Identifier: cu31924095158964 (find matches)
Title: The universal geography : the earth and its inhabitants
Year: 1876 (1870s)
Authors: Reclus, Elisée, 1830-1905 Ravenstein, Ernest George, 1834-1913 Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry), 1833-1912
Subjects: Geography
Publisher: London : J.S. Virtue & Co., Ltd.
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ia. The caravan road running from Hamadan directly to Ispahan along the easternfoot of the border ranges is much less frequented than the main route fromTeheran through Kashan to Ispahan. Till recently it was infested by the Bakh-tyari marauders, who were kept in awe by the stronghold of SuHanabad, itself amere collection of wretched hovels, but the centre of one of the great carpet-weaving districts of Persia. The neighbouring hills j-ield an abundant supplyof manna (^geizingebin), a sweet substance secreted by a worm which lives on thefoliage of a species of tamarind. On the route running from Sultanabad south-east-wards to Ispahan follow the towns of Khumein, surrounded by vast ruins; Qidpaigan,stiU supplied with water by a kanot excavated under Harun-ar-Rashid; Ehonsar,straggling for a space of 6 miles along both sides of the road ; Tihran and Nejefabad,with their cotton and tobacco plantations, beyond which a magnificent avenue ofplane-trees leads to the historic city of Ispahan.
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ISPAHAN. 135 But Ispahan (Isfahan, Isfahun) is no longer Half of the World, as it wasformerly styled, in allusion to its superb edifices, teeming industries, and lovelysurroundings. Most of the space within the enclosures, some 22 miles in circum-ference, is uninhabited, and the fox and jackal have their dens amid the ruins ofits finest palaces, mosques, and bazaars. Yet Ispahan recovered from the blowinflicted on it by Tamerlane, who raised a pyramid of 70,000 heads of its slaughteredcitizens, and in the seventeenth century it again became one of the great cities ofthe world during the reign of Shah Abbas. At that time it contained over 32,000houses, with a population variously estimated from 600,000 to 1,100,000, includingthe suburbs. In this entrepot of the Central Asiatic trade the great houses ofEngland and Holland had their agents, and the Armenians possessed rich factoriesin the suburb of Julfa, so named from the ruined city on the banlts of the Arras. Fig. 49.—Ispahan and En

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