Küh means mountain,' but the first vowel in the name is as often as not written short (Kuhistân or ķuhistân). 354 [CHAP. ĶÚHISTÂN. and silk was produced here abundantly, for the climate of Tûn was temperate, and the underground watercourses very numerous'. In the north-west corner of ķûhistân is the district of Bûsht, Půsht, or Busht-al-'Arab, of which the chief towns were Turshîz and Kundur? In the Arab geographers the older form of the name is given as Țuraythîth, or Țurthîth, later spelt Turshîsh and Turshîs, and it was sometimes counted as of the Hawmah or domain of Nîshâpûr. Ibn Hawķal speaks of Turshîz as a very populous city, with fertile lands, and in the Pâsht district there were seven other townships with Friday Mosques. Muķaddasî describes the mosque of Turshîz as in his day rivalling that of Damascus for magnificence; there was also a famous water tank, and the markets were renowned, so that Turshîz was considered the “store-house of Khurâsân,' where merchandise was exported and imported, to and from Fârs and Isfahân. The neighbouring town of Kundur almost equalled Turshîz in wealth, and in the district immediately round it were 226 large villages. According to Ibn-al-Athîr in 520 (1126) the Wazîr of Sultan Sanjar the Saljûş besieged and plundered Turshîz, which had lately come into the possession of the Ismâîlîs, 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 Ķühistân. Yâķût places the advent of the Ismâîlîs as occurring in the year 530 (1136), and relates that the governor of Turshîz had called in the Turkish tribes to aid him against the heterodox Mulâhids or Ismailians, but they had failed to fight the enemy, and had themselves pillaged the country, thus bringing Turshîz 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 Ķâyin dated 796 (1394). Sir F. Goldsmid, Eastern Persia, i. 341. ? The district of Turshîz exists at the present day, but no town of that The small town of Kundur is still marked on the map, and according to Istakhrî the city of Turshîz lay one march to the westward of it, which would place the site of Turshîz at the Fîrûzâbâd ruins, near the present village of 'Abdulâbâd. In any case the medieval city of Turshîz cannot be identified with Sultânâbâd, the modern capital of the Turshîz district, for this lies east of Kundur. name. XXV] 355 ĶÜHISTÂN. 7th (13th) century Hùlâgủ Khân, the Mongol, destroyed the power of the Assassins, and his troops, it is stated, conquered seventy of their castles in the ķühistân province. After this Turshîz quickly recovered its importance; and less than a century later it is described by Mustawfî as one of the chief cities of ķuhistân, though still partly in decay. He mentions the four famous castles in the neighbourhood of the place--namely, ķalah Bardarûd, Kalah Mikâl (or Haykâl), Mujâhidâbâd (the Champion's Home), and Âtishgâh (the fire-temple)—which doubtless had been those of the Ismâîlîans. He praises the abundant crops of Turshîz, which he says were exported to all the northern districts round Nîshậpûr. At the close of the 8th (14th) century Turshîz was deemed impreg- nable from its high walls; but when Tîmûr 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 Turshîz has disappeared from the map! Mustawfi states that at the village of Kishmar, near Turshîz, 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 Shâh Nâmah 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 ķazvînî 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 Sâmarrâ. This was done in spite of the grief and protests of all the Guebres, but when the cypress arrived on the 1 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 Âķâ Khân, chief of the Khûjah community at Bombay, and it is curious to find that some of the Ismailian sect still linger in Ķûhistân, who now pay their tithes to Âşâ Khân, as their predecessors did to the chief at Alâmût. At the village of Sihdih, to the south of Ķâyin, 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. Marco Polo, Yule, i. 145. 23--2 356 [CHAP. KUHISTÂN. banks of the Tigris, Mutawakkil was dead, having been murdered by his son'. To the east of the Turshîz district is that of Zâvah. The . Zâvah district, or part of it, was also known as Rukhkh, and the chief town was called Bîshak or Zâvah city. The name Rukhkh, when Yâķût wrote, was more commonly pronounced Rikh. In the 7th (13th) century Zâvah 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 Darvîshes known as the Haydarîyah. He was alive at the time of the Mongol invasion of the country in 617 (1220), and was afterwards known as Shaykh ķuțb-ad-Dîn (Pole of Religion). When Ibn Bațâțah visited Zâvah 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. Mustawfî describes Zavah 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 Zâvah is more commonly the name of the district, the town being generally known as Turbat-i-Haydarî, or the Tomb of Haydar,' and the shrine is still a place of pilgrimage? To the east of the Zâvah district, and in the north-east corner of ķûhistân, near the Herât river, was the district of Zâm or Jâm, of which the chief town was in the 4th (10th) century known as Bûzjân. This was a considerable city, and 180 villages were of 1 Mst. 183. Shah Nâmah, Turner Macan, iv. 1067, eight lines from below. Kaz. ii. 297, where the name is by mistake printed Kishm. The account in Kazvînî (13th century A.D.) of course only represents the tradition. There is. nothing about the Kishmar cypress in Țabarî or apparently in any of the earlier Arab chronicles. An amplified version of the story will be found in the Dabistân, 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. 131. 2 Muk. 319. Yak. ii. 770, 910. Kaz. ii. 256. 1. P. iii. 79. Mst. 188. Sir F. Goldsmid, Eastern Persia, i. 353. XXV] 357 KUHISTÂN. its dependencies. The name Buzjân was pronounced Bûzkân by the Persians, and in later times it was written Pûchkân. In the 8th (14th) century Mustawfî describes it, under the name of Jâm, 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 Bațâțah specially names the saintly Shihâb-ad-Dîn Aḥmad-al-Jâmî, whose descendants had come to own much land in the neighbourhood. The saint indeed was so celebrated that Tîmûr, 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 Jâm' The district of Bâkharz, or Guwâkharz, lies to the south of Jâm, and to the westward of the Herât river, which here takes its northern course. The chief town of Bâkharz was Mâlin, 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 (10th) century it was already a populous place. From here both corn and grapes were exported, and cloth- stuffs were also manufactured. Yâķût explains that the name Bâkharz had originally, in Persian, been Bâd-Harzah, 'the place where the wind blows,' and he mentions Jawdhaķân as among its chief villages, of which 128 might be counted round and about Mâlin. Mustawfî, who gives the name of the chief town as Mâlân, expatiates on its fertility, and especially refers to the ‘long melon’ of this country, which was famous throughout Khurasân”. South-west of Bâkharz is the district of Khwâf (earlier Khwâb), surrounding the chief town of the same name. Khwâf in the 4th (10th) century was famous for its raisins and pomegranates. Salūmak, later written Salâm, had in early times been the largest town of the district, of which Sanjân (or Sankan) and Kharjird were two other important cities. Under the form Kharkird the 1 I. K. 24. I. R. 171. Ykb. 278. I. H. 313. Muk. 319, 321. Yak. i. 756; ii. 909; iii. 890. Mst. 188, 197. I. B. iii. 75. A. Y. ii. 211, 229. C. E. Yate, Khurasan and Sistan, p. 37. 2 Muk. 319. Yak. i. 458; ii. 145; iv. 398. Mst. 187. XXV] 359 ĶŪHISTÂN. This last place, now generally called Gunâbâd, is a considerable town lying to the north-east of Tùn. It is named by Ibn Hawķal Yunâbidh, and by Muķaddasî Junâwad, and there are some other variants. It was a large place in the 4th (10th) century, with clay- brick houses, and the 70 villages round it were well watered by artificial irrigation. Yâķût gives the name as commonly pro- nounced Gunâbidh, for Junâbidh. Mustawfî records that its two strong castles, each on a hill, and on either hand of the town, were called Kalóah Khawashir and ķalóah Darjân 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 Gunâbâd, as was the case elsewhere in Ķühistân. 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 700 ells (gez) in depth. Much silk was manufactured here, and was exported. Some thirty miles to the north-west of Gunâbâd, and a like distance due north of Tûn, is the small town of Bajistân, which appears to be first mentioned by Yâķût, who speaks of it as a village in his day; and to this Mustawfî adds that it resembled Tûn, but gives no further details?. There were, and still are, two towns called Țabas in Ķühistân, and for this reason the name often appears in the Arab geo- graphers under the dual form of Țabasayn. Moreover the name Țabasayn, 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 Țabas, the other Țabas of the Jujube-tree, or Tabas-al-'Unnâb. Țabas of the Date—Țabas-at-Tamr - was on the border of the Great Desert, where many of the roads crossing it came in, and corn 1 Dasht-Biyâd, or Dasht-i-Piyâz, is a composite name, Persian and Arabic, very unusual in the nomenclature of Persia. If the last word be really the Arabic Biyâd it seeins 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. Fâris at the present time is generally known as ķalʻah Kuhnah, 'the Old Castle.' Bellew, Indus to Tigris, p. 329. 360 [CHAP. KÜHISTÂN. hence Balâdhurî names it 'the Gate of Khurâsân. According to Ibn Hawķal, the town was in the 4th (10th) century a somewhat smaller place than Ķâyin, 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. Muķaddasî 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 Ķühistân 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.' Nâşir-i-Khusraw, who passed through Tabas in 444 (1052), 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 Muḥammad Gîlakî—“the native Gîlân'—and to distinguish this from the other Țabas, it appears in later days to have been called Țabas Gîlakî, after this famous governor, who, from what Naşir writes, must have been known far and wide for the vigour of his rule. In the second half of the 5th (11th) century Țabas passed into the hands of the Ismâîlîan heretics, and in 494 (1102) the town was besieged and in part destroyed by the army sent against the Assassins by Sultan Sanjar the Saljūķ. Yâķût and Mustawfî both refer to Ţabas of the Date as Țabas Gîlakî, and the latter authority notices the place both in his account of the Great Desert, and when describing Ķühistân. Besides dates, both lemons and oranges flourished here as they did nowhere else in all Khurâsân, 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 Țabas, and about half-way to Turshîz, was the village of Bann, possessing a population of 500 males when Ibn Hawķal wrote, and this place was apparently identical with the stage of Afrîdûn mentioned by Ibn Khur- 1 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] 361 ĶŪHISTÂN. dâdbih. Ibn Hawķal apparently mentions in his itinerary another village called Bann (Bann Ukhrâ), 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 Nâband (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 Jarmaḥ entered Ķühistân'. Some three leagues to the south-east of Țabas, on the edge of the desert where the Shûr road from Kühbanân came in, was Kurî or Kurîn, which Balâdhurî mentions as one of the two fortresses of Țabas, which it would appear might justify the name of Țabasayn being given to Date Țabas alone. Ibn Hawķal describes Kurî as a meeting point of many roads, where stood a village of a thousand men with many farms. Kurîn, as Muķaddasî spells the name, was a smaller place than Țabas; and of its dependencies—being 12 leagues from Țabas and 20 from Tûn—was the village of Ar-Raķķah. This last place, when Nâșir-i- Khusraw visited it in 444 (1052), 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 Khûr and Khawst, which respectively were the terminal stages of the two roads across the desert from Râvar and Khabîs in Kirmân (see pp. 327, 328). Khur, according to Ibn Hawķal, 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 Muķaddasî, was unfortified. Khawst on the other hand, though in the 4th (10th) 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. Muķaddasî says the town was larger but less populous than Tûn; there were but few trees, and behind it rose the arid hills of Ķühistân. Yâķût by mistake generally spells the name Jūsf, this being a clerical error for Khûsf or Khûsb, which is the modern form of the name, first given by Mustawfî. Yâķût, it is true, acknowledges his 1 I. K. 52. Ist. 231, 236. I. H. 295. 362 [CHAP. ĶÜHISTÂN. ignorance and uncertainty of the true pronunciation of the name, which he says is sometimes written Jûzf : but in one passage he rightly gives Khawst, when quoting from Muķaddasî. As just stated the modern spelling first appears in Mustawfî, who describes Khûsf 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 Khûsf lies Birjand, which at the present day has taken the place of Ķâyin as the capital town of Ķühistân. Birjand is not mentioned, apparently, by any of the Arab geo- graphers before Yâķūt, who in the 7th (13th) century speaks of it as one of the finest villages of this province. Mustawfî 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 Mûminâbâd—“the Believer's Home’--which Mustawfî mentions as dominated by a strong fortress that had formerly been in the hands of the Assassins. This district included many fine villages ; and Mustawfî especially mentions Shâkhin, on a stream called the Fashâ Rûd, which still exists some three days' march to the south-east of Ķâyin?. About 50 miles due east of Birjand is the second town of Țabas, known to the Arab geographers as Țabas-al-‘Unnâb, ‘of the Jujube-tree,' which the Persians called Tabas Masînân. This town Ibn Hawķal describes in the 4th (10th century as larger than Yunâbidh (Gunâbâd, north-west of Ķâyin); its houses were built of clay bricks, but the fortifications were then in ruins, and there was no castle. Muķaddasî speaks of the numerous jujube- trees growing here. Ķazvînî in the 7th (13th) century states that on the summit of a neighbouring hill was the village called Îrâvah, where there was a fine castle, and gardens with trees, for many 1 Baladhuri, 403. Ist. 232, 274. 1. H. 291, 325. Muk. 321, 322. Yak. ii. 152; iv. 23, 270. Mst. 184. N. K. 94. 2 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] 363 KÜHISTÂN. streams flowed near the place. Mustawfî remarks of Țabas Masînân 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 Țabas Masînân, still bearing this distinctive name, is an important place, being also known as Sunnî-khânah (the House of the Sunnîs), for it is now inhabited almost exclusively by Afghân Sunnîs. About 60 miles south of Țábas 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 Mustawfî, who speaks of ķal'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 ķühistân were few in number. Muķaddasi 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 Nîshậpûr'. What is known about the high roads crossing Ķühistân will be more conveniently dealt with in a later chapter in connection with the roads through Khurâsân. Mukaddasî and other authorities mention the total distances, by the day's march, between the various towns in Ķühistân: but the stages in leagues are not given ; and there appear to have been few direct routes crossing this mountainous province. Mst. 184. 1 I. H. 325. Muk. 321, 324. Yak. iii. 513, 514. Kaz. ii. 202. Sykes, Persia, 396, 397. CHAPTER XXVI. ĶÛMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. The province of Ķûmis. Dâmghân. Bistâm. Biyâr. Samnan and Khuvâr. The Khurâsân road through Ķâmis. The province of Țabaristân or Mâzandarân. Âmul. Sâriyah. Mount Damâvand, with the districts of Fâdûsbân, Ķârin, and Rûbanj. Fîrûzkûh, and other castles. Nâtil, Sâlûs, and the Rûyân district. The fortress of Țâķ and the Rustamdar district. Mamțîr and Țamîsah. Kabûd Jâmah and the Bay of Nîm Murdân. The province of Gurgân or Jurjân. The river Jurjân and the river Atrak. Jurjân city, and Astarâbâd. The port of Âbaskûn. The Dihistân district, and Âkhur. The high roads through Țabaristân and Jurjân. The small province of Ķûmis stretches along the foot of the great Alburz chain of mountains which will be described below, nd 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 Khurâsân road traverses the province from end to end, going from Ray in the Jibâl province to Nîshậpûr in Khurâsân, and the chief towns of ķûmis are, so to speak, strung along this line. At the present day the name Ķûmis is become obsolete. The province is included for the most part within the limits of modern Khurâsân, while its extreme western end forms an outlying district of Ray or modern Țihrân'. The capital town of the province was Dâmghân, which the Arabs wrote Ad-Dâmghân, and which in accordance with their usage is often referred to as ķûmis (sc. Madînah Ķûmis, the 1 For the map of these provinces see p. 185, Map v. Muk. 353. Yak. iv. 203. Mst. 191. The Arab spelling was ķûmis (with dotted ķ), the Persian form is Kûmis; Mustawfî, however, calls it Diyâr ķûmis, “the Lands of Ķâmis.' CHAP. XXVI] ĶŪMIS, ȚABARISTÂN, AND JURJÁN. 365 City of Ķůmis ’), the capital thus taking to itself the name of the province. Dâmghân, according to Ibn Hawķal, had a paucity of water-supply, and hence little cultivation, but the inhabitants manufactured excellent cloth-stuffs which were largely exported. Muḥaddasî reports Dâmghân to have fallen much to ruin at the end of the 4th (10th) century; but it was well fortified, and had three gates, of which he names two, the Bâb-ar-Ray and the Bâb Khurâsân. 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. Yâķût and others state that there was a ceaseless wind blowing down from a neighbouring valley, so that the trees of Dâmghân were always waving about. Within the city was a great building, dating from the days of the Chosroes, which divided the waters flowing to Dâmghân into 120 channels for irrigation purposes. Excellent pears were grown in the town gardens. The walls of Dâmghân, Mustawfî reports, were 10,000 paces in circuit. Yâķût adds that one day's journey from Dâmghân (three leagues according to Mustawfî) up in the mountains, and visible from the town, was the great castle of Gird-kûh, which had been a celebrated fortress of the Assassins. This, writes Mustawfî, was called Diz Gunbadân, 'the Domed Fort,' and its district, which was very fertile, was known as Manşûrâbâd. Mustawfî further speaks of a gold mine in the hills near Dâmghân at Kûh Zar (Gold Mountain), but the situation of the place is not given'. The second town of ķůmis, for size, was Bistâm (or Bastâm, now Busţâm), which Ibn Hawķal states to have been situated in the most fertile region of the whole province. Its gardens produced abundant fruit, and Muķaddasî refers to its magnificent Friday Mosque, which stood 'like a fortress' in the market-place. Nâșir-i-Khusraw, who visited the town in 438 (1046), appears to regard it as the capital of the province, for he calls it the City of ķumis. He refers to the tomb here, already celebrated, of the great Şûfî Shaykh Abu Yazîd, more generally known as Bayazîd Bistâmî, who had died and was buried here in 260 (874), 1. H. 271. Muk. 355, 356. Yak. ii. 539. Kaz. 1 I. K. 23. Kud. 201. Mst. 191, 204 ji. 245 368 [CHAP. ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. geographers) which now crowns a bluff overlooking the desert plain. Samnân is one long march beyond this, and Dâmghân (which the earlier Itineraries give as Ķūmis) again one long march to the eastward. One march beyond Dâmghân was Al- Haddâdah (the Forge), which in Mustawfî is given under the alternative name of Mihmân-Dúst (Guest Friend'). From here it was a day's march up to Bistâm ; or keeping the lower road the stage was at the post-house, lying two leagues from that city, which was, and is still, known as the village of Badhash, from which you enter the province of Khurâsân, going by the post-road to Nishậpûr. Further, Muķaddasî gives the road, in 3 days' march, from Bistâm to Biyâr, and from Biyâr it was 25 leagues across the desert back west to Dâmghân'. Țabaristân or Mâzandarân. 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 1 I. K. 22, 23. Kud. 200, 201. 1. R. 169, 170 (giving details of the country traversed). Ist. 215, 216. I. H. 274, 275. Muk. 371, 372. Mst. 196. For an illustration representing modern Lâsgird see H. W. Bellew, From the Indus to the Tigris, p. 404. In regard to Badhash it is curious that Yâķût in his Dictionary gives the name once rightly spelt, and then again (hut in error) under the letter n as Nadhash. Yak. i. 530; iv. 773. 2 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-Latinum, s.v.) is derived from two Zend words signifying ‘High Mountain.' Mustawfî (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 Bâb-al- Abwâb (i.e. the Caucasus): 'they are indeed the great mountains which are continuous, and form a chain, extending for over a thousand leagues, from Turkistân (in Central Asia) to the Hijaz (in Arabia), so that many consider them to be the (fabled) mountains of Ķâf (which encircled the earth) and on the west they adjoin the mountains of Gurjistân (Georgia).' For the Alburz peak of the Caucasus see above, p. 181. XXVI] 369 ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. to the north of Ķūmis,—was called Țabaristân by the earlier Arab geographers. Țabar has the signification of Mountain' in the local dialect, whence Tabaristân would mean “the Mountain Land.' In the 7th (13th) century, about the time of the Mongol conquest, the name of Țabaristân appears to have fallen into disuse, being replaced by Mâzandarân, which since that date has been the common appellation of this province. Some- times also Mâzandaran was held to include the neighbouring province of Jurjân. Yâķût, who is one of the first to mention the name Mâzandarân, 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 Țabaristân and Mâzandarân 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 Safîd Rûd to the south-eastern angle of the Caspian, Mâzandarân appears in the first instance to have denoted these lowlands, and then included the mountain region as subsidiary thereto. The name Țabaristân 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 Islâm. For more than a century after the Arab conquest of the rest of Persia the native rulers-called the Ispahbads of Tabaristân-were inde- pendent in their mountain fastnesses, and until the middle of the 2nd (Sth) 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 (10th) century, according to Muķaddasî, 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 ķazvînî, 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 Tabaristân were built of wood and reeds, for, as Ibn Hawķal LE S. 24 370 [CHAP. ĶŪMIS, ȚABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. remarks, the rains were heavy, both summer and winter. They were built with domed roofs for the like reason?. The capital of Țabaristân under the later Abbasids was Âmul, though the Ţâhirid governor, in the 3rd (9th) century, had generally resided at Sâriyah. Âmul, according to Ibn Hawķal, was in his day a larger place than ķazvîn and very populous. Muķaddasî describes the town as possessing a hospital (Bîmar- istân) 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 Âmul 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 Yâķût adds no new details, but Mustawfî, 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 Âmul, where its river flowed out into the Caspian, was the small town of 'Ayn-al- Humm, a name which Yâķût writes Ahlum, and describes as of no great size. Tîmûr ravaged Âmul at the close of the 8th (14th) century, destroying the three castles of Mâhânah Sar, which lay four leagues distant from the city towards the sea-coast. The second, and the earlier, capital of Țabaristân was Sâriyah, now called Sârî, which lies to the eastward of Âmul. Mukaddasî describes Sâriyah 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 Sâriyah in later times little is reported; it suffered much in the 7th (13th) century during the Mongol invasion, and when Mustawfî 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? 1 1. H. 270, 271. Muk. 354. Kaz. ii. 270. Yak. iii. 502. For the word Țabar, see above, p. 217. ? I. H. 271, 272, 275. Muk. 354, 359. Yak. i. 354, 409. A. Y. i. 391, 571. A. F. 437. Mst. 109. XXVI] 371 ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. The great mountain of Damâvand dominates the whole of Țabaristân, and its snow-capped summit is visible from the plains of Persia a hundred miles and more to the south of Tihrân- Mustawfî even says from a hundred leagues distant, and he notes that the peak was always covered with snow. In Persian legend Dunbâvand, as the name is written by the earlier authorities, figures as the home of the Sîmurgh, the fabulous bird which nursed and protected Zâl, the father of Rustam, and Mustawfî relates a number of romantic stories in connection with the national hero. According to Ibn Hawķal the great mountain was visible from Sâvah, ‘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-Duḥḥâk (Zuhâk), still lived in its recesses. Damavand gave its name both to a small town lying on its southern spurs, which Mustawfî writes was also called Pishyân, and to the broad fertile district spreading round its flanks. Of this district, in the 4th (10th century, the chief town was Wîmah, which with the neighbouring town of Shalanbah, are described by Ibn Hawķal as places famous for their corn lands and vine yards. Yâķût, who had passed through Wîmah (or Waymah) and found it a ruin, states that the castle of Fîrûzkůh was visible from it. This latter castle he had also visited, and Mus- tawfî records that it took its water from the head of the stream that flowed out to the plain through Khuvâr of Ray in Ķûmis. Fîrûzkûh was one of the castles of Mâzandarân which are men- tioned as having been besieged and taken by Tîmûr. Another equally famous fortress on the slopes of Damâvand was the castle of Ustânâvand, or Ustunâbâd, which, according to ķazvînî, had never been taken for 3000 years, till in 613 (1216) the Mongols stormed it. Yâķût, who says it was also called Jarhud and lay 10 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 Yahyâ the Barmecide, who carried captive the daughters of the Persian chief to Baghdâd, where one of them, called 24-2 372 [CHAP. ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. Bahriyyah, married the Caliph Manşûr and became the mother of Mahdî, the father of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd. 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 Țabaristân 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 Tîmûr, who ravaged Mâzandarân 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 Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century describes three mountain districts, well wooded and very fertile, which lay south of Sâriyah, about a day's march from this town, and stretching westward towards the frontier of Daylam, in the province of Gilân. The first of these was the Jabal Fâdûsbân, the Mountains of Bâdûsbân (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 800 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 Mansur, ‘Manşûr's Village,' and another was Uram Khâst or Uram Khâstah with an upper and a lower village, these places all lying about a day's march from Sâriyah, but throughout the mountain side there was no town of sufficient size to have a Friday Mosque. Adjoining Fâdûsban was the mountain district called the Jabal Ķârin after the famous family of this name, which it is said was of Parthian origin ; in any case the names of nobles of the Ķârin occur in the history of the Sassanians, and in Moslem times they still governed this district. The great fortress strong- hold of the Ķârins, which they had held since Sassanian times, was at Firrim, and the chief centre of population was at the town of Sihmâr (or Shihmâr) where there was the only Friday Mosque 1 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. Fîrûzkûh still exists, but the site of Ustânâvand appears to be unknown. 374 [CHAP. ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. It was western border of Țabaristân. Abu-l-Fidâ says that the city of Rüyân was also known as Shâristân, and that it crowned the summit of the pass 16 leagues from ķazvîn. According to Yâķût Rûyân was the capital city of the mountain district of Țabaristân, just as Âmul was of the lowland plains; it had fine buildings and its gardens were famous for their productiveness. Near Rûyên (or Kalâr) was the little town of Sa'îdâbâd. The great fortress of Tâķ(the Arch) on the frontier of Daylam, and the last refuge of the Ispahbad prince of Țabaristân who was conquered in the time of the Caliph Manşûr, must have been situated in this district of Rûyân. The place is described at some length both by Yâķūt and ķazvînî, who quote older writers. Tâķ was deemed an impregnable stronghold, and had existed since the days of the Sassanian kings of Persia. 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. Yâķût adds a long account of the wonders of this place. At the head-waters of the great Shâh Rûd —the eastern affluent of the Safîd Rûd (see above, p. 170)—lay the district of Rustamdâr, which Mustawfî describes as comprising near 300 villages, and this country, which was watered by the numerous tributaries of the Shâh Rûd, thus lay between Ķazvîn and Âmul, and to the eastward of the Rûyân district. On the Shâh Rûd, as already described in Chapter XV, p. 221, were the chief castles of the Ismailians or Assassins, and probably in this Rustamdâr district also was Kalâm, described by Yâķût as an ancient fortress of Țabaristân, which had been in the hands of these sectaries, and was destroyed by Sultan Muhammad, son of Malik Shâh the Saljûķ". Two leagues to the eastward of Âmul, and on the coast road, lay the town of Mîlah, and three leagues beyond this Barjî, which was one march from Sâriyah. The city of Mamțîr or Mâmațîr, 1 I. H. 275. Yak. ii. 873; iii. 93, 490, 504; iv. 240, 296, 297. Kaz. ii. 238. A. F. 435. Mst. 190. XXVI] 375 ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. one march from either Âmul or Sâriyah, and six leagues from the coast, is identical with the later Bârfarûsh. It had a Friday Mosque, Yâķût says, and much fertile land lay adjacent to the city. Near Sâriyah, and probably to the eastward, were the towns called Nâmiyah (or Nâmishah), with a fine district, 20 leagues from Sâriyah, and Mihrawân, 10 leagues from Sâriyah, where there was a Friday Mosque and a garrison of 1000 men, but unfortunately the exact position of these two places is quite uncertain. On the eastern frontier of Țabaristân, and three marches from Sâriyah, on the road to Astarâbâd, from which it was one march distant, lay the town of Țamis, or Țamisah, standing on the great causeway across the marshes which, according to Yâķût, had been built to carry the high road by King Anûshirwân the Just'. At the south-east angle of the Caspian is the Bay of Ashurâdah, as it is now named, where a long spit of sand stretches out east- ward till it almost reaches the Jurjân coast. This bay with its island or peninsula is described by Mustawfî under the name of Nîm Murdân. 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 Astarâbâd, and the town behind it which carried on a brisk trade was called Shahrâbâd. The neighbouring district, which produced a great deal of silk, and where corn lands and vineyards abounded, was known as Kabûd Jâmah. It had been a very rich country, but was entirely ruined by the wars of Tîmûr at the close of the 8th (14th) century. The city of Rúřad, or Rūghad, which is also mentioned as passed by Tîmûr on his march into Mâzandarân, was probably of the Kabûd Jâmah district. It was, says Mustawfî, a fair-sized town, being 4000 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 Țabaristân, besides the commodities already 1 I. H. 275. Yak. iii. 503, 504, 547; iv. 398, 642, 699, 733. The earliest mention of Bârfarûsh, under the form Bârah Farûsh Dih (“the Village where Loads are Sold'), occurs in Haft Işlîm of Aḥmad Râzî, a work of the roth (16th) century; see Dorn, Muhammedanische Quellen, iv. p. 99 of the Persian text. XXVI] 377 ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. 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 Jurjân, and rises in the plains of Khurâsân, between Nisâ and Khabúshân, 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 Jurjân mostly unfordable, as Mustawfi writes, and flowing along by the Dihistân frontier, on the northern side of the Jurjan province, reaches the Caspian after a course of nearly 120 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 Mustawfî 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 Jurjân is the city of the same name, at the present day called Min Gurgân, which Ibn Hawķal in the 4th (10th) century describes as a fine town, built of clay bricks, enjoying a far drier climate than Âmul, for less rain fell in Jurjân than in Țabaristân. The city consisted of two parts, one on either side of the Jurjân river, which was here traversed by a bridge of boats, and Jurjân was more properly the name of the eastern half of the town. On the west side lay Bakrâbâd, the suburb, and the two parts of the city together, according to the description of Ibn Hawķal, 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 Jurjân, that on the east bank, Muḥaddasî calls Shahrastân; 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 Maydân, or public square, faced the 1 Muk. 354, 367. Mst. 212, 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 Atrâk; hence the usual explanation of the name is probably erroneous. 378 [CHAP. ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. governor's palace, and this quarter of the town had nine gates. The defect of Jurjân 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' (Gurgân). Bakrâbâdh, as Muķaddasî 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 Kazvîni wrote in the 7th (13th century Jurjân was famous among the Shî'ahs for the shrine called Gûr-i-Surkh, 'the Red Tomb,' said to be that of one of the descendants of Alî, whom Mustawfî identifies as Muhammad, son of Ja'far-as- Şâdiả, the sixth Imâm. Mustawfî reports that the city had been rebuilt by the grandson of Malik Shâh the Saljūķ, and that its walls were 7000 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) Tîmûr, who had devastated all Mâzandarân and the neighbouring country, stopped at Jurjân and built for himself here on the banks of the river the great palace of Shâsman, which is especially referred to by Hafiz Abrû! The second city of the Jurjân province is Astarâbâd, near the frontier of Mâzandarân. Mukaddasî describes it as a fine town in the 4th (10th) 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 Ziyârids; and Muķaddasî adds that | 1. H. 272, 273. Muk. 357, 358. Kaz. ii. 235. Mst. 190. A. Y. i. 578. Hfz. 32a. During the 4th (10th) century Jurjân was governed by a native dynasty, the Ziyârids, whose rule extended over Tabaristân and the neighbour- ing lands. Of these Ziyârids one of the most famous was Ķâbûs, who died in 403 (1012) and whose tomb, called the Gunbad-i-ķâbûs, is still to be seen near the ruins of Jurjân city. C. E. Yate, Khurasan and Sistan, pp. 239—241. XXVI] 379 ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. there was the Friday Mosque built at the time of the first Moslem conquest still standing in the market-place near the city gate. Yâķût and Mustawfî merely confirm the above account, praising the climate of Astarâbâd and the abundant supplies, but adding no fresh details. The port on the Caspian of both Jurjân and Astarâbâd was at Âbaskûn, 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. Istakhrî and Ibn Hawķal, writing in the 4th(10th) century, describe Âbaskûn 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 Gîlân. It was protected by a strong castle built of burnt brick, and the Friday Mosque was in its market- place. Muķaddasî writes of it as 'the great harbour of Jurjân,' and the Caspian itself, Yâķût adds, was often called the Sea of Âbaskûn. In history Âbaskûn is celebrated as having been the final refuge of Muḥammad, the last reigning Khwârizm-Shâh, who, fleeing before the Mongol hordes, died here miserably in 617 (1220) Six days' journey (or 50 leagues) north of Âbaskûn, and four marches from Jurjân city, was the settlement of Dihistân in the district of the same name, the outpost in the 4th (10th) century of the Turk frontier. Ibn Hawķal speaks of Dihistân 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 Âkhur, which Muķaddasî refers to as a city, surrounded by twenty-four villages, and these are the most populous of all the Jurjấn province. In Âkhur was a minaret, or tower, which could be seen from a great distance away in the neighbouring desert. To the eastward of Âkhur was Ar-Rubâț, 'the Guard-house, an important settlement at the entrance of the desert route going Mst. 190, 1 Ist. 213, 214. I. H. 273, 274. Muk. 358. Yak. i. 55, 242. 225. Ibn Serapion (folio 466) states that the town of Âbaskûn lay on the Jurjân river, near where it flowed out into the Caspian. Mas. Tanbih 60, 179. 380 [CHAP. ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. to Khwârizm. Muķaddasî 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, Muķaddasî says, and it was in his day half under- ground. Another of the mosques had a beautiful minaret. Yâķût mentions these and some other places in the Dihistân district, namely the villages of Khartîr, Farghûl, and Habrâthân, but he adds no details. Mustawfî, who gives the route from Jurjân to Khwârizm across Dihistân, 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 Dihistân on the desert border, where the road started for crossing to Khwârizm, stood the city of Farâvah, which is given by Işțakhrî as a settlement of the Ghuzz Desert. In the 4th (10th) century it was strongly garrisoned by volunteers, and there was a great Rubâț, 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. Muķaddasî spells the name Afrâvah, and Yâķût says that it was a Rubâț built by 'Abd Allah, the Țâhirid, during the reign of the Caliph Mamûn. From its position there is little doubt that Farâvah is identical with the modern ķizil Arvat, a corruption of Ķizil Rubât, 'the Red Guard- house. The names only of a number of other places in the Jurjân province are given by Yâķût, these being the various villages belonging to Jurjân city, or to Astarâbâd. No details, however, are added, their positions are not indicated, and too often the reading of the name is uncertain?. Muķaddasî mentions, among the products for which Jurjân 1 The ruins of these towns lying on the border of the Khwârizm desert are still to be seen at Misriyân, near the mountains now called the Kören Dâgh, 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, 500; ii. 418, 633; iii. 880; iv. 949. Mst. 190, 197. 2 Ist. 273. I. H. 324. Muk. 333. Yak. iii. 866. Mst. 197. For these villages see for instance sixteen names given by Yâķût. Yak. ii. 137, 489, 782; iii. 323, 923, 930; iv. 277, 376, 395, 396, 555, 699, 728, 926, 927. XXVI] 381 ĶŪMIS, TABARISTÂN, AND JURJÂN. 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 (dibáj) was also largely manufactured, and of fruits Jurjân was especially famous for its grapes, figs, and olives?. The high roads through Țabaristân and Jurjân are not numerous, since in the first-named country the mountains are for roads almost impassable. Istakhrî (duplicated by Ibn Hawķal) and Muķaddasî give the road from Ray northwards across the great chain to Âmul, passing through Ask and Bulûr (Pulûr), but many of the stages are now difficult or impossible to identify. Travelling westward from Âmul along the coast, Ibn Hawķal and Işțakhrî give the inarches through Nâtil and Sâlâs to the frontier of Gîlân (Daylam); also eastward from Âmul to Astarâbâd and Jurjân city. From Jurjân city north to Dihistân the stations are given by Mukaddasî, as also by Mustawfî in his account of the road from Bisţâm in Ķūmis to the capital of Khwârizm. Muķaddasî also gives the road from Bistâm to Jurjân city across the mountain pass, through Juhaynah, which is described by Ibn Hawķal as a fine village on a river. Lastly from Jurjân eastward into Khurâsân Muķaddasî gives a route in 5 days to Isfarâyin in the Juvayn plain, passing through Ajgh, which is now called Ashk. This district will be described in the following chapter". 1 Muk. 367. 2 Ist. 214–217. I. H. 274–276. Muk. 372, 373. Mst. 197. CHAPTER XXVII. KHURASÂN. The four Quarters of Khurâsân. The Nîshậpûr quarter. Nishậpûr city, and Shâdyâkh. The Nîshậpûr district. Țûs and Mashhad, with its shrine. Bayhaḥ and Sabzivâr. Juvayn, Jâjarm, and Isfarâyin. Ustuvâ and Kûchân. Râdkân, Nisâ, and Abîvard. Kalât. Khâbarân and Sarakhs. In old Persian Khurâsân 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. Khurâsân, therefore, was taken in this larger sense to include all Transoxiana on the north- east, besides Sîjistân with ķûhistân on the south, and its outer boundaries were the Chinese desert and the Pamîr towards Central Asia, with the Hindû Kush ranges towards India. Later, however, these limits became more circumscribed, and Khurâsân 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 Herât, in what is now the north-western part of Afghânistân. Further, the country of the upper Oxus, towards the Pamîr, as known to the medieval Arabs, was always counted as one of the outlying districts of Khurâsân. Arab or medieval Khurâsân 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 Naysâbûr, Mary, Herât, and Balkh. After the first Moslem conquest the capitals of Khurâsân had been at Mary and at Balkh. The princes of the Ţâhirid dynasty, how- ever, shifted the centre of government westward, and under their CHAP. XXVII] 383 KHURASÂN. sway Naysâbûr 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 Nîshậpûr, the Arab form being Naysâbûr, which is from the old Persian Nîv- Shahpuhr, meaning "the good (thing, deed, or place) of Shâpûr, and the city is so called after the Sassanian king Shâpûr II, who had rebuilt it in the 4th century A.D., for Naysâbûr owed its foundation to Shâpûr I, son of Ardashîr Bâbgân. Of the chief towns of the Naysâbûr district, in which was included most of the province of Ķühistân 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 Naysâbûr 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 Îrân-shahr—the City of Îrân—is also given to it by Muķaddasî and others, but probably this was merely used officially and as a title of honour. In the 4th (10th) century Naysâbûr 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 Saffârid, 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 Maydân-al-Husaynîyîn, 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 Bâb-al-ķanțarah (the Bridge Gate), next the gate of the street of Maʻķil, then Bâb-al-ķuhandiz (the Fortress Gate), and lastly the gate of the Takîn bridge. The suburbs lying beyond 1 Ist. 253, 254. I. H. 308, 309, 310. Muk. 295. Mst. 185. 2 Ist. 258. I. H. 313. 1. K. 24. Ykb. 278. I. R. 171. The first syllable of the name Nîshâpûr in old Persian was Niv, or Nîk, which in modern Persian exists in Níků, 'good'; the Arab diphthong Nay(sâbûr) changes in modern Persian to the long vowel, becoming Nîshậpûr, for the Arab b is in Persian pronounced P. Nöldeke, Sassaniden, p. 59. 384 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. 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 (Bâb-al-ķubâb), opening west, and on the opposite quarter the war gate (Bâb Jang) towards the Bushtafrûsh district; then to the south was the Bâb Aḥwaşâbâd, and the names of some others are also given. The most famous market-places were those known as Al-Murabba'ah-al-Kabîrah, and Al-Murabba'ah-aş-Şa- ghîrah (“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 Maydân-al-Husaynîyîn 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 Makâbir-al-Ḥusaynîyîn, 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 Wâdî Saghâvar, which flowed down through Naysâbûr from the neighbouring village of Bushtanķân. 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 Khurâsân, says Ibn Hawķal, was healthier or more populous than Naysâbûr, 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. Mukaddasî fully bears out this account, adding some further details. He says that there were forty-two town quarters in Naysâbûr, some of which were of the size of half the city of Shîrâz. The main streets (darb) 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 Şaffârid. Its roof was supported on columns of XXVII] 385 KHURASÂN. 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 Naysâbûr, as noted above, came from the village of Bushtanķân; 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?. Yâķût says that in his day, namely the 7th (13th) century, the name of the city was commonly pronounced Nashâvûr. 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 Khurâsân, and its gardens were famous for their white currants (ribâs) and for other fruits. After this Ghuzz inroad, when Sultan Sanjar the Saljūķ was carried away prisoner, and the city devastated, the inhabitants for the most part removed to the neighbouring suburb of Shâd- yâkh, 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 Shâdyâkh, or Ash-Shâdhyâkh, had formerly been a garden, occupied by 'Abd Allah the Ţâhirid in the early part of the 3rd (9th) century, when he made Naysâbûr the seat of his government. Round his palace, what had been originally the camp of his troops became the chief suburb of Naysâbûr, which, after the Ghuzz invasion, took the place of the capital. Yâķût, who spent some time at Nîshậpůr about the year 613 (1216), lodged in Shâdyâkh, which he describes. Shortly after this, namely in 618 (1221), the capital was taken and sacked by the Mongols under Changîz Khân, as Yâķût 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. Nîshậpûr, however, must have quickly recovered from the 1 Ist. 254, 255. 1. H. 310-312. Muk. 314-316, 329. LE S. 25 386 [CHAP. KHURẤSÂN. effects of the Mongol invasion, for when Ibn Bațâțah 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 Batuțah adds, silk velvets called kamkhả and nakhkh, and the markets were much frequented by foreign merchants. Mustawfî, his contemporary, gives a long account of the city of Nîshâpûr and of its district. He says that in the days of the Chosroes, as it was reported, the old town of Naysâbûr had been originally laid out on the plan of a chess-board, with eight squares to each side. Then under the Șaffârids Nîshâpûr had increased in size and wealth, becoming the chief city of Khurâsân, till the year 605 (1208), when it was almost completely destroyed by earthquakes. It was after this date, according to Mustawfî, that Shâdyâkh first took its place as the centre of population, this latter city having a wall 6700 paces in circuit. Nishậpůr, how- ever, was forthwith rebuilt, but again destroyed by the earthquakes in the year 679 (1280), when a third city of Nîshâpûr was re- founded on a different site, and this was the place which Mustawfî 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 Nîshâpûr 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 Nîshâpûr had cisterns for storing water in the dry season. The present city of Nîshậpûr 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 Mustawfî gives the names of a great number of these, which, after irrigating the lands round Nîshậpûr, become lost in the desert. Five leagues north of the city, at the head-waters of the Nîshâpûr river, was a little lake in the mountains at the top of the pass, called Chashmah Sabz, “the Green Spring, from which, according to Mustawfî, two streams running west and east took their rise, the eastern stream flowing XXVII] 387 KHURASÂN. down to the valley of Mashhad. This lake appears to have been in the hill called Kûh Gulshân, 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 was reported to be unfathomable, and an arrow could not be shot from one bank to the other. Four districts of the Naysâbûr plain were famous for their fertility, and Muķaddasî in the 4th (10th) century enumerates these, namely, Ash-Shâmât (the Beauty Spots'), Rîvand, which still exists to the west of Nîshấpûr, Mâzûl, and Bushtafrûsh. The district of Mâzul lay to the north, and its chief village was Bushtaşân (or Bushtanţân), a league from the city, where 'Amr the Saffârid had planted a famous garden. The currants of this district were especially renowned. The Bushtafrůsh district, now known as Pusht Farûsh, extended for a day's journey eastwards from the Jang Gate of Naysâbûr, according to Muķaddasî, and from the gardens of its villages, which Yâķût says numbered 126 in all, apricots were exported in immense quantities. The Shâmât district, Muķaddasî says, was named Tak-Âb by the Persians, meaning whence waters flow,' and its fertility was extraordinary. Rîvand, a small town in the district of the same name, lay one stage west of Naysâbûr ; in the 4th (10th) 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 Nîshậpûr district, according to Mustawfî, was the Shûrah Rûd, “the Salt River, which was joined by the waters of the stream from Dizbâd, and after watering many districts ultimately became lost in the desert. A number of other streams are also mentioned by Mustawfî, 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 Bushtaşân, rising in the Chashmah Sabz neighbourhood, already mentioned, and the Bushtafrûsh river, both of which in the spring freshets, he says, joined the Shûrah Rûd. Finally, there was the stream named the 'Atshâbâd, or "Thirst' river, which, though in 25-2 388 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. 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 Nîshậpûr the great Khurâsân high road bifurcates at the stage which the Arabs named Kașr-ar-Rîḥ, •Castle of the Wind,' and the Persians Dizbâd or Dih Bâd. Its river has been already mentioned among the streams which flowed to the Shûrah river. From here the road to Mary went due east, that to Herât turning off south-east. On this last, two stages from Dih Bâd, was the village of Farhâdân, which is also called Farhâdhjird by Yâķût. Its district, which was counted as of Naysâbûr, Muḥaddasî calls Asfand ; in Ibn Rustah the spelling given is Ashbandh, and Yâķût 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 Farhâdhjird) is still marked on the maps at the place in- dicated by the Itineraries. Due east of Nîshậpûr, but separated from it by the range of mountains in which most of the streams of the Nîshâpûr plain take their rise, lies Mashhad—the Place of Martyrdom,' or ‘Shrine of the Imâm-now the capital of the Persian province of Khurâsân, and a few miles to the north of it may be seen the ruins of Țûs, the older city. Tûs, in the 4th (10th) century, was the second city of the Naysâbûr quarter of Khurâsân, and con- sisted of the twin towns of At-Ţâbarân and Nûķân, while two post-stages distant was the great garden at the village of Sanâbâdh, where lay the graves of the Caliph Hârûn-ar-Rashid, who died in 193 (809), and of the eighth Imâm ‘Alî-ar-Ridâ, who was poisoned by Mamûn in 202 (817). This village of Sanâbâdh was also known as Barda', meaning “a pack-saddle,' or as Al-Muthaķķab, 'the Pierced*,' presumably from the windows of the shrine, or for some other fanciful reason. 1 I. R. 171. 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, Khurasan and Sistan, pp. 351, 353. Both places are still famous in Khurâsân. 2 I. R. 171. Muk. 300, 319. Yak. i. 280; iii. 887. Mst. 196, 197. 3 Al-Muthaķķab was a name given to various fortresses; one near Al- 390 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. including the two cities of Tùs, with the shrines at Sanâbâdh (Mashhad), was devastated and pillaged by the Mongol hordes. From the Mongol sack Țùs appears never to have recovered, though the neighbouring shrines under the fostering care of the rich Shî‘ahs soon resumed their former splendour; and Mustawfî, in the 8th (14th) century, is one of the first to refer to the Sanâbâdh village as Mashhad, 'the Place of Martyrdom,' a name that it has since always borne. The Caliph and the Imâm, as ķazvînî remarks, lay under one dome, and the latter only was held in honour by the Shî'ahs, who, however, knew not which tomb to revere, for by order of the Caliph Mamûn (son of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd, and the poisoner of 'Ali- ar-Ridâ), the two graves had been made exactly alike. When Mustawfî wrote, Mashhad had already become a great city, surrounded by immense graveyards with many famous tombs, that of Ghazzâlî, just mentioned, lying to the eastward of the shrines, where also was shown the grave of the poet Firdûsî. Around the city lay the fertile plain known as Marghzâr Takân, 12 leagues long by 5 across, where grapes and figs were more especially grown. The people of the Țûs district were, Mustawfî adds, “a very excellent folk and good to strangers.' Ibn Bațâțah, who visited the Mashhad of Imâm Ridâ 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 (kâshânî). Above the actual grave of the Imâm 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 Batůțah, 'every Shî'ah on entering kicks with his foot the tomb of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd, while he invokes a blessing on that of Imâm Ridâ.The magnificence of the shrine XXVII] 391 KHURẤSÂN. of the Imâm is alluded to by the Spanish envoy Clavijo, who visited the court of Tîmûr 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 Shî'ahs were not then as fanatical in this matter as they are at the present time'. Four days' march due west of Nîshâpûr in the district of Bayhaķ were the two cities of Sabzivâr and Khusrûjird, a league only separating them; Sabzivâr, the chief town, being itself generally known in the middle-ages as Bayhaķ. The Bayhaķ district, which extended as far east as Rivand, measuring 25 leagues across in all directions, comprised according to Yâķût 321 villages, and he adds that the name Bayhaķ was from the Persian Bayhah or Bahầyin, which signified 'most generous.' According to the same authority Sâbzavâr was the more exact name of the town, which the common people had shortened to Sabzvar; and Khusrûjird had originally been the chief town of the district, but the pre-eminence in his day was gone over to Sabzivâr. Mustawfî 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 Shî'ahs?. From Bistâm in the Ķūmis province to Nîshậpûr there were two roads. The more direct, the post-road, lies along the edge of the desert, going through Sabzivâr. 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 Mukaddasî, was also called Gâyân, was very fertile in food-stuffs, and its chief town was Azâ- dhvâr or Azâdvâr. The Isfarâyin district was in its northern part; 1 The name of the Imâm is at the present day pronounced Rizâ 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. 1. B. iii. 77–79. Narrative of the Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, p. 110 (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.' 2 Muk. 317, 318. Yak. i. 804; ii. 441. Mst. 186. For the ruins of Bayhaķ see C. E. Yate, Khurasan and Sistan, p. 398. XXVII] 393 KHURASÂN. together ran for a course over 12 leagues in length, the water being much used for irrigation'. The great plain of Isfarâyin (or Asfarayn), Muķaddasî says, grew much rice and fine grapes. Its chief town, of the same name, was very populous, and had good markets. Yâķût states that the town of Isfarâyin was of old called Mihrajân, 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 Isfarâyin, according to Yâķût, was originally written Asbarâyîn, and meant 'the shield-bearers,' from asbar, 'a shield.' Mustawfî relates that in the mosque at Isfarâyin 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 ķal-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 Kûchân, which in medieval times was called Khabúshân, or Khâjân. 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 Nisâ district. Yâķût, who states that the name of the chief town was in his day pronounced Khúshân, says that 93 villages belonged to it. In the Jahân Numâ the name appears as Khûchân, and Mustawfî 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 Hûlâgû Khân, the Mongol, had rebuilt Khabúshân in the 7th (13th) century, his grandson Arghûn, the Îl-Khân of Persia, afterwards greatly enlarging the town. About half-way between Khabûshân 1 Muk. 318. Yak. i. 209, 249, 485; ii. 4, 742; iii. 35, 145. Mst. 186, 196, 220. 2 Muk. 318. Yak. i. 246. Mst. 186. The medieval city of Isfarâyin (the plain is still known by this name) is probably to be identified with the ruins called Shahr-i-Bilķis. C. E. Yate, Khurasan and Sistan, 378, 379. 394 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. and Țûs is Râdkân, which is mentioned by Ibn Hawķal, and described by Yâķût as a small town celebrated as the birth-place of Nizâm-al-Mulk, the great Wazîr of Malik Shâh, the Saljuķ'. The famous district of Nasâ or Nisâ is the broad valley now known as Darrah Gaz, “the Vale of Manna. The city of Nisâ is described by Ibn Hawķal as being a large town, of the size of Sarakhs, having an abundant water-supply from the neighbouring hills. Muķaddasî 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. Yâķût, how- ever, speaks of Nisâ 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. Kazvînî adds that the town was also called Shahr Fîrûz, after the ancient Persian king who was reported to have built it. To the east of Nisâ, beyond the mountain ridge and on the edge of the Marv desert, lies Abîvard, the name being sometimes spelt Bâvard. Muķaddasî says that its markets, in the midst of which stood the Friday Mosque, were finer even than those of Nisâ, and more frequented by merchants. Mustawfî praises the fruit grown here, and he counts as belonging to Abîvard the great guard-house (rubát) at Kûfan, six leagues distant, standing in a village. This guard-house had been built by 'Abd-Allah, the Tâhirid, in the 3rd (9th) century; it had four gates, and a mosque was built in its midst. The district in which Abîvard stood was called Khâbarân, or Khâvarân, of which Mihnah, or Mayhanah, was the chief town; further, Yâķût names Azjah, Bâdhan, Kharv- al-Jabal and Shûkân as among the important places of this district; but Mayhanah, when he wrote, was already in ruins. 1 I. H. 313. Muk. 318, 319. Yak. i. 243; ii. 400, 487, 730. Mst. 186. J. N. 323. The present town of Bujnurd, lying north of Isfarâyin, and about 60 miles to the north-west of Kûchân, was founded a couple of centuries ago, but near it was an older town called Bizhân, the ruined castle of which, known as the Kalʻah, still exists. C. E. Yate, Khurasan and Sistan, 195, 196. Sykes, Persia, 22. 2 Ist. 273. I. H. 324. Muk. 320. Yak. iv. 776. Kaz. ii. 311. The city of Nisâ is probably identical with the modern Muḥammadâbâd, the chief town of Darrah Gaz. XXVII] 395 KHURASÂN. In the following, 8th (14th), century Mustawfî speaks of the many fine gardens of the Khâvarân district—he also gives the name as Khavardân-and he says that in its chief town had resided the poet Anvârî, who flourished in the 6th (12th) century, having been the panegyrist of Sultan Sanjar the Saljūķ". In the mountains, and about half-way between Abîvard and Mihnah, lies the huge natural fortress now known as Kilât-i-Nâdir, after Nâdir Shâh, 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 10th) centuries, and Yâķût does not notice it. The earliest mention of Kilât appears to be by 'Utbî, in his History of Mahmûd of Ghaznah, and he merely states incidentally that a certain Amîr went ‘from Nîshâpûr to Kilât, which is also in the Arabic fashion written Kalʻah.' Mustawfî gives a succinct description of the place, adding that its chief towns were called Jurm and Marinân; further, Kilât 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 Tîmûr, 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 Țûs 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 1 Muk. 321, 333. Yak. i. III, 232, 462 ; ii. 383, 395, 428; iii. 337; iv. 321, 723 Mst. 189. A. Y. i. 382. J. N. 318. The name of Khâvarân stands for the older form Kharvarân, meaning the west country' (the opposite of Khurâsân, 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 Khurâsân, 'the country of the east.' 2 •Utbî, Kitâb-z- Yamînî, Arabic text (Cairo, 1286 A.H.), i. 215. Persian text (Tihrân, 1272 A. H.), p. 151. Mst. 187. A. Y. i. 334, 337. J. N. 323. Kilât or Kalât, in Persian, is equivalent to the Armenian Qalaq, signifying 'a city,' and in Arabic appears under the well-known form ķalóah, or Kal'at, “a castle.' Kilât-i-Nâdir was visited by Col. MacGregor (Journey through Khurasan, ii. 51) in 1875 and carefully described. CHAPTER XXVIII. KHURÂSÂN (continued). The Marv quarter. The Murghâb river. Great Marv and its villages. Âmul and Zamm, on the Oxus. Marv-ar-Rûd, or Little Marv, and ķașr Ahnaf. The second of the Quarters of Khurâsân, that of Marv, lies along the Murghâb, or Marv river. This river flows down from the mountains of Ghûr to the north-east of Herât, and passing Little Mary 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 Herât river, but some 70 miles to the eastward of the latter. Besides the various towns lying along the Murghâb, the Marv quarter also included the places on the great Khurâsân road, beyond Marv, north-eastward to the Oxus at Âmul, where the crossing for Bukhârâ took place. The name Murghâb, or Marghâb, is said by Ibn Hawķal to have been originally Marvâb, 'the Marv-water’; but, says Ișțakhrî, Murghâb is the name of the place where its streams rise. Mukaddasî, who calls the Murghâb 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 Amîr who acted as water-bailiff, with 10,000 workmen 398 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. 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 60 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 Mâjân, then the Nahr Zarķ or Ar-Raziķ, and finally the Nahr As'adî. Of these four the Nahr-al-Mâjân appears to have carried the main stream of the Murghâb, 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. Yâķût in the 7th (13th) century states that the Murghâb was in his day known as the river Razîķ (probably identical with the canal already mentioned), a name which he states was often incorrectly spelt Zarîk, and the Jahan Numâ adds, as a third variant, Zarbaķ. These names are also mentioned by Mustawfî, who gives Murghâb 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-Shâhijân, to distinguish it from Marv-ar-Rûd, Little Marv, and Shâhijân is probably merely the Arab form of the old Persian Shâhgân, ‘kingly,' or 'belonging to the king,' though Yâķût and others explain the term as Shâh-i-Tân to mean of the soul of the king.' Marv, as described by Ișțakhrî, Ibn Hawķal, and Mukaddasî, consisted of an inner citadel (Kuhandiz) 'high-built and itself of 1 Ist. 260, 261. I. H. 315. Muk. 330, 331. Yak. ii. 777. Mst. 214. J. N. 328. The place where the Murghâb ultimately became lost in the sands is called Mâyâb by Hâfiz Abrû. Hfz. 32b. For the places round Marv, see Map X, p. 447. Presumably 60 barleycorns (Sha'îrah) went to the ell. XXVIII] 399 KHURASÂN. 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 Bâb-al-Madînah, 'the city gate' (S.W.), where the road from Sarakhs came in; the Bâb Sanjân (S.E.) opening on the Banî Mâhân suburb and As'adî canal; the Bâb Dar Mashkân (N.E.) on the road to the Oxus; and lastly the Bâb Bâlin (N.W.). In the 4th (10th century there were three Friday Mosques in Marv, first the citadel mosque called the Jâmi' of the Banî Mâhân ; next the Masjid-al-'Atîk, 'the Old Mosque,' which stood at the gate opening on the Sarakhs road, the Bâb-al-Madînah; lastly the New Mosque of the Mâjân suburb, outside this same gate, where the great markets of Mary were found. The Razîş canal flowed into the town, coming to the gate called Bâb-al-Madînah 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 Mâjân canal, flowing to the west of it, watered the great Mâjân suburb, which lay round the Maydân, 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 Işțakhrî, 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 Mâjân, 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 Ţâhirid, who had transferred many of the markets to this quarter. Yâķût, at a later date, speaking of the great western suburb of Mâjân, mentions two of its chief streets, namely, the thoroughfare known as Barârjân (for Barâdar-Jân) or “brother-life' in upper Mâjân, and the street of Tukhârân-bih. The Hurmuzfarrah canal ulti- mately reached the township of that name, near the swamps of the Murghâb, and the town had its own Friday Mosque. One league distant from Hurmuzfarrah was Bâshân, also a town with its Friday Mosque, while the two hamlets of Kharak (or Kharah) 400 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. and As-Sûsanķân, 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 Muḥaddasî spelt Sink), with a fine Friday Mosque, standing on a canal with many gardens, and beyond it, two marches to the south-west of Mary on the road to Sarakhs, lay the important town of Ad-Dandanķân. This was small but well fortified, having a single gate, with hot baths (Hammâms) outside the wall. Its ruins were seen by Yâķût 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 Mary on the Bukhârâ road, was the limit of cultivation on the north-eastern side. This Kushmayhan, or Kush- mâhan, according to Ya‘ķûbî, was famous for the Zabîb Kushmâ- hani, 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 Mashkân gate of Marv, which led to the town of Kushmayhan, had stood the great palace of Mamûn, where he had lived when he held his court at Marv, previous to setting out for Baghdâd to wrest the Caliphate from his brother Amîn. The south-eastern gate of Marv, the Bâb Sanjân, opened on the As'adî canal, along which lay the Banî Mâhân (or Mîr Mâhân) quarter, with the palace of the Marzubân of Marv, the Persian Warden of the Marches. From this gate the road led up the Murghab river by Al-Karînayn to Marv-ar-Rûd. Six leagues from the city in this direction was the town of Jîranj (or Kîrang, in Muķaddasî) on the river bank, while one league beyond it lay Zarķ. 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 Hawķal, it was at Zarķ township that the waters of the Murghâb were first canalised, channels being led off to irrigate the gardens round Mary. These gardens had at all times been famous for their melons, also for the assafoetida root (ushturgház) grown here, which was exported to other parts of Khurâsân. XXVIII] 401 KHURASÂN. Silkworms, too, were raised here largely, the silk being manu- factured into the stuffs for which Mary was celebrated'. In the latter half of the 4th (10th) century, when Muḥaddasî 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 Saljuks, and here Sultan Sanjar, the last of the great Saljûķs, was buried in 552 (1157), and the remains of his tomb may still be seen at the present day. Yâķût, 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, Yâķût was told, long after the Sultan's death by some of his servants. At the village of Andarâbah, 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, Yâķût adds, with the adjacent village. Yâķût 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 Shâfi'ites. He himself lived in Marv for three years, collecting the materials for his great geographical dictionary, for before the Mongol invasion the libraries of Mary were celebrated ; 'verily but for the Mongols I would have stayed 1 Ykb. 280. Ist. 258—263. I. H. 314--316. Muk. 298, 299, 310-312, 331. Yak. i. 534, 827; ii. 610; iv. 507. The town and mill of Zarķ lay seven leagues from Marv, while the pool where the waters of the Murghâb were divided among the four city canals, of which the Nahr Razîş was one, lay at a distance of but one league from Marv. The Razîk canal and the Zarķ mill, therefore, were probably not adjacent, but from the shifting of the diacritical point there is much confusion between Zark or Razķ, and Zarîk or Razîķ. The name of the mill is sometimes given as pronounced, Zurķ or Zurraḥ, and the Zarîş canal appears as Zarbaķ, on whose banks, according to some accounts, King Yazdajird came to his death. See Yak. ii. 777, 925; iv. 508. Mukaddasî (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. 26 402 [CHAP. KHURẤSÂN. 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 ‘Azîzîyah with 12,000 and odd volumes, and the Kamâlîyah. There was also the library of Sharaf- al-Mulk, in his Madrasah or college, and that of the great Saljûķ Wazîr the Nizâm-al-Mulk. Among the older libraries were those founded by the Sâmânids, and one in the college of the 'Umay- dîyah ; also that in the Khâtûnîyah college, and that which had belonged to Majd-al-Mulk. Finally, and especially, there was the Dumayrîyah library in one of the Khânķâhs, or Darvîsh convents, containing only 200 volumes, but each volume, Yâķût writes, worth two hundred gold pieces (dînârs), for all the books there were unique and beyond price. At the approach of the Mongol hordes in 617 (1220) Yâķût 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-Athîr states, was set on fire by the invaders, together with most of the mosques and other public buildings; and Hâfiz Abrû adds that they broke down all the great dams and dykes of the Murghâb, which under the early Saljūķs 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 Baţūțah passed through Marv, it was still one great ruin. The account which his contemporary, Mustawfî, 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 Baghdad. Then the Saffârids had re- moved the capital of Khurâsân to Nishậpûr, but the Saljūķs restored the primacy to Marv, and Sultan Malik Shâh built the great wall round the city 12,300 paces in circuit. The crops of the Marv oasis were a marvel of productiveness; Mustawfî reports that seed corn gave a hundred-fold the first year, and from the ungathered overfall some thirty-fold for the second year was obtained, with as much as ten-fold of the original sowing even in XXVIII] 403 KHURASÂN. 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- whelnied many of the fruitful districts, but excellent water-melons were still grown, which were dried and largely exported, also grapes and pears. Mustawfî describes the city of Mary 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 Tîmûr frequently stopped here in the intervals of his campaigns. He generally lived at a place which 'Ali of Yazd writes Mâkhân, probably a clerical error for Mâjân, which as already said had been in earlier days the name of the great western suburb of Marv, though Yâķût mentions a place also called Mâkhân as a village near the city. Marv was in part restored to its former state of greatness under the reign of Shâh Rukh, the grandson of Tîmûr, who rebuilt much of the city in the year 812 (1409), so that in 821 (1418), when Hâfiz Abrû 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 Khurâsân road crossed to Bukhârâ and Transoxiana, stood the city of Âmul, and about a hundred miles to the eastward, higher up on the same bank was Zamm, also at a crossing-place. Âmul, which in the later middle-ages was also known as Amûyah, and then came to be called Chahâr Jûy (“Four Canals,' a name the place still bears), is described by Ibn Hawķal 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 Âmul was enclosed on all sides by the desert, which here came close up to the river bank. Muķaddasî praises the excellent markets of Âmul. 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 Âmul, 1 Ibn-al-Athir, xii. 256. Yak. i. 373; iv. 378, 509, 510. I. B. iii. 63. Mst. 189. A. Y. i. 147, 150, 569. Hfz. 32 b. 26-2 404 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. on the right bank of the river, in the Bukhârâ district, was the town of Firabr. To distinguish this Âmul from the town of the same name which was the capital of Tabaristân (see above, p. 370), Yâķût states that it was known in books as Âmul of Zamm (after the next Oxus passage upstream), or Âmul of the Jayhûn (Oxus), or Âmul-ash-Shațț (of the Stream), or further as Âmul-al-Mafâzah (of the Desert). In his day, however, in place of the name Âmul the town had come to be called Amû, or Amûyah, by which denomination it is frequently mentioned in the accounts of the Mongol invasion, and of the campaigns of Tîmûr. It is also known as ķalah Amûyah, or the Amûyah Castle.' In the 11th (17th) century Abu-l-Ghâzî gives the name as Amûyah when dealing with the marches of Changîz Khân, but speaking of the events of his own day writes of Chahâr Jûy, in reference to this Oxus passage, which proves conclusively that the two places are identical. The town of Zamm, also on the Khurâsân bank, as already stated, is the modern Karkhî, and in the middle-ages the town of Akhsîsak faced it on the further side, towards Bukhârâ. Ibn Hawķal speaks of Zamm as a town of the same size as Âmul, but it was only approached on the Khurâsân side by the road up the Oxus bank in four marches from Âmul; 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 Muķaddasî, who speaks of its Friday Mosque standing in the market-place, so that in the 4th (10th) century it must already have been a place of some importance! Coming back now to the Murghâb river, about 160 miles higher up than Great Marv stood Upper, or Little Marv, at that part of the river where, after leaving the Ghûr mountains, it turns north through the desert plains towards Great Marv. Little Marv, or Upper Marv as Muķaddasi and others call it, is the place known as Bâlâ Murghâb, Upper Murghâb,' to the Persians. It is now a complete ruin, and has been so since the invasion of Tîmûr. In the 4th (10th) 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. 124, 329. XXVIII] 405 KHURẤSÂN. ‘Mary 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 Murghâb, 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 Mukaddasî standing on wooden columns, and Ķudâmah adds that one league from Upper Marv (as he calls it) was the castle of ķașr-'Amr in the hills, blocking the mouth of a small valley. Yâķût states that in his day the name Marv-ar-Rad was pronounced Marrûd 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 Mustawfî describes it as still a flourishing place, with a wall 5000 paces in circumference, which had been built by Sultan Malik Shâh the Saljūķ. The surrounding country was most fertile, grapes and melons were grown abundantly, and living was cheap'. One day's march from Marv-ar-Rûd, on the same bank and down the river towards Great Marv, was the castle called Kaşr Ahnaf, after Al-Ahnaf ibn Kays, the Arab general who in the days of the Caliph 'Othmân, in the year 31 (652), had conquered these lands for Islam. It was a large place, Ibn Hawķal says, with many vineyards round it, and fine gardens, the soil and climate being alike excellent, and Muķaddas mentions its Friday Mosque situate in the market-place. At the present day the site of ķașr Ahnaf is marked by the village of Marûchak, or Marv-i-Kuchik (Little Mary) as the Persians call the place. In the middle-ages, four leagues above Marv-ar-Rûd, stood Dizah, a town occupying both banks of the Murghâb, the two parts being connected by a stone bridge. This place too had a fine Friday Mosque, and Yâķût adds that it had originally been called Sinvân. The hamlets of Panj-dîh (Five Villages) lie below Marûchak on the Murghâb, and the place was visited by Nâşir-i-Khusraw in 437 (1045) on his way to Mecca ; Yâķût too was there in 616 (1219) and alludes to it as a fine town. The place is also Ist. 269. I. H. 320. Muk. 314. Yak. iv. 506. Mst. 190. For the ruins at Bâlâ Murghâb, see C. E. Yate, Northern Afghanistan, p. 208. 1 Kud. 210. 406 [CHAP. XXVIII KHURASAN. mentioned in the time of Tîmûr at the close of the 8th (14th) century, when 'Alî of Yazd says it was known as Pandî (but the reading appears uncertain, and some manuscripts give Yandî). During the earlier middle-ages all the country from Little Marv to Great Marv, along the Murghâb, 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- Rûd; and half-way between şarînayn and the latter was Lawkar, or Lawkarâ, which Muķaddasî mentions as a populous place, as big as ķașr Ahnaf. Above Marv-ar-Rûd, and all up the Murghâb into the mountains of Gharjistân, there are many flourishing dis- tricts, as will be noticed in the next chapter, when speaking of Ghûr in the Herât quarter'. 1 Ykb. 291. Ist. 270. I. H. 321. Muk. 299, 314. N. K. 2. Yak. i. 743; iv. 108. A. Y. i. 353. For the ruins at Marûchak, see C. E. Yate, Afghanistan, pp. 110, 120, 194. XXIX] 409 KHURASÂN. The prosperity of Herât continued unabated till the inroad of the Mongols; and in 614 (1217) when Yâķût was here, some four years before that disastrous event, he considered Herât to be the richest and largest city that he had ever seen, standing in the midst of a most fertile country. His contemporary Ķazvînî, 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. Herât, however, must have recovered quickly from the effects of the Tartar inroad, and Mustawfî in the following century bears out the statement of Ibn Bațâțah that, after Nîshâpûr, it was the most populous city of all Khurâsân. Its walls were then 9000 paces in circuit, and 18 villages lay immediately round the town, watered principally by a canal (Nahrîchah) taken from the Harî Rûd. The grapes of the kind called Fakhrî, and the figs were both superlatively excellent. Already in the 8th (14th) century the people of Herât were Sunnî. It was in the 6th (12th) century, during the supremacy of the Ghûrid dynasty according to Mustawfi, that Herât had reached its greatest splendour. There were then 12,000 shops in its markets, 6ooo hot baths, and 659 colleges, the population being reckoned at 444,000. A strong fortress lay to the north of Herât, when Mustawfi wrote, called the castle of Shamîrân, this having been built on the site of the older fire-temple of Sirishk, mentioned by Ibn Hawķal, which was two leagues distant from the city on a hill-top. This fortress also went by the name of the Kalʻah Amkalchah. At the close of the 8th (14th) century, Tîmûr, after taking possession of Herât, 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 Jahân Numâ it is stated that at that period, in the year 1010 (1600), Herât had five gates; that called Darvazah-i-Mulk, 'the Government Gate,' to the north, the ‘Irâķ gate to the west, that of Fîrûzâbâd to the south, the Khush gate to the east, and the Kipchâķ gate to the north-east—this last being of late origin. The ten Bulûks, or districts, round Herât are also enumerated, but no statement as to the relative positions of these is afforded'. 1 Ist. 264–266. I. H. 316—318. Muk. 306, 307. Yak. iv. 958. Kaz. ii. 322. I. B. iii. 63. Mst. 187. J. N. 310–312. A. Y. i. 322, 323. The infor- 410 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. Two leagues, or half a day's journey, to the south of Herât, and presumably beyond the great bridge that spanned the Hari Rûd, to which bridge it gave its name, was the town of Mâlin, or Mâlan, with the district of the same name lying a day's journey in extent all round it. This Mâlan was called As-Safalķât, and Mâlan of Herât, to distinguish it from the place of the same name in the Bâkharz district of Kühistân (mentioned in Chapter XXV, p. 357). It was a small town, surrounded by most fruitful gardens, and the produce of its vineyards was celebrated. Yâķût who had been there, writes the name Mâlîn, but adds that the people in his day pronounced it Mâlân. Twenty-five villages belonged to its district, and of these he specially mentions four, Murghâb, Bashînân, Zandân, and 'Absaķân. One march to the north-east of Herât lies Karûkh, or Kârûkh, which Ibn Hawķal says was in the 4th (10th) century the largest town of the Herât 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 Sabîdân, and the houses were built of sun- dried bricks. Karukh 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 Harî Rûd, and appears to be that which Yâķût names the Nahr Karâgh. Eastward from Herât, and lying in the broad valley of the Harî Rûd, a succession of towns are mentioned by the geographers of the 4th (10th) century; namely, Bashân, one day's journey from Herât, then Khaysâr, Astarabyân, Marabadh, and Awfah, each situated a day's journey beyond the last, and to the east of it; V finally two days' journey beyond Awfah was Khasht, a place that was counted as in the Ghûr district. Of these towns, Awfah was almost as large as Karûkh, and only second to it in importance. mation given by Hâjjî Khalfah, in the Jahân Numå, is in part taken from the monograph on Herât written by Mu'în-ad-Dîn of Asfuzâr in 897 (1492). This monograph has been inserted by Mîrkhwând in the Epilogue (Khâtimah) of the Rawlat-as-Şafá, 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 Herât see C. E. Yate, Afghanistan, pp. 25—28. XXIX] 411 KHU RẤSÂN. The other four towns are described in similar terms as being well watered and populous; all were smaller in size than Mâlin, each had gardens and fertile fields, and while Astarabyân 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 Herât was the considerable city of Bashanj or Fushanj, which apparently occupied the site of the present Ghurian, lying a short distance from the left bank of the Harî Rûd, and to the south of it. Ibn Hawķal describes Bůshanj as about half the size of Herât in the 4th (10th) 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 Bâb ‘Alî towards Naysâbûr, the Herât gate to the east, and the ķûhistân gate to the south-west. Yâķût, who had seen the town in passing, lying hidden in its wooded valley, gives the name as Bûshanj or Fûshanj. He adds that the Persians pronounced it Bûshang. Mustawfî describes Fûshanj, in the 8th (14th) century, as famous for its water-melons and grapes, of which last there were 105 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) Fûshanj was stormed and sacked by Tîmûr, and this in spite of its high walls and deep water-ditch which are especially mentioned by ‘Alî of Yazd. For some unexplained reason the name of Fůshanj 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 Tîmûr 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 Ķûhistân province (see p. 358), are often given as belonging to Fushanj 1 Ist. 267, 285. I. H. 318, 334. Muk. 50, 298, 307, 349. Yak. i. 470; ii. 950; iii. 605; iv. 247, 397, 499. 2 Ist. 267, 268. I. H. 319. Muk. 298. Yak. i. 758; iii. 923. Mst. 187. 412 [CHAP. KHURASAN. The Asfuzâr district lies to the south of Herât, on the road towards Zaranj, and in the 4th (10th) century four towns of importance existed here, besides the capital Asfuzâr, namely Adraskar, Kuwârân, Kûshk, and Kuwashân. Asfuzâr, now the chief town, at the present day goes by the name of Sabzivâr (called Sabzivâr of Herât, to distinguish it from Sabzivâr to the west of Nîshậpur ; see p. 391). In early times, however, Kuwashân 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 Istakhrî there was here a famous valley, called Kâshkân, with many populous villages, and the river which has its head-waters near Asfuzâr (Sabzivâr) is that now known as the Hârûd of Sîstân, which flows into the head of the Zarah lake to the west of Juwayn. All these towns of Asfuzâr are de- scribed as surrounded by fertile lands and gardens. In the Itineraries Asfuzâr bears the second name of Khâstân (or Jâshân, for the reading is uncertain), and it seems not unlikely that Kuwashân is merely another form of this name, and therefore really identical with Asfuzâr (Sabzivâr). The town of Adraskar, or Ardsakar, as it is also spelt, still exists to the east of Asfuzâr, the name at the present day being written Adraskan. Yâķût records Asfuzâr as of Sijistân, and Mustawfî 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 Sunnîs of the Shâfi'ite school. The relative positions of the other towns of the district are, unfortunately, not given in the Itineraries! The high road from Herât northward to Marv-ar-Rûd crosses the great district of Bâdghîs (Bâdhghîs), which occupied the whole stretch of country lying between the Herât river on the west (to the north of Fushanj) and the upper waters of the Murghâb on the east, where these issue from the mountains of Gharjistân; and Badghis was itself watered by many of the left- A. Y. i. 312. The Șanî'-ad-Dawlah states (Mirât-al-Buldân, i. 298) that he passed near and saw the ruins of Bûshanj when travelling down from Nîshậpûr to Herât, near but not at Ghurian. 1 Ist. 249, 264, 267. I. H. 305, 318, 319. Muk. 298, 308, 350. Yak. i. 248. Mst. 187. XXIX] 413 KHURASÂN. bank affluents of the Murghâb. The eastern part of Badghis, beginning some 13 leagues to the north of Herât, was known as the Kanj Rustâķ district, and had three chief cities, Baban, Kayf, and Baghshûr, the positions of which can approximately be fixed by the Itineraries. In the remainder of Badghis a list of nine large towns is given by Muķaddasî, 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 Baghshûr, one of the chief towns of Kanj Rustâķ, appear to be those now known as Kalʻah Mawr. In the 4th (10th) century Ibn Hawķal describes Baghshûr as one of the finest and richest cities of Khurâsân, being of the size of Bûshanj. The governor of the district generally lived at Babnah or Baban, a larger town even than Bûshanj, while Kayf is described as half the size of Baghshûr. 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. Yâķût, who visited these countries in 616 (1219), confirms the above account of the former riches of Baghshûr 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 Bâmiyîn, or Bâmanj, 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 Bâdghîs district the 1 1. R. 173. Ist. 269. 1. H. 320. Muk. 298, 308. Yak. i. 461, 481, 487, 694 ; ii. 764; iv. 333. For the present condition of the Bâdghîs country and its ruins, see C. E. Yate, Afghanistan, pp. 67, 68. There are ruined forts and remains at Gulrân, and Sagardân, and Ķârâ Bâgh (p. 101), also at ķal'ah Mawr (pp. 96, 103), and at Ķârâ Tappah, some of which must be those of the towns named by the Arab geographers. XXIX] 415 KHURASÂN. the 2nd (8th) century gave the Caliph Mahdî 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 Mustawfî, Badghis 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 Bâdghîs appears to have been finally brought about by the passage of the armies of Tîmûr on their devastating march from Herât to Marv-ar-Rûd?. To the east of Badghis, at the head-waters of the Murghâb river, is the mountainous region known to the earlier Arab geo- graphers as Gharj-ash-Shâr. The prince of these mountains had the title of the Shâr, and Gharj, according to Muķaddasî, meant mountain' in the local dialect, so that Gharj-ash-Shâr was equi- valent to the ‘Mountains of the Shâr. In the later middle-ages this region came to be more generally known as Gharjistân, and as such figures largely in the account of the Mongol invasion. Further, as Yâķût remarks, Gharjistân, often spelt Gharshistân or Gharistân, was often confounded with Ghûristân, or the Ghûr country, lying to the east of it, which will be more particularly 1 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, Afghanistan, p. 6. The route from Herât to Marv-ar-Rûd, given in the Itineraries of the earlier Arab geographers, goes from city to city through Kanj Rustâķ, and the southernmost stage (Babnah) is two days’ march from Herât. Mustawfî (p. 198) gives a rather different road in seven stages, namely, from Herât in 5 leagues to Hangâmâbâd, thence 5 to Badghîs (to be understood doubtless as Dihistân the capital), thence 5 to Bawan (or Babnah), thence 5 to Marghzâr Darrah, “the Valley of the Meadow-lands,'thence 8 to Baghchî Shûr (Baghshûr), thence 5 to Usrûd, or Lûsrûd, and finally, 4 leagues into Marv-ar-Rûd. For the ruined caravanserais which still apparently mark this route see C. E. Yate, Afghanistan, pp. 194, 195, 222. 416 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. discussed presently. The Shâr, or prince of Gharjistân, had of old been known to the Arabs as Malik-al-Gharjah (the king of the Gharj people), and in the 4th (10th) century this was a rich district, counting ten Friday Mosques as standing in its various towns. The two chief cities of Gharjistân were called Abshîn and Shurmîn, the exact sites of which are unknown. Abshîn (Afshîn, or Bashîn) lay a bow-shot distant from the eastern bank of the upper Murghâb, and four marches above Marv-ar-Rûd. Round it were fine gardens, and much rice was sent from thence to Balkh. It had a strong castle, and a Friday Mosque. Shurmîn (or Surmîn) lay in the mountains four marches southward of Abshîn, and likewise four marches from Karûkh to the north-east of Herât. From it they exported currants to all the neigh- bouring places. The prince of the country, the Shâr aforesaid, resided at neither of these places, but at a great village in the mountains called Balîkân (or Balkiyân). Yâķût gives the names of two other cities of Gharjistân, namely Sinjah and Baywâr, 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 Gharjistân was known as Ghûr, or Ghûristân, and it stretched from Herât to Bâmiyân and the borders of Kâbul and Ghaznah, also south- ward of the Herât river. The medieval geographers refer to it as the country of the head-waters of many great rivers, namely of the Hari Rûd, also of the Helmund, the Khwash, and the Farah rivers (which drained to the Zarah lake), while on its Gharjistân frontier rose the Murghâb. 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 Hawķal, Ghûr was infidel land, though many Moslems lived there. Its 1 Ist. 271, 272. I. H. 323. Muk. 309, 348. Yak. i. 803; iii. 72, 163, 186, 785, 786, 823. Gharjistân of Khurâsân has nothing to do with Gurjistân 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 Gharjistân, as has been done by some writers when describing the Mongol invasion of this. region of the upper Murghâb, for there is no Georgia of Afghânistân. XXIX] 417 KHURẤSÂN. valleys were populous and extremely fertile ; it being famous for mines, both of silver and gold, which existed in the mountains towards Bâmiyân and Panj-hîr (see above, p. 350). The richest of these mines was called Kharkhîz. After the fall of the dynasty of Mahmûd of Ghaznah, the Ghûrid chiefs, at first his lieutenants, became independent, and eventually founded their capital at Fîrûzkůh, an immense fortress in the mountains, the position of which is not known. The Ghûrid princes ruled independently from the middle of the 6th (12th) century to 612 (1215), when they were defeated by the Khwârizm Shâh, and a few years later the dynasty dis- appeared at the time of the Mongol invasion. Before this, however, in 588 (1192), the Ghůrids had conquered much of northern India, holding all the country from Dehli to Herât, and after the dynasty had been annihilated by the Mongols the Slave Kings (their Mamlûk generals) continued to rule Dehli in a long line of Sultans, down to 962 (1554). Ghûr, or Ghûristân, attained its highest point of splendour and riches between 543 and 612 (1148 and 1215) under the Ghûrid princes of the Sâm dynasty. Yâķût speaks of their great capital at Fîrůzkuh, or Bîrûzkůh (Turquoise Mountain), but gives no details; Mustawfî also briefly refers to this fortress, and says that another of its chief towns was Rûd Hangarân, but the reading is very uncertain. In 619 (1222) the whole country was overrun by Changîz Khân, Fîrûzkûh being stormed and left in ruins. Two other great fortresses are named as having given much trouble to the Mongol troops, namely Kalyûn and Fîvâr, 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 Khân. Ķazvînî in the 7th (13th) century also names Khûst as one of the great cities of Ghûr, and possibly this is identical with Khasht, the place previously mentioned (p. 410) as near the head- waters of the Harî Rûd. In the time of Tîmûr the only place referred to in Ghûr appears to be the castle called ķal'ah Khastâr, but, again, nothing is known of its position'. i Ist. 272. I. H. 304, 323. Yak. iii. 823; iv. 930. Kaz. ii. 244. Mst. 184, 188. A. Y. i. 150. On Ghûr see the article by Sir H. Yule in the Encyclopædia Britannica (9th edition), x. 569. LE S. 27 418 [CHAP. KHURASAN. The city of Bâmiyân was the capital of a great district of the same name which formed the eastern part of Ghûr, and as its very ancient remains show, was a great Buddhist centre long before the days of Islam. Istakhrî describes Bâmiyân as half the size of Balkh in the 4th (10th) century, and though the town, which stood on a hill, was unfortified, its district was most fertile, being watered by a considerable river. Mukaddasî names the city Al-Lahům, but the reading is uncertain, and he praises it as 'the trade-port of Khurâsân 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 (10th) century the Bâmiyân territory included many large cities, the sites of which are now completely lost. The three chief towns are said to have been called Basghûrfand, Sakîwand, and Lakhrâb. Yâķût in the beginning of the 7th (13th) century describes in some detail the great sculptured statues of Buddha still to be seen at Bâmiyân. 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.' Kazvînî speaks of a 'Golden House' at Bâmiyân, 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 Bâmiyân and all its province, even as far east as the Panj-hîr mines, as already mentioned, was due to the wrath of Changîz Khân, whose favourite grandson Mûtûkin, son of Jaghatay, was killed at the siege of Bâmiyân. The Mongol troops were ordered to level with the ground the town walls and all the houses, and Changîz forbade any to build or live here ever again, the name of Bâmiyân being changed to Mav Balik, which in the XXIX] 419 KHURASÂN. Turki dialect means “the accursed city.' Since that time Bâmiyân has been an uninhabited waste'. 1 Ist. 277, 280. I. H. 327, 328. Muk. 296, 303, 304. Yak. i. 481. Kaz. ii. 103 Mst. 188. A. G. 114, 149. For illustrations of the great Buddhist sculptures at Bâmiyân see Talbot and Maitland, in J. R. A. S. 1886, p. 323. 27-2 CHAPTER XXX. KHURÂSÂN (continued). The Balkh quarter of Khurâsân. Balkh city and Naw Bahâr. The district of Jûzjân. Țaliķân and Jurzuwân. Maymanah or Yahûdîyah. Fâryâb, Shaburķân, Anbâr, and Andakhûd. The Tukhâristân district. Khulm, Siminjân, and Andarâbah. Warwâlîz and Ţâyikân. The products of Khurâsân. The high roads through Khurâsân and ķûhistân. Balkh-Mother of Cities :--gave its name to the fourth Quarter of Khurâsân, which, outside the district of the capital, was divided, west and east, between the two great districts of Jûzjân and Ţukhâristân. In the 3rd (9th) century Yaʻķûbî speaks of Balkh as the greatest city of all Khurâsân. It had had of old three concen- tric walls, and thirteen gates, and Muķaddasî adds that it had been called in early days the equivalent, in Persian, of Balkh-al- Bahiyyah, Beautiful Balkh.' • Beautiful Balkh. Outside the town lay the famous suburb of Naw Bahâr, and the houses extended over an area measuring three miles square. There were, says Ya‘ķûbî, two score Friday Mosques in the city. Istakhrî remarks that Balkh stood in a plain, being four leagues from the nearest mountains, called Jabal Kû. 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 Dahâs, which, says Ibn Hawķal, signifies 'ten mills (in Persian); the river turns these as it runs past the Naw Bahâr gate, flowing on thence to irrigate the lands and farms of Siyâhjird on the Tirmid road. All round Balkh lay gardens producing oranges, the Nilûfar lily, and the sugar-cane, which, with the produce of its CHAP. XXX] 421 KHURASÂN. vineyards, were all exported in quantity. Further, its markets were much frequented by merchants. The city possessed seven gates, namely Bâb Naw Bahâr, Bâb Rahbah (the Gate of the Square), Bâb-al-Hadid (the Iron Gate) Bâb Hinduwân (the Gate of the Hindus), Bâb-al-Yahûd (the Jews' Gate), Bâb Shast-band (the Gate of the Sixty Dykes), and Bab Yahyâ. Mukaddasî 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 (1155). After their departure the population carne 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 Yâķût 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 Bahâr, where accord- ing to Mas'ûdî had stood, in Sassanian days, one of the chief fire-temples of the Guebres, Yâķût has a long account, which he quotes from the work of 'Omar-ibn-al-Azraķ of Kirmân, and a similar description is found in Ķazvînî. 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 Bahâr, 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 Bahâr 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-Ustûn, 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 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. The great times to a fabulous distance. This principal building was full of figures or idols, one of which in chief the pilgrims from Kâbul, India, and China prostrated themselves before, afterwards kissing the hand of Barmak, the chief priest. All the lands round Naw Bahâr for seven leagues square were the property of the sanctuary, and these brought in a great revenue. Naw Bahar shrine was destroyed by Ahnaf ibn ķays, when he conquered Khurâsân in the days of the Caliph 'Othmân, and converted the people to Islam'. The Mongols in 617 (1220) devastated Balkh, and according to Ibn Bațâțah, Changiz Khân ruined the third part of its Great Mosque in his fruitless search for hidden treasure. When Ibn Batůțah 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 Tîmûr, at the close of the 8th (14th) century, Balkh is often mentioned, and by this date must have recovered part of its former glory. Tîmûr restored the fortress outside the walls called ķalah Hinduwân, 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 Afghanistân, and is celebrated for its great shrine, called Mazâr- i-Sharif (the Noble Tomb), where the Caliph ‘Ali—known as Shâh-i-Mardân, ‘King of Men'—is popularly supposed to have been buried. According to Khwândamîr this, supposititious, grave of the martyred 'Alî was discovered in the year 885 (1480), when Mîrzâ Bayķarâ, a descendant of Tîmûr, was governor of Balkh. For in that aforesaid year a book of history, written in the time of 1 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. 221. The curious passage about Naw Bahâr will be found translated, in full, by M. Barbier de Meynard in his Dictionnaire Géographique 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 Bahâr had been originally a Buddhist shrine, and the name he explained as Naw Vihârah, 'the New Vihârah,' or Buddhist Monastery. See J. R. G. S. 1872, p. 510. XXX] 423 KHURẤSÂN. Sultan Sanjar the Saljük, was shown to Mîrzâ Bayķarâ, in which it was stated that “Alî lay buried at the village of Khwâjah Khayrân, 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, ‘Alî, 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'. Jûzjân (Al-Jazajân or Juzjânân) was the western district of the Balkh quarter, through which the road passed from Marv-ar-Rûd 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 Khurâsân”. Three marches distant from Marv-ar-Rûd, towards Balkh, was the city of Țâliķân, the name of which is no longer found on the map, but the ruins and mounds of brick near Châchaktů probably mark its site. Already in the 3rd (9th) century Țâliķân was a town of much importance, and Yafķûbî says that the Țâliķân felts made here were celebrated. The town lay among the mountains, and there was a magnificent Friday Mosque here. Ișțakhrî in the following century stated that Țâliķân was as large as Marv-ar-Rûd, and its climate was more healthy. Its houses were built of sun-dried bricks. Near by was the village of Junduwayh, where, according to Yâķût, 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 Yâķût wrote, in 617 (1220), Ţâliķân was stormed after a siege of seven months by Changîz Khân, and 1 I. B. iii. 58, 59. A. Y. i. 176. Khwândamîr, iii. pt 3, p. 238. C. E. Yate, Afghanistan, 256, 280. 2 Ist. 271. I. H. 322. Muk. 298. Yak. ii. 149. 424 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. 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 Jurzuwân, where the governor of the Jûzján district passed the summer heats. The name of Al-Jurzuwân, as the Arabs called it, the Persians pronounced Kurzuwân or Gurzuvân, and it was also written Jurzubân or Gurzubân. It lay between Ţâliķân and Marv-ar-Rûd, in the district towards the Ghûr frontier, and, Yâķût says, was very populous and full of rich folk. No place of this name now exists on the map, but the ruins at Kalóah Wali most probably mark its site'. The city of Maymanah, which lay two marches beyond Ţâliķân on the Balkh road, still exists as a flourishing town. In the earlier middle-ages it was called Al-Yahûdân, or Al-Yahûdîyah, 'the Jews' Town,' and was often counted as the capital of Jûzjân. Its Friday Mosque, Ibn Hawķal says, had two minarets. Yâķût, who gives the name also under the form Jahûdân-al-Kubrâ, the Great Jewry,' says that it was first settled by the Israelites whom Nebuchadnezzar sent hither from Jerusalem. The name 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 Mustawfî, 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 Jûzjân, and Maymand for was 1 Ykb. 287. Ist. 270. I. H. 321, 322. Yak. ii. 59, 129; iii. 491; iv. 238. A. G. 114. C. E. Yate, Afghanistan, 157, 194, 195, 196, 211. The ruins at Châchaktû (Tâliķân) are 45 miles as the crow flies from Bâlâ Murghâb (Marv- ar-Rûd), which would be an equivalent of the three days' march, in a moun- tainous country, from this last place to Țâliķân. The name of Châchaktû (written Jîjaktû) is mentioned by ‘Alî of Yazd (i. 806; ii. 593) in his accounts of the campaigns of Tîmûr, but Țâliķân is not mentioned by him. The ruins at ķalóah Wâlî (probably Jurzuwân) lie 27 miles from Bâlâ Murghâb. An alternative site might be found at the considerable remains existing near Takht- i-Khâtûn. Either of these places may be Gurzuwân, which it is to be noted was a mint city under the Khwârizm Shâhs. XXX] 425 KHURASÂN. Maywand in Zâbulistân, half-way between Girishk and ķandahâr; and this confusion reappears in the pages of Yâķût, who writes of Maymand (or Mîmand) of Ghaznah, and says it lay between Bâmiyân and Ghûr,' evidently meaning Maymanah or Yahûdîyah. One march from Yahûdîyah or Maymanah was the town of Kandaram, also written Kandadram, the residence, according to Ya‘ķûbî, of the governor of Jûzjân. It was a city of the mountains, Istakhrî writes, rich in vineyards and nut-trees, and abundantly irrigated by running streams'. One of the most important towns of Jûzjân during the middle ages was Al-Fâryâb, the name of which has completely disappeared from the map, but from the position given by the Itineraries the ruins of Fâryâb may be identified as those now known as Khay- râbâd, where there is an ancient fort surrounded by mounds of brick. Al-Fâriyâb, as Ibn Hawķal spells the name, was in the 4th (10th) century a smaller town than Țâliķân, 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. Yâķût, who also spells the name Fîryâb, gives its position in regard to Țâliķân and Shaburķân, but adds no details. In 617 (1220), shortly after his time, Fâryâb was completely ruined by the Mongols, and it is only incidentally mentioned by Mustawfî. Between Al-Yahûdiyah and Al-Fâryâb, according to Ibn Hawkal, there stood the city of Marsân, nearly of the size of Al-Yahûdiyah in the 4th (10th) century; and possibly this is identical with the village of Nariyân which Yâķût mentions as in a like position. Of this mountain region also was the small city of Sân which Ibn Hawķal describes as having many fruitful gardens growing grapes and nuts, for its streams brought water without stint. 1 Ykb. 287. Ist. 270, 271. I. H. 321, 322. Yak. ii. 163; iv. 719, 1045. Mst. 183. C. E. Yate, Afghanistan, 339. ? Ist. 270. I. H. 321, 322. N. K. 3. Yak. iii. 840, 888; iv. 775. Mst. 188. C. E. Yate, Afghanistan, 233. Fâryâb of Jûzjân is called Dih Bâryâb by Nâșir-i-Khusraw, who passed through it going from Shaburķân to Țâlikân. It is also given as Bârâb in the Jahận Numâ (p. 324), and it is not to be confused with Fârâb, also called Bârâb, which is Otrâr on the Jaxartes, as will be mentioned in Chapter XXXIV. 426 [CHAP. KHURẤSÂN. Shaburķân, spelt variously Ashbûrķân or Ushburķân, also Shubûrķân or Sabûrghân, which still exists, had in the 3rd (9th) century been once the seat of government of the Jûzjân district, which afterwards was removed to Yahûdîyah (Maymanah), at that time its equal in size. Its gardens and fields were wonderfully fertile, and large quantities of fruits were exported. Yâķût, who spells the name Shubruķân or Shufruķân and Shabûr- ķân, 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 Mustawfî speaks of it in similar terms, coupling Shubûrķân and Fâryâb together, also adding that corn was abundant and cheap here. One day to the south of Shubûrķân, and the same distance eastward of Yahûdîyah, was Anbâr, otherwise written Anbîr, which Ibn Hawķal 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 Anbâr is probably identical in site with Sar-i-půl, on the upper part of the Shubûrķân 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 Jůzjân, and is probably the town which Nâşir-i-Khusraw visited on his road to Shuburghân, and which he calls the city (or capital) of Jûzjânân. 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 Shubûrķân, lies the town of Andkhuy, the name of which in the earlier geographers is spelt variously Andakhud, Addakhûd, and An- Nakhud. Ibn Hawķal speaks of it as a small town out in the desert, with seven villages lying round it, and, in the 4th (10th) century, for the most part inhabited by Kurds, who possessed many sheep and camels. Yâķût mentions it, but adds no details ; the name also frequently occurs in the accounts of Tîmûr's campaigns The great district of Tukhâristân 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, Afghanistan, 346. XXX] 427 KHURASÂN. of Badakhshân, and bounded on the south by the mountain ranges north of Bâmiyân and Panj-hîr. It was divided into Upper Țukhâristân, east of Balkh and along the Oxus, and Lower ſukhâristân which lay further to the south-east, on the frontiers of Badakhshân. Many towns are mentioned as of Țukhâristân 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 Muķaddasî as a small city surrounded by many large villages and districts, with a good climate. Two days' march again from Khulm lay Siminjân and Rûb, 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. Mukaddasî speaks of Siminjân as a larger town than Khulm ; it had a Friday Mosque, and excellent fruit was grown, and Yâķût describes it as lying in a maze of valleys, which were, or had been, peopled by Arabs of the Tamîm tribe. Mustawfî mentions Siminjân as a large town, already ruined in the 8th (14th) century, but where corn, cotton, and grapes were much cultivated; and under the spelling Saminkân it is mentioned by 'Alî of Yazd in describing the march of Tîmûr from Khulm to the Indian frontier. Beyond, south-east of Siminjân, was Baghlân, Upper and Lower, and in the latter district, according to Muķaddasî, was the capital with a Friday Mosque in the 4th (10th) century. Baghlân, or Başlân, as the name of the district is spelt by 'Alî of Yazd, apparently lay along the road to Andarâbah, otherwise Andarab, which is described by Mukaddasî as having fine markets, being situated among valleys clothed by verdant forests. These valleys, which were on the northern slopes of the Panj-hîr range, had many silver mines in their recesses, according to Ibn Hawķal, who speaks of two rivers, the Nahr Andarâb, and the Nahr Kâsân, as flowing down through this district. Yâķût, who gives no additional details, spells the name Andarâb or Andarâbah?. 1 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, Afghanistan, 317. For the relative positions of these places see Map 1, p. 1. 428 [CHAP. KHURASÂN. 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 (10th) century a strongly fortified guard-house, called Rubâț Mîlah, 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 Warwâlîz, or Warwâlîj, which Ibn Hawķal and others describe as a large city in the 4th (10th) century. No town of this name now exists, but by its position in the Itineraries it must have stood very near the site of ķunduz. Yâķût, who apparently by a clerical error gives the name as Wazwâlîn, adds no details, and neither he nor any of the earlier geographers mention ķunduz, which is doubtless an abbreviation for ķuhandiz, the common name for ‘fortress' in Persian, and as such possibly applied to the old castle of Warwâlîz'. Two days' march to the east of Warwâlîz lay Țâyiķân, or Taliķân of Țukharistân, which still exists (not to be confounded with Țâliķân of Jûzjân, described above, p. 423), and which in the 4th (10th) century was one of the most populous towns of the district. At-Tâliķân, as Muķaddasî spells the name, though At-Tâyiķân is the better form, had a large market; it stood in the plain a bow-shot from the hills, and was in the 4th (10th) century about a third the size of Balkh. Its lands were watered by an affluent of the Oxus, called Khuttalâb (sometimes written Khaylâb); and the Watrâb river (or Tarab, for the readings of these two names are doubtful) appears to have been one of its branch streams, which joined the Khuttalâb above ķunduz. The neighbourhood was extremely fertile, and it was a pleasant country; corn and much fruit, according to Mustawfî, were grown, and in the 8th (14th) century, most of the population It then possessed a strong fortress, and was surrounded by well-cultivated districts, where grapes, figs, peaches, and pistachios grew abundantly. ‘Alî of Yazd frequently mentions Tâyiķân when relating the campaigns of Tîmûr, and according to the older geographers seven days' march east of this was Badakh- shân, which will be noticed in the following chapter”. 1 Ist. 279. I. H. 326, 332. Muk. 296. Yak. iii. 318; iv. 926. Ist. 275, 276, 278, 279. I. H. 326. Muk. 296, 303. A. F. were weavers. 2 I. R. 93. XXX] 429 KHURASÂN. The most famous exports of Khurâsân, according to Ibn Hawķal, were the silk and cotton stuffs of Naysâbûr 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 5000 dînârs (about £2500)—and all food-stuffs were plentiful. Muķaddasî enters into further details. Naysâbûr 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 Naysâbûr. 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 Naysâbûr were renowned for their figs, truffles, and rhubarb, and from the mine in the hills of the Rîvand district came the famous turquoises (firûsâj) of Nîshậpûr. The towns of Nisâ and Abîvard 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. Nisâ in particular had a special breed of falcons, and produced much sesame seed. From Țus 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. Herât produced brocade stuffs of all kinds, preserves made of raisins and pistachios, and divers syrups. Steel, too, was admirably forged in Herât. From the mountainous country of Gharj-ash-Shâr came felts and carpets, saddle cloths and cushions. Gold was found here, and horses and mules were exported largely. Marv was a great place for all loom work in silk, mixed cotton and silk, and pure cotton, of which veils and all sorts of cloth 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 were woven. 472. Yak. iii. 501; v. 24. Mst. 188, 189. A. Y. i. 82, 179. The name is spelt (with or without the article) Tâyiķân, or Țâyikân, and, finally, Țâliķân, like the town in Jûzjân. 430 [CHAP. KHURASAN. 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 Warwâlîj towards Badakhshân, Muķaddasî 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 Khurâsân and Ķûhistân were as follows. The great Khurâsân road entered Khurâsân beyond Bistâm (in şûmis, see p. 365), and from this place to Naysâbûr there were two routes. The northern, or caravan road went from Bistâm to Jâjarm, and thence by Âzâdvâr through the plain of Juvayn down to Naysâbûr. This is the road especially given by Mustawfî, and only in sections by Ișțakhrî and Ibn Hawķal. The southern, shorter route is the post-road to Naysâbûr, which started from Badhash, already mentioned (p. 368) as two leagues from Bistâm. This road keeps along the skirts of the hills with the desert on the right hand, and coming to Asadâbâd, next passes through Bahmanâbâd or Mazînân, where a branch went north to Âzâdvâr. Continuing eastward through Sabzivâr, the post-road finally reaches Naysâbûr, and this is the route described by Ibn Khurdâdbih and in all the earlier Itineraries. From Asadâbâd going south-east, Muķaddasî says there was a track across this corner of the Great Desert, in 30 leagues, to Turshîz in Ķühistân, while from Naysâbûr to Țurshîz, the route is given by both Ibn Khurdâdbih and Muķaddasî. From Naysâbûr north to Nisâ the stages are also given by Muķaddasî?. One stage beyond Naysâbûr at ķaşr-ar-Riħ or Dizbâd (Castle of the Wind) the Khurâsân road bifurcated. To the right, south- east, the way went down to Herât, and this will be noticed in the succeeding paragraph. From the Castle of the Wind, turning left . H. 330. 1 Ist. 281. Muk. 323-326. 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. 432 [CHAP. XXX KHURASÂN. across Badghîs (going by Baghshûr, the capital) in Istakhrî, Ibn Hawķal and Mukaddasî, as also by Mustawfî in the 8th (14th) century! From Sarakhs, and from Great Marv, respectively, two roads converged on Marv-ar-Rûd, the first crossing the desert between the two great rivers, the last coming up the Murghâb through the fertile lands and towns on its bank. The desert route, passing by a number of successive Rubâțs, or guard-houses, is only given by Mukaddasî, being merely copied by Mustawff, and in the Turkish Jahân Numâ. The road from Great Marv up the Murghâb is given by Ibn Khurdâdbih and Ķudâmah, also by Mukaddasî, but by a different route”. From Marv-ar-Rûd to Balkh, through the Jûzjân district, Ibn Khurdâdbih and the earlier Itineraries give the road by Țâliķân and thence on, either by Fâryâb and Shaburķân, or by Yahûdîyah (Maymanah), and Anbâr, to Balkh. Istakhri and Muķaddasî give the distances by the number of marches. Mustawfî has a some- what different route from Marv-ar-Rûd to Balkh, which passed to the westward of both Țâliķân, which lay six leagues off the road to the right, and Fâryâb, which lay two leagues away likewise on the right hand, reaching Shaburķân, and eventually, by the Jamûkhiyân bridge Balkh. This route is copied in the Jahân Numâ. From Balkh the Oxus was reached opposite Tirmidh in two stages, passing through Siyâhjird”. East from Balkh the road went by Khulm and Ţâyiķân to the frontiers of Badakhshân, a branch road going south-east from Khulm to Andarâbah and the Panj-hîr mines north of Kâbul. Istakhrî and Muķaddasî also give skeleton routes from Balkh across the mountains to Bâmiyân, and thence south by Ghaznah to ķuşdâr, 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*. Muk. 348, 1 I. R. 173, 174. Ist. 248, 249, 285. I. H. 304, 305, 334. 349, 350. Mst. 198. 2 I. K. 32. Kud. 209. Muk. 347, 349. Mst. 196. J. N. 329. 3 I. K. 32. Kud. 210. Ist. 286. I. H. 322. Muk. 346, 347. Mst. 197. J. N. 329. 4 Ist. 286. 1. H. 334, 335. Muk. 346, 349, 486. μο 74 73 1η Π. coa Barakat A oi-sart the Wakhsh ΑΚΗ ΚΗ, 7: 434 [CHAP. THE OXUS. 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 Jayhûn and Sayhûn, 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, Jayḥûn and Sayḥûn being cor- rupted forms of two of the rivers mentioned in Genesis ii. 11, 13, to wit the Gihon and the Pison'. In the later middle-ages, about the time of the Mongol irrup- tion, the names Jayhûn and Sayḥûn to a great extent went out of use; the Oxus was then more generally called the Amûyah, or Amû Daryâ, while the Jaxartes, as will be seen in a later chapter, came to be known as the Sîr Daryâ. The origin of the term Amûyah, or Amû, is also not quite clear. According to Hafiz Abrû this is explained to be merely the name of the town and district on the Khurâsân bank of the Oxus originally written Âmul (at Chahâr Jûy, see above, p. 403). Possibly, however, the case is inverted, and the true explanation may be that Âmul city came to be called Amûyah or Amû from a local (Persian) name of the great river, which, coming into common use, supplanted the more classical (Arabic) name Jayḥûn. 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 Amû Daryâ, the River of Amû, 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-âb, the Wakhsh river, which is one of its upper affluents, 1 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 Jayḥân and Sayḥân, 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 Sayḥûn was brought into a jingling rhyme with Jayḥûn; and this is the case with many other borrowed names, e.g. in the Ķurân and Tradition, Ķâbîl, Habil, for Cain and Abel; ſalat, Jalât, for Saul and Goliath; Yájúj, Mâjúj, for Gog and Magog. See Sir H. Yule, in Capt. J. Wood, The Oxus (1872), p. xxii. XXXI] 435 THE OXUS. 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 (Fâmir). Ișțakhrî, 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 Jaryâb, at the present day known as the Panj river, which reached Badakhshân from the east, coming through the country known as Wakhkhân, and the Jaryâb was also known as the Wakhkhâb river. This main stream of the Oxus, coming down from the eastern highlands, makes an immense sweep round Badakhshân, 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 Andîjârâgh, 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 Fârghar (also written Farghâr, Farghân, or Farghî) flowing down from the Khuttal country, which must be identical with the Wanj river of to-day. Below came in the Nahr Akhshawâ (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 Balbân, or Barbân, and these united rivers at the present day are known under the Turkish name of Aķ-Șll or White River. These, therefore, are the four upper affluents of the Oxus as named by Ișțakhrî, and he states that their various places of junction were all above the ford, or passage of the main stream at Ârhan. Also above this ford, but on the left bank, the Badakhshân river, now called the Gukchah, flowed into the Oxus, being known as the Nahr Dirghâm. Below the Ârhan ford the Oxus received its great right-bank affluent, namely the Wakhshâb 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 ķubâdhiyân and Şaghâniyân on the west. The Wakhshâb is the river now known 28-2 436 [CHAP THE OXUS. as the Surkhâb, or Red River. Where the Oxus, after curving round three sides of Badakhshân, finally takes its course westward, it receives on its left, or southern bank the rivers of Țâyiķân and Kunduz from Tukhâristân. These Ibn Rustah calls the Nahr Khuttalâb, and the Nahr Watrâb, respectively, as has been noticed in the previous chapter (p. 428). The two rivers of ķubâdhiyân and Saghâniyân-the latter, which flows past Tirmidh, named the Nahr Zâmil 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 Zarafshân 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 Badakhshân lay to the eastward of Tukhâristân, surrounded on three sides, as we have seen, by the great bend of the upper Oxus. Istakhrî describes this province as very populous and fertile, with refreshing streams and numberless vineyards. The capital was of the same name, but the Badakhshân (or Gukchah) river was, as already said, known as the Dirghâm by the Arabs. For the position of Badakhshân 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, Fayzâbád, now stands. Badakhshân was from the earliest times famed for its precious stones, especially for the balas rubies and for the lapis-lazuli found at the Lâzward mines? Muķaddasî in the 4th (ioth) century states that at the jewel mines was a fort, built by Zubaydah, the wife of Hârûn-ar-Rashîd, and called after her. Besides the ruby, the balas, and lapis-lazuli, the pure rock crystal of Badakhshân was famous, also the bezoar stone. Asbestos was also found here, called by the Arabs Hajar-al-Fatilah, "wick-stone,' for, 1 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 ķazvînî (i. 177) Jarbáb is for Jaryâb and (ii. 353) Jaryân ; both clerical errors. 2 Lâzwârd, or Lâzûrd, the name of the mine and mineral, is the origin of the word 'azure.' 438 [CHAP. THE OXUS. great mountainous tract-lying in the angle between the Wakhshâb and the Oxus was known as Khuttal, a name that was also vaguely applied to all the infidel lands east and north of Khurâsân?. Khuttal included the country called Wakhsh, lying in its northern parts, where the Wakhshâb took its rise. It was, Istakhrî 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 (10th century the capital of Khuttal was Hulbuk, where the Sultan lived (probably near the site of modern Khulâb); but the two cities called Munk and Halâward were larger than Hulbuk. Other considerable towns were Andîjârâgh (or Andâ- jârâgh) and Farghân (or Fârghar), lying respectively on the rivers of these names; also Tamliyât and Lâwakand, which last was on the Wakhshâb below the Stone Bridge (near modern Kurgân Tappah). Muķaddasî describes Hulbuk, the capital, as having a Friday Mosque in its midst, and standing on the Akhshawâ river, from which it took its water. The town of Andijârâgh lay near the Oxus bank, where the affluent of the same name came in, and it probably occupied the site of the present ķalʻah Wamar. Munk, the largest city of the province, lay to the north of Hulbuk, and east of Tamliyât; while Halâward, on the Wakhshâb, was, according to Muķaddasî, a finer town than Hulbuk the capital. Tamliyât lay between Munk and the Stone Bridge of the Wakhshâb, and is probably identical with the present Baljuwân ; Baljuwân being already mentioned by Ali of Yazd when describing the campaigns of Tîmûr”. The celebrated Stone Bridge (Kanțarah-al-Hijárah) over the Wakhshâb still exists. It is described by Ibn Rustah, Istakhrî, 1 There is much confusion in the naming of this country; we have indiffer- ently Khuttal and Khutlân or Khuttalân. According, however, to ķazvînî (ii. 352) Khuttalân was the name of a town of the Turks, lying in a gorge between the mountains, the position of which he does not indicate. 'Alî of Yazd (i. 464, and elsewhere), in describing the campaigns of Tîmûr, generally writes Khutlân. 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. 2 Ist. 276, 277, 279, 296, 297. I. H. 326, 327, 348, 349. Muk. 290, 291. Yak. ii. 402. A. Y. i. 83. 440 [CHAP. THE OXUS. the south of it was the great fortress of Shûmân, or Ash-Shùmân. In all this district round Shùmân much saffron was grown for export. Shůmân is referred to by Muķaddas as extremely populous, and the town was well built; Yâķût adding that its population was ever in revolt against their Sultan, and that in his day it was a frontier fortress against the Turks. Alî of Yazd, describing the conquests of Tîmûr, frequently mentions it as Hişâr Shâdmân, and more shortly as Hişâr, or Hişârak, and at the present day it is also known as Hişâr'. Şaghâniyân city is probably identical with the modern town of Sar-i-Asyâ, on the upper part of the Saghâniyân river, which was also called the Nahr Zâmil. It was, Ištakhrî writes, a larger city than Tirmidh, in the 4th (10th) century, though the latter was more wealthy and populous. Şaghâniyân city was defended by a great ķuhandiz, or fort, and it stood on both banks of the river. Muķaddasî likens it to Ramlah in Palestine, and there was a great Friday Mosque in its market-place. Wild-fowl abounded in its neighbourhood, and 6000 villages were counted in its districts, excellent bread being cheap throughout the neighbourhood. The small town of Bâsand, with a great public square and many gardens, lay two marches from Saghâniyân city, among the mountains higher up the river. Lower down the Zâmil, about half-way between Şaghâniyân and Tirmidh, lay Dârzanjî, where there was a great guard-house, according to Ibn Hawķal. 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 Zâmil river, was the town of Şarmanjî or Şarmanjân, likewise with its great guard-house. The place had been famous in the 4th (10th) century for a dole of bread, of the daily value of a dînâr (10 shillings), which was given by its governor, Abu-l-Hasan, son of Hasan Mâh. The most important town, however, of the Saghâniyân district was Tirmid (or At-Tirmidh), north of the passage of the Oxus coming from Balkh, and at the place of junction of the Zâmil river. In the 4th (1oth) century it was defended by a great fortress, where 1 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] 441 THE OXUS. 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 Khurâsân. 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 Khurâsân. After this a new town-as large as the old one, according to Ibn Bațâțah, 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 Nawîdah, where those who went from Balkh to Samarķand direct crossed the river. Nawîdah had a Friday Mosque in the midst of its houses, and was counted as the last town in Şaghâniyân on the Oxus. One march north-west of Tirmidh, on the road to Kish and Nakhshab in Sughd, was the town of Hashimjird, a place of some importance in the 4th (10th) 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‘ķûbî names it the City of the Iron Gate (Madînah Bâb-al- Hadîd), of which he also gives the Persian form, Dar Âhanîn. Istakhri, Ibn Hawķal, and Muķaddasî all name the Bâb-al-Hadid in their itineraries, but add no details. Under the name, in Persian, of the Darband Âhanîn the Iron Gate became famous from the time of Tîmûr, and it is mentioned by ‘Alî of Yazd also under the Turkish appellation of ķublughah. He gives, however, 1 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 folding gates clamped with iron, and to the gates were attached a number of iron bells. All later accounts omit any mention of gates, which apparently had been removed before the time of Iștakhrî. XXXI] 443 THE OXUS. described (see p. 404), was the town of Akhsîsak, whence a high road went to Nakhshab. Ibn Hawķal describes Akhsîsak 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 Âmul or Amûyah, stood Firabr, on the road to Bukhârâ, likewise surrounded by a fertile district, and many populous villages. Muķaddasî 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 Bukhârâ, and there was a Muşallâ, 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 Rubâț Țâhir ibn 'Alî, the village or guard-house of these persons After passing between Firabr and Amûyah, the Oxus held its course for about 140 miles, still through the desert, till it reached Tâhiriyah, 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 Khwârizm 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 Khwarizm in the 4th (10th) 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 Khwârizm (Buhayrah Khwârizm). The Aral, which was shallow and full of reeds, appears not 1 Ist. 298, 314. I. H. 349, 350, 363. Kud. 203. Muk. 291. Yak. iii. 862; iv. 229. Mst. 189. 444 [CHAP. THE OXUS. 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 (10th) 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. ķazvînî explains further how in winter the people of Khwârizm 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. Istakhrî mentions a hill called Jabal Jaghrâghaz, 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 Khalîjân 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 Khwârizm 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 Batuțah 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 Khwârizm markets. The ice in winter made the navigation dangerous or impossible, and Yâķût relates how in Shawwal 616 (December 1219), when going from Mary to Jurjâniyah, part of his voyage being by boat on the Jayhûn, he XXXI] 445 THE OXUS. 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 Yâķût lost the beast he was riding, he himself barely escaping with his life'. 1 Ist. 303, 304. I. H. 353, 354. Kaz. ii. 353. I. B. iii. 5. Yak. i. 191. CHAP. XXXII] 447 KHWÂRIZM. Shahristân-' the Capital'—by the Persians, was almost, he says, of the size of Naysâbûr in Khurâsân. 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 Mukaddasî were infamously filthy -worse than Ardabîl in Adharbâyjân, 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 Kâth was outwardly a magnificent city. Soon after the close of the 4th (10th) century, however, it appears to have rapidly lost its position as the chief capital of Khwârizm; 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, Kâth does not appear to have suffered much during the Mongol invasion, and in the 8th (14th) century Ibn Bațâțah, who writes the name Al-Kât, passed through it on his way from Urganj to Bukhârâ, 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 Tîmûr almost destroyed Kâth, but afterwards caused its walls to be rebuilt, and the place is frequently mentioned by 'Alî of Yazd as still in his day an important town! The second capital of Khwârizm which, after the decay of Kâth, became the chief city of the province, was Gurganj, by the Arabs called Al-Jurjânîyah, 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 ķutaybah invaded Khwârizm, the capital city which they conquered was called Al-Fil, “the Elephant,' a name which was forthwith changed 1 Ist. 300, 301. 1. H. 351, 353. Muk. 287, 288. 1. B. iii. 20. A. Y. i. 237, 263, 449. 448 [CHAP. KHWÂRIZM. to Al-Manşûrah, meaning the City of Victory. This city is said to have stood on the further side of the Oxus, and over against the later Jurjânîyah, but the Oxus flood before long overwhelmed Manşûrah, and Jurjânîyah succeeded to its place? Jurjânîyah in the 4th (10th) century—though at that time only the second city of the province, Kâth 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 Khurâsân. Jurjânîyah 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. Muķaddasî in the 4th (10th) century states that the city had four gates, and that it was every day increasing in size. At the Bâb-al-Hujjaj, “the Pilgrims' Gate,' stood a fine palace built by the Caliph Mamun, with a second palace fronting it, built by Prince 'Alſ his son, both overlooking a sandy square, like the famous Rigistân of Bukhârâ, where the sheep-market was held. With the decay of Käth, Jurjâniyah soon became the first, and then the sole capital of the Khwârizm province, and in later times it is generally referred to under the name of Khwârizm—'City' being understood. In the year 616 (1219) Yâķût was at Jurjânîyah, or Gurganj as he also calls it, shortly before the place was devastated by the Mongols under Changîz Khân ; 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 Yâķût, but corpses and the ruined walls of houses to mark the place of the great city. The capital of Khwârizm, however, in a few years rose from its ruins, rebuilt in a neighbouring spot. This, according to the contemporary chronicle of Ibn-al-Athîr, was in 628 (1231), when New Khwârizm was founded in the vicinity of Great Khwârizm. Before the 1 The position of Fîl 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] 451 KHWARIZM. the Moslem conquest to the present time. Muķaddasî in the 4th (10th) century describes it as of the same size as Khîvah, the town having wooden gates and being surrounded by a ditch. Yâķût, 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. Hazârasp 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 Tâhirîyah, where the cultivation of the delta began, and Hazarasp, 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. Ișțakhrî calls these narrows by the name of Abûķshah, or Bûķshah, adding that the Oxus boatmen feared the spot greatly, on account of the whirlpool and the cataract at the exit of the passage. Mustawfî, who calls this place Tang-i-Dahân-i-Shîr, 'the Narrows of the Lion's Mouth,' says the opposite cliffs were barely 100 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 Ţâhirîyah and Hazârasp, on the left bank of the Oxus, there were three towns of some importance during the middle-ages. One march below Tâhiriyah, and on the high road, stood Jikarband, surrounded by gardens, with trees growing along its canals. A fine mosque, according to Muķaddasi, stood in the midst of its market. A march further north, near the narrows of the Oxus, was the city of Darghân, which Muķaddasî de- scribes as almost of the size of Jurjânîyah. Its Friday Mosque was magnificently ornamented with precious marbles, and the town was two leagues across, being surrounded by nearly five hundred vineyards. Darghân was the first great town in Khwârizm on the road from Marv. Yâķût, 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 2942 452 [CHAP. KHWÂRIZM. back of the town the desert sands were not far distant. Between Darghân and Hazârasp lay Sadûr 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 Khwârizm was taken from the right or eastern bank of the Oxus at a spot opposite Darghân, and was called Gâykhuwârah, or Gâvkhwârah, 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 Kath. Five leagues beyond its point of origin a small canal branched off from it, called the Karîh canal, and this too watered many districts. Four towns of some importance are mentioned by Muķaddasî 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 Kâth. The most distant from Kâth was called Nûkfâgh, it stood in the midst of canals, was a fine town, and lay near the desert border. Nearer to Kâth was Ardha- khîvah, which is probably identical with the place called Hişn Khivah by Yâķût, and which he says was 15 leagues distant from Khîvah of the west bank. Ardhakhîvah was a fortress standing under a hill at the beginning of the desert, and having but a single gate. Wâyikhân, also a fortress, surrounded by a ditch and with catapults at its gate, lay one march again to the northward ; and then came Ghardamân, one march from Kâth, 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 Hazârasp to irrigate its district. This also was navigable for boats, though it was only half the size of the Gâvkhuwârah canal; and it led backward, curving round in a direction that, if continued, would have reached the city of Âmul. Two leagues north of Hazârasp the Kardurân-Khwash canal branched from the Oxus, flowing past the town so named, which stood half-way between Hazârasp and Khîvah. This canal was larger than that which served Hazârasp, and the town of Kardurân-Khâs (as Muķaddasî Muk. 288, 289. Yak. ii. 567; iv. 971. Mst. 198, 213. i Ist. 304 I. H. 354. XXXII] 453 KHWARIZM. writes the name) was surrounded by a ditch and had wooden gates. Further north again was the Nahr Khîvah, 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 Khîvah canal, was the Nahr Madrâ, which is described as twice as large as the Gâvkhuwârah of the east bank. The town and neighbourhood of Madrâ were watered by it. Kâth, the eastern capital, as already said, stood back from the Oxus on a canal called the Jardûr, which was taken from the main stream some distance to the south of the city. Two leagues north of Kâth, but from the left or western bank of the Oxus, the great Wadhâk (also Wadâk or Wadân) canal branched off, which was navigable up to the neighbourhood of Jurjânîyah, the western capital of Khwârizm. The point of origin of the Wadâk canal was about a mile to the northward of that of the Madrâ canal, and further north again another canal called the Nahr Buwwah (Bůh or Bûyah) left the Oxus, its waters rejoining those of the Wadâk beyond to the north-west, a bow-shot distant from the village called Andarastán, and about one day's march to the southward of Jurjânîyah. The Wadâk canal was larger than the Bůh, but both were navigable as far as Jurjânîyah, 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 Khîvah to Jurjânîyah, in the middle-ages, passed through several large towns of which now no trace exists. One march from Khîvah was Ardhakhushmîthân, or Râkhûshmîthân, which Yâķût, 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 Nasîbîn, in Upper Mesopotamia, but it appears to have been ruined by the Mongol invasion. North of this was Rûzvand, a medium-sized town according to Muķaddasi, 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 Andarastân, lying at the 1 Ist. 301, 302. I. H. 352, 353. Muk. 288, 289, 292, 293. Yak. ii. 312; iv. 230. 454 [CHAP. KHWARIZM. junction of the Wadâk and Bûh canals, the town of Nûzvâr was reached, one march south of Jurjânîyah. Muķaddasî describes Nûzvâr 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 Yâķût calls Nûzkâth, 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 Nûzvâr and Jurjânîyah, and in the 4th (10th) 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. Yâķût 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 Ķurân, Az-Zamakhsharî, who was born here in 467 (1075) and died in 538 (1144). Ibn Bațâțah, 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- Dîn Kubrâ already spoken of, and beyond this again, five leagues from Jurjânîyah on the desert border, under the tall cliffs to the west of the Oxus, stood Jîth or Gît, 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 Madhmînîyah at four leagues from the right bank. Jîth appears to be identical in position with the later town called Wazîr (or Shahr-i-Wazîr), which probably replaced it, after the troublous times of the Mongol invasion and the campaigns of Tîmûr. Wazîr is frequently mentioned by Abu-l- Ghâzî, and the name occurs in the Jahân Numâ. This Shahr-i- Wazîr, moreover, is probably the town visited and described by Anthony Jenkinson under the somewhat altered form of Sellizure, or Shaysure, when he was travelling across Khwârizm in the roth (16th) century? On the right bank of the Oxus, some four leagues north of Kâth, the first of four canals led off, flowing northward, and 1 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, Principal Navigations, ii. 461. XXXII] 455 KHWÂRIZM. 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 Wadâk and Bůh 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 Mazdâkhgân (or Mazdâkhķân), 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 Muķaddasi 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 Khwârizm, was the great village called Kariyat Barâtakin (or Farâtagîn), near which were the hill-quarries producing the stone used in the buildings throughout Khwârizm. Barâtakîn in the 4th (10th) century had excellent markets, and a well-built Friday Mosque. To the westward of this place was the city of Madhmînîyah, four leagues from the right bank of the Oxus, opposite Jîth ; 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 (10th) century, is, in the main, that of the present day; but the old bed of the river leading to the Caspian is mentioned by Muķaddasî, who reports that in former times the main stream had flowed down to a town over against Nisâ in Khurâsân, called Balkhân (or Abu-1-Khân). Later, some two and a half centuries after the time of Muķaddasî, it seems certain that the Oxus once 1 Ist. 299, 303. I. H. 350, 353. Muk. 288. Yak. iv. 257. 456 [CHAP. KHWÂRIZM. 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 roth (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-Athîr 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 Manķishlâgh. The latter Yâķût, a contemporary of these events, speaks of as a strongly fortified castle standing on the shore of the Sea of Țabaristân (the Caspian), into which, he says, the Jayḥûn (the Oxus) flowed. This evidence from incidental notices is further fully corroborated by Mustawfî 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 (Baḥr Khazar) at Khalkhâl, a fishing station. The position of the 'Aķabah or Steep of Halam, which the Turks, Mustawfî says, called Kurlâvah (or Kurlâdî), 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 Mustawfî further adds, when speaking of the port on the Island of Âbaskûn (see p. 379), that this island had in his time disappeared beneath the sea because XXXII] 457 KHWARIZM. the Jayḥûn, 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 Abaskûn 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 Hâfiz Abrû, who was a government official of Shâh Rukh, son and successor of Tîmûr, 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 Khwârizm (the Aral), having taken a new channel, now flowed down by Kurlâvû, 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 Hâfiz Abrû wrote his account, confirms this by his statement that the Oxus 'flows into the Sea of Bâkû,' 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-Ghâzî, 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-Ģhâzî, was born. The Oxus had, he says, at that date already made itself a new channel, and turning off below Khast Minârahsî (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-Khân 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-Ghâzî places the change of bed rather too late, for already in 966 (1558), when Anthony Jenkinson travelled through Russia to Khîvah, he speaks of the Oxus as 458 [CHAP. KHWARIZM. 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 Khwârizm 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 Jurjânîyah were famous for the various costly furs, brought here from the Bulghar country of the Volga, and a long list of these is given by Mukaddasî 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. 1 Muk. 285. Yak. iv. 670. Mst. 197, 213, 225. J. N. 360. Hfz. 27b, . 32 b. A. G. 207, 291. Clavijo, Embassy, p. 118. Hakluyt, Principal Navi- gations, ii. 461, 462, “Voyage of Anthony Jenkinson.' Professor De Goeje in Das 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 denote the Caspian and the Aral. The Caspian is generally referred to as the Sea of Khazar (Baḥr Khazar), from the tribes of the Khazars who inhabited its further shores, but it was also known as the Sea of Tabaristân or of Mâzandarân, or of Âbaskûn, or of Jurjân, from the names of the various well-known provinces or districts on its shores. Quite incorrectly the Caspian appears sometimes as the Daryâ Ķulzum, but Ķulzum was the name given to the Red Sea. The Aral was generally known as the Buhayrah Khwârizm, or Lake of Khwârizm, and also as the Lake of Jurjânîyah (the capital of Khwârizm), and this last name being easily misread Jurjân has more especially caused confusion between the Caspian (Baḥr Jurjân) and the Aral (Buhayrah Jurjânîyah). The Aral was also known to the Persian.geographers as the Daryâ-i-Shar”, “the Eastern Sea.' All this, however, does not invalidate the facts clearly recorded by Mustawfî, Hafiz Abrû, and Abu-l-Ghâzî. XXXII] 459 KHWARIZM. Among natural and manufactured products were wax, the bark of the white poplar, called Tûz, used for covering shields, fish-glue, fish-bones, amber, khalanj-wood, honey, and hazel-nuts, swords, and cuirasses and bows. Khwârizm 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 Khwârizm, however, in the 4th (10th) 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! 1 Ist. 304, 305. I. H. 354. Muk. 325. CHAPTER XXXIII. SUGHD. Bukhârâ, and the five cities within its wall. Baykand. Samarkand. The Buttam mountains, and the Zarafshân or Sughd river. Karmîniyah, Dabûsiyah, and Rabinjan. Kish and Nasaf, with neighbouring towns. The products of Sughd. Routes beyond the Oxus as far as Samarķand. 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 Zarafshân, or Sughd river, on which Samarķand and Bukhârâ 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 Khwârizm. More properly, however, Sughd is the name of the district surrounding Samarķand; for Bukhârâ, 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 Sâmânid Amîrs; in the following century, however, it was still a province fertile and rich beyond compare. Of the two chief cities, Samarkand and Bukhârâ, it may be said that the former was rather the political centre, while Bukhârâ was considered to be the religious metropolis, but both were equal in rank, and held to be the capitals of Sughd'. Bukhârâ was also known under the name of Nůmijkath”. In 1 Ist. 316. I. H. 365. Muk. 261, 262, 266—268. Yak. iii. 394. ? This, or Numûjkath, is the true reading of the name which (by an error of the diacritical points) is often wrongly written Bûmijkath. Muk. 267, note b. The true pronunciation is fixed by the Chinese pilgrims, who mention Bukhârâ under the name of Numi.' 464 [CHAP. SUGHD. also on the height; and to the south the Bâb-al-Kabîr, 'the Great Gate,' also known as the Kish Gate. The city, according to Yâķût, was 2500 jarîbs 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 Bâb 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- ķand was called the Râs-at-Țâḥ, '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 Samarķand 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 Bâb Shadâwad, then the Ashbask gate, then those of Sûkhshîn and of Afshînah, next the Bâb Kühak, or “Gate of the Mound,' opening on the height where the city and fortress were situated, after which came the Warsanîn gate, the Rîvdad gate, and finally the Bâb Farrukhshid. The market streets of the suburb all converged on the square of the Râs-at-Tâķ 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 Samarķand 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 Samarķand from the fortress height it appeared as one mass of trees. To the south rose the hill of Kühak, a spur from the mountains beyond which lay within a day's march of the city. 466 [CHAP. SUGHD. 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 Samarķand and the river. On the north bank of the Sughd river, towards the Ushrûsanah province, was the Buzmâjan, or Buzmājaz district, of which the chief town was Bârkath, or Abarkath, four leagues or one day's march distant from Samarkand to the north-east. Four leagues further to the north lay Khushafaghan, an important village, in later times known as Râs-al-ķanțarah (Bridge Head). Be this again was the Bûrnamadh, or Furnamadh district, near the frontier of Ushrûsanah, and next to it the Yârkath district, the furthest to the north ; both being famous for their pasture lands. Seven leagues due north of Samarķand was the town of Ishtîkhân, with a strong castle and outer suburbs, standing on canals from the Sughd river. Its corn fields were renowned, and Istakhrî calls it 'the Heart of Sughd' for its fertility. Seven leagues further north, again, was Kushâniyah, or Kushânî, 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 Yâķût lying only two leagues distant from Samarķand, was the district of Kabûdhanjakath, with the city called Lanjûghkath, and adjoining it Widhâr, in the hill country, the chief town being of the same name, where celebrated stuffs were made. Lastly the district of the Marzubân or Warden of the Marches—Ibn Tarkasfî, one of the Sughd Dihķâns, or provincial nobles, and this lay beyond Widhâr'. The Sughd river or Zarafshân (“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 Şaghâniyân and the 1 Ist. 321–323. I. H. 371–375. Muk. 279. Yak. i. 277; ii. 447, 890; iv. 234, 276, 944. XXXIII] 467 SUGHD. Wakhshâb on the other, both, as described in Chapter XXXII, being right-bank affluents of the Oxus. 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 Istakhrî, 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, Ișțakhrî 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 Banjîkath, 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 Samarķand and the districts on the north bank of the river. Of the canals flowing to Samarķand two were sufficiently large to carry boats; and Ibn Hawķal gives in a list the names of these various water- courses, and the districts irrigated by each, with their villages. At Samarķand the river was crossed by a masonry bridge called ķanțarah Jard, which in flood seasons was sometimes entirely submerged. Below Samarķand many canals also branched 1 Ist. 312, 327. 1. H. 362, 382. 30—2 468 [CHAP. SUGHD. off to the various districts round Dabûsiyah and Karmîniyah which will be described presently, and then the Sughd river came to the neighbourhood of Bukhârâ. Here the main stream was commonly known as the Bukhârâ river, and already outside the Great Wall of the Bukhârâ 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 Hawķal, 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 Bukhârâ city are described as having been large enough to carry boats. Between Bukhârâ and Samarķand, on the south side of the Sughd river, there were three important cities in the 4th (roth) century, namely Karmîniyah (which still exists), Dabûsiyah, and Rabinjan. Karminiyah lay one stage east of Tawâwîs, 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. Yâķût speaks of its magnificent trees. One stage to the east, again, was the large town of Ad-Dabûsiyah, 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 Khudîmankan lay one league distant from Karmîniyah, and a bow-shot distant north of the high road. On the north bank of the Sughd river one league above Khudîmankan was the great hamlet of Madhyâmajkath, while Kharghânkath was one league lower down, also on the northern bank and opposite Karmîniyah, from which it was but a league distant. These three hamlets were of sufficient size in the 4th (10th) century for each to have had its Friday Mosque, and Yaķût reports that Khudîmankan was famous for divers traditionists born here. Arbinjan, or Rabinjan, lay one stage to the east of Dabûsiyah, and was a larger town than this last; to the east again, at the half-way stage between Rabinjan and Samarķand and seven leagues from this capital, was Zarmân. As of the neighbourhood of Bukhârâ, Muķad- i Ist. 310–312, 319–321. I. H. 359-361, 368—371. 470 [CHAP. SUGHD. exported to Khurâsân. In later times Kish attained fame as the birth-place of Timur, who in the latter part of the 8th (14th) century rebuilt the town, where the White Palace—Âķ-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 Ķarshî, which the medieval Arabs called Nasaf, and the Persians Nakhshab. In the 4th (10th) century Nasaf had a strong castle, and extensive suburbs lay outside the city, which was surrounded by a wall having four gates, namely the Bâb-an-Najârîyah, the Samarķand Gate, the Kish Gate, and the Bâb Ghûbadhîn. 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 Râs-al-ķanțarah, 'the Bridge Head.' The prison lay adjacent to the governor's palace, and the Friday Mosque near the Ghubadhîn Gate, the great market streets lying in between. Just within the Najârîyah Gate was the oratory, Al-Musallâ. Muķaddasî, 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-Muķanna'—the cele- brated Veiled Prophet of Khurâsân-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 Muķanna' was generally known as Mâh-sâzandah, or 'Moon Maker,' and, as history relates, the revolt of his followers for many years gave great trouble to the generals of the Caliph Mahdî. As regards Nakhshab city, after the times of the Mongol invasion in the 7th (13th) century, a certain Kapak Khân built himself a palace at a place some two leagues distant from the older town, and 'a palace' in the Mongol language is called Karshî, which name was subsequently given to the settle- 1 Ist. 324. I. H. 375–377. Muk. 282. A. Y. i. 300, 301. XXXIII] 471 SUGHD. ment that sprang up and replaced the older Nasaf or Nakhshab. Ibn Bațațah sojourned here in the early part of the 8th (14th) century, and describes Ķarshî as a small town surrounded by gardens. At the close of the century Tîmûr frequently passed his winters at Ķarshî, and he afterwards built near it the Hişâr 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 Bukhârâ. The other and larger town was Kasbah, four leagues from Nasaf, also in the Bukhârâ direction, where there were excellent markets according to Yâķût. Further, between Nasaf and Kish, one stage west of the latter city, was the town or large village of Nawķad Ķuraysh ; while one stage south-east of Nasaf, on the road to the Iron Gate (see p. 441), was Sûnaj, a large village, with Iskîfghan lying one league from it, both these towns being watered by the Khuzâr river already mentioned The products, natural and manufactured, of Sughd were The melons of Bukhârâ were farnous 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. Samarķand 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- mîniyah, between Bukhârâ and Samarķand, produced napkins, and from Dabûsiyah came various kinds of cloth and brocade. Rabinjan exported red felts, prayer carpets, and tin cups; also numerous. 1 Ist. 325. 1. H. 377, 378. Muk. 282. Kaz. ii. 312. I. B. iii. 28. A. Y. i. III. 2 I. H. 376-378. Muk. 283. Yak. i. 604; iij. 197; iv. 273, 825. 472 [CHAP. SUGHD. hides, hemp cordage, and sulphur. Moreover winter rice was grown in this district1. As already said in Chapter XXX (p. 431) the great Khurâsân road crossed the Oxus beyond Amûyah to Firabr, and thence proceeded by Baykand and through the gate in the Great Wall to Bukhârâ. From this capital the road went up the left bank of the Sughd river to Samarķand, 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 Hawķal and Muķad- dasî adding the distances between the outlying towns of the Bukhârâ and Samarķand districts. The high road which passed through Khurâsân to Balkh (see p. 432) crossed the Oxus to Tirmidh, from which branched various roads north through Şaghâniyân and ķubâdhiyân to Wâshjird, 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 Samarķand; 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 Bukhârâ. These routes, mostly in short distances, are given by Işțakhrî and in part by Mukaddasis. The delta lands of the Oxus in the Khwârizm province were reached from Âmul on the Khurâsân side by a road going up the left bank to Țâhirîyah, where cultivation began, and thence on to Hazârasp. Here one way went to the left by Khîvah to Jurjânîyah (Urganj), while another turned off to Kâth, and the towns on the right bank of the Oxus. These roads are given by Istakhrî and Muķaddasî ; also the way crossing the desert direct, south- east, from Kâth to Bukhârâ. Further, Mustawfî, in the 8th (14th) century, gives two routes from the south converging on Urganj, one going across the desert north from Farâvah (now Ķizil Arvâț, see p. 380) to Urganj; the other going from Marv, also across the 1 1. H. 364. Muk. 324, 325. 2 1. K. 25, 26. Kud. 203. Ist. 334, 342. I. H. 398, 402. Muk. 342, 3 Ist. 337–341. I. H. 399–403. Muk. 342-344. 343 XXXIII] 473 SUGHD. desert, and in many places passing the moving sands, and ultimately reaching Tâhirîyah on the Oxus. This last road is also given in the Jahận Numâ, and from Hazârasp it follows almost identically the road given by the Arab geographers to the capital of Khwârizm at Jurjânîyah'. | Ist. 338, 341, 342. I. H. 400, 402. J. N. 457 Muk. 343 344: Mst. I97 198. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. The Ushrûsanah province. Bûnjikath, the capital. Zâmîn and other towns. The Farghânah province. The Jaxartes or Sayhûn. Akhsîkath and Andijân. Üsh, Üzkand, and other cities. The province of Shâsh. Shâsh city or Binkath. Banâkath or Shâhrukhîyah, and other towns. The Îlâķ district, Tûnkath city, and the silver mines of Khasht. The Isbîjâb district. Isbîjâb city or Sayrâm. Chimkand, and Fârâb or Utrâr. Yassî and Şabrân. Jand and Yanghikant. Țarâz and Mîrkî. Outlying towns of the Turks. Products of the Jaxartes countries. Routes. to the north of Samarķand. The province of Ushrûsanah—also written Usrüshanah, Surûsh- nah and Sutrûshnah-lay to the east of Samarķand, between the districts along the right bank of the Sughd river, and those along the left bank of the Jaxartes, for the Ushrûsanah 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 (Fâmir) according to the Arab geographers. The capital was the city of Ushrûsanah (Madinah Ushrûsanah), otherwise called Bûnjikath, Banjakath, or Bunûjkath, the site of which is identical with the present town of Ura-tepeh'. Bunjikath was in the 4th (10th) century a city of over 10,000 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 Bûnjikath the capital of Ushrûsanah must not be confounded with Banjîkath (Penjakant) to the east of Samarķand. The position of the capital of Ushrûsanah is fixed by the Itineraries (see I. K. 29, Kud. 207, and Ist. 343), besides present local tradition (Schuyler, Turkistan, i. 312). Ist. 325. I. H. 379. Muk. 265. Yak. i. 245, 278, 744. CHAP. XXXIV] THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. 475 gates, the upper gate (Bâb-al-A'lâ) and the city gate (Bâb-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. 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 Zâmîn Gate, the Marasmandah Gate, the Nûjkath Gate, and the Gate of Kahlâbâdh. The town lands were amply irrigated by six small streams, which Ibn Hawķal names. These flowed down from the neighbouring hills, and after a course of about half a league passed through Bûnjikath, having ten mills upon their banks. The town was celebrated for its many charming gardens. Zâmîn, which still exists, lay to the east of Bûnjikath, and was the point where the great Khurâsân road, coming up through Bukhârâ and Samarķand, finally bifurcated, one road going north to Shâsh (Tâshkand), the other north-east to Farghầnah and beyond. Zâmîn was, in the 4th (10th) century, almost of the size of the capital Bûnjikath; it was a very ancient town, and had been formerly known as Susandah, 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 Zâmîn and Bûnjikath, on the road to Farghanah and is described by Muķaddasî as very populous, embowered by numerous orchards and gardens, lying beside its streams? The names of other towns of Ushrûsanah 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. Dîzak, otherwise Jîzak, lies north-west of Zâmîn ; and south of it, on the road from Samarķand, was the important town of Kharaķânah. Khâwas or Khâwas is on the road going north from Zâmîn to Shâsh, and Kurkath lies on the frontiers of Farghầnah, midway between Sâbâț and Khujandah. The position of the two small towns of Mînak and Marasmandah cannot be exactly fixed, for neither is 1 Ist. 326, 327. I. H. 379, 380. Muk. 277. 480 [CHAP. THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. Of the cities in the northern part of Farghânah, namely of the lands on the right bank of the Jaxartes, very little is known during early times. Muķaddasî describes Wânkath as a town with a Friday Mosque and good markets, and from the Itineraries we learn that Wânkath lay seven leagues to the west of Akhsîkath, being one league from the bank of the Jaxartes, and not far from the frontiers of Îlâķ. North of Wânkath and among the hills was Khayralam, or Khaylâm, a town of the district of Miyân Radhân, '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 Muķaddasî 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 Ķâsân still exists, and is described by the earlier geographers as situate in the district of the same name. Yâķût adds that it had a strong castle, and that past its gate ran the stream which ulti- mately joined the Jaxartes at Akhsîkath. Further north was the district of Jidghil, of which the chief town was Ardalânkath. Το the east of this lay the Karwân district, of which the chief town was called Najm. A number of other towns are also briefly described by Mukaddasî, but unfortunately there is no indication of their respective positions'. To the westward of Farghânah came the district of Shâsh, which, as already said, lay on the right bank or north-east of the Jaxartes. The ruins now known as Old Tâshkand are the site of the city called Shâsh 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 Shâsh was also known by the name of Binkath”, for like many other places in Transoxiana, there was the double nomenclature, Iranian and Turanian. Shâsh, in the 4th (10th) 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 1 Ist. 334, 347. I. H. 396. Muk. 271, 272. Yak. iv. 227. ? This is often by an error in the diacritical points written Bíkath, e.g. Yak. i. 746. XXXIV] 481 THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. 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 Bukhârâ, protected the whole district, making a great semicircular sweep round Shâsh 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-'Abbâs, then the Bâb Kish, doubtless to the south where the road from Samarķand came in, and lastly the gate of Al-Junayd. The wall of the inner suburbs had ten gates (Muķaddasî names only eight), and of the outer suburbs seven, which are all carefully enumerated by Ibn Hawķal, and in the inner suburbs were found the great markets of Shâsh. 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 Sâblagh, and the extensive plain which it enclosed was known as Al-Ķilâș. The wall was built by 'Abd-Allah ibn Humayd, to protect Shâsh 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 Shâsh to Isbîjâb passed through this wall at the Iron Gate (Bâb-al-Hadid). In the early years of the 7th (13th) century, Shâsh was in part ruined during the conquests of Muḥammad Khwârizm Shâh, 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 Tîmûr haltėd here. ‘Alî of Yazd, who frequently has occasion to mention it in describing the campaigns of Tîmûr, gives the names as Shâsh, LE S. 31 XXXIV] 485 THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. was the name of both district and town, and it was sometimes accounted the capital of the Isbîjâb district; the suburbs of the town in the 4th (10th) century being also known under the name of Kadar. Muķaddasî speaks of Bârâb as a large city with 70,000 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 ķazvînî the city lay among salt marshes, and was celebrated in history as the birth-place of Abu Nașr-al-Fârâbî, who died in 339 (950), and was accounted the greatest of the Moslem philosophers before Avicenna. According to Ibn Hawķal, however, the actual birth-place of Al- Fârâbî was at Wasîj, a small fortified town lying two leagues distant from Fârâb, where there was a fine Friday Mosque in the market- place. At a subsequent period Fârâb took the name of Utrâr, also spelt Uțrâr, 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 Sarây, or palace, as already said, that Tîmûr died'. About half-way between Sayrâm and Uțrâr was the town of Arsubânîkath, or Subânîkath, which Muķaddasî 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 Subânî- kath was called Kanjidah. One day's march north of Uțrâr, along the right bank of the Jaxartes, was the town of Shâvaghar, also described by Muķaddasî as a large place, well-fortified, with a Friday Mosque in its market-place, and surrounded by fertile districts. The name of Shâvaghar does not occur in the later geographers, and from its position it would appear to be identical with Yassî, a place often mentioned by ‘Alî of Yazd, and still exist- ing to-day under the name of Hadrat-i-Turkistân, "The Presence (of the holy man) of Turkistân,'—he being the patron saint of the Kirghiz, who is buried here. According to 'Alî of Yazd this personage was Shaykh Ahmad of Yassî, a descendant of 1 I. H. 390, 391. Muk. 262, 273. Kaz. ii. 405. A. F. 493. I. B. iii. 23. A. Y. i. 166, 275; ii. 646. Ibn Khallikân, No. 716, p. 73. There is often confusion between Fârâb or Bârâb (Uğrâr) of the Jaxartes, and Fâryâb (see above, p. 425) in Jûzjân, which was also called Bârâb. 486 [CHAP. THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. Muḥammad ibn Hanafîyah, son of the Caliph ‘Alî. The Shaykh died here in the early part of the 6th (12th) century, and Tîmûr 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 Yassî or Shâvaghar was Sawrân, or Şabrân, which stands to the present day, reckoned in the 4th (10th) century as the frontier fortress against the Ghuzz. Here, in peace times, all the neighbouring Turk tribes came to barter with the Moslem merchants. Muķaddasî depicts Sawrân 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. 'Alî of Yazd fre- quently mentions Şabrân when speaking of the campaigns of Tîmûr, and Yâķût describes its high citadel or castle, which dominated the frontier lands? Among other places on the Jaxartes very frequently mentioned by ‘Alî of Yazd, but not noticed by the earlier Arab geographers, is Saghnâķ, which he gives as the capital of ķîpchâķ and as lying 24 leagues northward from Utrâr. Further to the north again is Jand, mentioned by the earlier geographers, and by Yâķût, as one of the great Moslem cities of Turkistân 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-ħariyat-al-Jadîdah (or Al- Hadîthah), '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 Sayrâm (or Isbîjâb) are the ruins of Țarâz, near the present town of Aulieh-Ata. Țarâz, or At-Țarâz, was an important place as early as the 4th (10th) century, and is described by Ibn Hawķal as the chief commercial 1 I. H. 390, 391. Muk. 262, 273, 274. Yak. iii. 366. A. Y. i. 466, 557; ii. 9, 636, 642. Schuyler, Turkistan, i. 70. The name, which should be written Sawrân or Sabrân, is frequently misprinted Şîrân in the Zafar-Namah of ·Alî of Yazd. I. H. 393. A. F. 489. Yak. ii. 127. A. Y. i. 275, 279. For the ruins of Jand see Schuyler, Turkistan, i. 62. 488 [CHAP. THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. at Dîzak (Jîsak) in Ushrûsanah they made excellent felts and cloaks. The natural products of Farghânah 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 Farghânah 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. Shâsh 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 Tarâz, in the Turk country, came goat- skins; and the Turkistân horses and mules were always and especially famous?. In regard to the high roads of these provinces, the continuation of the great Khurâsân road, going north from Samarķand, crossed the Sughd river, and thence reached Zâmîn in Ushrûsanah, where it bifurcated, the left branch to Shâsh and the lower Jaxartes, the right to the upper Jaxartes and Farghânah. From Zâmîn the direct road to Shâsh crossed the Jaxartes at Banâkath; while a second high road from Samarķand went by Dîzak, and across the desert to Waynkard, beyond which the Jaxartes was crossed to Shutûrkath, where the road from Banákath to Shâsh was joined. From Shâsh one road went east to Tùnkath, the capital of the Îlâķ province, and another north to Isbîjâb, where again there was a bifurcation. Westward from Isbîjâb, one high road went to Fârâb (Utrâr) for the crossing of the Jaxartes, and thence also north along its right bank to Şabrân. To the right, eastward from Isbijâb, the other road went to Țarâz, and thence to Barkî or Mîrkî, the last Moslem town of Turk lands in the 4th (10th) century, and from this place Ibn Khurdâdbih and Ķudâmah give the stages across the desert to Upper Nushanjân on the frontiers of China, which place is probably to be identified with Khutan”. The road to Farghânah which, as already said, bifurcated from Kaz. ii. 405 1 I. H. 397, 398. Muk. 325. 2 I. K. 26—29. Kud. 203—206. Ist. 335-337, 343–346. I. H. 398, 399, 403—405. Muk. 341—343. Mustawfî unfortunately gives no routes XXXIV] 489 THE PROVINCES OF THE JAXARTES. the continuation of the Khurâsân road at Zâmîn, went by Sâbâț (where the road to Bûnjikath, the capital of Ushrûsanah, turned off) to Khujandah on the Jaxartes. From here, keeping along the south bank of the river, and up stream, Akhsîkath, the capital of Farghânah, at the crossing of the Jaxartes, was reached. The distances from Akhsîkath to the various towns lying to the north of the upper Jaxartes are given by Istakhrî and Ibn Hawķal; while from the capital of Farghânah eastward the continuation of the high road by Ûsh to Üzkand is found in Ibn Khurdâdbih and Ķudâmah. Further Muķaddasî gives notes of the way from Üzkand into the Turk country, and ultimately to the frontiers of China. The account is difficult to follow, but, as with Ibn Khurdâdbih and Ķudâmah, the last stage is Upper Nûshajân, or Barsakhân, 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 Koninklijke Academie Amsterdam, for 1888, p. 123. For the route followed by 'Abd-ar- Razzâķ, the Ambassador of Shâh Rukh, who travelled to China and back between 822 and 825 (1419 and 1422), see the Persian text and translation by E. Quatremère in Notices et Extraits, vol. xiv. pt. i. p. 387, also the notes by Sir H. Yule in Cathay and the Way thither, pp. cxcix-ccix. 1 I. K. 29, 30. Kud. 207–209. Ist. 335, 343-347. I. H. 398, 399, 403—406. Muk. 341, 342. INDEX. A. Arabic. P. Persian. T. Turkish. Âb (P.), water, river, or spring Âb Anbâr-i-Kinâr, 257 Âb-i-Arghûn, 269 Âb-i-Bandah, 208 Âb-i-Gandah, 273 Âb-i-Gargar, 236, 237 Åb-i-Jurjân, 376 Âb-i-Ūjần, 163 Âb-i-Zarah, 339 Âbah, see Âvah Abâdah city, 279, 298 Abâdah village, 282, 284, 297 Abakah Khân, 2 24 Abân, 286 Abân canal, 40 Abârik, 313 Abarkâfân, Abarkumân island, 261 Abârkath, 466 Abarķûh, Abarķûyah, 284, 294, 297 *Abartâ, 18, 59 Abaskhûr or Abshakhûr, 118 Âbaskûn, 376, 379, 456, 457 Abasûs (Ephesus), 155 •Abbadân, 43, 44, 48, 49 *Abbâs, Shâh, the Great, 204, 205 *Abbâsî pear, 222 'Abd Allah, son of Caliph ‘Abd-al- Malik, 130 •Abd Allah, son of ‘Ali, 43 'Abd Allah-al-Battâl, 137, 146, 152 •Abd Allah ibn Humayd, 481 * Abd Allah, the Tâhirid, 380, 385, 394 'Abd-al-Azîm, Imâm Zâdah, 217, 229 'Abd-ar-Razzâș, ambassador of Shâh Rukh, 489 ‘Abd-as-Salám, ķâdî, 46 •Abdasî, 28, 42, 43 • Abdulâbâd, 354 Abgarus, King of Edessa, 104 Abghar, 466 Abhar, 221, 222, 229 Abidûs, 136 Abîvard, 394, 420 Abkhâs, Abkhasia, 179, 181 Ablastha, 133 Abraham, 67, 68, 103 Abraj, 281 Abrashahr (Mûķân), 176 Abrashahr (Nîshâpâr), 383 Abrashahriyâr, 340 Abrîş or Abrûk, 119 Abrumasânah, 134 Abrûn island, 261 “Absakân, 4IO Abshîn, 416, 431 Abu-l-Asad canal, 26, 41, 42 Abu Bakr, Salghârî Atabeg, 251 Abu Dulaf, 198, 200 Abu-l-Fidâ, ií, 15, 16 Abu-l-Ghâzî, 16, 17 Abu Ghurayb canal, 69 Abu-l-Hasan Gîlakî, 360 Abu-l-Hasan, son of Hasan Mâh, 440 Abu-l-Hasan Khurķânî, 366 Abu-l-Hayjâ, 77 Abu-l-Jund canal, 58 Abu-1-Khân, 455, 457 Abu-l-Khaşîb canal, 18 Abu Muslim, 399, 423 Abu Nașr-al-Farâbî, 485 Abu Nașr of Tîr Murdân, 264 Abu Raḥâ canal, 71 Abu Sa'id, 195 Abu Sufrah, the Khârijite, 57 Abu Tâhir, the Carmathian, 273 Abu Talib of Nawbanjân, his Kașr, 264; his bridge, 265 492 INDEX. Akun, 253 Abu Yazîd Bistâmî, 365 Âka Khân, representative of the ‘Old Abûh, 192 Man of the Mountain,' 355 Abûķshah, 451 Âkâ Muhammad Shâh, 217 Abulustân, 122, 133, 142, 146 'Akabah Halam, 456 Abydos, 136 'Akarķâf, 67 Abzar, 254 Akhlât, 183 Achæmenian sculptures and ruins, Akhsh or Akhshawâ river, 435, 438 187, 275 Akhsîkath, Akhsîkat, Akhsîkant or Acoustic sandhill, 341, 342 Akhsî, 8, 477, 478, 489 Adâliyah, 151 Akhsîsak, 404, 443 Adata, 121, 133 Âkhur, 379, 380 Adhanah, 128, 130-132, 141 Akhwâsh, 317 Adharbâyjân, 4, 20, 159-172 Akhúất, 313 Adharjushnas, 224 Akrâ mountain, 133 Adhkân, 286 Akradkhis, 117 Adhramah, 100 Akranchah, 457 Adiamân, 123 Akroenos, 152 Adraskan or Adraskar, 412 Akşâ mosque, 104 ‘Adud-ad-Dawlah, the Buyid, 48, 77, 79, 187, 204, 243, 250, 251, 256, Aķur region, 86 259, 266, 276, 277, 301, 317, 323, Akwâr, 135 333, 334 Al, the Arabic article, use of, 21 Adudî canal, 48 Al-Amr district, 196 A‘far, hill, 99 Al-Bashr, 194 Afdal Kirmânî, 330 Al-Bustân (Abulustân), 122. Afdâsahî, 43 ‘Alâ-ad-Dîn Kayķubâd, Saljûk, 118, Afghans, 350 142, 146–148, 150-152 Afghanistân, 7, 8 ‘Alâ-ad-Dîn, Ghûrid, 348 Afradkhis, 117 Alâbî, 193 Afrâzah Rûdh, 164 A‘lam, 195, 196 Afrîdûn, 326, 360 ‘Alamayn, 134 Afshîn, the Turk, 416, 476 Alamût, 221 Afsûs or Afasûs (Ephesus), 136, 155 Alânî, 193, 194 Agiou Theologou, 155 Alanjik, 167 Âhar, town and river, 168, 169, 231 Alarghah, 152 Ahlîlaj, myrobalan, 349 Alariyânus, Valerian, 235 Ahlum, 370 Alậtập, 183 Aḥmad of Jam, Shaykh, 357 ‘Alâyà, 142, 144, 145, 150 Ahmad, son of Imâm Mûsâ, 251 Albuquerque, 319 Ahmad Râzî, 375 Alburz (Caucasus), 181, 182 Ahmad of Yassî, 486 Alburz (N. Persia), 7, 22, 172, 368 Ahnaf ibn Kays, 405, 422 Alexander the Great, 68, 263 Ahsâ river, 134 ‘Alî, Caliph, 75, 102 ; his tomb at Ahâwân, 366 Kûfal, 76–78; supposititious at Ahwaz, 6, 232–234, 237, 246, 247 Balkh, 422 ; mosque of, 45, 46 Aigialos, 135 ‘Alî the Armenian, 110 ‘Ajam, Persian or barbarian, 183 ‘Alî-al- Askarî, tenth Imâm, 56 Ajgh, 381 ‘Alî, son of Caliph Mamûn, 448 Ajmah, 396 ‘Alî-ar-Ridâ, 8th Imâm, 388, 391 Âķ (T.), white ‘Alî-Shâh, Wazîr, 162, 166, 169, 183, Âķ Saray (Rûm), 149, 150 231 'All of Yazd, 16, 17; his account of Âķ Saray (Kish), 470 Asia Minor, 145 Âķ Shahr (Sîvâs), 147 Alid, ford of the, 122 Âķ Shahr, lake and town, 151, 152 Alids of Daylam, 174 Âk Şû (of Jayḥân), 122 Alis, 135 Âķ Şû (Khuttal), 435 Alîshtar, 193, 194, 201 INDEX. 493 or •Alkamî channel, 74 Allần (Caucasus), 179, 181 Allân island, 261 Almâligh, 487 Almeria, 19 Alp Arslân, 139, 140, 183, 286 “Alth, 50 Alum mines, 147 Alûsâ or Alûsah, 64, 125 Alvand mountain, 22, 195 Amâsiyah, Amasia, 142, 146 Amber, 459 Amid, Amida, 4, 80, 108-111, 124, 125 ‘Amîd-ad-Dawlah, Fâiķ, 389, 487 Amîn, Caliph, 37, 190 Amîrkhwând, 18 Amkalchah, 409 Ammianus Marcellinus, 316 'Ammurîyah, Amorion, 121, 134, 135, 137, 138, 143, 153 'Amr, castle of, 405 'Amr ibn Layth, Șaffarid, 251, 301, 328, 336, 383, 384, 387 Âmul (on Oxus), 9, 403, 404, 431, 434 Âmul (Tabaristân), 370, 381 Amûyah or Amû Daryâ (the Oxus), 434 Amysos, 147 Ân, termination in place-names, 49 •Ânah, 25, 84, 87, 106, 125 Anâr, 286 Anasha ķal'ahsî, 135 Anatho, 106 Anatolia, 4 Anazarbus, 129 Anbâr (Euphrates), 25, 31, 32, 65; district, 80 Anbâr or Anbîr (Juzjân), 426 Anburân, 264, 265 Ancyra, see Angora Andakhud, Andkhuy, 426 Andâmish bridge, 238 Andar or Aydî, 226 Andarâb (Ardabîl), 168, 169, 177 Andarâbah (Marv), 401 Andarâbah or Andarâb (Tukhâristân), 427, 432 Andarastân, 453 Andâjârâgh, Andijârâgh, river and town, 435, 438 Andâlmishk, Andâmish bridge, 238, 239 Andarâb river, 427 Anderson, J. G. C., 12I Andîgân, Andîjân, 477, 478 Angran river, 482 Angora, Angûriyah, Angûrah Anķûrah, 136, 142, 149 Angora for Amorion, 153 Angurân, 223 Anî, 139, 183 Anjarûd, 223, 224 Anjîrah, 285 Antelope Tomb, 195 Anti-Taurus, 127, 129 Antioch of Isauria, 153 Antioch of Pisidia, 136, 151, 152 Antioch of Syria, 33, 153 Antâkiyah Muḥtarikah or Sawdâ, 136, 153 Antâliyah, 141, 145, 151 Antiquary, The, 138 Anûshirwân the Just, 27, 33, 180, 208, 375 Anvârî, poet, 395 Aphrike, 119 Aphrodisiac seeds, 191 Apollonia, 151 Apologos, 19, 47 Arâbah, 325 Arâbân or ‘Arbân, 97 Arabgîr, 'Arabkîr, Arabraces, 119 Arabian ‘Irâk, 25 Arabissus, 122, 133, 142, 146 ‘Arabistân, 232 Aradûn, 22, 367 Arâkliyah, 19, 134, 142 Aral Sea, 23, 443, 444, 458; names of, 486 Arandîn Kird district, 80 Ararat mountain, 182 Aras, Araxes river, 4, 5, 117, 118, 166-168, 175, 176-179, 182 Arbela, 92 Arbinjan, 468 Arbre Sol or Arbre Sec, 356 Arch at Asadâbâd, 196 Arch of the Chosroes (Madâin), 34 Ard-ad-Dâwar, 345 Ard-ar-Rûm, 113 Ardabil, 5, 159, 160, 163; its wall and suburbs, 168, 229, 230 Ardalankath, 480 Ardashîr, castle of, 306 Ardashîr Bâbgân, King, 222, 236, 255, 303, 340; his mother, 245 Ardashîr Bâbgân district, 80 Ardashîr Khurrah district, 248 Ardhakhîvah, 452 Ardhakhushmîthân, 453 Ardistân, 208 Ardsakar, 412 494 INDEX. Âshib, 93 Argandâb, 345, 346 Arghân, Arghûn or Arkhân, 269 Ashk, 381 Arghiyân, 392 Ashkahrân mountains, 207 Arghẩn Khấn, 183, 222, 393; his Ashursdah bay, 375 376 tomb, 223 “Âșî, Rûd, 277 Argæus mount, 146, 150 Asia Minor, 127-158 Ârhan ford, 435 Ask, 381 Arîs river, 484 “Askar (Bust), 345 Ariwajân, 63 *Askar Abu Ja'far, 47 Ark of Noah, 98, 182 *Askar Mukram, 233, 236, 237, 242, Argâish, 146, 150 246, 247 ‘Arjân river, 122 *Askar Mu'tasim, 56 Arjîsh, 147, 183, 230, 231 Askîmasht, 350 Arjîsh lake, 22 Asrûd river, 469 Armabîl or Armayîl, 330, 333 Ass, wild, skins of, 458, 488 Armanâk, 148 Assafoetida, 400 Armenia or Armînîyah, 5, 140; Inner Assar Kalʻah, 153 and Outer, 182–184 Assarlik, 154 Armenia, Little, 129-131, 140, 141 Assassins, their castles, 221, 226, 227, Armenian belts, 64 269, 354-356,360, 362, 365, 372, 374 Armiyân, Kalʻah, 200 Assyria, 24 Arrajân, town and district, 6, 244, Astân, districts of 'Irâk, 79 247, 248; its gates and bridges, Astân-al-A'lâ, 80 268, 269, 273, 294, 297 Astarâbâd, 375, 378, 379, 381 Arrân, 5, 176-179 Astarabyân, 410 "Arşah, 319 Astrolabes, 211 Arsanâs, Arsanias fumen, 115 Astronomical tables, Îl-Khânî, 164 Aswad, Nahr, 150 Arsamosata, 116 Arsubânîkath, 485 “Ațar of roses, 293 Article, use of Arabic, in place. Âtishgâh, 355 names, 21 Atrabazandah, 136 Arû, ķalóah, 272 Airak river (Jurjân), 8, 376, 377 ‘Arûj or ‘Arûh, 245 Atrak river (Kazvîn), 220 Arvand mountain, 22, 195 Atropatene, 159 Arzan, 112, 125 ‘Atshâbâd river, 387 Arzan-ar-Rûm, 113, 117, 145, 147, "Attâbî silks, 81, 161, 203, 429 Attaleia, Attalia, 151 231 Arzanah, 113 Aulieh-Ata, 486 Arzanjân, Arzangân or Arzinjân, 118, Âvâ, Âvah of Sâvah, 210—212, 229 147, 231 Âvâ, Âvah of Hamadân, 196 Asadâbâd (Hamadân), 196 Awânâ, 50 Asadâbâd (Îdhaj), 245 Âvard, 282 Asadabad (Khurasân), 430 Avârik, 313 As'adî canal, 398-400 Awfah, 410 Asak, 244, 247 Awfar, 466 Asbanbûr, 34 Avhar, 222 Asbarâyin, 393 Avîg, 289 Asbestos, 436 Awân (@jan), 103, 23 Asbîjâb, 484 Avnîk, 118 Asfand, 388 ‘Awrâ, “silted up,' Lower Tigris, 44 Asfanjây, 347, 351 Awzaj, 439 Asfarayn, 393 Ayân, 264, 265 Asfuzâr, 340, 350, 412, 431 Ayas bay, 131, 132 Ashbandh, 385 Ayâsulûk, Ayathulûkh, Ayâsalîgh Ashburķân, 426 (Ephesus), 145, 155 Ashfand, 388 Aydî, 226 INDEX. 495 Aydîn, 144, 154 'Ayn (A.), a spring 'Ayn Burghûth, 134 *Ayn Dhahbânîyah, 103 •Ayn-al-Humm, 370 *Ayn-at-Tamr, 65, 81 'Ayn Yûnis, 89 Ayn-az-Zâhirîyah, 95 'Ayn Zanîthâ, 122 Ayn Zarbah, 128, 129 Ayûh, 192 Aywaj, 439 Aywân (Jûr), 255 Aywân Kisrâ, 34 Azâdvâr, 391, 392, 430 A'zam, Nahr, 92 Azarbâyjân or Azarbîjân, 20, 159 âzâr Sâbûr, 280 Azjah, 394 Azkâs, 283 Azmadîn, 195 Azmîr, 155 Azraķ river (Kârûn), 235 Azraķ river (N. Mesopotamia), 123 ‘Azure,' from Lâzûrd, 436 Bâ‘ashîķâ, 90 Bâʻaynâthâ (Jazîrah Ibn 'Omar), 94 Bâʻaynâthâ (Balad), 99 Bâb (A.), gate Bâb-al-Abwâb, 180, 184 Bâb-al-Hadîd, the Iron Gate, 441, 442, 472 Bâb Şalwâ, 59 Bâbak, 287 Baban, 413 Bâbar, Emperor, 477 Bâbghîsh, 90 Bâbil (Babel, Babylon), 72, 81 Bâbirt, 118 Babnah, 413, 415 Babylon ruins, 72 Babylonia, 24 Bactrian camels, 350 Bâd-Harzah, 357 Badakhshân, 8, 435-437 Badakhshân river, 435-437 Badam river, 484 Badaraya, 63, 64, 8o Badât canal, 74, 81 Bâdghîs, 412-415, 432 Bâdhan, 394 Badhandûn, 133, 134, 135, 138, 139 Badhash, 368, 430 Bâdhbîn, 82 Badlîs, 113, 125, 184 Badr, son of Hasanawayh, 201 Badrận, 5O Bâdûrayâ, 31, 66, 67, 80 Bâdûsbân mountains, 372 Bâfd, Bâfķ or Bâft, 310, 312 Bâgh-i-Shîrjânî, 305 Baghchî-Shûr (Baghshûr), 413, 415 Baghdâd, 2, 3, 19, 25; West and East, 30-33, 59-62, 82-85, 101 Baghdad during the Abbasid Cali- phate, 30 Baghîn, 307, 321 Baghlân, 427 Baghnîn, 345, 346 Baghshûr, 413, 415 Bagratids, 140 Bahâ-ad-Dawlah, 77 Bahâ-ad-Dîn Haydar, 222 Bâhar (Bam), 314 Bahâr (Sîrjân), 311 Bahâr Kurdistân), 193 Bahargîrî, 183 Bahasnâ, 123, 128 Bahașsâ, 42 Bahâyin, 391 Bahman, King, 208, 337 Bahman, fort, 292 Bahmanâbâd, 430 Bahmanshîr, 43 Bahr, see Lake Bahrah, 330 Bahrâm Gûr, 75, 191, 195 Bahrâm Shah, I49, 348 Bahrâmâbâd, 286 Bahrayn islands, 26 Bahrîyyah, Princess, 372 Bahurasîr, 34, 35, 80 Bâjaddâ, 105 Bajarvân (Mûķân), 175, 176, 230, 231 Bajarwân (Jazîrah), 105, 125 Bâjisrâ, 18, 59, 62 Bajistân, 359 Bajjah, 282 Bakamşî, 42 Bâkharz, 357 Bakhtigân lake, 6, 277-279, 298 Bâķirdâ, 93 Başlân, 427 Bakr, 86 Bakrâbâd, Bakrâwâdh (Sijistân), 347 Bakrâbâd (Jurjân), 377, 378 Bâkû, Bâkâh, Bâkûyah, 180, 181 Ba‘ķûbâ, 59 Bakusấya, 63, 8o Bâlâ Murghâb, 404 Balâ Sâbûr, 270 Balad (Maskin), 51 Balad (Mosul), 99, 125 496 INDEX. 14, 16, Balad-ad-Dâwar, 345 Balâdhurî, 17, 18 Balas ruby, 436, 437 Balâsâbâd, 34 Bâlâsâghun, 487 Balaț, 99. Balbân river, 435 Baldwin, King, 104 Balîkân, 416 Bâlîkesrî, 156 Balîkh river, 87, 101, 102, 105 Bâlis, 107 Bâlis or Bâlish (Wâlistân), 332, 333, 347, 351 Baljuwân, 438 Balkh, 8; gates and suburbs, 382, 420-423, 429, 431, 432 Balkh river (Oxus), 434 Balkhâb, 176 Balkhân, 455 457, Balkhash (balas ruby), 436, 437 Balkiyân, 416 Balkuwârâ, 52 Balûch, Balûş or Balûchistân, 7, 317, 323, 329 Bâlûsâ hill, 94 Bam or Bamm, 20, 299, 312 Bâmanj, 413 Bấmiyẩn, 43, 417-419 Bampûr, 330 Bân (Khurasân), 392 Bân canal, 40 Banâ Shâpûr, 263 Banâkath, Banâkît, 482 Banân, wild pistachio, 309 Banbûr, 330 Band, a river dam or weir, 277 Band-i-Amîr or Band-i-Adudî, 276, 277 Band-i-ķaşşâr, 277 Band-i-Kîr, 236, 237 Band-i-Mâhî, 183 Band-i-Mujarrad, 277, 281 Band-i-Rustam, 345 Bandanîgân or Bandanîjîn, 63, 80 Bandar Abbâs, 319 Bandar Daylam, 273 Banî Junayd, 59, 219 Banî Kawân island, 261 Banî Mâhân suburb, 399 Banjahîr, 350 Banjaway, 346, 347, 351 Banjakath (Bûnjikath), 474 Banjîkath, 465 Bann Afrîdûn or Bann Ukhrâ, 326, 327, 360, 361 Bannajbûr, 329 Baraân, 206 Bârâb (Fârs), 257, 296 Bârâb (Juzjân), +25 Bârâb (Utrâr), 484, 485 Baradân, 32, 50, 59 Baradân or Baradâ river, 133 Barâdar Jân, 399 Barâghûsh, 163 Bârah Farûsh Dih, 375 Barâm-stone, jars, 389 Barârah river, 256 Barâtakîn, 455 Barâthâ, 32 Barâz-ar-Kûz, 61, 64, 80 Barbahâr, rarities, 293, 294 Barbalissus, 107 Barbân river, 435 Barbier de Meynard, M., 410, 422 Barbîsamâ, 70, 81 Barbiyân, 271 Barbûr, 330 Bardarûd ķalóah, 355 Bardashîr or Bardasîr district, medi- eval and modern, 22, 299, 300, 303 Bardashîr or Bardasîr city (Kirmân), 300, 302-307, 320, 321 Bardâ“ (Mashhad), 388 Bardâor Bardhâ'ah (Arrân), 177, 178, 184, 230 Bardûdâ canal, 41 Bârfarûsh, 375 Barghamah, 156 Barghar, 467 Bargylia, 154 Barhand Rûd, 195 Bârimmâ, 91, 98 Baris, 152 Bâriz, 316, 317 Barjî, 374 Barjîn, 154 Barķa'îd, 99 Bârkath, 466 Barkî, 487, 488 Bârkîrî, 183 Barşûh, 284 Barkuwârâ, 52 Barlâsî canal, 178 Barley-corn, measure of, 398 Barm, 279 Barmak and the Barmecides, 42 I Barsakhân, 489 Bartallâ, 90 Bartang river, 435 Bârûsamâ or Bârûsmâ, 70, 81 Barvấn, I73 Barzah, 165, 230 500 INDEX. Castle (cont.) Haykal, 355 Hinduwân, 422 Ibn 'Umârah, 257 Isfandiyâr, 264, 265 Istakhr Yâr, 276 Ja ‘bar, 102 Kabrît, 195 Kharashah, 254 Khastâr, 417 Khawashir, 359 Khing, 272 Kharshah, 254 Khuvâr, 279 Khwadân, 290 Kûh (Kirmân), 306 Kûh (Mardîn), 96 Kuhnah, 359 Ķûlanjân, 282 Kush-va-Rấn, 313 Kûshah, 317 Kushkak, 319 Mahdî, Hișn, 238, 243, 247 Mâkîn, 195 Manûjân, 317, 319 Maslamah, 105, 137 Mîkâl, 355 Mînâ, 319 Mujâhidâbâd, 355 Najm, 107 Ram Zavấn, 260 Safid, 264, 265 Sahârah, 256 Șaķâlibah (Sclavonians), 134, 135, 139 Samîrân (Juwaym), 254 Samîrân (Sîrâf), 258 Samîrân or Samîrûm (Târum), 226 Sang (Sirjân), 300, 302 Shahârah, 256 Shahbâ, 96 Shâmil, 319 Shamîrân (Herât), 409 Shamîrân (Juwaym), 254 Shamirân (Trum), 2 26 Shankavân, 276 Shikastah, 276 Sih Gunbadhân, 276 Sinâdah, 135 Surkh, 251 Tabarik (Isfahân), 205 Tabarik (Ray), 216, 217 Tâj, 226 Tâķ (Daylam), 374 Tâķ, Hișn (Sijistân), 343 Tang-Zandân, 319 Tang-i-Zinah, 289 Castle (cont.) Tarzak, 319 Tawâs, 154 Tâziyân, 319 Tîghûr, 269 Tilâ, 161 Țîn, 108 Tîr-i-Khudâ, 253 Tîz, 251 White Castle, 264, 265 Yahûd, 135 Zar, 393 Zarah, 338, 344 Caucasus mountains, 180, 181, 368 Cave of Seven Sleepers, 119, 143, 155, 314 Cavern of the Winds, 387 Cayster river, 155 Cephe, 113 Chaboras, 95. Chấch, 48o Chaechasta lake, 160, 161 Chaghaniyan, 20, 439. Chahâr Dânikah canal, 236 Chahar Jủy, 4O3, 44, 43 Châhik, 20, 278 Chaltah Irmaḥ, 119 Chamchamâl, 193 Changhiz Khân, 337, 385, 47, 418, 422, 423, 448, 463, 482 Chardin, Chevalier, 204-206, 221 Chashmah Sabz lake, 386–388 Châûlî, Amîr, 264, 277, 281, 288-290 Chebulic myrobalan, 349 Chess-board plan of Nîshâpûr, 386 Chîchast lake, 22, 160, 161 Chimkant or Chimikant, 484 Chîn island, 261 Chînâs, 483 Chinâr (plane-tree), 392 Chirchik river, 482 Chosroes, bridge of (Nahrawân), 57; (Arrajân), 269; arch of (Madâin), 34 Christian physicians, under Abbasids, 238, 239 Christians, Jacobites, 94; Nestorians, 465, 482, 487 Chûchaktû, 423, 424 Chugukâbâd, 313, 314 Cilicia, 148 Cilician Gates, 132, 134, 139 Circesium, 105 Claudiopolis, 157 Clavijo, Ruy Gonzalez de, Ambas- sador, 391, 442, 457, 458, 465 Clay, edible, 258 INDEX. 501 Cobinan, 309 Cochineal, 167 Cold Lands, 249 Commerce, see Trade Constantine I, 106 Constantine IV, 138 Constantine Porphyrogenitus, 138 Constantinople, 138; road to, 134, 135; sieges of, 137 Coracesium, 150 Cotyæum, 136 Cramoisie, crimson dye, 184 Crocodiles in Indus, 331 Cross at Mayyâfarîkîn, 112 Crusades, first, second and third, 140, 141 Ctesiphon, 25, 33 Currants (Rîbâs), 385, 387 Custom-house (Gumruk), 319 Cuthah, 68 Cydnus river, 133 Cypress, great, 284, 355, 356 Cypress-wood, 290 Cyprus, island, 128 Cyrus, tomb of, 276, 284 Cyrus river (Armenia), , 177-181 Cyrus river (Fârs), 264, 275-277, 279-283 Daonas, 154 Dâr (A.), house, plural Diyâr, 86 Dâr- or Darband Ahanîn, 441 Dâr-al--Âmmah, 54 Dâr-al-Battîkh, 215 Dâr-i-Isfid, 280 Dâr-al-Kuttub, 215 Dâr Mashkân, 399, 400 Dâr-as-Siyâdah, 78 Dârâ, 96 Dârâbjird, 6, 248, 288, 289, 294, 296 Darahkan, 318 Daraj river, 220 Darâk, 340 Dârak Mûsâ, hill, 250 Dârâkân, 289 Darand, 163 Darandah, 120 Darawliyah, 135 Darb (A.), road or gate Darb-al-Hadath, 122, 133 Darb-al-Kilâb, III Darb-as-Salâmah, 122, 134 Darband (P.), a pass Darband or Bâb-al-Abwâb, 180 Darband-i-Khalîfah, 92 Darband Tâj Khâtûn, 193, 194 Darband Zangî, 193, 194 Darbast, 266 Darbîl, 193, 194 Dardasht, 205 Darfânî or Dârfârid, 315, 316 Dargham, 466 Darghân, 451 Darghash, 345, 346 Darguzîn, 196, 228 Darîst, 267 Darius, King, 187 Darîyah or Dara'îyah, 84 Darîz, 260, 267, 294 Darjân town, 271 Darjân castle, 359 Dârjîn, 313, 321 Dârkan, 289 Darkhîd, Darkhuwîd, or Darkhûnad, 265, 266 Darrah Gaz, 394 Dartal, 345, 346 Dârûk, 257 Daryâ (P.), river or sea, 434 Daryâ Kulzum, 458 Daryâ-i-Sharķ, 458 Daryâchih Shûr, 267' Daryân, 271 Dârzanjî, 440 Darzîn, 313, 321 Dabasah, 136 Dabîş embroideries, 294 Dabîl, 182, 184, 230 Dabistân, 356 Dabûsiyah, 468, 471 Dâdhîn, 267 Daharzîn, 313 Dahânah, 103 Dahâs river, 420 Dahbânah, 103 Dahlîzân, 269 Dahmânah, 103 Dahnaj (malachite), 389 Dâ‘î, missioner, 174 Dakharrakan, 164 Daķūķâ, 92 Dalîjân, 210 Dâliyah (waterwheel), 67 Dâliyah town, 105 Dam Darân castle, 260 Damascus, 21, 125 Damavand mountain, 22, 168, 367 Damâvand town, 371 Dâmghân, 7, 36, 364, 365 Dams on the Helmund, 339, 340, 345 Dams on the Kur, 277, 281 Dandanķân, 400 Daniel, tomb of prophet, 240 502 INDEX. Dasht (P.), plain, desert Dasht Arzin, 253 Dasht Bârîn, 260, 268, 294 Dasht Biyâd, or Piyâz, 358, 359 Dasht-i-Kavîr or Dasht-i-Lût, 322 Dasht Rûm or Rûn, 282, 283 Dasht Urd, 282 Dashtâbâd, 236 Daskarah (Basrah), 48 Daskarah (Jalûlah), 80 Daskarah-al-Malik, 62 Dastabâ, 220 Dastabûyah melons, 202 Dastagird, 62 Dastakân, 259, 274 Dastan, brother of Rustam, 208 Dastî Maysân, 43, 80 Dastuvâ, 220 Date Tabas, 359, 360 Davalû, 146, 150 Dâwar, 345 Dawlatâbâd, 198 Dawraķ, Dawraķ-al-Furs, or Dawraķi. stân, 242, 247 Dawsar, 102 Daybul, 330, 331, 333 Daylam district, Daylamân, 172-174, 218, 225 Dayr (A.), monastery Dayr-Abu-Sufrah, 57 Dayr-al-'Âķûl, 35 Dayr Barsûmâ, 120 Dayr Hizķil, 37 Dayr-al-Jiss, 208 Dayr ķunnâ, 36 Dayr-al-'Ummãl, 41 Dayrjân, 271 Dayruzîn, 313, 321 Dazak, 330 De Bode, C. A., 263, 270, 272 De Goeje, M. J., 13, 14, 18, 74, 458, 489 De Morgan, J., 190 Decius, Emperor, 314 Defrémery, C., 16 Deluge of Noah, 75 Denizlû, 153 Desert, the Great, 6, 207, 208, 321- 328 Desmaisons, Baron, 17 Deveh Boyun, 451 Dh pronounced 2, 20 Dhahbânîyah spring, 103 Dhât 'Irķ, 83 Dhîb, Nahr (of Euphrates), 116 Dhîb, Nahr (of Tigris), 110 Dhu-1-Ķilâ or Kulâ, 138 Dhurrah, Indian corn, 318, 320 Dîbâj, brocades, 235, 246 Dibs, syrup, 294 Diſrîgî, 119 Diglath (Tigris), 25 Dih or Dîh (P.), village Dih ‘Alî, 263 Dih Bâd, 388 Dih Bâryâb, 425 Dih Bîd, 284, 297 Dih Gawz or Jawz, 282 Dih Girdû, 282 Dih Khuwârţân, 164 Dih Kiyâhân, 165 Dih Mùrd, 19, 279 Dih Nâband, 329, 361 Dih Nakhîrjân, 164 Dih Namak, 19, 367 Dih Ushturân, 19, 287 Dihistân (Bâdghîs), 414, 415 Dihistân_(Jurjân), 377, 379-381 Dijlah, Tigris, 21 Dijlah, district of, 80 Dijlah-al-'Awrâ, Blind Tigris, 43 Dîkbâyah, Dîkdân castle, 257 Dilfarîd, 316 Dimimmâ, 66 Dînâr hills, 271, 272 Dînavar, 188, 189, 201, 227 Dîndâr, 263 Dirgham river, 435, 436 Dîv Rûd, 314, 315, Divrîk, Dîvrîki or Dîvrîgî, 119 Diyâ-al-Mulk, 167 Diyâlâ river, 59–61 Diyâr (A.), habitations Diyâr Bakr or Âmid, 108 Diyâr Bakr district, 86-100 Diyâr ķûmis, 364 Diyâr Mudar, 86, 108-114 Diyâr Rabî'ah, 86, 101-108 Diz (P.), castle Diz Abraj, 281 Diz Gunbadân, 365 Diz Kalât, 269 Dizah of Kașrân, 216 Dizah of Marv, 405 Dizah of Varâmîn, 216 Dizak (Jizak), 475, 488 Dizak Nishnâk, Nishkumân or Astâk, 265 Dizbảd, 387, 388, +30 Dizbaz, 201 Dizbîl, 194 Dizful or Dizpul, 202, 238, 239 Dizful river, 233 Dizmâr, 67 INDEX. 505 415, 416 Gawd-i-Zirrah, 338 Great Wall of Bukhârâ, 461, 462 Gaz, 206 Great Wall of Shâsh, 481 Gazn, 224 Great Desert, see Desert Gebhiltâ, 92 Green Dome, 306, 307 Geographers, the Moslem, 11-18 Green Palace, 39 George, Saint, 89 Grénard, F., 143 Georgia, 5, 181, 416 Gûdarz, 302 Geredî Bûlî, 157 Guinea-worm, 394, 403 Germanicia, 122, 128 Gukchah lake (Armenia), 182, 183 Germiyân, 144, 153 Gukchah river" (Badakhshân), 435, Ghabrâ castle, 135 436 Ghadbân river, 133 Gul, 154 Ghanjarah, 158 Gul Andâm, Shaykh, 280 Ghardamân, 452 Gulâbâdîkân, 210 Gharj-ash-Shâr, 415, 416, 429, 431 Gulâshkird, 317 Gharjistân, Gharshistần, Gharistân, Gulban, Princess, 62 Gulbâr, 205 Gharûbulî, 135 Gulnâbâd, 286 Ghazzâlî, Imâm, 289, 290 Gulpaygân, 207, 210, 247 Ghazân Khân, 78, 162, 103, 176, 26 Gulrân, 413 Ghaznah or Ghaznayn, 7, 348, 349, Gulshân, Kûh, 387 Gumrû, Gumruk, 319 351 Ghubayrâ town, 308 Gunâbâd, Gunâbidh, 359 Ghubayrâ plant, 287 Gunbad-i-Ķâbûs, 378 Ghunabad, Kah, 414 Gunbad Mallaghân, 272 Ghundîjân, 260, 268, 294 Gunek Şû, 116 Ghûr or Ghûristân, 339, 341, 342, Gûr for Jûr, 256 397, 407, 415-417 Gûr Kalčah, 161 Ghurian, 411, 412 Gûr-i-Surkh, 378 Ghuzz Turks, 305, 385, 421; their Gurbâyigân, 210 capital, 486 Gurgân, see Jurjân Ghuzz., Desert of, 380, 397, 444, 477 Gurgân, "bugs,' 378 Gihon, 434 Gurganj, Great, Little, and Old, Gil Zariyân, 476 446-449 ; see Jurjânîyah Gîlakî, Amîr, 324, 325, 360 Gurganjak, 449 Gîlân, 5, 172-175 Gurjistân (Georgia), 5, 181, 416 Gipsies, 244, 331 Gurjistân (Khurâsân), 416 Girdkůh (Jibâl), 221 Gurshâsp, King, 337 Girdkůh (Ķûmis), 365 Gurzuvân, 424 Girdlâkh, 195 Gushtâsfî, 179, 181 Girishk, 346 Gushtasp, King, 355 Girrah, 268 Guwâkharz, 357 Gît, 454, 455 Guwashîr, 303, 304 Gizah, 343 Guwayn (Sijistân), 341 Glass-works, 51 Gûyân plain, 391 Godfrey de Bouillon, 129 Guyard, S., 16 Gold mines, 224, 365, 467 Guzarận, 3 2 Golden Kiosque, 282 Guzel Hişâr, 154 Goldsmid, Sir F., 328, 335, 342, 354, Guzîdah, Târîkh, 16 Gypsum Convent, 208 Goldziher, I., 285 Gypsum Palace, 55 Gombroon, 319 Gottwaldt, I. M. E., 18 Habib-as-Siyâr, 17, 18 Gourd of Jonah, 89 Habiltâ, 92 Goyun, 253 Habl Ibrâhîm, 69 Granada, 19 Habrak, 279 Great Island (Başrah), 44, 46 Habrâthân, 380 356 506 INDEX. Habs, 271 Hadath, Darb, 133 Hadath fortress, 121, 122, 126, 128 Hadbâ, 89 Haddâdah, 368 Hâdî, Caliph, 219 Hadîthah (Euphrates), 64, 84 Hadîthah (Tigris), 90, 91, 125 Hadr, 98 Hadrat-i-Turkistân, 485 Haffâr channel, 48 Hâfią, poet, 307 Hâfiz Abrû, 16, 17 Haft lậlîm, 375 Haftâd Pûlân, 213 Hafrak, 279 Hagmatâna, 194 Hair, at Karbalâ, 79 Hajar-al-Fatîlah, 436 Hajjaj ibn Yûsuf, 39, 72, 237, 268 Hajjî Barlâs, 392 Hajjî Khalfah, 17 Hakîm Burķâ‘î, 414 Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, 29, 68, 450, 454, 458 Haķshiyân, 194 Hâlah, 42 Halam, 456 Halâward, 438 Halfâ grass, 49 Halîl Rûd, 314, 315 Halîlaj, myrobalan, 349 Hall of the Chosroes, 34 Halûras, 110 Halys river, 135, 145 Hamadân or Hamadhân, 5, 20, 186; walls and gates, 194-196, 227–230 Hamdânids, 96 Hâmid for Âmid, 108 Hamîd, Amîr, 144, 151 Hammâm 'Omar, 73 Hamrâ, 122 Hamshahrah, 176 Hamûlah, 200 Hamzah of Isfâhân, 17, 18 Hangầmabad, 4 5 Hânỉ, IO Haram (Fârs), 257 Harât village, 287, 298 Harât city, see under Herât Harbâ, 51, 52, 85 Harbîyah, 31, 51, 85 Harî Rûd, 396, 407-410 Hârith, Jabal, 182 Harrâb, 135 Harrân, 103, 124 Harsîn, 192 Harskân, 281 Hârûd river, 340, 412 Hârûn-ar-Rashid, Caliph, 32, 33, 58, 77, 101, 122, 123, 129-132, 134, 139, 164, 198, 219, 220, 239; his tomb, 388–391 Hârûnâbâd, 192 Hârûnî palace, 54 Hârûnîyah ('Irâk), 62 Hârûnîyah (Rûm), 128, 129 Harûrî, 343, 351 Hârût and Mârût, 72 Hasan Aghâ, 93 Hasan, the Dâ'Î, 221 Hasan Sabâḥ, the Old Man of the Mountain, 221 Hasan, son of ‘Alî the Imâm, 56 Hasan Ibn 'Omar, 93 Hasan ibn Sahl, 38 Hasanawayh or Hasanûyah, 189, 201, 288 Hasanîyah, 93, 124, 125 Hashimiyah, 71 Hâshimjird, 441 Hasht Rûd, 170 Hassân the Nabathæan, 42 Hasûyah, 288 Hatra, 98 Hawânît, 41 Hawîzah, 233, 241 Hawl (lagoon), 41, 42 Hawl village, 73 Hawmah of Nishậpûr, 354 Hawmah of Yazd, 285 Hawmah of Zutt, 244 Hawr, 41, 42 Haybak, 427 Haydar, Atabeg, 222 Haydar, saint, and Haydarîyah Dar- vîshes, 356 Haydarîyah castle, 222 Hâyil, 84 Haykâl castle, 355 Haytal, 433, 438 Hazầr Sâbûr, 280 Hazârasp town and canal, 450-452, 472 Hazîrah, 51 Helmund river, 7, 334, 335, 338– 340, 343-345 Heraclia, 19, 134, 136, 149 Heraclius, Emperor, 63 Herât, 8, 382 ; walls and suburbs, 407-409, 429-431 Herất river, 396, 407-410 H. G. A. M., 127 Hides, 423 508 INDEX. ij, 289 Ijarûd, 223 Ikhshîn river, 267, 268 Iklîd, 282 IĶlîm Akûr, 86 Iklîm Riḥâb, 159, Îi Khâns of Persia, 145, 228 x Îlâķ, 477, 482, 483 'Ilj, 135, 'Imâd-ad-Dawlah or Dîn, 93 *Imâdîyah, 92 Imâm Zâyid, shrine, 342 India, 331 Indigo, 349 Indus river, 331 Iniklî, 122 Irâhistân, 254, 256, 258 Îraj for Abraj, 281 'Iràķ province, 3, 24-85 'Irâk 'Ajamî, 5, 185 Irâkân or 'Irâkayn, 25, 186 Îrân, 248 Irân and Tûrân, 433 Îrân Shâh, Saljûķ, 304 Îrân Shahr, 383 Îrâvah, 362 Irbil, 92 Iron Gate, the, 441, 442, 472 Iron mines, 109, 278, 287, 294, 316, Iskâf Bani Junayd, 59, 80 Iskandarîyah (Alexandretta) Bay, 128 Iskifghẩn, +7 Islands of the Persian Gulf, 261 Ismâîl, son of Imâm Mûsâ, 280 Ismâîlîans, see Assassins Ispahbad princes, 175, 369, 371, 373, 374 Ispârtah, 152 Ispî, 325 Istabl-al-Malik, 135 Istahbânân or Iştahbânât, 290 Istakhr (Persepolis), 6, 20, 248; wall and gate, 275, 276, 294, 295, 297 Istakhr Yâr, 276 Istakhrân, 282 Istakhrî, 13, 14 Istambûl or Istan Bâlin, 138 Istânûs or Istanâz, 151 Istind, 358 Itâkh the Turk and Itâkhîyah, 57, 58 'Itr (Ottar) of Roses, 293 Izmekmîd or Izmîd, 157 Iznîş, 156, 157 Jabal, see Mountain Jâbalak, 245 Ja‘bar castle, 102 Jabbul, 38 Jabultâ, 18, 91, 92, 125 Jacobites, 94 Jâdhâwâ, 414 Jadîd, Nahr, 48 Ja'farî palace, 55 Jafûz, 277, 278 Jaghân Nâûr lake, 198 Jaghân Rûd, 392 Jaghtû river, 165 Jahân, I3I Jahân Numå, 16, 17; account of Asia Minor, 145 Jahân Sûz, 348 Jahram, 254, 294 Jahûdân-al-Kubrâ, 424 Jahûķ, 197 Jâij Rûd, 218 Jâjarm, 392, 430 Jakîn, 318 Jalâl-ad-Dîn Rûmî, 142, 148 Jaliķân, 344 Jälk, 330, 332 Jallâdgân, 271 Jalâlâ, 62, 80 Jâlûs, 373 Jâm, Shaykh, 356, 357 476 Irtish river, 487 "Îsâ, nephew or uncle of Manşûr, 66 •Îsâ canal, 30–32, 66, 69, 80 Isauria, 144 Isbahânât, 290 Isbîdh, 325 Isbîjâb, 8, 483-486, 488 Isfad, 358 Isfahân, Işbahan or Ispahân, 186; quarters, suburbs and gates, 202- 207, 227, 229, 247, 297 Isfahbad, Isfahbudhân, 175, 369, 371, 373, 374 Isfandiyâr castle, 264, 265 Isfandiyâr province, 144 Isfanj, 392 Isfarâyin, 381, 391–393 Isfîd Diz, 264, 265 Isfidân (Fârs), 281 Isfîdhân (Jibâl), 197 Isfîdbâdh, 281 Ishâk ibn Ibrâhîm, 54 Ishâkî canal, 52, 54, 55 Ishkanvân, 281 Ishtîkhân, 466 Is'îrt, 114 Isfî, 325 INDEX. 509 Congregational Jenkinson, Sir A., 9449, 454, 457 Jâmasp, the Mobed, 72 Jami', meaning Mosque, 36 Jamiân, 7I Jâmidah, 41 Jamjamâl, 193 Jamkân lake, 252 Jamm, 258 Jammâzah, dromedary, 83 Jamshid, 275, 280 Jamûkat, 484 Jamûkhiyân bridge, 432 Jan, .467 Janbadhak, 165 Jand, 486 Jandak Oasis, 325 Jankân lake, 252 Jannâbâ, 259, 273, 274, 294, 296 Janzah, 178 Janzarûdh, 308 Jarâhîyah river, 270 Jârbâyah, 350 Jard bridge, 467 Jardaşûb, 134 Jardur canal, 453 Jarhud, 371 Jarjarâyâ, 37, 80 Jarkan, 265 Jarmaḥ Oasis, 282, 325–328 Jarshîş river, 267, 268 Jarûd, 223 Jaryâb river, 435, 436 Jashấn, 4.2 Jâsik island, 261 Jât tribes, 244, 331 Jaubert, A., 15 Jâûlî, Atabeg, 264; see Châûlî Jawâmid, 41 Jawbar canal, 68, 80 Jawbarķân, 276 Jawdhaķân, 357 Jawsaķ castle (Ray), 215 Jawsaķ palace (Samarrâ), 55 Jawz, Wâdî, 134 Jawzât, 134 Jaxartes, see under River Jay (Isfahân), 21, 203, 204, 206 Jay (Sughd), 467 Jây Rûd, 469 Jayhân (Pyramus), see under River Jayhûn, see Oxus under River Jayruft, 314 Jaz, 206 Jazîrah (A.), island or peninsula, 86 Jazîrah province, 3, 24, 86-114 Jazîrah Ibn 'Omar, 93, 94, 124, 125 Jews in Anbâr, 66; absent in Abarķuh, 284; in Isfâhân, 203 Jibâl (A.), mountains, 185 Jibâl province, 5, 185–231, 249 Jibbah, 65 Jiddah, 21 Jidghil, 476, 480 Jîjaktû, 424 Jikân for Jankân, 252 Jikarband, 451 Jîl, Jilân, Jilânât, 172-175, 267 Jîlânî river, 215 Jîlâyah mountains, 266 Jînânjakath, 482 Jins, 271 Jîr, 318 Jîranj, 400 Jirdûs, 315 Jirm, 437 Jirrah, 260, 267, 268, 296 Jirûn island, 319 Jîruft, 6, 299, 302; ruins of, 314, 315, 321 Jîs (Jibâl), 224 Jîs (Fârs), 271 Jisr (A.), meaning bridge of boats, 57; sometimes a stone bridge, 58; see under Bridge Jisr Manbij, 107 Jisr Nahrawân, 59, 61 Jiss palace, 55 Jîth, 454, 455 Jizah, 343 Jizak (Dizak), 475, 488 Jocelin II, 104 John Theologos, 155 Jonah, prophet, 88, 89, 181 Jones, Commander J. F., 52 Joshua, son of Nun, 112 Jûbânân lake, 277–279 Jûbarah, 205 Jubbâ, 243 Juddah, 21 Jûdî mountain, 94 Juhastah, 195 Juhaynah, 381 Jujube tree, 378 Jujube, Țabas of the, 359, 360 Jûkhâ, 42 Júlâhah or Julfah of Araxes, 167 Julbârah, 205 Julfah of Isfahân, 205 Jûmah (Fârs), 270 Jûmah of Yazd, 285; see Hawmah Junâbâd, 358, 359 INDEX, 511 Ķângrî, 158 Kanguvâr, 20, 188–228 Kanîsah fortress, 128-130 Kanj Rustâş, 413-415 Kanjîdah, 485 ķannajbûr or Kannazbûr, 329 Kant, meaning "city,' 478 ķanțarah (A.), a stone bridge, 57 ; see under Bridge ķanțarah Kirmân, 328, 338 ķanțarah-al-Kûfah, town, 74 Kapak Khân, 47o Ķârâ (T.), black Kârâ Aghach river, 252 Ķârâ Âmid, 108 Kârâ Arslân, 113 Kârâ Bâgh, 413 Ķârâbâgh country, 179 Ķârâ Ħişâr Afyûn, 19, 152 Kârâ Hişâr ķûniyah, 149 Kârâ Hişâr Nigdah, 150 Kârâ Hişâr Shâbîn, 147 Ķârâ Şû (Western Euphrates), 117 Kârâ Şû (Jibâl), 197, 212 Kârâ Tappah, 413 Karâchah, Atabeg, 252 Karâgh river, 410 Ķar'ah or Kaw'ah river, 233 Karah, Karah Rûd or Karaj river (Jibâl), 198 Karaj river (Ray), 218 Karaj of Abu Dulaf, 197, 198, 201, 229, 247 Karaj of Rûdhrâvar, 197 Karajah for Karkhah, 240 Kârâkhitay, 305 Karâķîs river, 121 Karallia, 152 Ķarâmân, 19, 144, 145, 148 Karârij, 206 Karâsî, 19, 144, 155, 156 Karbalâ, 78 Kard Fanâ Khusraw, 250 Kardân Rûd, 220 Kardurân Khwash, 452 Kargas Kûh, 208, 209 Karîh canal, 452 Ķârin family, 173, 372, 373 Karin (Theodosiopolis), 117 Ķârin for Bâriz, 317 Karînayn, 400 Kâriyân, 255 Kariyah or Ķaryat (A.), village Kariyat ‘Abd-ar-Rahmân, 279 Ķariyat 'Alî, 443 Kariyat-al-As, 20, 279 Kariyat Barâtakîn, 455 Kariyat-al-Bîdh, 284 Kariyat-al-Jadîd, 486 Kariyat-al-Jamâl, 20, 286, 287 Ķariyat-al-Jawz, 316 Kariyat-Manşûr, 372 Kariyat-al-Marâghah, 164 Kariyat-al-Milḥ, 20, 320 Ķariyat-ath-Thamânîn, 94 Ķariyat Yûnis, 181 Kârîz or Kârîzah, 414 Karjan, 265 Karkar, 167 Karkh of Baghdâd, 31, 67 Karkh Fîrûz, Sâmarrâ, 52, 54, 55 Karkhah or Karkhâ, 233, 240 Karkhî, 404 Ķarķîsiyâ, ii, 87, 95, 105, 125 Karkûk, 92 Karkûyah, 336, 341, 342, 35I Karmâlîs, 90 Karmînîyah, 468, 471 Karnîn, 343 Karram or Karrân (Badakhshân), 437 Karrân (Isfahân), 204 Karş, 181 Karshî, see Nakhshab Karûkh, 410, 431 Kârûn, see under River Karwân, 480 Kârzîn, 254 Kâs-i-Fir'awn, 56 Kasân, 480 Kâsân river, 427 ķaşarķand, 330 Kasbah, 471 Kâshân or Ķâshân, 20, 209, 227, 229 Kâshânî ware, see Tiles Kashghâr, 487 Kashîd, 308 Kâskân, 277 Kaskar (“Irâķ), 39, 42, 43, 80 Kaskar (Jîlân), 174 ķașr (A.), palace or castle Kașr (Sîbî), 347 Kașr, see ķașr Ibn Hubayrah ķașr Abu Talib, 264 ķașr-al-Abyad, 34 ķașr Ahnaf, 405, 432 ķașr ‘Amr, 405 Kașr Ayin or A'în, 282 Kaşr-al-Hârûnî, 54 Kașr Ibn Hubayrah, 70, 71, 83 ķașr al-Khalîfah, 88 Kașr-al-Luşûş, 20, 188, 228 Kașr-al-Milḥ, 367 ķașr-ar-Rîh, 388, 430 ķașr-ar-Rûnâsh, 238 512 INDEX. ķaşr-as-Salâm, 101 ķașr Shîrîn, 61, 63 Kașr Yazîd, 192 ķașrân (Ray), 216 Kașrân (Sîrjân), 301 ķaşşâb, gauze, 294 ķaşşârîn, Nahr (Samarķand), 465 Kaşşârîn, Nahr (Kushkah), 469 ķaştamûnî, 157 Kât or Kâth, meaning city,' 478 Kâth (Kât), Old and New, 446, 447, 450, 452, 453, 472 Katakekaumena, 149 Kathah (Yazd), 285 Kathrawâ, 308 ķațr, 26, 40-42 ķațrabbul, 31, 65, 66, 80 Kâtûl canal, Great, 57 Kâtûl canals, three lesser, 58 Kawânîn, 42 Kavâķ, 309 Kavâr, 253 Kavîr desert, 322 Kawtam, 170, 174 Kay Khusraw, King, 198, 224 Kayda Khân, 478 Kayf, 413 Kayfâ, 113 Ķâyin, 7, 352–354, 431 Kaylif, 442 ķays island, 6, 257, 261, 296 Kayşarîyah (Cæsarea Mazaka), 136, 142, 145, 146 ķayşarîyah, meaning a market,' 89, 90 Kaysûm, essence of, 293 Kaysûm (Euphrates), 123 Kazak canal, 339 Kâzimayn cemetery, 31 Kâzirûn, 262, 266, 267, 294, 296 Kazkî river, 233 ķazvîn or ķazwîn, walls and suburbs, 218-220, 227, 229 ķazwînî, 15, 16, 220 Kazz, raw silk, 294 Kelat (Afghanistân), 332, 333 Keredeh Bûlî, 157 Kermiyân, 144, 153 Khabadhân, 266 Khabarận (Khurasân), 394 Khabarần (Khaistan), 244 Khabîș, 299, 308, 321, 328 Khabr, 253 Khabs, 271 Khâbûr river, great, 87, 94-97, 105 Khâbûr river, little, 87, 93 Khabushấn, 377 393 Khajacharân, 408 Khalaj Turks, 346 Khalanj wood, 227, 369, 376, 459 Khalanjân, 2o5, 207 Khâlid the Barmecide, 34 Khalîj (Bosporus), 135, 136 Khalîjân, 444 Khalîl Rûd, 314, 315 Khâliş canal, 50, 59, 60 Khalkhâl (Adharbấyjân), 169-171, 230 Khalkhâl (Caspian), 456 Khamkhâ velvets, 386 Khân-al-Abrar, 2o6, 2o7 Khandaş Sâbûr, 65 Khâniķîn, 61, 62, 80 Khanjarah, 158 Khanjast for Chîchast, 161 Khânlanjan, 2o6, 2o7 Khannâb, 311 Khansar, IO Khanakah, Io6 Khanûs, 147 Kharak, 399 Kharaķânah, 475 Kharânah, 285 Kharashah castle, 254 Khardarûy river, 345 Khargâh, felt tents, 294 Kharghânkath, 468 Kharijites, 328, 345, 342 Khârik island, 261 Kharjird or Kharkird, 357, 358, 411 Kharkhîz, 417 Kharlakhîyah Turks, 487 Kharlîkh Turks, 482 Kharput, I7 Kharraķân, 23, 196, 220, 228, 367 Kharshần, 476 Khartabirt, 117 Khartîr, 380 Kharûd river, 220 Kharaj, 33 Kharv-al-Jabal, 394 Kharvarân, “the West Country,' 395 Khâs or Khâsh (Îlâk), 483 Khâsh (Sijistan), 342, 343 Khashâb, lighthouse, 49 Khashm, 174 Khasht (Herât), 410, 417 Khasht (flak), 483 Khashû, 291 Khashûfaghan, 466 Khâsik island, 261 Khasrû, 288 Khast Minarahsî, 457 Khistấn, 4.2 INDEX. 513 Khastâr, Ķalʻah, 417 Khasû, 291 Khasûyah tribe, 289, 290 Khâvarân district, 394, 395 Khâvarân river, 266 Khavardân, 395 Khawarnaḥ palace, 75 Khâwas (Ushrûsanah), 475 Khawâsh (Kufs), 317 Khawashir, Ķalʻah, 359 Khâvdân river, 266, 272 Khawî, 166 Khawlân, 88 Khawrâwâdhân, 265 Khawristân, 252 Khawsar river, 88 Khawst, 327, 361, 362 Khayâr, 290 Khaylâb river, 428 Khaylâm, 480 Khayn island, 261 Khayrâbâd river (Khûzistân), 270, 272 Khayrâbâd village (Khurâsân), 425 Khayrah, 278, 290, 298 Khayralam, 480 Khayrokot, 330 Khaysâr, 410 Khaywaķ, 450 Khazanah, 285 Khazar nation, 179, 180 Khazar, Bahr, the Black Sea, 136 Khazar, Babr, the Caspian, 22, 180 Khidr, prophet, 175 Khidr, mosque of, 263 Khilâț, 183, 230, 231 Khing castle, 272 Khinis, 147 Khisht, 267 Khîvah or Khivak, 450, 472 Khîvah canal, 453 Khoi, 166 Khûbdân or Khûbdhân river, 265, 272 Kháchân, 393 Khudâ Afarîn bridge, 167, 168 Khudâshah, 392 Khudîmankan, 468 Khuftiyân, 193, 194 Khujâdah, 462 Khûjah community in Bombay, 355 Khâjân, 393 Khujandah, 479, 489 Khûkand or Khuwâķand, 477, 479 Khulâb, 438 Khûlanjân, 206, 207 LE S. Khullâr, 253 Khulm, 427, 432 Khumahan stone, 389 Khumâyigân, 263, 264 Khûnâ, Khûnaj, 224, 225, 229, 230 Khûnâs, 147 Khunayfghan, Khunayflân, 256 Khôr, 325-327; 36, 43 Khurâsîn province, 8, 382–432 Khurâsân bridge, 275 Khurâsân road, 9, 10, 12, 31, 32, 61- 63, 85, 191, 192, 227, 228, 364, 367, 430, 472, 473, 475, 482, 488, 489 Khurasanabad, 408 Khurâshah, 392 Khursân, 23, 366 Khurrah, meaning ‘glory,' 249 Khurrahzâd bridge, 245 Khurramâbâd, 200–202, 233 Khurramah, 277, 278, 298 Khurshâh, ķalʻah, 254 Khurshîd, 195 Khûsb or Khusf, 328, 361, 362 Khúshân (Jibâl), 191, 192 Khúshân or Kûchân, 393 Khushk Rûd of Kharraķân, 196 Khushk Rûd (Khurâsân), 396 Khushk Rûd (Sughd), 469 Khûskân, 281 Khusraw-Shâdh Hurmuz district, 80 Khusraw Parwîz, King, 27, 62, 63, 188 Khîr, 290 Khusrûjird, son of Shahân, 192 Khusrûjird (Sabzivâr), 391 Khûst, 417 Khuşûş, 131 Khutan, 487-489 Khutlân, Khuttal, or Khuttalân, 435, X 438, 439 Khuttalầb river, 428, 436 Khuvâr castle, 279 Khuvâr of Ray, 22, 367, 371 Khuwâsh of Sijistân, 342, 343 Khuvî, 230 Khôz, 232, Khuzâr Rûd, 469, 471 Khûzistân province, 6, 49, 232–247 Khwâb or Khwâf, 357, 358 Khwabdhân, 266 Khwâdân castle, 290 Khwajah Dihistân, 414 Khwajah Khayrân, 423 Khwândamîr, 17, 18 Khwarizm province, 8, 443, 446-459 Khwarizm city, Jurjânîyah, Old and New, 448, 449 33 514 INDEX. Kiz, 333 Kîfâ, 113 Khwarizm desert, 380 Kîtû pastures, 198 Khwarizm lake (Aral), 23, 443, 444 Khwârizm Shâh, 379 Ķizil (T.), red Khwash (Kirmân), 317 Kizil Aḥmadlí, 144, 157 Khwash (Makrân), 330, 332 Kizil Arvat, 380, 472 Khwâsh (Sarhad), 330, 332 Kizil Irmak (Halys), 145, 147 Khwâsh (Sijistân), 342, 343 Kizil Rubật (Jalâlâ), 62 Khwash nîn Dâvar), 346 Ķizil Rubât Dihistân), 380, 472 Kibotos, 135 Kizil Uzen, 169 Kîzkân, Kîzkanân, 332 Kîj or Kîz, 330 Kôren Dâgh, 380 Kilâh, Nahr, 410 Κουμερκί, 319 Ķîlâs plain, 481 Kû, Jabal, 420 Kilât, see ķal'ah ķubâ, 476, 478 Ķilâț (Târum), 227 ķubâdh I, King, 27 ; his Aywân, Kilât Diz, 269, 271 244 Kilât-i-Nâdirî, 395 Kubầd Khurrah district (Arrajân), 270 Kilij Arslân I, 141, 148, 151 ķubâd Khurrah district (Darâbjird), Kilij Arslân II, 141, 142, 149 254 Kinneir, Macdonald, 265 ķubâdhiyân, 435, 439, 440 Kipchak, 486 Kubâķib river, 120-122 Kiphas, 113 Kubanjân, 252 Ķîr, 354 Kûbanîn or Kûbayân, 309; see Kûh- Kîrang, 400 bạnân Kirbâl, upper and lower, 277, 279 ķubbat-al-Khadrâ, 39 Kirbâs, cotton stuff, 51, 267 ķubbat-al-Mûmiyâ, 289 Ķirdķâs river, 178 Kubbat-i-Sabz, 306, 307 Kirind, 191 ķubbayt, a preserve, 124 Ķirķgoz bridge, 12I Kûbînan, 309; see Kûhbanân Ķirķîsiyâ, see Karşîsiyâ ķubrus, 128 Kirmân province, 6, 207, 249, 299- Kûch Hişâr (Dunaysir), 96 321 Kûch Hişâr (ķaramân), 149 Kirmân city, 22, 300; gates and castles, Kûch Hişâr (Ķizil Aḥmadlî), 158 Kûchân, 393 302-307, 320, 32 I Kirmân, ķanțarah, 328, 338 Kûd mountain, 312 Kirmânshấh, Kirmânshậhần, Ķirmâ Kudâmah, 12 sîn, Kirmâshîn or Ķirmisîn, 5, 21, 186, 187, 228 Kûfah, 3, 21, 25, 26; building of, 74, Ķirmiz insect, 167, 182, 184 75, 81-83 Kîrshahr, 146, 152. Kufâj, 323 Kish or Kishsh (Shahr-i-Sabz), 441 Kûfân, 394 443; walls and gates, 469, 470, ķufs mountains, 317, 323 472 Kûghânâbâdh, 414 Kish and Nasaf river, 460 Kughûn, 308 Kîsh island, 257 Kûh or Kuh or ķuh, 352 ; see Moun- Kishm (Badakhshân), 437 tain Kishm island, 261 Kûh, Ķal'ah (Kirmân), 306 Kishm for Kishmar, 356 Küh, Kal'ah (Mardîn), 96 Kishmar, 355, 356 Kûhak (Banjaway), 347 Kishsh (Sijistân), 344 Kûhak (Samarķand), 464 Kisrâ, Aywân, 34 ķuhandiz of Herât, 408 Kisrawîyah, ķanțarah (Arrajân), 269 Kuhandiz of Kâbul, 349 Kisrawîyah, Kantarah (Nahrawân), Kuhandiz or ķunduz, 428 57 Kühbinân, Kâhbanan (Kûhbayân), Kiss, 344 309, 327 Kitâb, 469 Kühgilû, 269 Kitchens of Chosroes, 196 Kuhîch, 344 Kûfâ, 414 516 INDEX. Madik, meaning capital city, 304; Lakes and Seas (Bahr, Buhayrah) Lîshtar, 193, 201 Lakes, names of, 22 Long Island, 26 Bakhtigân, 6, 277–279, 298 Lotus channel, 237, 242, 243 Bâsafûyah, 277–279 Lotus tree fruit, 324 Bunțûs (Pontus, Black Sea), 136 Louis VII of France, 141 Chashmah Sabz, 386–388 Lovett, Captain, 290 Jûbânân, 277-279 Luluah, Loulon, 134, 135, 139, 150 Kâzirûn, 267 Lukkâm mountain, 22, 129, 132 Khazar (Black Sea), 136 Luminous stone, 437 Khazar (Caspian), 22, 180 Lur, Luristân, Great, 233, 244, 245 Mâhalûyah, 22, 252 Lur, Luristân, Little, 200-202, 233 Mediterranean, 127 Lur mountains, 247 Mûr, Mûrak, 267 Lur plain, 239 Najaf, 76 Lurdagân, Lurjân or Lurkân, 246 Nîrîz, 289 Lus Bela, 330 Oxus, lake at source of, 435 Lûsrûd, 415 Rûm, 127 Lût, Desert of, 322 Sâvah, 212 Lycaonia, 144 Shîz, 224 Lycia, 144 Tarâbazandah, 136 Lydia, 144 Zarafshân, lake at source of, 467 Zarah or Zirrah, 7, 22, 147, 328, Ma'âdin, Jabal, 316 334, 338, 339 Ma'alathâyâ, 93, 124 Lakhrâb, 418 Maașir or toll-barriers, 36, 41 Lamis, Lamos river, 133, 141 MacGregor, Colonel, 326, 395 Lân island, 261 Madâin, 25, (its ruins) 33-35, 67, Lanbasar, 221 190, 224 Landor, A. H. Savage, 335, 340 Madder, 439 Lane-Poole, S., 146 Madhâr, 28, 42, 43 Lanjûghkath, 466 Mâdharâyâ, 27, 28, 38, 60 Laodicea, see Lâdhiķ Mâdharûstân, 191 Lapis lazuli, 436 Madhmînîyah, 454, 455 Lâr town, 291 Madhyâmajkath, 468 Lâr island, 261 Lârandah, 148 Lardak, 257 and see Medina Lâsgird, 367, 368 Madînah ‘Atîkah, 34, 80 Lâsh Juwayn, 341, 342 Madînah Bâb-al-Hadîd, 441 Lashkar (Askar Mukram), 237 Madînah Ibn Hubayrah, 71 Lâshtar, 193 Madînah Sijistân, 22, 335 Lawakand, 438 Madra, 453 Lâwân island, 261 Madûrsâlâ, 112 Lawkar, Lawkarâ, 406 Mafazah, the Great Desert, 322 Layard, Sir A. H., 246 Maftah, 48 Laylân, 165 Maghkân, 462 Lâz, 358 Maghl, 135, Lâzward, 436 Maghnîsiyah, Magnesia, 155 Lead mines, 285 Maghûn, 317 Leg, huge, found, 130 Mâh, Mede, 190 Leo I and II of Little Armenia, 141 Mâh Başrah, 197 Leo the Isaurian, Emperor, 137 Mâh Kûfah, 189 Libn, 134 Mahallah Bâgh, 367 Libraries at Marv, 401, 402; Râm Mâhalûyah lake, 22, 252 hurmuz, 244; Ray, 215; Sâvah, Mẫhân, 257, 3O2, 397 32I 211; Shîrâz, 250 Mâhânah Sar, 370 Light-house at 'Abbadân, 49 Mahdî, Caliph, 31, 122, 132, 214–217, Lihf, 63 243; his mother, 372 518 INDEX. Marzubân district, 466 Mâsabadhân, 202 Masûliyât river, ui Mâșaram, 253, 268, 296 Mashhad, place of martyrdom, 35, 76 Mashhad (in Khurâsân), 388–391, 431 Mashhad ‘Alî, 76 Mashhad Husayn, 78 Mashhad of Ismâîl, 280 Mashhad Yûnis, 89 Mashhad river, 377, 393. 395, 396 Máshîz, 303, 307, 314, 321 Mashruķân, 236, 237 Ma'shûk palace, 55 Mâsî bridge, 73 Masîn river, 270 Masjid Jâmi', Friday Mosque, 36 Masjid-al-Kaff, 92 Masjid-ath-Thawr, 219 Maskanîn, 134 Maskin, 51, 80 Maslamah, 105, 137 Masruķân, 236, 237 Mașşîșah, 128, 130-132, 141 Mâst Kûh, 167 Mastanj or Mastang, 332, 333, 347 Mas'ûd, Sultân, 122, 141 Mas'ûdî, 14 Masûliyât river, III Mațâbikh-al-Kisrâ, 196 Mațmûrah or Maţâmîr, 138 Matar or Matarîyah, 52 Matîrah, 52, 54, 55, 58 Mattûth, 241 Mav Balik, 418 Mâ-warâ-n-Nahr (Transoxiana), 433 Mawșil, see Mosul Mâyâb, 398 Maybud, 285 Maydân (A.), plain or square Maydân-al-Husaynîyîn, 383, 384 Maydân-i-Kuhnah, 205 Mayef, M., 439, 442 Mayhanah, 394 Mayidasht, 192, 202 Mâyin, 280, 282, 283, 297 Maykasân, 97 Maymanah, 424, 425 Maymand for Maywand, 424, 425 Maymurgh, 465 Maypharkath, un Mayruyân, 273 Maysân, 43, 8o Maywand, 424, 425 Mayyâfarîşîn, m, 112 Mazandaran province, 7, 368-376 Mazâr-i-Sharîf, 422 Mazdakhsân, 455 Mazdarân, 431 Mazînân, 430 Mazmorra, 138 Mazrafah, 50 Mâzûl, 387 Mazûr mountains, 116 Meander river, 141 Mecca and Medina road from Bagh- dâd, 11, 83, 84 Media and the Medes, 5, 185, 190, 194 Medical school of Junday Shâpûr, 238, 239 • Medina worm,' or Guinea-worm, 394 Mediterranean Sea, 127 Melas river, 120 Melgunof, G., 174, 373 Melisos, 154 Melitene, 120 Melons, 357, 449, 471 Mentesha, 144, 154 Merkeh, 487, 488 Mesopotamia, Upper and Lower, 2, 24 Michaelitze, 156 Mihmân Dậst, 368 Mihnah, 394 Mihrajân, 393 Mihrajânâvâdh, 283 Mihrajânķudhaḥ, 202 Mihrân (İndus), 331 Mihrân Rûd, 162, 163 Mihrawân, 375 Mihrkird or Mihrijird, 313 Mijân, 314, Mîkâl, Kalʻah, 355 Mikhâlij, 156 Mil-i-Zahidân, 335 Mîlâ canal, 339 Mîlah, 374, 428 Mîlâs, 145, 154 Milasjird, see Malâzkird Miletopolis, 156 Mimand (Fârs), 258 Mimand (Ghaznah), 425 Mimbar (A.), pulpit, 36 Min Gurgân, 377 Minâ (Cilician Gates), 134 Mînâ, ķalóah, 319 Minâ, enamelled tiles, 55 Minâb, 318 Mînak, 475, 476 Minao, 318 Minârah Hassan, 42 Minaret, with outside stairway, 56 INDEX. 519 Minaret, shaking, 46 Minaw canal, 236 Minâzjird, see Malazkird Mîr Mâhân, 400 Mîrâkiyân, 242 Mirât-al-Buldân, 269, 366, 41 2 Mîrâthiyân, 242 Mirbad, 45 Mîrkhwând, 17, 18 Mîrkî, 487, 488 Mîshkânât, 290 Mîshkîn, 169 Misriyân, 380 Miyân Rûdân (“Irâk), 48 Miyên Rûdhân (Farghânah), 480 Miyânah or Miyânij, 169, 170, 229- 231 Mîzân, 314 Mobolla, 154 Modrene, 157 Mongols, History of the, 17 Monteith, Colonel, 22 I ‘Moon-maker,' the Veiled Prophet of Khurasân, 44, 479 Moore, Lallah Rookh, 277 Mopsuestia, 130 Mopsukrene, 134 Morier, J., 276 Moses, rock of, 179 Moses of Chorene, 104 Mosque, Great and Small, 35 Mosul, 4, 86–89, 124, 125 Mother and Daughter pass, 282 Moufargin, un Mountains (Jabal, Kuh) Names of mountains, 22 Bâriz, 316, 317 Buttam, 436, 466, 467 Dînâr, 271, 272 Fâdûsbân, 372 Fiddah (Bâdghîs), 414 Fiddah (Kirmân), 316 Ghunâbâd, 414 Gulshấn, 387 Hindûkush, 345, 350 Jîlâyah, 266 Ķâf, 368 Kargas, 208, 209 Kârin, 372 Kû, 420 Kûd, 312 ķuſș, 317, 323 Kûhgilû, 269 Lukkâm, 22, 129, 132 Ma'âdin, 316 Namak Lawn, 211 Nukrah, 414 Mountains (cont.) Rang, 232 Rûbanj, 173, 373 Sâblagh, 481 Sablân, 163, 168, 175, 176 Sahand, 162–164 Sarâhand, 168, 169 Sâvdâr, 465 Sayâm, 469 Shammâr, 84 Silver Hill (Kirmân), 414 Silver Hill (Badghîs), 316 Sîpân, 183 Siyâh Kûh (Ardabîl), 168 Siyâh Kûh (Great Desert), 208 Taurus, 4, 22, 128 Zar, 365 Zard or Zardah, 207, 233 Zûr, 345, Moving sands of Desert, 324-337, 341 Mu'askar (Nîshâpûr), 383 Mu'askar-al-Malik, 134 Mu'awiyah, Caliph, 102, 128, 137 Mu'ayyad, 385 Mubarak, the Turk, and Mubârakîyah or Mubârakâbâd, 219, 220 Mubarak (Wâsit), 38 Mudar, 86 Mudurnî or Mudurlû, 157 Mu'în-ad-Dîn, 410 Mûķân, Mûghân or Mughķân, 5, 175, 176, 230, 231 Mûghistân, 319 Mughlah, 154 Mughûlîyah, 225 Muhammad, Prophet, miracle on night of his birth, 212 Muhammad, Khwârizm Shâh, 379, 478 Muhammad, Sultan, Saljûķ, 205, 264 Muhammad, brother or son of Hajjaj, 219, 249 Muhammad ibn Hanafiyah, shrine, 146 Muḥammad (ibn) Ibrâhîn, 18 Muhammad, son of Imâm Ja'far, 378 Muhammad, son of Malik Shâh, 374 Muhammad, son of Imâm Mûsâ, 251 Muhammadâbâd, 394 Muhammadîyah lagoon, 42 Muhammadîyah (Nahrawân), 57 Muhammadîyah (Ray), 214, 215 Muhammarah, 48 Muhawwal, 31, 32, 66 Muḥdathah, 112 Muhtariķah, Burnt Rakkah, 102 Mujahidâbâd, 355 520 INDEX. Mukaddasî, 13, 14 Mukanna', 'the Veiled Prophet,' 414, 470 Mukharrim, 31, 33 Mukhtârah, 48 Mukram, 237 Muķtadir, Caliph, 241, 242 Muktafî, “Ali, Caliph, 34, Muķtafi, Muḥammad, Caliph, 204 Mulâḥids, 354 ; see Assassins Mules, 184 Müller, A., 239 Multân, 331, 333 Mûminâbâd, 362 Mûmiyâ, 269, 289, 294 ; see Bitumen Munayyar, stuffs called, 227 Mûnis the Chamberlain, 189 Munk, 438 Munkharik_lake, 97 Muntașir, Caliph, 55, 58 Mûr lake, 267 Murabba'ah (Nîshậpûr), 384 Murabba'ah castle, 88 Murad Şû, 115 Murad IV, Sultan, 115, 16 Murâd or Murdân Na‘îm, 167 Mûrak lake, 267 Murghâb river, 397-400, 404, 406, 416 Murghâb village, 410 Mûsâ river, 215, 218 Mûsâ, son of Bughâ, 220 Mûsâ, Madînah, 219, 220 Musallâ (A.), praying place, 36 Musallâ town, 469 Musayyib, 74 Muşdaşân, 212 Mash, u6 Mushtakahar, 90 Musk, 437 Mustanşir, Caliph, 50, 51 Mustawfî, 16, 145, 220 Mustazhir, Caliph, 33 Muta`ashshâ, .supper-station,' 83 Mu'tadid, Caliph, 61, 100 Mutawakkil, Caliph, 54, 55, 78, 141, Muzdakân, 212 Muzaffar coast, 256–259, 274 Muzaffarids, 301 Mygdonius, 94 Mylasa, 154 Myrobalan, 349 Myrtle village, 279 Mysia, 144 Nâband Oasis, 258, 259, 325-328 Nâband, Dih, 329, 361 Nabathæan language, 64 Nabk tree, 324 Nadhash for Badhash, 368 Nadir Shâh, 395 Nahar Malcha, 68 Nahr, 30; see Canal, and River Nahr Bîn, 80 Nahr Bûk, 31, 80 Nahr Darķît, 80 Nahr Jawbar, 80 Nahr-al-Malik town, 68, 69, 81 Nahr-al-Malik Samûr river, 180 Nahr Sâbus, 38, 73 Nahr Sulaymân, 318, 332 Nahrawân Bridge, town, 29, 30, 32, 59, 61 Nahrawân canal, 29, 30, 38, 52, 55, 57–61, 92 Nahrawân districts, 80; Middle, 35; Lower, 37 Najaf, 76 Nâjat, 312 Najd, 84 Najîram, 258, 259, 296 Najm, 480 Najm-ķal'ah, 107 Najm-ad-Dîn Kubrâ, Shaykh, 450, 454 Nakhîrjân, 164 Nakhkh velvets, 386 Nakhchivân or Nakjavân, 167, 230 Nakhshab, Nasaf or Karshî, 414, 441-443, 469-472 Nakîdah, 142, 150 Nakîsâr, 142, 147 Namak, Dih, 19, 367 Namak Lawn hill, 201 Namangan, 478 Nâmishah or Nâmiyah, 375 Naphtha springs, see Bitumen Napkin of Jesus, 103, 104 Napkins of Ķûmis, 367 Narcissus perfume, 315 Nariyân, 425 Narmâsîr, 299, 313, 321, 328 Narrows of the Oxus, 451 355, 356 Mutawakkilîyah, 179 Mu'tamid, Caliph, 36, 55 Mu'tasim, Caliph, 53, 54-57, 67, 121, 131, 137, 139 Muthakkab castle, 130 Muthakkab (Mashhad), 388 Muttaķi, Caliph, 104 Mûtûkin, Prince, 418 Muţurnî, 157 Mûz lake, 267 INDEX. 523 Pyramus river, 131; see Jayhân under River Pyrgion, 154 Qalaq; Ķalʻah, 395 Quatremère, E., 489 Quicksilver mines, 294, 418 Rabb, 65 Rabîtah, 86 Rabinjan, 468, 471 Râdhần, Upper and Lower, 35, 80 Radhwânîyah canal, 69 Radkân, 394 Râfiķah, roi, 102 Râghân river, 318 Rahbah, 105, 124 Râhibân, Råhiyân, 267 Rahshấn, 266 Rahwah, 134 Raids, Moslem, into Greek country, 136–138 Râkah, 134 Rakân bridge, 270 Rakhashmithân, 453 Raķķah, meaning morass, 101 Rakkah (Euphrates), 4, 86; wall and suburbs, 101-103, 124, 125 Rakkah (Kûhistân), 361 Râm Shahristấn, 34o Rấm Zavân castle, 26o Râmhurmuz, 243, 247 Râmîn, 199 Râmjird, 277, 280 Ramm for Zamm, 266 Râmrûd, 340 Rams river, III Ramsay, Professor W. M., 127, 143 Râmuz, 244 Rang, Kûh, 232 Râs-al-'Ayn, 87, 95, 96, 125 Râs-al-Ghâbah, 134 Râs-al-Kalb, 20, 367 Râs-al-Kanțarah (Karshî), 470 Râs-al-Kanțarah village, 466 Râs-at-Tâș, 464 Râsak, 340 Rasband mountain, 197 Râshahr (Bushire), 261 Râshid, Manşûr, Caliph, 204 Rashîd, see under Hârûn Rashîdî suburb, 162 Rashîdîyah, 50 Rasht town, 174, 175 Rasht district, 439 Râsibî, Governor, 241 Rask, 330 Rass, 179; see Araxes under River Râsmand mountain, 197, 198 Ratîn river, 263 Râvar, 309, 325 Râwanîr, Râwansar, 392 Rawqat-as-Şafâ, 17, 18 Rawlinson, Sir H. C., 223, 224, 246, 335, 340, 422, 458 Ray, 5, 186; walls and suburbs, 214- 217, 227–229 Ray, plain of, 218 Ray Shahriyâr, 217 Râyin, 302, 312, 321 Rayyân canal, 48 Razb river, 114 Razîk or Razk, 401 Razîk canal, 398, 399 Razm river, 113 Red Castle hill, 251 Red River, 169 Reeds for pens, 40 Reinaud, M., II, 16 Reobarles, 315 Resaina, 95 Rhages, 21, 214 Rhodes, 128 Rîbâs currants, 385, 387 Rice-flour bread, 234 Ridâ, Imâm, 388, 391 Rîgân, 321 Rîgistân, 461, 462 Righân, 33, 34 Rihâb district, 159 Rîkân, 313, 314 Rîkh, 356 Rîşahr, 271 Rîsh mountains, 122 Rîshahr (Arrajân), 270, 271 Rîshahr (Bushire), 261 Rishtah or Guinea-worm, 403 Rishtân, 479 Rîvand, 387 Rîvdad, 465 Rivers (Âb, Nahr, Rûd) Aḥsâ, 134 Ak-Şû (of Jayhân), 122 Ak-Sû (Khuttal), 435 Akhsh, Akhshawâ, 435, 438 Andarâb, 427 Andîjârâgh, 435, 438 Angran, 482 Aras, Araxes, 4, 5, 117, 118, 166- 168, 175, 176-179, 182 Argandâb, 345, 346 Arîs, 484 Asrûd, 469 524 INDEX. Rivers (cont.) Jaxartes (Sayhûn, Sîr, or Sîr Daryâ), 8, 131, 132, 434; mouth of, 444 ; course of, 476, 477 Rivers (cont.) Aswad, 150 Atrak, 8, 376, 377 'Atshâbâd, 387 A'zam, 92 Azraķ (Kârûn), 235 Azraķ (Mesopotamia), 123 Badakhshân river, 435-437 Badam, 484 Balbân or Barbân, 435 Barârah, 256 Bartang, 435 Bukhârâ river, 468 Burâzah, 256 Chirchik, 482 Dahâs, 420 Darkhîd, 265, 266 Dhîl (of Arsanas), 116 Dhîb (of Tigris), no Dijlah, see Tigris Dirgham, 435, 436 Dîv-Rûd, 314, 315 Dujayl, see Kârûn Euphrates (Al-Furât), 3, 25; changes in course of, 26–29; lower course of, 70-74; upper, Eastern, 115.; Western, 117 Farah river, 341 Fârghar or Farghân, 435, 438 Fashâ-Rûd, 362 Fuller's riveror canal (Samarkand), 465 Fuller's river (Kushkah), 469 Gâvmâhâ or Gâvmâsâ river, 196, 210, 213 Ghadbân, 133 Gukchah, 435, 436 Halîl-Rûd, 314, 315 Hârûd, 340, 412 Hasht Rûd, 170 Helmund, 7, 334, 335, 338-340, 343-345 Herat river, 396, 407-410 Hindiyân, 270–272 Hirmâs, 87, 94, 95, 97 Ikhshîn, 267, 268 Îlâķ river, 477, 482 Indus, 331 Irtish, 487 Jaghân Rûd, 392 Jâij Rûd, 218 Jarâhî or Jarâhîyah, 270 Jarshîk, 267, 268 Jaryâb, 435, 436 Jây-Rûd, 469 Jayhân (Pyramus), 120, 122, 129– 131, 141, 145 Jidghil river, 476 Jîlânî river, 215 Jirrah river, 268 Jûrîth, 122 Jurjân, 376, 377 Kâbul river, 350 Kadpû, 170 Karâgh, 410 Karah Rûd, 198 Kar'ah river, 233 Karaj river, 218 Karkhâ, 233, 240 Kârûn or Dujayl of Ahwaz, 5, 6, 200, 232–236, 245-247, 270; estuary of, 44, 48, 207, 242 Kâsân, 427 ķaşşârîn (Samarkand), 465 Kaşşârîn (Kushkah), 469 Kazkî river, 233 Khâbûr, Great, 87, 94-97, 105 Khâbûr, Little, 87, 93 Khalîl-Rûd, 314, 315 Khardarûy, 345 Kharshân, 476 Kharûd, 220 Khuvarấn, 266 Khawrâwâdhân, 265 Khawsar, 88 Khaylâb, 428 Khayrâbâd, 270, 272 Khabdhân, 255, 272 Khûshk Rûd of Kharrakân, 196 Khûshk Rûd (Khurâsân), 396 Khushk Rûd (Sughd), 469 Khuttalâb, 428, 436 Khuzâr Rûd, 469, 471 Khwash, 342 Kilâb, 410 Kish and Nasaf river, 460 ķubâ river, 476 ķubâdhiyân, 439 Kubâķib, 120-122 Külkî, 233 Kuror Cyrus river (Armenia), 177-181 Kur (Fârs), 264, 275-277, 279-283 Kurdistân river, 270 Kushkah Daryâ, 469-471 Maklûb, 158 Malik, Nahr (Samûr river), 180 Mashhad river, 377, 393, 395, 396 Masîn, 270 526 INDEX. Roads (cont.) Rûm province, 4, 127-158 ķuhistân, 430 Rûm, Bahr, 127 Ķûmis, 367, 368 Rûm bridge, 238 Makrân, 332 Rûmaķân, 35, 80 Rûm, 158 Rûmîyah, 34, 35 Sijistân, 351 Rûnîj or Rûnîz, 291 Sughd, 472 Rupen, King, 140, 141 Țabaristân, 381 Rusâfah of East Baghdad, 31 Robes of honour, 293 Rusafah Hisham, Io6, 125 Rock crystal, 436 Rusâſah of Wâsiț, 40 Romanus IV, Emperor, 116, 139 Rustam, 335, 342, 343, 371 Roofless tomb, 284, 285 Rustamkuwad, 237 Roses, ottar of, 293; of Jûr, 256; of Rustamdâr, 373, 374 Nasîbîn, 94, 95 Rustâķ-ar-Rustâķ; 291, 320 Ross, Professor E. D., 484 Rustâk-ar-Ruwayhân, 253 Round City, Baghdad, 30 Rustakulâdh, 237 Rûtad, 375 Rutt for Zutt, 244 Rûb, 427 Rûyên, 373, 374 Rûbanj mountain (Țabaristân), 173, Ruwîn Diz, 164 Rûzvand, 453 373 Rûbanj or Rûbanz (Fârs), 291 Rubất (A.), guard-house Sabæans, 103, 241 Rubât (Dihistân), 379 Sabanj, 392 Rubật Âb Shuturân, 327 Sabartâ, 152 Rubật Dhi-l-Karnayn, 442 Sâbât ('Irâķ), 34, 35 Rubật Dhi-l-Kifi, 442 Sâbât (Transoxiana), 475, 489 Rubât Mîlah, 428, 439 Sabians, 103, 241 Rubât Pusht Kham, 320 Sabîd Rûdh, 169; bridge of, 230 Rubâț Savanj, 392 Sabîdân, 410 Rubật Tâhir ibn 'Alî, 443 Sabkhah of Tigris estuary, 243 Ruby mines, 436, 437 Sabkhah of Zaranj, 337 Rûd or Rûdh (P.), river Sâblagh mountain, 481 Rûd Hangarân, 417 Sablân mountain, 163, 168, 175, 176 Rûdârûd, 197 Sable-fur, 458 Rûdasht, 206, 207 Şabrân, 486, 488 Rûdbâr (ķazvîn), 220 Sabûk bridge, 268 Rûdbâr (Sijistân), 344 Sâbûr for Shâpûr, 66 Rûdh bridge, 238 Sâbûr Khurrah, 248 Rûdhah, 215, 216 Sabûrgân, 426 Rûdhân district and city (Fârs), 249, Sâbûrkhwâst, 194, 200–202, 247 Sâbûs, Nahr, 38, 73 Rudhbâr (Daylam), 173 Sabzavâror Sabzivâr or Sabzvar Rudhbâr (Jîruft), 315 (Herât), 340, 412 Rudhbâr (Sijistân), 344 Sabzavâr (Nîshậpûr), 391, 430 Rûdhrâvar or Rûdîlâvâr, 197 Sachau, C. E., 342 Rûdis, 128 Sacred Fire at Shîz, 224; see under Rûdhkân, 318 Fire-temples Rûdkhânah-i-Duzdî, 318 Sad Khâniyah, 190 Rûghad, 375 Sa'd ibn Zangî, 251 Ruha, IO3, LO4, 125 Sa'dî, poet, 250, 251 Rukhkh, 356 Sadîr palace, 75 Rukhkhaj, 339, 345 Sadr-ad-Dîn, 220 Rukn-ad-Dawlah, Buyid, 226, 245, Sadûr, 452 250 Safalķât, 410 Rukn-ad-Dawlah Khumârtagîn, 258 Safanjawî, 347 Ruknâbâd, 250, 251 Saffâḥ, Caliph, 66, 71 Rûm, meaning Romans, Romaioi, 127 Şaffâr coast, 358, 359 286, 294 INDEX. 527 Saffârah, 259 Saffârids, 335, 343, 350, 386 Sâfî river, 164, 165 Safîd, ķal'ah, 264, 265 Safîd Rûd, 4, 5, 169, 170, 172, 223, 230 Şâfîyah, 37 Safsâf, 134, 135, 139 Sagardân, 413 Sâghand, 285, 327 Şaghâniyân, 20, 435, 439, 440 Sâgharî river, 135 Saghâvar, Wâdî, 384 Şâghirah, 135 Saghnâk, 486 Sagistân, 334 Sagsâbâd or Sagziâbâd, 220, 229 Sahand mountain, 162–164 Sahârah, ķal'ah, 256 Şâhik, well, 269 Sâhik or Şâhak, Great and Little, 20, 278, 298, 302, 320 Sahrâ Lur, 239 Sa'îd-al-Khayr, 105 Sa'îd, brother of Hasan-al-Bașrî, 253 Sa'idâbâd (Sîrjân), 281, 300 Sa'îdâbâd (Tabaristân), 374 Sâin Kal'ah, 222 Sain, Bấtô Khân, 2 23 Sa'îrt, 114 Saj, 257 Sakâlibah Hișn, 134, 135, 139 Sakarî river, 157 Saķhîr, 163 Sakînah, 437 Sakîwand, 418 Sakk, 252 Sakkân river, 252-255 Saklawîyah canal, 69 Sal-ammoniac, 467, 488 Salâh-ad-Dîn guard-house, 282 Sâlakân, 344 Salâm, 357, 358 Salb river, uni Salîk, 41 Šaljųķ Turks, 4; their rise, 139; in Persia, 186; in Asia Minor, 116, I 28, 140 Saljúk Chronicle, 18 Salķiț river, 116 Salmản the Persian, 35 Salmâs, 166 Salt mountain, 201 Salt village (Kirmân), 320 Salt village (Kûmis), 367 Salt in seven colours, 289 Salûşîyah, 19, 133, 141; see Seleucia Salîmak, 357, 358 Sâlûs, 373 Şalwâ, 59, 61 Sâm dynasty, 417 Sâm Khấs or Khwash, 462 Samalkan or Samanķan, 392 Samarkand, 8, 460; walls and suburbs, 463-465, 471, 472; bridge at, 467 Sâmarrâ, 32; building of, 53-56, 78, 84, 355 Samîrân castle (Irâhistân), 254 Samîrân castle (Sîrâf), 258 Samîrân or Samîrûm castle (Târum), 226 Samnần, 25, 366 Samosata, 108 Şamşâm-ad-Dawlah, 250, 276 Samsûn, 146 Samuel, shrine of prophet, 212 Samûr river, 180 Sân, 425 Sanâbâdh, 388, 390 Sanârûdh canal, 335, 337, 339 Sanât (Zarah) lake, 339 Sanbil, 244, 269 Sandhill, acoustic, 341, 342 Sandâbarî, 135 Sang, Kal-ah, 300, 301 Sangarius river, 135, 153, 157 Sanguinetti, B. R., 16° Şanît-ad-Dawlah, 269, 366, 412 Sanîg or Sanij, 325-328 Sanjafaghan, 465 Sanjah bridge and river, 123, 124 Sanjan, 357, 358 Sanjar, Sultan, 98, 99, 192, 354, 360, 385, 395; his tomb, 401, 402 Sanjîdah river, 169, 170 Sankan, 357, 358 Santabaris, 135 Santalum stone, 389 Sanûb, 142, 144-146, 157 Saocoras, 94 Saponaceous clay, 227 Sapor, see Shâpûr Sar-i-Asyâ, 440 Sar-i-Pul (Hulwân), 192 Sar-i-Pul (Khurâsân), 426 Sarâb, 163, 168, 230 Sarâhand mountain, 168, 169 Sarakhs, 395, 396, 407, 431, 432 Sarâm, 272 Sarât canal (Baghdad), 66 Sarât canal, Great, Jâmasp, 72 Sarât or Sarâv, 163, 168, 230 Sârbânân, 215, 216 Sarbat river, 112 528 INDEX. Sard Rûd (Hamadân), 195 Sard Rûd (Tabrîz), 163 Sardâb, cellars, 337 Sardân, 246, 270 Sardsîr, 249 Sarhad, 317 Sârî or Sârîyah, 370, 375 Sârî Bûlî, 142 Sârîchîchek Şû, 119 Sarjahân, 223 Sarjaz, 315 Sarkân, 197 Sarkhâb river, 163 Sarmâhî fish, 177 Sarmâj, 189 Sarmak, 282, 284 Șarmanjân or Şarmanjî, 440 Sarsandah, 475 Șarșar town and canal, 32, 35, 67, 69 Sarûd, 249 Sarûj, 108, 125 Sârûk (Farâhân), 197, 198 Sârûk (Hamadân), 194 Sârûk (Isfahân), 203 Sârûhân or Sârûkhân, 144, 155 Sarus river (Sayhân), 131, 132, 141 Sarûzan, 343 Sarv (Sarâv), 163, 168, 230 Sarvistân (Shîrâz), 252 Sarvistân village, 282 Sarwân, 346 Sasân (Fasấ), 29o Sâsâniyân, 187 Sassanian kings, names of districts, 81 Sassanian sculptures, 187, 188 Satalia, 151 Sâtîdamâd river, III Sâțirûn, 99 Satûrîş, 224 Sâûj Bulâgh, 218 Sâvah, 210-212, 228-230 Sâvdâr mountains, 465 Sâviyah, 257 Sawảd of 'Irâậ, 24 awdâ, Raķķah, 101 Șawr river, 96 Sawrân, 486 Sayâm mountains, 469 Sayf-ad-Dawlah (Bani Mazyad), 71 Sayf-ad-Dawlah (Hamdanid), 122, 129 Sayhân (Sarus), 131, 132, 141 Sayhûn, Jaxartes, see under River Șaymarah, 201, 202 Sayrâm, 484 Sayram river, 219 Schéfer, C., 15 Schindler, General H., 206, 281, 307, 330 Schismatics, lake of the, 160 Schuyler, E., 463, 474, 478, 484, 486, 487 Scorpions of Naşîbîn, 94, 95 Seas, names of, 22; and see Lakes Sebastia, 142 Selefkeh, Seleucia (Cilicia), 19, 133, 148 Seleucia (Madâin), 33 Seleucia (on Orontes), 33 Sellisure, 454 Seven Sleepers, cave of, 119, 143, 155, 314 Shâb, alum, 147 Sha&b Bavvấn, 264, 277 Sha·bah canal, 339 Shabaran, I8o Shabânkârah, 6, 288 Shabbût, 43 Shabdîz or Shibdâz, 63, 188 Shaburķân, 426, 432 Shâbustî, 36 Shad, fish, 43 Shâd or Shadh (P.), 'fortune,' 81 Shâdh-Sâbûr, 80 Shâdh-Fîrûz or Fayrûz, 79, 80 Shâdh-Hurmuz, 80 Shâdh-ķubâdh, 80 Shâdh-Shâpûr, 219 Shâdhkân river, 273, 274 Shâdhurwân, weir, 57, 58 Shâdhurwân, Ahwaz, 234 Shâdhurwân, Tustar, 235 Shâdhurwân, Upper, 59 Shadîdîyah, 41 Shadûf, 67 Shadyakh, 385, 386 Shafấthâ, 65 Shaft or Shaftah, 175 Shâh •Abbâs, 167, 319 Shah Diz, fort, 205 Shah-Namah, 161, 188, 207, 355, 356 Shâh Rûd Great, 170, 221, 374 Shâh Rûd, Little, 169, 171 Shâh Rukh, 403, 482, 489 Shâhrukhîyah, 482 Shâh Shuja“, 291 Shâh Shuja: Kirmânî, Saint, 305 Shâh Sulaymân, 22 I Shẩha, 161 Shâhâbâd, 238 Shâhârah castle, 256 Shabâ, 96 Shâhbalút (chestnut), 114 INDEX. 529 Shâhijân or Shâhgân, 398 Shahîn, 222 Shahr (P.), town or city Shahr-i-Bábak, 286, 287, 298, 300, 302, 320 Shahr-i-Bilķīs, 393 Shahr-i-Dakiyânus, 314, 315 Shahr Fîrûz, 394 Shahr-i-Islâm, 163 Shahr-i-Naw (Bâkharz), 357 Shahr-i-Naw (Jurjân), 376 Shahr-i-Naw (Sultânâbâd), 199 Shahr-i-Nașrîyah, 335 Shahr-i-Rustam, 340 Shahr-i-Sabz, 409, 469, 470 Shahr-i-Sîstân, 335, 338 Shahr-i-Wazîr, 454 Shahrâbâdh (Balad of Mosul), 99 Shahrâbâd (Tabaristân), 375 Shahrấbân, 62 Shahrazûr, 90, 190, 224 Shahrastân or Shahristân, meaning 'a township,' 206 Shahrastân (Barvân), 173 Shahrastân (Jurjân), 377 Shahrastân (Kâth), 447 Shahrastân (ķazwîn), 220 Shahrastân (Shâpûr), 262 Shahrastân (Zaranj), 335 Shahrastânah of Isfahân, 203, 204 Shahriyâr of Ray, 217, 218 Shahriyâr bridge, 276, 282 Shahriyâr Rûd, 263 Shahrû, 292, 295, 319 Shahrûd (Bistâm), 366 Sha‘îrah, a barleycorn-measure, 398 Shâkhin or Shahkin, 362 Shakk Mîskâhân, 290 Shakk Rûdbâl or Rûdbâr, 290 Shâl river, 169-171 Shalanbah, 371 Shaltûk rice, 367 Shâlâs, 373 Shâm, Syria or Damascus, 21 Shâm, suburb of Tabrîz, 162 Shamâkhâ or Shamâkhîyah, 179, 230 Shâmât (Kirmân), 311 Shâmất (Nishấpur), 387 Shâmil castle, 319 Shamîrân (Herat), 409 Shamîrân (Irahistân), 254 Shamirân (Tậrum), 226 Shamkûr, 178, 179, 230 Shammâr, Jabal, 84 Shammâsîyah, 31, 32, 50 Shams-ad-Dîn, Sâḥib Dîvân, 213 Shams-ad-Dîn of Hurmuz, 320 LE S. Shamsâț, 116 Shankavân castle, 276 Shâpûr, Shâhpûr or Sapor, 66 Shâpûr (King Sapor I), 219, 235, 248, 294, 383; statue of, 263 Shâpûr, Dhû-1-Aktâf (Sapor II), 235, 237, 238, 366, 383 Shâpûr city, 262, 263 Shâpûr river, 259–263, 267 Shâpûr, Bilâd, 270 Shâpûr Khurrah, 200–202, 248,, 262 Shâr of Gharjistân, 415 Sharaf-ad-Dawlah, 77 Sharaf-al-Mulk, 402 Shârakhs, 358 Sharâmîn, 195 Shaʻrân, 190 Shâri'-al-A'zam, 54 Shâristân, 374 Sharwân, 345, 346 Shâsh (Tashkand), 480-483, 488 Shâsh river (Jaxartes), 476 Shâsman palace, 378 Shatt-al-'Arab, 26, 43 Shatt-al-Hayy, 26–28, 38, 40 Shatt-an-Nîl, 72 Shâvaghar, 485 Shawânkârah, 288 Shaykh Jâm town, 357 Shaykh Shu`ayb island, 261 Shaysure, 454 Shea and Troyer, 356 Shela, 338, 340 Shibl-ad-Dawlah, 112 Shihâb-ad-Dîn of Jâm, 357 Shihmâr, 372 Shikastah, ķal'ah, 276 Shikit, 480 Shikk Othmân, 47 Shîlâv, 259 Shîm, fish, 82 Shimshâț, 116, 117 Shimshik, sandal, 294 Shînîz, 273 Shîrajân, 300 Shîrâz, 6, 20; walls and gates, 248- 252, 293, 295-298 Shîrîn river, 265, 271, 272 Shîrîn, Queen, 63, 188 Shirvan province, 5, 179-181 Shirwân river (Kurdistân), 61 Shirvân-Shah, I79 Shiyân, 350 Shîz, 190, 224. Shuburgân, Shufukan, Shaburkan, Ashburķân, Ushburķân or Sabur- ghân, 426, 432 34 530 INDEX Shûkân, 394 Shûl, Shâlistân, 245, 262 Shûmân, 440 Shûr, 327 Shûr Daryâ, 160 Shûr-mâhî, fish, 177 Shûrah Rûd, 387 Shurât, Buhayrah, 160 Shûristân, 282 Shurmîn, 416, 431 Shushan the Palace, 246 Shustar or Shushtar, 233-236 Shuţayțah, 50 Shuturkath, 482 Sîb of Bani Kûmâ, 36 Sîb canal, 41 Sîbî, 332, 333, 346, 347 Sîbrî Hişâr, 153 Sideropolis, 139 Sîdî Ghâzî, 152 Sidr tree (Lotus), 47, 324 Sidrah river, 237 Sîf (A.), shore Sîf of Banî-aş-Şaffâr, 258 Sifs of Muzaffar, ‘Umârah and Zu- hayr, 256-258 Siffin plain, 102, 103 Sifwah, 61 Sih Gunbadhân castles, 276 Sihdih (Jarmaķ), 325 Sihdih (Ķühistân), 355 Siḥnah town, 190, 228 Sihnah village, 188, 189 Sîhûn (Jaxartes), 476 Sihmâr, 372 Sî'ird, 114 Sijâs, 223 Sijistân province, 7, 334-35 I Sijistân for Zaranj, 21 Sîkân, 252 Sikkit, 480 Sikr Fanâ Khusraw Khurrah, 277 Șilḥ canal, 38 Silk, 243, 246, 285, 369, 370, 401 Silver Hill (Bâdghîs), 414 Silver Hill (Kirmân), 316 Silver mines, 294, 350, 417, 483 Sîmâkûn, 253 Siminjân, 427 Șimkân, 253 Simnân, 20, 366 Simurgh, 377 Sinâdah castle, 135 Sind (Asia Minor), 135 Sind (India), Sindarûdh or Sind river, 331 Singas river, 123, Şînîz, 271, 273, 294 Sinj, 400 Sinjah, 416 Sinjâr, 98, 99, 124 Sinjâr, Sultân, see Sanjar Sink, 400 Sinn, 90, 91, 125 Sinn river for Lamis, 133 Sinn Sumayrah, 188, 228 Sinope, Sînûb, 142, 144-146, 157 Sinvân, 405 Sîpan mountain, 183 Sîr Daryâ or Sîr Şû, 434, 476; see Jaxartes under River Sîrâf, ii, 258, 259, 293, 296 Sîrajân, 21, 22 Şîrân for Șabrân, 486 Sîrawân, 202 Sirâwand, 358 Sirishk fire-temple, 408, 409 Sîrjân district, 299, 311 Sîrjân city, 6, 21, 22, 298; history of, 300-302, 320 Sîs or Sîsiyah, 141 Sîsar, 165, 190, 228, 230 Sîshat, 270 Sîstân, 334 Sitakus river, 252 Sittajân, 252 Sîvâs, 142, 145, 147, 231 Sîvî or Sîwah, 347 Sivrî Hişâr, 153 Siyâh Küh (Ardabîl), 168 Siyâh Kûh (Great Desert), 208 Siyâh Rûd, 337 Siyâhjird, 420, 432 Slane, MacGucken de, 16, 18 Slaves and the slave trade, 184, 429, 437, 459-487 Smyrna, 155 Sogdiana, 460 Solomon, King, 68 Solomon, shrine of mother of, 276, 284 Soncara, 288 Sontheimer, Dr J., 349 Sosopetra, 121 Sozopolis, 151 Spain, Moslem, place-names, 19 Sparta (Asia Minor), 152 Stack, E., 253, 292, 307, 310 Steel, 429, 467, 476 Stiffe, Captain, 259, 320 Stone Bridge of Wakhsh river, 438, 439, 472 Streck, M., 30 Subânîkath, 485 INDEX. 531 Sûdaķanîyah, 91 Sufayrah, 67 Sugar, 236, 238, 246, 329 Sughd province, 8, 460-473 Sughd river, 466-468 Sujâs, 223 Şuhayb, 154 Suhravard, 223 Sûk (A.), market Sûk-al-Ahwâz, 232 Sûk-al-Amîr, 250 Sûk-al-Arba'â castle, 88 Sûk-al-Arba'â town, 243 Sûk Bahr, 242 Sûk Thamânîn, 94 Sukayr-al-'Abbâs, 87, 97, 98 Sâlâ, 59 Sulaymấn, Caliph, 137, 138 Sulaymân, the Saljûk, 140 Sulaymân Shâh, 192 Sulayman ibn Jabir, 49 Sulaymân, see Solomon Sulaymânân, 44, 48, 49, 243 Sulphur springs, 242 Sultan of the Two 'Irâķs, 186 Sultân Darîn, 376 Sultân-ad-Dawlah, 250 Sultân Şû (river), 121 Sultânâbâd, Jamjamâl, 193 Sulțânâbâd (Ķûhistân), 354 Sultânâbâd, Shahr-i-Naw, 199 Sultânîyah, 5, 10; building, of, 222, 223, 228, 229 Sumayrah's tooth, 188 Sumayram, 247, 270, 283, 297 Sumaysât, 87, 107, 108, 116, 117, 1 23-125 Sânghân, 229 Sûnaj, 471 Sunkur, Atabeg, 251 Sunkurâbâd, 218 Sunnî-Khânah, 363 Sûnusâ or Sûnîsâ, 146 Sûrâ bridge and canal, 26, 70-72 Sûrîn river, 218 Sûrķanâ river, 215 Surkhâb river, 436, 439 Surmîn, 416 Surra-man-raa, 53 Surrak, 242 Sûrû, II, 292, 295, 319 Surûshanah, 474-476 Sûs (Susa), 82, 240, 246, 247 Sûs, river, 233 Sûsan, 245 Sûsandah, 475 Sûsanjird embroideries, 241 Sûsanķân, 399 Sutrûshanah, 474-476 Swamps of Euphrates and Tigris, 26–29, 40-43, 74, 83 Sykes, Major, 287, 300, 306,309, 312–317, 326, 329, 330, 335, 338, 340, 355, 362, 363, 394 Synades, 135 Ta âm canal, 339 Tâb river (medieval), 244, 268,272 Tâb river (modern), 270, 272 Tâbah, 257 Tấbẩn, 349 Tabar, meaning mountain, 369 Tabarận, 388-39o Tabarî, 17, 18 Tabarik (İsfahân), 205 Tabarik (Ray), 216, 217 Tabaristân province, 7, 173, 175, 368-376 Tabas Gîlakî or Tabas-at-Tarr, 10, 325, 326, 352, 359-361, 431 Tabas-al-'Unnâb or Masînân, 362, 363 Tabby silk, 81, 161, 203, 429, Tabriz, 5, 159, 160; walls and suburbs, 161-163, 230, 231 Tabrîzî mosque, 305 Taffir, 58 Tafrîsh, 211 Taghtû river, 165 Tâhir ibn Layth, 301 Tâhirids, 382 Tâhirîyah, 443, 451, 472 Tahmurath, King, 206, 263 Tâj palace, 34 Tâj, ķalʻah, 226 Tajand river, 395, 396, 407 Tak fortress (Daylam), 374 Tâk fortress (Sijistân), 343 Tâk town, 343 Tak-Âb, 387 Tâķ-i-Bustân, 187 Takân bridge, 270 Takân, Marghzar, 390 Takht-i-Karâchah, 251, 252 Takht-i-Khấtấn, 424 Takht-i-Pul, 342 Takht-i-Sulaymân, 223, 224 Takîn bridge, 383, 384 Takînâbâd, 347 Takrît, 25, 57, 84, 87 Talbot and Maitland, Messrs, 419 Talḥah, 44-46 Talhatấn, 49 Taliķân (Jibal), 172, 219, 220, 225 532 INDEX. Tazar, 192 Tâliķân (Juzjân), 423, 424, 432 Tâlish or Tảlishân, 173, 174 Tall or Dartal, 345 Tall (A.), hill Tall A'far, 99 Tall Fâfân, 87, 113 Tall Ibrâhîm, 69 Tall Nu'mân, 37 Tall-at-Tawbah, 89 Tâlût and Jâlût, 434 Tamarisk valley, 134 Tâmarrâ river or canal, 59, 60, 80 Tamîm Arabs, 427 Tamîs, 375 Tamliyât, 438 Tanah, 257 Tanbîh, 14 Tang Zandân, 319 Tang-i-Zînah pass, 289 Tarâb river, 428 Tarâbazandah, 136 Tarandah, Taranta, 120, 121 Taranjubîn, manna, 469 Tarâz embroideries, 293, 294 Tarâz town, 486-488 Tarfâ, Wâdî, 134 Tarḥân, 202 Țarîk-i-Khurâsân, 61 Tarikh-i-Rashidi, 484 Țarķ, 209, 449 Tarm, see Tarum Tarnak river, 346 Taronites, 115-117 Tarragon, 227 Tarsus, Țarsûs, 128, 130-134, 141 Tarûj, 160, 166 Târum or Țârumayn (Jibâl), 170, Târum or Târum (Fârs), 291, 292, 294, 295 Tarûn, 115-117 Tarzak castle, 319 Tâsh Kupruk, 439 Tâsh or Tâshkand, see Shâsh Țassûj, subdistricts of 'Irâķ, 79 Tasûj, 160, 166 Tate, G. P., 335 Tâûķ, 92 Taurus range, 4, 22, 128 Tâûs-al-Haramayn, 284 Tavernier, J. B., 28, 29, 326 Tawûk, 92 Tawâlish, 173, 174 Tawânah, 136 Tawas, Hign, 154 Tawâwîs, 462 Tawwaj or Tavvaz, 14, 259, 260, 267, 293, 296 Tayfûrî river, 376 Tâyikan (Tukhyristấn), 428, 432 Taylasân scarfs, 312, 367 Taymaristân, Taymarjần, 382 Taymarrâ, 61 Taysafûn, 33, 34 Tâziyân castle, 319 Teakwood (Sâj), 54 Tehrân, see Tihrân Teira, 154 Tekkeh, Amirate, 144, 150 Tephrike, 119 Thakân bridge, 269, 270 Thakkân, 252 Thamânîn, 94 Tharthâr river, 87, 97, 98 Tharthûr river, 177, 178 Thatta, 331 Thebasa, 136 Themes of Asia Minor, 138 Theodosiopolis, 117 Theodosius, Emperor, 112 Theophilus, Emperor, 121 Thirst river, 387 Three Domes, castles, 276 Thughûr (frontier fortresses), 128 Tîb, 64, 82, 241, 247 Tibet, Little, 435, 437 Tiflîs, 179, 181, 230 Tighûr castle, 269 Tigris, see under River Țihrân or Tihrân, 216, 217, 229 Tilâ, castle and lake of, 160, 161 Tiles, enamelled, called Kashânî, blue or green, 55, 78, 162, 200, "209, 216, 390 ; golden, 385 Tilshân, 173, 174 Timour Bec, Histoire de, 17 Tîmûr, his birth-place, 470; death of, 484; 40, 68, 118, 145, 146, 149, 153, 177-179, 181, 189, 200, 203, 251, 265, 269, 271, 295, 297, 301, 302, 319, 335, 338, 344, 345, 355, 357, 370-373, 375, 376, 391, 395, 403, 409, 411, 415, 417, 422, 428, 437, 438, 440, 447, 449, 430, 463, 465, 471, 484-486 Tin mines, 227 Tîn, ķal'ah, 108 Pîn Nujâhî, edible clay, 353 l'îr-i-Khudâ castle, 253 Tîr Murdân, 265 Tîrâ river, 241, 242, 246 Tîrah, 154 172, 225, 226 INDEX. 533 Turbat-i-Haydarî, 356 Turk river, 477, 481, 482 Turks, river of the (Atrak), 377 Turkâbâd, 305 Turkân Rûd, 220 Turkhân Khấtân, 305-397. Turkoman Amîrs in Asia Minor, 140, 142, 144-158 Turpin, Dick, his ride, 83 Turquoises, and Turquoise mines, 389, 429, 467, 488 Tursah, 166 Turshîz, Turshîsh, Turshîs or Tur- thith, 20, 320, 354, 355, 430 Tûs, 9, 388-390, 429, 431 Tustar, 6, 233-236, 246, 247 Tûsar, 292 Tûtîyâ, Tutty, 160, 309 Tuvî, 197 Tuwânah, Tyana, 136, 139, 150 Tûz, poplar bark, 459 Two Domes, castle, 272 Ubullah town and canal, 19, 44, 46, 47, 81 Țirbâl, 255 Tîrhân, 54 Tîrîn, see Tîrâ Tirmid, 439, 440 Tirrîkh fish, 124, 183, 184 Tirzah river, 256 Tîz castle (Fârs), 251 Tîz port (Makrấn), 329-330, 333 Toll-barriers on Kârûn river, 243 Toll-barriers on Tigris, 36, 41 Tooth-ache, bark for, 392 Tornberg, C. J., 18 Tovin, 182 Trade and products of Adharbâyjân and North-west provinces, 184 Fârs, 293 'Irâķ, 81 Jaxartes provinces, 487 Jazîrah and Upper Euphrates, 124 Jibâl, 227 Jurjân, 381 Khurasân, 429. Khizistan, 246 Khwârizm, 458, 459 Kirmân, 320 Ķûhistân, 363 Ķûmis, 367 Sijistân, 351 Sughd, 471 Țabaristân, 369, 376 Tralleis, 159 Transoxiana, 433 Trebizond, 136 Trench of Sapor, 65 Tualâ lake, 199 Tubbat (Tibet), 435 Tughril Beg the Saljûķ, 189, 207 Tughril II, Saljûk, 217 Tûķâț, 142, 147 Tûkath for Tûnkath, 483 Tukharân-bih, 399 Tukhâristân, Upper and Lower, 426, 427 Tukhmah Şû, 120, 121 Tulâs river, 487 Tûlim, 175 Tulûl, 135 Tumujkath, Tumushkath, 462 Tûn, 7, 353 Tûnkath, 483, 488 Tunocain of Marco Polo, 352 Tûr ‘Abdîn, 94, 96 Tûrân (Makrân), 331, 332 Târân and Îrân, 433 Tûrân Shâh, Saljûķ, 305, 306 Turaythîth, 20 ; see Turshîz Vhaydab, 122 Ujân (Ardabîl), 163, 231 Ujân (Fârs), 276, 281 “Ukbarâ, 50, 51, 84 “Uķdah, 285 ‘UĶr, 41 Ulấn Mören, 169 Uljaytû Sultân, 193, 222 Uljaytô Khấtân, 223 'Ullayk, 134 Ulû Burlû, 142, 151 ‘Umar, see 'Omar ‘Umârah coast, 256 Umîdâbâd, 165 Unâs, 286, 320 Unguents, 293 Ura-tepeh, 474 Uram Khâst, 372 Urast river, 476 Ũrd, 277, 282 Urdûbâd, 167 Urfah, 104 Urgence, 449 Urganj, 8, 446; see Jurjânîyah Urmîyah lake, 5, 22, 160 Urmîyah city, 165, 230 Urmûs or Urmûz, 319 Urâmiyah, 161 Üsh, 478, 479, 489 Ushburgân, 426 Ushnuh or Ushnûyah, 165 Ushrûsanah province, 474-476 534 INDEX. Ushtiķân, 478 Varâmîn, 216, 217, 229 Ushturghâz (assafætida), 400 Varavî, 169 Ushtûrkath, 482 Warthân, I76, 77, 23° Uskâf Banî Junayd, 59 Warwâlîz, 428 Usrûd, 415 Warzand, 163 Usrûsanah, 474-476 Washâk, 209 Ustûn, 421 Washjird, 439, 472 Ustunâbâd, Ustânâvand, 371, 372 Waşîf bridge, 38 Ustuvâ, 393 Wâsiț, 3, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29; building ‘Utbî, 348, 395 of, 39, 40, 42, 81, 82 Utrâr, 9, 484, 185, 488 Vastâm (Bîsutûn), 187 Uwâl island, 261 Vastấm or Vastần (Vân), 18+ Üzaj, 439 Water-dog, fish, 160 “Uzayr, tomb of, 43 Wâthiķ, Caliph, 54, 55 Uzjân, 276, 281 Watrâb river, 420, 428, 436 Úzkand, 9, +76, 479, 489 Wâyikhân, 452 Uzvârah, 208 Waymah, 371 Waynkard, 482, 488 Valerian, Emperor, 235 Wazîr town, 454 Veiled Prophet of Khurâsân, 414, 470 Wazkard, 465 Velvets, 386 Wednesday Market, 243 Veronica of Edessa, 104 Weir at Ahwaz, 234 Vespasian, bridge of, 123, 124 Weir at Tustar, 235 Volcano at Asak, 244 West Country,' Kharvarân, 395 Vomiting, bridge of, 330 Whirlpool in Kârûn, 245; in Tigris Vullers, J. A., 368 Estuary, 47; in Oxus, 451 Vulture hills, 208, 209 White Castle, 264, 265 White Huns, 433, 438 W pronounced V in Persian, 20 White Palace, 34 Wadhâk canal, 453 White River, 435 Wâdî (A.), river or valley, see under Widhâr, 466 River Wîh (P.), meaning ‘good,' 303 Wâdî-al-Jawz, 134 Wîh Artakhshîr, 303 Wâdî-al-Kabîr, 219 Wîh Shâpûr, 262 Wâdî Razm, 113 Willow village, 284 Wâdî Sarbat, 112 Wîmah, 371 Wâdî Sayram, 219 Wind at Dâmghân, 365 Wâdî-at-Tarfâ, 134 Windmills, 337, 409, 411 Wâdî-aż-Żûr, in Vîrân Shahr, 12I Wahânzâd, 283 Wolf river (affluent of Tigris), 110 Vahsûdân, 226 Wolf river (affluent of Arsanâs), 116 Vâjib, 312 Wonders of the World, the Four, 104, Wakhkhâb river, 435 124 Wakhkhân, 435, 437 Wood, Captain, 434, 439, 441 Wakhsh country and Wakhshâb river, Wright, W., 15 434-439 Wurghar, 467 Valâshjird, 317, 321 Vurûjird, 200 Walid, Caliph, 58, 131 Wüstenfeld, F., 16, 84 Wâlishtân, 332, 333, 347, 351 Valiyân, 162 Yaghrâ bridge, 117 Vân lake, 5, 22, 182, 18+ Yahûd, Hișn, 135 Vận city, 183 Yahûdân, 424, 425 Wandah, 326 Yahûdî canal, 58 Wandanîgân, 63 Yahûdîyah (Isfahân), 203, 204 Wanj river, 435 Yahûdîyah (Maymanah), 4241, 425 Wankath, 480 Yahyâ, son of Alî Zayn-al-'Abidin, Waraghsar, 465, 467 218 INDEX. 535 Yahyâ the Barmecide, 371 Yâjúj and Mâjûj, 434 Yakdur, 161 Ya‘ķûb ibn Layth, 36; his tomb, 238, 273, 281, 336, 337 Ya'kûbî, 12, 13 Yâķût, 15, 16; residence in Marv, 401 Yalâvâch, 151 Yamkân, 437 Yandî, 406 Yanghikant, Yanghi-Shahr, 486 Yârkath, 466 Yarnâ, Yarnî, 94 Yarzâtiyah, 59 Yasîn Tappah, 191 Yassi, 485, 486 Yate, Colonel, 308, 342, 357, 358, 388, 389, 405, 406, 410, 413, 415, 423-427 Yazd, 6, 275, 284; walls and gates, 285, 286, 294, 297, 326; district of, included in Fârs, 249 Yazdâbâd, 220 Yazdajird III, King, 62, 400, 401 Yazdashîr, 303 Yazdikhwâst (Dârâbjird), 291 Yazdikhwâst (Istakhr), 282, 283, 297 Yazîd, Caliph, 137 Yazmîr, 155 Yaznîk, 156, 157 Yellow Kiosque, 282 Yellow Mountains, 207 Yule, Sir H., 288, 349, 352, 355, 356, 417, 434, 439, 441, 489 Yunâbidh, 359 Yûnis (Jonah, prophet), 88, 89 Yunnâl, 189 l'urgân Lâdîk, 149 Zâb canal, upper, middle and lower, and districts, 37, 38, 73, 80 Zâb rivers, Great and Little, 87, 90, 91, 92, 194 Zâb for Dizfûl river, 238 Zabulistân, 334, 349 Zafar Nâmah, 17 Zâhidân, 335 Zahirîyah, “Ayn, 95 Zakkân, 252 Zakvîr river, 167 Zal, father of Rustam, 335, 371 Zal river, 239 Zalam, 190 Zâlik, 344 Zâliķân, 344 Zâm, 356, 357 Zamakhshar and Zamakhsharî, 454 Zâmấn, 317 Zâmil river, 436, 440 Zâmîn, 9, 475, 488, 489 Zamîn Dâwar, 339, 345, 346, 351 Zamîn Dih, 195 Zamm, 403, 404 Zamm-al-Akrad, 266 Zanabîl, date baskets, 351 Zanbûk, 343 Zandah Rûd, 203–207, 233 Zandajî stuffs, 462 Zandân, 410 Zandanah, 462 Zangî, 93, 104 Zangiyân, 167 Zanîthâ, 122 Zanj, capital of the, 48; their sack of Başrah, 45; rebellion of, 233 Zanjân, 221, 222, 229, 230 Zanjân river, 169 Zankân river, 318 Zapetra, 121 Zar castle, 393 Zar mountain, 365 Zarafshân 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, 335-340, 431 Zarb river, 114 Zarbak, 398, 401 Zard or Zardah Kûh, 207, 233 Zardûsht (Zoroaster), 165 Zarîk, 398, 399, 401 Zarîn Rûdh, 207 Zarîrân, 35, 67 Zarķ canal and town, 398-401 Zarkân, 289 Zarm river, 114 Zarmân, 468 Zarûn island, 319 Zâvah, 356 Zâvar for Râvar, 309 Zawâriķ, Jisr, 57 Zawzân (Jazîrah), 93, 94 Zawzan (Kühistấn), 358 Zaybandî, 215 Zâyindah Rûd, 203–207 Zhakkân, 252 Zibatrah, 121, 126, 128 Zîlah, 147 Zîriyân, 263 Zîrkûh, 358 Ziyârids, 378