Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/656

 626 P E R S I A [GEOGRAPHY. gem and seal engraving, are exquisite of their kind, and that the Carpets, carpets manufactured by the &quot;ustads&quot; or skilled workmen of local repute, when left to themselves and their native patterns, are to a great extent unrivalled. One shown to Colonel Goldsmid at Karnian, under preparation for the tomb of Shah Niy amat Ullali, situated at the neighbouring village of Mahun, would have been greatly prized in Europe. In company with Murdoch Smith that officer visited the carpet manufactories of the city in 1865. Of this in teresting branch of Persian art Smith writes : &quot;Carpets are now made in many parts of Persia, but chiefly in Kurdistan, Khurasan, Feraghan (in Irak), and Karman ; each of these districts producing a distinctive kind both in texture and style. The finest are unques tionably those of Kurdistan, of which good specimens exist in the museum. The pattern does not represent flowers, bouquets, or other objects thrown up in relief from a uniform ground, like so many of the inappropriate designs of Europe, but looks more like a layer of flowers strewn on the ground, or a field of wild flowers in spring ; a much more suitable style of ornament for a fabric jncant to lie under foot. The borders are always well marked and usually of brighter colours than the centre. Besides the ordinary kali, or pile carpet, others, called do-ru, very thin and smooth and alike on both sides, are made in Kurdistan, of which there is a specimen in the museum. These do-ru, from their portability, are much used in travelling for spreading by the roadside during the halts for pipes and tea. The carpets of Feraghan resemble those of Kurdistan in style, although the texture is looser and the pattern simpler. They are consequently much cheaper and in more general use. . . . The Khurasan carpets are somewhat superior in texture to those of Feraghan, but the patterns are generally more realistic ; the flowers, &c., being represented as standing out of the ground. There is a fine Khurasan carpet in the museum made by the Kurdish settlers on the Turkman frontier. Karman carpets are the next in value to those of Kurdistan, but the designs are usually still more realistic than those of Khurasan. Besides flowers, figures of men and animals are not uncommon.&quot; Referring to the Turkman carpet he says: &quot;The texture is very good and the pile is pecu liarly velvety to the touch. The design, however, is crude, and the colours although rich are few in number. Still it is astonishing to think that, such as they are, these carpets are woven in the tents of a wild nomadic race like the Turkmans. Of late years there has been unfortunately a slight importation from Europe into Persia both of colours and designs which are far from being an improve ment. The carpets of every description are made without even the simplest machinery, the loom being simply a frame on which the . warp is stretched. The woof consists of snort threads woven into the warp with the fingers without a shuttle. When a row of the woof is thus completed, a sort of comb is inserted into the warp and pressed or hammered against the loose row of woof until it is sufficiently tightened to the rest of the web. The pile is formed by merely clipping the ends of the woof until an even surface is obtained. The weaver sits with the reverse side of the web towards him, so that he depends solely on his memory for the formation of the pattern. . . . &quot;Felts or namads are made in many parts of Persia, but chiefly at Ispahan and Yazd. The material consists of all kinds of wool mixed together, that of the camel predominating. The colour is generally brown, but the surface on one side, and sometimes on both, is ornamented with geometric and other designs in different colours which are inlaid (so to speak) in the namad, and not simply stamped on the surface. Shawls. &quot;The shawls of Karnian are not much inferior to those of Kash mir. They are woven by hand similarly to the carpets. The material called kurk of which the shawls are made is the under wool of a particular kind of white goat : numerous flocks of this animal are in the neighbourhood of Karman. Like the merino sheep in Spain, these flocks migrate annually according to the season, in which respect they are like almost all the flocks and herds of Persia. I therefore made enquiries at Karman why the kurk -producing goats were only to be found in that neighbour hood, and was informed that in that district the rapid descent from the high plateau of Persia to the plains near the sea afforded the means of keeping the flocks throughout the year in an almost even temperature and in abundant pastures, with a much shorter dis tance between the summer and winter quarters than in other parts of Persia, and that such an even climate without long distances to traverse in the course of migration was necessary to the delicate constitution of the animal, or rather to the softness of its wool. The whole of the kurk is not made use of in the looms of Karman, a large quantity being annually exported to Amritsar in upper India, where it is manufactured into false Kashmir shawls. Besides the ordinary long shawls of which men s and women s tunics are made, others of a single colour are made at Karman, which are afterwards richly ornamented with needlework. Of these there are in the museum several specimens, in which the softness of the shawl and the richness of the embroidery are both to be admired. Shawls of a coarser kind are also made at Yazd, of which a speci men mav be seen in the museum in a pair of door curtains.&quot; Political Divisions. According to the latest information obtained, or up to 1884, the 36th year of the reign of Ntisru d-Din Shah, Persia is found to be portioned out into four large divisions and six smaller governments, of which governors-general or governors are appointed by the king. The four divisions are: (1) Adarbaijan (Azcrbijan) in the west ; (2) the North Central Districts ; (3) Khurasan in the east, including Si .stan ; (4) Southern Persia, or from the Shattu l- Arab to the Mashkid. The minor governments are : (5) Astra-bad, (6) Mazandaran, (7) Gflan, Khamsah with Zanjiin, (9) Kazvin, (10) Gerrus. Adarbaijan, the ancient Atropatene, is under the &quot; wali- ahd,&quot; or Adar- heir-apparent, Muzaffaru d-Din Mirza, second son of the shah, who baijan. resides at Tabriz, and appoints governors to the several districts within his range. Among the more important of these are Ardabil, Sarab, and Khalkhal towards the Caspian, Maku, Khoi, and Urumiya in the west, Maragha in the centre, and Solduz, Saujbulak, and Sain Kalah in the south. Adarbaijan is about 250 miles in length from the Little Ararat to Sardasht, and the same distance in breadth from Kotur to the Talish. It is separated from Armenia in the north by the Arras, which rises in the mountains to the westward, and from Irak in the south by the Kizil Uzain, which, after a long winding course from Kurdistan, and union with other streams, empties itself into the Caspian under the name of Safid Paid. On the west it is enclosed by the Kurdish mountains, and to a great extent on the east by those overlooking the Caspian shores. It is a land of mountains, ravines, plains, and plateaus. Lake tJrumiya, about 75 miles in length by an average breadth of 30, is one of its most remarkable geographical features. In parts it is fertile, and produces wheat, barley, and maize, also cotton and tobacco. Markham says that its villages &quot;are embosomed in orchards and gardens, which yield delicious fruits,&quot; and that its most picturesque and flourishing portion is around the towns of Urumiya (west of the lake) and Khoi. Tabriz, the capital, has long been the most populous city of Persia. The other chief towns of the province are Ardabil, tJrumiya, Khoi, and Maragha. The North Central Districts is a name given to the country under North the immediate supervision of the naibu s-sultanah, or &quot; deputy of Centr: the kingdom,&quot; the shah s third son, who appoints governors to Distri Tehran and Firuzkuh in the north, to Zarand, Sawah, Kum, Kashan, and Natanz, south of Tehran, and to Mahahit, Sultanabad in Irak, Malaiyir, Nahawand, Hamadan, and Tusirkan, west of Kum and Kashan. The places named will serve to indicate the range of this division, one of some 150 miles in length, but of very irregular breadth. There are included in it remarkable centres of popu lation, besides Tehran. Kum is held in high repute as a sacred city, second in importance to Mashhad only. It contains the tomb of Futima, the sister, or, as some affirm, the daughter of the imam Riga, and the bones of thousands of Muhammadans, bequeathed to its honoured soil by the affection or superstition of sorrowing friends and relatives. It is a large, straggling, ill -kept, semi- ruined, uninviting place, relieved by patches of a new and well- built bazaar. The many domes of Kum recall it readily to memory, but they are more characteristic than striking. Kashan has not much more attraction as a residence, but is held in good estimation for its silks, and is deservedly famous, above all towns in Persia, for its tiles and potteries. The large province of Khurasan is perhaps not less than 500 Khui miles in length from the Perso-Turkman frontier to the southern asan. limit of Persian Sistan. In breadth it is irregular, but from Pul-i- Khatun or the Lady s Bridge on the Tajand to Pul-i-Abrishm or the Bridge of Silk on the Kal Mura a fair limitation for Khurasan proper, exclusive of Sistan it is about 260 miles. The mountainous character of its northern frontier has been noticed in the descrip tion of the general boundaries of Persia. It is, however, worthy of remark that the supposed connexion of the Alburz range and that of the Parapanisus does not prevent an easy passage into Herat by the valley of the Hari Hud. The mention of rivers east and west of Khurasan must not lead to the inference that the water- supply is abundant; one, the Tajand, has to fertilize the desert tracts of the Persian Atak ; at the other, the Kal Mura, the bridge is often useless, owing to the dryness of the river-bed. Central and southern Khurasan are more or less a vast desert with kavirs. Parts of Kaiyan and Sistan on the Afghan border are fertile, though barren mountains and desert plains abound in the former, and the second has no lack of waste, notwithstanding the proximity of the Helmand. The principal city in Khurasan proper is Mashhad, the capital, which may be said to contain, without contradiction, the most venerated and popular shrine in the whole of Persia, that of the eighth imam, Kiza. A pilgrimage to this spot has, owing to its convenient site, become a duty more essential if not more important than one to Karbala in Turkish Arabia, or even to Mecca and Medina ; and the thousands who year by year win the privilege of becoming &quot; Mashhadis &quot; testify to the value set upon it. Mashhad, built on the perpetual Persian plain, and admirably situated as to roads of traffic with Bukhara (Bokhara), Khiva, Herat, and Kandahar, has little in its general exterior, except the imam s golden dome, to dis-