Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/301

 CHAPTER XII DAMGHAN AND ITS ENVIRONS

rounded by an earthen wall, with a castle at the end.'
 * They arrived at a city which is called Damghan, situated in a plain and sur-

— Clavijo, Embassy to Timour Bey in I4OS-6, p. 102.

Girt with a cincture of low walls, and with shoulders man- tled in green brocade as it lifts its turret-crowned head above the plain to convey to the mountains near by an acknowledg- ment of their rich tribute of water, Damghan presents at first sight something regal in its mien. The citadel that does duty as challenging sentry seems forbidding ; but a courier stream dashes out from beneath a four-arched bridge to extend a welcome to the dusty traveler and to conduct him to a fairly comfortable rest-house, where he soon feels at home in the old town.i

Few visitors have said anything in favor of Damghan, pre- sumably because of the sense of dilapidation which the place imparts ; but there is plenty of life and activity in this antique center of civilization ; it is full of associations with the past, and I found much to interest me in the two visits which I paid to it.

A long historic background lies behind the city. For a thousand years Damghan has been the chief town of the district of Kumish, or Kumis (the classic Komisene, or Comi- sene).2 It appears gradually to have supplanted the old ' City

1 Beside the four regular arches of * References to Comisene (Komi-

this bridge a fifth smaller opening sene) are found in several classic au-

breaks through, as shown in my photo- thors: Ptolemy, 6. 5. 1, 'that part of

graph. The bridge is the same as the Parthia which is next to Hyrcania is

one mentioned by Truilhier (Memoire, called Komisene, and under it Parthy-

p. 160) a hundred years ago. ene ; after that Choarene and Parau-

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