The ūtūkash, or ironer, is employed to ornamentally iron the dresses of the lower orders that are made of coloured calico or longcloth. This he does by ironing a pattern upon them with the edges of his iron, generally a box-iron filled with charcoal; often, however, merely a heated rod. He irons upon a large jar, which he holds between his knees. He also marks the stuffs that are to be quilted for under-garments.
The shops of the potter are frequent. Pans for charcoal, jars for the storing of grain, are made of sun-dried clay, while a variety of burnt-clay articles are exposed for sale; cheap kalian and chibouque heads, flower-pots of blue, green, and purple glaze, tiles, kūmrahs or jars for wine, water, or vinegar, goglets, pans, and drinking-vessels innumerable for holding water; these are porous, and keep it cool. This ware is pale greenish yellow, and very fragile; the best is made at Kashan. Other non-porous and stronger vessels are made of red clay, and are glazed of various colours. A black clay is frequently employed, and decorated with silvery lines; the effect of this is good.
The art of making pottery with a reflet métallique is now lost in Persia. The wall tiles now so much valued in Europe are seldom seen in sitû. Clever imitations are made in Ispahan, but the art of making the metallic (reflet) lustre is gone. Most of the bricks that are not protected, by the fact of being in shrines, have been already stolen, and fear of the consequences of detection is all that protects the rest. All is fish that comes to the net, and the local magnates would sell the big monolith of Yezd marble, which covers the grave of Hafiz, for a price.
The caravanserais in the principal towns are surrounded by hoojrahs or offices; these are protected by an orussee or glass window or by wooden shutters. In these hoojrahs the merchant transacts his business, and in the inner room or umbar, which is approached by a low, heavy door from the outer office, is his strong box and the more valuable of his merchandise.
The banker in Persia is looked on simply as a small tradesman—in fact, the business of the serof is despised; as being a usurer on the sly, he cannot be a good Mussulman, to whom usury is forbidden. His office is often merely a stall in the bazaar, at which are exposed old bracelets, gold, silver, and copper coin, and jewels always full of flaws. His principal profit consists in the remittance of moneys from town to town, and the buying and selling of bills on India and London. A few bankers have offices in the caravanserais, and are in the position of merchants, but there are no mahogany counters, no rows of clerks; a couple of scribes and a black slave often comprise the whole staff, but the bankers manage to do all that is needful with this small assistance. Gold, until recently, was seldom seen, and as everything was paid in kerans and half-kerans, counting was very tedious—bad kerans common. The usual way was to count a small amount, such as ten tomans in kerans, and then weigh heaps of ten tomans each. Some of the bankers are very reliable, and have accumulated considerable wealth. Hadji Mirza Kerim of Shiraz is one of these, and he is one of the few instances of a banker thoroughly respected as a good Mussulman by his fellow-townsmen, and as a good man by Europeans and Persians. The Ispahani is so well known for trickery that Hadji Mahommed Saduk, the Crœsus of Shiraz, a native of Ispahan, but trading and residing in Shiraz, informed me himself “that a merchant in Ispahan to live must cheat, and to thrive must steal.”
CHAPTER XVIII.
ISPAHAN.
Daily round—The river—Calico rinsers—Worn-out mules and horses—Mode of treating the printed calico—Imitations of marks on T-cloths—Rise of the waters of the Zend-a-Rūd—Pul-i-Kojū—Char Bagh—Plane-trees—The college—Silver doors—Tiled halls and mosque—Pulpit—Boorio—Hassir—Sleepers in the mosque—Cells of the students—Ispahan priests—Telegraph-office—Tanks—Causeways—Gate of royal garden—Governor’s garden—Courtiers and hangers-on—Prisoners—Priests—The Imām-i-Juma—My dispensary—Ruined bazaar—A day in the town—Bazaar breakfasts—Calico-printing—Painters—The maker of antiquities—Jade teapot—Visit to the Baabis—Hakim-bashi—Horse-market—The “Dar”—Executions—Ordinary—Blowing from guns—A girl trampled to death—Dying twice—Blowing from a mortar—Wholesale walling up alive—A narrow escape from, and horrible miscarriage in carrying it out—Burning alive—Crucifixions—Severity: its results.
In my early days I was in the habit of riding over from Julfa to the town of Ispahan daily; twenty-five minutes’ smart trotting brought me to my dispensary. During the summer the river was easily fordable, large banks of gravel being visible; these were occupied by the “rinsers of printed calicoes;” while the sun was out, for about half a mile the gravel banks were covered with long strips of printed calico placed closely together; at dawn the rinsers came down from the bazaars with many donkey-loads of dyed cotton cloths; the beasts used for the carriage were the lame, the halt, and the blind of the asses and mules of Ispahan. As the last use a horse is put to in Persia is to be a miller’s pack-horse, so this work seemed to be the end of the donkeys and mules.
Along the edges of the channels between the gravel banks stood rows of old millstones; in front of each stone was a rinser up to his knees in the river. Taking a piece of dyed cloth half wrung out, which had been thoroughly soaked in water, in his hands—and the pieces were at times twenty yards long—he proceeded to thwack the roll of cloth against the stone with his whole strength, keeping time to a loud song until he was out of breath. As these men worked in rows, and the cloths were full of water, the noise and splashing were something tremendous. The work was heavy in the extreme, and as they can only get to the river when low, some seven months in the year, the pay is good.