Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/369

 The Ridge of Vishtasp (^Pusht-i Vishtdspdn) is manifestly the Zoroastrian name of the entire chain on the north, now called Juvain or Jagatai, and including its easterly extensions, for on this range Vishtasp had taken refuge, or else had watched the successful issue of the battle under his victorious son. Mount Kumish, across the plain in the distance, still retains its name, as already noted ; while a reminiscence of the name of Mount Matufriat (as pointed out in an interesting article by General Houtum-Schindler), which ' came to help ' the Iranians, seems to be preserved in the village of Fariumad, meaning *it succored,' some sixteen miles north of the high- road.^ The mountain ' which is Mian-dasht ' (' Middle-of-the- plain ') is the low serrated row with triple knobs, directly in the midst of the plain, as pictured in the accompanying photo- graph. ^ Revand, which is the name of Mount Raevant in the Avesta^ — a part of the Ridge of Vishtasp and the mountain on which the Fire of Burzin Mitro was established * — is perpet- uated in the small (once larger) district of Rivand (cf. Var-i Revand, Bd. 12. 23), which lies between the eastern flank of the ridge and the Nishapur Mountains,^ and possibly is to be

man] 6 [uaZ] Bevand ; ku [aegh] * See Bd. 12. 18 ; 17. 8 ; Zsp. 11. 9;

Mdno-i Aturo Burzin Mitro 9 Itisgd] West, SBE. 5. 38, 64, 186.

parsang o [yal] aurvardn. ^ The district of Rivand is men-

1 Houtum-Schindler, The Identifi- tioned by the Arab geographer Muk- cation of Some Persian Places, in addasi (tenth century a.d.) as one of Academy, 29. 312-313, May 1, 1886, the four districts of the Nishapur plain and compare the same author's note that were famous for their fertility, in JBAS. 1909, p. 158, n. 2. Its chief town, on a river, bore the

2 The name of this range was several same name, Rivand, and was situated times given to me as Maghisa or Mo- a day's journey (some twenty miles) ghisa ; Clerk (JBGS. 31. 42) wrote beyond Nishapur on the road leading Magheeza, and speaks of the notice- northwest to Isfarain. See Le Strange, able conical summit of one. Nasir Eastern Caliphate, pp. 387, 391 ; ad-Din Shah, Diary, p. 121, alludes to Sprenger, Postrouten des Orients, p. the conical effect and mentions (p. 89, in Abh. /. Kunde des Morgenlan- 118) the village of Maghlshah. Hou- des, vol. 3, no. 3, Leipzig, 1864 ; Toma- tum-Schindler, Zt. Ges. /. Erdkunde, schek, in Sh. K. Akad. Wiss. 108. 636, 12, map, has Moghisse. Vienna, 1885 ; and especially Houtum-

3 See Yt. 19. 6 ; Sir. 2. 9 ; Ny. 5. 6. Schindler, Academy, 29. 312. We

�� �