Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/206

 contain about a thousand shops, and are arched over in the usual Persian style. The town possesses thirty-four caravanserais, in fourteen of which the merchants and traders transact their affairs. The only public building deserving of notice which this city contains is the Mesjid-i-Juma, a mosque, the construction of which is attributed to Ameer Chakmäk, an ofﬁcer in the army of Timur. Its lofty façade and minarets, though they are now in a ruinous state, form an imposing object, and have been highly ornamented. There are also in the city about thirty other mosques and eleven medressehs, or colleges, for students of divinity; Yezd is denominated in ofﬁcial papers the Dar-el Ibádeh, or seat of devotion. The city and the surrounding suburbs are divided into twenty- four wards, and owing to the great depth at which the water that supplies the town is found, the houses are constructed very far below the level of the streets, sometimes being sunk as much as twenty or twenty—ﬁve feet. The population has been estimated as being about forty thousand souls, forming for the most part an industrious body; many persons being engaged in the manufacture of silks, cotton, &c., whilst others devote their time to various branches of trade. In addition to the Mahomedan population of Yezd, that city contains some Hindoo merchants, some Jews, and a considerable number of Guebres; but the people of the last-mentioned sect, owing to the oppression from which they have suffered, are year by year withdrawing themselves, as they ﬁnd opportunities, from the rule of the Shah, and hastening to join their more prosperous co-religionists in India. The climate of Yezd is considered to be very salubrious,