Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/96

 The Turks ODce used the palace as a magazine, and today it serves the Russians as an arsenal.

Of the two mosques within the citadel, one is in dilapidation, having doubtless suffered from the bombardment at the com- mand of Peter the Great in 1723, if we may judge from the con- dition of the palace twenty-four years afterwards, according to Hanway's journal quoted above (p. 31). The other mosque is well preserved, and its elegant arabesque inscription and fine traceries on stone have all the beauty which the Persian art of arts in the delicate use of filigree texts can impart.^ The inscription, in four lines of Arabic, gives the date of the build- ing of the mosque in the reign of Bahadur Khan, and is dated 194 A.H.( = 809 A.D.). It reads as follows : —

< During the reign of Shah Sultan Bahadur Khan, Emperor and son of an Emperor, King and son of a King — may God prolong his rule — in order to please God, it was agreed, in the second year, by the honorable chiefs, Muhammad Beg of Teheran, who is the head of the nobles, and Ali Talibi Khan, to build this Blessed Mosque according to the direction of God the Most High, in the year 194 a.h. ( = 809 a.d.).'^

A few steps to the south of the citadel, as we retrace our way towards the quay, we pass beneath the height of a remark- able structure that looms nearly a hundred and fifty feet above us. This is the Kis-Kalah, or Maiden's Tower, as] old as By- zantine times. Folk legend gathers about its ponderous bulk, and though the versions of the tale are many, it is always a phase of the same sad story of love that led to a maiden's tragic death from its towering heights. The story as I heard it was in the form of a Cenci horror : —

' A brutal old Khan fell in love with his own daughter. She

1 1 saw the palace and the mosque Brugsch, pp. 49-50 ; Orsolle, p. 138 ;

several times from the outside, but and Shoemaker, pp. 86-87. was not in the courtyard itself, as it 2 ^y thanks are again due to Dr.

was too late to enter on the last after- Yohannan for deciphering the tablet

noon of my visit ; so I have supple- from the photograph. For additional

mented my notes by a couple of inscriptions see Dorn, Melanges asia-

memoranda on the interior from tiques, 4. 486-488.

�� �