a considerable portion of the population of the Persian and Turkish
Empires. In Asia Minor they are called _Turcomans_; in Assyria and
Armenia, _Curds_; in _Irak_ and Fars, _Elauts_; the _Vloches_ of
HERBERT, p. 129, (by some considered the _Eluths_ or _Oigurs_.) Their
general character is the same; and they have continued to follow the
same hereditary occupations with unbroken regularity. EBN HAUKAL
estimates the numbers included in their _zems_ or tribes in _Fars_
alone at five hundred thousand families, p. 83.
_Lion on the tomb, at Derees, p. 85; see also, p. 94_, &c.]--On the
meaning of such an emblem, see NIEBUHR’S Doubt in his chapter on
_Shiraz_, tom. ii.
_Bazar-a-Vakeel_, p. 100.]--SCOTT WARING reckons the length of this
great work of KERIM KHAN, at half a mile! FRANKLIN, at a quarter of a
mile, p. 58; and a later authority at between seven and eight hundred
yards.
_P. 104._]--The Story of CHEIK CHENAN, may remind the reader of the Lay
of ARISTOTE.
_The Bend-emir, p. 124._]--The Prince, from whose dyke thrown across
it, the _Bend-emir_ is asserted to have taken its name, is sometimes
said to be EMIR AZAD A DOWLAH, one of the _Buiya_ Sultans; and as
the river occurs in the route of BARBARO, 1472, within seventy years
after the reign of TIMUR, as the “_Bindamyr_,” it is probable that it
acquired that name from the earlier Prince. On the word _Bund_, see a
note in VINCENT’S Periplus, p. 157; and MOOR’S Female Infanticide, p.
110, &c.
_Persepolis, p. 129._]--The first account of _Chehel Minar_, that was
brought to Europe after the revival of learning, occurs in the travels
of JOSAPHAT BARBARO, Embassador from the State of Venice to the Prince
whom he calls ASSAMBEI, (who may be recognised indeed as the “USAN
CASSANES,” “of some called ASYMBEIUS,” in KNOLLES, p.409;) but who is
better known as the UZUN HASSAN or CASSAN of D’HERBELOT. The rarity
of the volume in which these travels are contained may justify the
insertion of an extract, Aldus, 1543. JOSAPHAT BARBARO does not suspect
that he is describing the _Persepolis_ of the Classics; and labours
therefore to find in the sculptures at _Chehil Minar_, something which
may rather accord with the Hebrew origin assigned to it by one of the
traditions of the country. In the bridge leading over the _Bend-emir_
he had already discovered a work of SOLOMON; and he proceeds to point
out, among the representations on the rocks, the figure of SOLOMON
himself. Again, instead of RUSTAM, the HERCULES of Persia, or rather
instead of the real heroes, ARTAXERXES and SAPOR, whom that name has
supplanted at _Persepolis_, JOSAPHAT BARBARO perceives in a colossal
image on horseback, the figure of SAMSON. The being in the air, which
some have conceived to be the soul of a departed monarch, and which
recurs in the engravings of the tombs by LE BRUN and CHARDIN, is thus
described: “Sopra di tutte e una figura simile a quelle nostre che
noi figuriamo Dio padre in uno tondo; laqual ha uno tondo per mano,
e sotto laqual sono altre figure piccole,” fol. 51. 6. He continues;
among the lesser figures there is one, who has on his head a Pope’s
mitre, “una mitria di Papa;” and has his hands extended, apparently as
if he would give his benediction to those beneath him, who are looking
up to him in fixed expectation of the said blessing. Near SAMSON are
several other figures dressed in the French mode, “alla Francese,” and
having long hair. M.I. The description is curious, and characteristic
of the age; but even in the seventeenth century, TAVERNIER in the same
manner fancied that he saw in the Sassanian sculptures at _Kermanshah_,
priests, surplices, and censers, tom. i. 316. This indeed was almost
the earliest account that had been given of the spot; and therefore,
this error is more excusable. But now, when so much has been written
on the subject, (whether the sculptures be the works of SEMIRAMIS
or of the Sassanian Kings?) and more particularly when DE SACY has
definitively proved by the inscriptions, that the figures are connected
with the history of the latter Princes of the house of SASSAN; we may
be surprised that M. DE GARDANNE should have overlooked their design;
and instead of recognising an object that had been illustrated by his
countryman with so much learning, should pass it in his journal with
the single remark: “Plus loin sur un rocher élevé, on voit une croix et
les douze Apôtres sculptés.” p. 83.
Every nation has some proverbial expression of number, and “forty”
seems popular in the East. Thus the palace of _Ispahan_ is the _Chehil
Sitoon_; and another built in imitation of it, at _Moorshedabad_, is
called by the same name. _Seir Mutagherin_, i. 301. _Chehil minar_
therefore signifies an indefinite number of pillars, whether more or
less than forty; but even with all the allowance, which this expression
may require, it is probable that in the time of SADI, six hundred years
ago, the pillars standing at _Persepolis_ amounted really to forty.
CHARDIN, tom. iii. 138. The remains at _Persepolis_ are designated
by another still more comprehensive form, “_Hazar Sitoon_,” the one
thousand columns. DE SACY, p. 1. If the fragment engraved in the
Archœologia, from the original transmitted by RICHARD STRACHEY, Esq.
to his father, be really of the size of that original, as the notice
affirms, and if it formed part of the series of sculptures, we may
thence learn the average proportions of the subjects at _Persepolis_.
Archœol. xiv. app. 282. But LE BRUN sent over an entire figure from the
reliefs; see the close of his work.
_Ispahan, p. 159._]--_Ispahan_ had been for ages one of the greatest
cities of the East, and was possibly the _Aspa_ and _Aspadana_ of the
ancients. In 1472 it contained one hundred and fifty thousand souls;
a number which, according to BARBARO, was but the sixth of its former
population. It had declined in political importance till SHAH ABBAS
transferred thither the seat of Empire from _Casvin_. It rose rapidly
to a second greatness: in extent it almost covered the plain. It was
itself twenty-four miles in circumference, and according to CHARDIN, “a
dix lieues à la ronde, on comptait quinze cents villages.” Tom. iii.
83. CHARDIN thought its population equal to that of London, and fixed
it at six hundred thousand souls. TAVERNIER, almost at the same time,
comparing it with Paris, says, it has but one-tenth of the population.
(See on the relative population of Paris, London, and _Rhages_, Sir
WM. PETTY’S Essay.) TAVERNIER is clearly wrong, and certainly much
more inaccurate than the other extreme of one million and one hundred
thousand, stated by the European merchants in _Ispahan_. Yet there is
an error probably in both the larger estimates. The number of houses
in CHARDIN’S estimate is a fixed standard, thirty-eight thousand: at
fifteen in a house, the amount would not equal the population which
he assigns as the lowest number; and it would require more than
twenty-eight in a house, to justify the larger calculation. OLIVIER
indeed remarks on another occasion, tom. v. 163, that “on doint compter
en Perse au moins 7 ou 8 Persans par maisons;” but though this is much
higher than the average of Europe, and much higher than Mr. MORIER
has calculated throughout his travels, (with the single exception of
_Bushire_), it will not give much above half the estimate of CHARDIN.
It may perhaps be observed that the numbers in _Ispahan_ during the
_Affghan_ siege, and which are variously stated from seven hundred
thousand to a million, will confirm the general accuracy of the former
statement; but it should be recollected, that the amount on that
occasion was swelled by the fugitives from the whole country. OLIVIER
reckoned the inhabitants of _Ispahan_ in his days at fifty thousand;
its habitable circumference was reduced to a diameter of two miles; and
he was riding for half an hour through the ruins which surrounded it.
Tom. v. 175, 179. GARDANNE hears that the ruins extend for a march of
more than four hours, p. 70. A later statement indeed gives the present
population at two hundred and fifty thousand. But even in the decay in
which OLIVIER found it, it retained sufficient evidences of original
greatness to excite the liveliest sensations: “Tout ce que nous vimes,
tout ce qu’on nous dit, tout ce que nous supposâmes nous en donna la
plus grande ideé: tout nous persuada qu’elle fut sous les SOPHIS une
des plus belles, des plus riches, des plus peuplées de l’Asie.” P. 180.
_SHAH ABBAS drinking wine, p. 165._]--GIBBON says, that “in every age
the wines of _Shiraz_ have triumphed over the laws of MAHOMED.” In
fact however, the use of spirituous liquors in general has depended,
in Persia as in Turkey and other Mahomedan countries, less on the
precepts of the _Koran_, than on the will and character of the
reigning Prince. PIETRO DELLA VALLE gives a curious account of the
alternations in the use of inebriating liquors, which the difference
in the individual habits of the Sovereign produced in his day in the
court of Persia: and TOURNEFORT remarks the same effect in Georgia;
“of all nations the greatest wine drinkers.” Tom. ii. lettre vi.
Eastern monarchs indeed, in this as in other points, have considered
themselves unfettered by the prohibitions of the _Koran_: “Kings are
subject to no law;”--“Whatever they do, they commit no sin,” were the
maxims by which SHAH HUSSEIN, the last of the SEFFIS, was seduced into
drunkenness. (Mod. Univ. Hist. vi. p. 22.) The exclusive prerogatives
of an absolute Prince were, however, best exemplified in Hindostan.
JEHANGEER, as we learn from his own commentaries, was accustomed to
drink of the strongest spirits, a quantity equal in weight to ten
_seers_ a day; while (as PETER the Great, and the rising PETER of
the South Seas, TAMAHAMA, in TURNBULL’S Voyage, have done since)
he issued as a standing regulation of his government, an order for
the prohibition of spirituous liquors, and every thing else of an
intoxicating nature, throughout the whole kingdom, “notwithstanding
that I had myself,” he adds, “from the age of eighteen to thirty-eight,
been constantly addicted to them.” Extracts by JAMES ANDERSON, from
the _Toozuké Jehangeer_, Asiat. Miscell. vol. ii. p. 77. To evade the
prohibition of wine, the Orientals have had recourse to compositions
infinitely more inebriating: these are “the mixed wine,” “the strong
drink mingled of the Scriptures;” see LOWTH’S ISAIAH, p. 12-13, p.
231, &c. See a Chapter of KÆMPFER, fasc. iii. obs. 15. The liquor thus
substituted in Persia is the _Cocnos_ of DELLA VALLE. ABBAS the First,
when he drank wine, drank it as in the text, publicly: for a purpose,
as a contemporary traveller observes, like that of AGATHOCLES in
DIODORUS of discovering the real character of his guests. DELLA VALLE,
tom. ii. 341. See the entertainment in HERBERT, p. 171: “Most friendly
ABBAS puld our Ambassador downe, seated him close to his side, smiling
to see he could not sett (after the Asiatique sort) crosse-legd, and
calling for a bowl of wine, dronke his Master’s health, at which the
Ambassador uncoverd his head; and to complement beyond all expectation
the Potshaugh,” (the _Padishah_) “puld of his turbant; by discovering
his bald head, symbolising his affection; and after an houres merriment
departed.” This object of ABBAS was again similarly attempted by SHAH
SULEYMAN. Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. vi. 16. SHAH SEFFI in a caprice chose
to prohibit tobacco, and executed two foreign merchants for disobeying
the order, as SULTAN MURAD did in Turkey for the same offence. RYCAUT,
p. 59; see p. 43, against wine. SHAH SEFFI himself drank to excess; but
having in a fit of intoxication killed one of his wives, he published
a mandate through all his dominions, that no one should drink wine;
and that the Governors should stave all the casks and spill the liquor
wherever it was found. Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. v. p. 471-2, p. 475. SHAH
HUSSEIN, vol. vi. 21, prohibited wine by his first act, though he
afterwards was tempted to indulge in it; but when BELL was in Persia,
the King was still sober and devout, and drank no wine, which in
consequence was not used by his court. BELL, i. 107, see p. 116. NADIR
SHAH and KERIM KHAN permitted the use of wine: but AGA MAHOMED, “cruel,
feroce au dela de toute expression, faisait ouvrir le ventre à ceux de
ces sujets Musulmans qui etaient accusés de boire du vin.” OLIVIER,
tom. v. p. 136.
_Mourtchekourd, p. 176._]--The difficulty of ascertaining a fact in
the ancient history of Persia, may be estimated by the contradictions
in a very modern period, in an event of extreme importance, and in the
relations of contemporary authors. The battle of _Mourtchekourd_, which
decided the fate of Persia, was fought, according to JONES’S Life of
NADIR, on the 13th November, 1728. OTTER, who accompanied an Embassy
to NADIR, says November, 1730. GARDANNE, the French Consul, who was at
_Ispahan_ at the time, says November, 1729. See OLIVIER, vol. v. p. 375.
_P. 186._]--Of the King of Persia’s own poems, see a specimen in SCOTT
WARING. See also GARDANNE, p. 76.
_Lion and Bear, p. 187._]--In BELL’S time, there were two lions at the
court of Persia, who couched to the Embassador as he passed, p. 100-1.
When the Greek Embassador was presented to the CALIPH MOCTADER, A. D.
917, “one hundred lions were brought out, with a keeper to each lion.”
GIBBON, 4to. v. p. 420.
_Introduction, p. 128._]--BELL’S description is striking, “at our
entry into the hall, we were stopped about three minutes at the first
fountain, in order to raise the greater respect; the pipes were
contrived to play so high, that the water fell into the basin like
thick rain. Nothing could be distinguished for some time; and the
_Schach_ himself appeared as in a fog. While we moved forward, every
thing was as still as death.” vol. i. p. 103.
_ZEIN LABADEEN, p. 176._]--The ZAIN LABADEEN, called in the text
the brother of HOSSEIN, is probably ALI, his youngest son, called
afterwards ZEIN ALAB’BEDDIN, “the ornament of the religious.” Mod.
Univ. Hist. vol. ii. p. 101. FRANKLIN, p. 180.
_Punishment of Theft, p. 204._]--This was a punishment inflicted by the
Emperor AURELIAN. GIBBON, i. p. 355.
_P. 217._]--GARDANNE complains in the same manner of the publicity
of Persian diplomacy. “Les Gardes, les Secretaires, les curieux sont
presens. Nous avons souvent demande de les faire eloigner, mais les
Ministres gardent toujours du monde. On ne peut pas rester seul avec
eux.” Journal, p. 54.
_Teheran, p. 224._]--It is interesting to trace the progress of a
capital. At about the same distance from _Rhages_, (at which the
present city of _Teheran_ may be placed from the remains of _Rey_)
appears the town of _Tahora_, in the Theodosian tables: a sufficient
presumption that _Teheran_ itself had an original and independant
existence, and did not rise only from the ruins of the greater
metropolis. Its continuance as a contemporary city cannot now be
traced distinctly; it may indeed have borne a different name in
Eastern geography, as it is the _Teheran_ or _Cherijar_ of TAVERNIER.
It re-appears however under its present name in the journey of the
Castilian Embassadors to TIMUR, at a period when the greatness of _Rey_
was still very considerable. At the end of two centuries, PIETRO DELLA
VALLE re-visited it. He calls it the city of planes; tom. ii. 390: the
soil is probably particularly adopted to the tree; for OLIVIER mentions
one in the neighbourhood that measured round an excrescence at the
root, seventy feet; tom. v. p. 102. About the same time with DELLA
VALLE, HERBERT described it fully. It is the _Tyroan_ of his travels.
TAVERNIER notices it more perhaps from the materials of others than
from his own observation, tom. i. 313: and CHARDIN speaks of it only
as “petite ville.” Tom. ii. p. 120. Its name occurs with scarcely a
line of comment, in a route given by HANWAY, vol. i.; and though it
was a place of some interest in the reign of NADIR, its actual state
cannot be collected with any certainty till the accession of the
present dynasty. It had long indeed been the capital of a province; and
its name had been frequently connected with objects of importance in
the history of the last two centuries; yet it owes its more immediate
pre-eminence to the events of the last few years. It had been so much
destroyed by the _Affghans_, (when after the battle of _Salmanabad_
they invested it, in the hope of seizing SHAH THAMAS, who had retired
thither) that AGA MAHOMED, the late King, may be considered as almost
its second founder. Its nearness to his own tribe and province; the
facilities of raising instantaneously from the wandering tribes
around it a large force of cavalry; and its central situation between
the general resources of his empire and the more exposed frontiers,
combined to justify his choice of _Teheran_ as the capital of Persia.
It has risen rapidly. In 1797 OLIVIER describes it as little more than
two miles in circumference, and of the whole area the palace occupied
more than one-fourth. Tom. v. p. 89. In 1809, it is stated to be
between four and a half and five miles round the walls. The population,
according to OLIVIER, even with all the encouragement which AGA MAHOMED
afforded to settlers, and including his own household of three thousand
persons, amounted in 1797 to only fifteen thousand persons. GARDANNE
describes it, ten years afterwards, as having more than fifty thousand
inhabitants during the winter; though he notices the almost total
desertion of the city during the heats of summer. Journal, &c. p. 55.
In one of Mr. MORIER’S routes in the Appendix, _Teheran_ is represented
as containing twelve thousand houses, a better estimate of its size
than the number of inhabitants.
_Ark, p. 225._]--_Ark_ is obviously, _Arx_.
_Impress, p. 225._]--This impress was by no means peculiar to Persia.
Many instances might be given from our own history down to the reign of
ELIZABETH: but it is sufficient to refer to those connected with the
subject in the text. HENRY VI. pressed minstrels “in solatium regis;”
almost the very act of the King of Persia. EDWARD VI. thus supplied
his choir, (BARRINGTON on the Statutes, p. 337); and in the reign of
ELIZABETH, under one of the commissions to take up all singing children
for the use of the Queen’s chapel, TUSSER, the author of the Five
Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, was impressed. See LYSONS’S Environs
of London, vol i. p. 92.
“Thence for my voice, I must no choice,
Away of force, like posting horse
For sundry men, had placards then
Such child to take,--”
_Female Officers, p. 225._]--SERADJ ED DOWLAH had a female guard
of Calmucks, Tartars, Georgians, Negroes and Abyssinians. (_Seir
Mutagherin_, vol. i. p. 146.) NASSUREDDEEN peopled a city entirely
with women; all the officers being of that sex. He is said to have had
fifteen thousand women. (GLADWIN, Hist. of Indostan, vol. i. p. 114.)
It is very possible that some such caprice of an Oriental despot may
have given rise to the cities of men and women on different sides of
the Ganges, of which we read in PALLADIUS, p. 9; and St. AMBROSE, p.
54: at the end of BYSHE’S “PALLADIUS de Gentibus Indiæ,” and not very
improbable that it may have produced the tradition so common in the
early travellers, of the islands of men and women, and perhaps the
whole fable of the Amazons. See of the islands the Arabian travellers
of RENAUDOT, MARCO POLO, lib. iii. FRA MAURO in VINCENT’S Periplus, p.
671. See a curious note on the word _Hamazen_, “all women,” in MOOR’S
Infanticide, p. 82.
_Fall in HAFIZ, p. 229._]--It is scarcely necessary to refer to more
ancient divination; but the resemblance between the Persian trial
and that of the _Sortes Virgilianæ_ must occur to every reader. The
Mahomedans have another oracle in the _Koran_, which they consult in
the same manner: and the Jews had similar recourse to the Scriptures
of the Old Testament. SALE’S _Koran_. Prelim. Dissert. § iii. p. 69.
The authority of VIRGIL (and indeed, though less currently, of HOMER
also,) remained in full force to the middle at least of the seventeenth
century, as in the first instance the appeal of CHARLES I. and Lord
FALKLAND sufficiently proves: JOHNSON’S Life of COWLEY, p. 13. Even the
Bible was thus opened for divination. Ars Magica, 1638, p. iii.
_Rags on Bushes, p. 230._]--This superstition was noticed in Persia by
one of the earliest travellers, JOSAPHAT BARBARO, 1474, fol. 45, and
was explained by him on the principle that (such was the scarcity of
wood in the country) even a bush was a miracle. M. I.
_Change of Names, p. 230._]--The renaming of SHAH SEFFI, who then
became SHAH SOLEYMAN, is related fully by CHARDIN and TAVERNIER; and in
its ceremonies is not perhaps easily paralleled; but in its essential
circumstance, a change of name from a belief in the unluckiness of the
first, it may be supported by an example in our own history: when JOHN
of Scotland took the name of ROBERT III. (see HENRY’S History, vol.
viii. 372, from FORDUN;) because the Prince, who had borne the former
appellation, had been unfortunate in the annals of the country. In the
family of CATHERINE DE MEDICIS; EDWARD-ALEXANDER became HENRY III.:
HERCULES became CHARLES IX. &c. See a note in the Life of CARY, Earl of
Monmouth, p. 39. The Jews thus changed their names.
_Herrings, p. 231._]--The herrings of the Caspian are described by
P. H. BRUCE. Memoirs, p. 261. TOOKE speaks of “a fish resembling a
herring.” CATHERINE, II. vol. ii. p. 56.
_Coals, p. 231._]--MARCO POLO speaks of a combustible stone found in
China; which is obviously coal. EBN HAUKAL mentions in Ferghaneh, “a
stone that takes fire and burns,” p. 250; compare however, p. 272,
which seems to imply a more distinct knowledge of coal.
_Demawend, p. 231._]--The distance to which according to the text, it
is visible is paralleled by that at which Sir WM. JONES observed the
_Chumalury_ mountains from _Bhaugalpore_. This distance is stated by
him at two hundred and forty-four miles: but he adds, that the object
might be seen much further. (Note in Lord TEIGNMOUTH’S Life of Sir
WM. JONES, p. 253.) Another account gives the first distance from
_Bhaugalpore_ at two hundred and fifty miles. P. H. BRUCE, (Memoirs,
282) saw _Ararat_ from _Derbend_ at a distance of at least two hundred
and ten geographical miles, equal to more than two hundred and forty
British measure, in a straight line by the compasses on Major RENNELL’S
map. EBN HAUKAL mentions that _Demawend_ may be seen fifty _farsang_
round, (perhaps one hundred and seventy-five miles.) He adds, “I have
not heard that any man ever ascended to its summit;” p. 172. HERBERT
indeed relates his ascent (Travels), but OLIVIER can describe only an
ineffectual endeavour. Tom. v. p. 125, &c. The difficulties which he
encountered, seem to rival those of TOURNEFORT in the attempt to scale
_Ararat_. Tom., ii. 357, &c. The fable of a plant which tinges the
teeth of sheep with gold, is not confined to _Demawend_: it is attached
to their favourite mountains by different nations, and may thus be
traced to Mount _Lebanon_; to Mount _Elewnd_, &c. and the plant, which
is convertible into gold, is found, if an alchemist may be believed,
in the mountains of _Yemen_: it was supposed indeed by the Arabs,
to constitute the real object of NIEBUHR’S Voyage. Description de
l’Arabie, p. 123. A mountain so vast, and of a form so peculiar, was
naturally connected with the traditionary mythology of the country: and
accordingly _Demawend_ was believed to cover with all its weight ZOHAK,
the usurper in the earliest dynasty of their empire. See CHAMPION’S
_Ferdusí_.