Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/442

 262 MASH AD, THE HOLY CITY OF PERSIA

supplied with shade, some noble firs being especially noticeable,^ as were the large plane trees around the caravansarai where we halted.

The settlement owes its name, Kadam-gdh^ ' Place of the foot- print,' to the mark of the feet of the revered Imam Riza, to- wards whose burial-place we were now journeying. The story goes that when this holy Moslem passed this spot, eleven cen- turies ago, on his way to Tus to preach the true creed to the non-believing Gabrs, there suddenly rolled forth from the fire- temple, where the sanctuary of Kadamgah now stands, a black stone that asked to be redeemed from the torments of damnation. Whereupon, the holy man stepped upon the stone, and, mar- velous to relate, his footprints remained upon its surface to bear witness in future ages to his sanctity and his power. The Gabrs threw the stone into a well, it is said, to conceal it from view forever. In later days the saint appeared in a vision to Shah Abbas the Great and revealed to him the relic's hiding- place; and when it had been recovered, the monarch ordered a shrine to be erected on the spot. The vaulted dome of this fane today, with its turquoise tiles embellished by a girdling band of arabesque inscriptions, does honor still to the munifi- cence of its royal patron as well as to the memory of the Imam.^

The journey proceeded with the usual halts for relays of fresh horses and time for taking notes, as at Hasanabad, near which stood two commanding fortlike structures of stone and mud, bearing the name of Ali (or Abbas) Kuli Khan. From Hasa- nabad we pursued our way by a winding and rolling road that

1 Curzon, 1. 261, notes that these 2 gee Eastwick, Journal, 2. 271-

firs were said to be grown from cones 272 ; Curzon, Persia, 1. 259-260 ;

brought, some four hundred years ago, Sykes, Pilgrimage, p. 132 ; and com-

by a pilgrim from the Himalayas ; if pare, for some notes on Kadamgah in

so, they form a noble arboreal monu- 1807, Truilhier, pp. 267-268. For the

ment to the pious man's devotion. picture of the shrine here reproduced,

Khanikoff, 1. 95, observes that the from Captain Watson's photograph, I

gardens around the mosque of Kadam- am indebted, as stated above, to the

gah were constructed by order of Shah courtesy of Major Sykes and Mr. Eu-

Sulaiman in 1091 a.h. ( = 1680 a.d.). stace Reynolds-Ball.

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