Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/459

 worthy of special mention. The Ark, or ' Citadel,' ^ which serves as the official residence of the Prince Governor (to whom I had the honor of paying a visit), is located in the southwestern portion of the city, defended by low walls and furnished with a parade-ground for troops, but there is nothing remarkable or unusual about it to call for a detailed description. ^

As a city, in fact, Mashad offers little that is attractive. If one ascends, for example, the roof of the Imperial Bank in order to have a view of the shrine of Imam Riza and the edifices within its bounds, one is struck by the general flatness of the town ; though the level stretch of housetops is occasionally broken by hdd-glrs, or ' wind towers,' that give air and ventila- tion to the porticoed homes of the wealthier class, in whose court- yards and gardens fine trees are found.^ Most of the streets lead- ing from the main avenue of the Khiaban, however, have no shade, and are mere alleys and lanes. The ordinary houses are built of mud, and are often somewhat below the level of the road, since their owners have dug up the clay of the street to serve as building-material for their humble abodes ; and more than once we had to turn aside to find a passage elsewhere when the road was thus turned up.

Not a great deal need be said about the bazars of the city, the chief of which are reported to be within the hast enclosure, and are consequently inaccessible to Europeans. A motley Asiatic throng frequents these marts, and a considerable business is

1 Memoranda regarding the Ark by Ali in command of an army to will be found in Fraser, pp. 460-462 ; spread Islam in Khurasan, but died Eastwick, 2. 204-206 ; Curzon, 1. 168. there and was buried on the site now

2 In the environs of Mashad, how- marked by the mausoleum, though the ever, about two miles north of the present building owes its completion city, there is a domed building, the to Shah Abbas the Great in 1621. Shrine of Khvaja Rabi, situated amid See Fraser, pp. 620-521 ; Eastwick, 2. attractive gardens and bearing in- 200-201 ; Yate, pp. 338-340 ; Sykes, scriptions of historic interest. Khvaja JBAS. 1910, p. 1029.

Rabi, who was interred in this mauso- ^ On the bdd-girs, which are common

leum, was a contemporary of Ali, in in southeastern Persia, and especially the seventh century a.d. He was sent at Yazd, see my Persia, p. 349.

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