Sir Robert afterwards gives an account of the ruins. From one end of the city to the other, under avenues old and new, through the gardens, and round their delightful "paradises," of shade and fountain, he hardly saw a single creature moving. If, says he, "Isfahan continues fifty years so totally abandoned of its sovereign's notice as it is now, Isfahan will become a total ruin, amidst the saddest of wildernesses."
The name of this city is said to have been Sepahan, which it received from the Persian kings, in consequence of its having been the general place of rendezvous for their armies. "This famous city," says Mr. Kinneir[296], "has been so minutely described, even when at the height of its glory, by many travellers, and particularly by Chardin, that it will only be necessary to state the changes that have taken place since the period in which he wrote. The wall, which then surrounded the city, was entirely destroyed by the Afghans, who have left many striking marks of their savage and barbarous habits in every part of the kingdom. The suburb of Julfa has been reduced from twelve thousand to six hundred families; most of the others have shared the same fate; and a person may ride ten miles amidst the ruins of this immense capital. The spacious houses and palaces, which opened to the Royal Avenue, are almost all destroyed. The first view, however," continues Mr. Kinneir, "which the traveller has, on coming from Shirauz, of this great metropolis, is from an eminence, about five miles from the city, when it bursts at once upon his sight, and is, perhaps, one of the grandest prospects in the universe. Its ruinous condition is not observable at a distance; all defects being hid by high trees and lofty buildings; and palaces, colleges, mosques, minarets, and shady groves, are the only objects that meet the eye."
The bazaars, constructed by Shah Abbas, which were covered in with vaults, and lighted by numerous domes, are of prodigious extent, and proclaim the former magnificence of the city. They extend considerably more than a mile.
The palaces of the king are enclosed in a fort of lofty walls, which have a circumference of three miles. The palace of the Chehel Sitoon, or "forty pillars," is situated in the middle of an immense square, which is intersected by various canals, and planted in different directions with the beautiful chenar tree. The palace was built by Shah Abbas. Under the great room are summer apartments, excavated in the ground, which, in their season, must be delightful retreats. They are also wainscoted, and paved with marble slabs; and water is introduced by cascades, which fall from the ground floor, and refresh the whole range. The Ali Capi gate forms the entrance. This gate, once the scene of the magnificence of the Seffi family, the threshold of which was ever revered as sacred, is now deserted, and only now and then a solitary individual is seen to pass negligently through. The remains of that splendour, so minutely and exactly described by Chardin, are still to be traced; the fine marble remains, and the grandeur and elevation of the dome, are still undemolished.[297] At the Ala Capi gate of the old palaces, which is described as one of the most perfect pieces of brick-work to be found in Persia, used to sit Shah Abbas, and thence review his cavalry, galloping and skirmishing, or witnessed the combats of wild animals[298]. In former times this view from the spot was undoubtedly splendid; but, at present, with the exception of the palaces in the gardens, the whole mass below is one mouldering succession of ruinous houses, mosques, and shapeless structures, which had formerly been the mansions of the nobility, broken by groups or lines of various tall trees, which once made part of the gardens of the houses now in ruins. The freshness of all the buildings is said to be particularly striking to an European, or the inhabitants of any comparatively humid country, in which the atmosphere cherishes a vegetation of mosses, lichens, and other cryptogamous plants, which we particularly associate in our minds with the spectacle of decay.
Sir W. Ouseley says, "I explored the ruins of villages, scattered over the plain in all directions near our camp; and some must have been considerable in size and respectability from the handsome houses which they contained. Although pillaged and depopulated by the Afghans almost a century ago, many of their chambers yet remain, with vaults and staircases but little injured; yet no human being is ever seen within their walls, except some traveller, who wonders at finding himself alone in places, which might be easily rendered habitable, situate not above a mile from the walls of a great metropolis. It must be confessed, that these ruins, composed of sun-dried brick and mud, appear, like many edifices in Persia, to much greater advantage on paper than in reality."
Morier, in his second journey into Persia, says:—"The great city of Isfahan, which Chardin has described, is twenty-four miles in circumference, were it to be weeded (if the expression may be used) of its ruins, would now dwindle to a quarter that circumference. One might suppose that God's curse had extended over part of this city, as it did over Babylon. Houses, bazaars, mosques, palaces, whole streets, are to be seen in total abandonment; and I have rode for miles among its ruins without meeting with any living creature, except, perhaps, a jackal peeping over a wall, or a fox running to its hole.
"In a large tract of ruins," Mr. Morier goes on to observe, "where houses, in different stages of decay, were to be seen, now and then an inhabited house may be discovered, the owner of which may be assimilated to Job's forlorn man, 'dwelling in desolate cities, and which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps[299].' Such a remark as this must have arisen from scenery similar to those which parts of Isfahan present; and unless the particular feeling of melancholy which they inspire has been felt, no words can convey any idea of it[300]."
NO. XLIII.—ITALICA.
This city (in Spain) is supposed to have been founded by the Phœnicians, who give it the name of Hispalis. It was afterwards colonized by the wounded soldiers of Scipio. It was then called Julia, and at last, after a variety of corruptions, Sebilla or Sevilla, la Viega.