Tomb of Madré Suleiman.
Drawn by James Morier Esqr.
Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811.
The other is a building of a form so extraordinary that the people of the country often call it the court of the deevis or devil. It rests upon a square base of large blocks of marble, which rise in seven layers pyramidically. It is in form a parallelogram; the lowest range of the foundation is forty-three by thirty-seven feet; and the edifice itself, which crowns the summit, diminishes to twenty-one by sixteen feet five inches. It is covered by a shelving roof built of the same massy stone as its base and sides, which are all fixed together by clamps of iron, and which on a general view correspond all with the measure of one at the base, (fourteen feet eight inches in length, five feet in depth, and three feet six inches in breadth.) I was not suffered to enter; and through a fissure in the door I could perceive nothing within but a small chamber blackened as it appeared by smoke. Around it, besides a great profusion of broken marbles, are the shafts of fourteen columns, once perhaps a colonnade, but now arranged in the square wall of mud which surrounds the whole remains. To the present day all the space within the enclosure is a place of burial, and is covered indeed with modern tomb-stones. On every part of the monument itself are carved inscriptions, which attest the reverence of its visitors; but there is no vestige of any of the characters of ancient Persia or even of the older Arabic. The key is kept by women, and none but females are permitted to enter. The people generally regard it as the monument of the mother of Solomon, and still connect some efficacy with the name; for they point out near the spot a certain water to which those who may have received the bite of a mad dog resort, and by which, if drank within thirty days, the evil effects of the wound are obviated. In eastern story almost every thing wonderful is attached to the Solomon of Scripture: the King however, to whose mother this tomb is said to be raised, is less incredibly, (as the Carmelites of Shiraz suggested to Mandelsloe,) Shah Soleiman, the fourteenth Caliph of the race of Ali. But though this supposition is more probable than that it is the monument of Bathsheba, it is not to my mind satisfactory, as it differs totally from all the tombs of Mahomedan saints which I have ever seen in Persia, Asia Minor, or Turkey. [Plate XXI.]
If the position of the place had corresponded with the site of Pasagardæ as well as the form of this structure accords with the description of the tomb of Cyrus near that city, I should have been tempted to assign to the present building so illustrious an origin. That tomb was raised in a grove; it was a small edifice covered with an arched roof of stone, and its entrance was so narrow that the slenderest man could scarcely pass through: it rested on a quadrangular base of a single stone, and contained the celebrated inscription, “O mortals, I am Cyrus, son of Cambyses, founder of the Persian monarchy, and Sovereign of Asia, grudge me not therefore this monument.” That the plain around Mesjed Madré Suleiman was the site of a great city, is proved by the ruins with which it is strewed; and that this city was of the same general antiquity as Persepolis may be inferred from the existence of a similar character in the inscriptions on the remains of both, though this particular edifice does not happen to display that internal evidence of a contemporaneous date. A grove would naturally have disappeared in modern Persia; the structures correspond in size; the triangular roof of that which I visited might be called arched in an age when the true semi-circular arch was probably unknown; the door was so narrow, that, if I had been allowed to make the attempt, I could scarcely have forced myself through it; and those who kept the key affirmed that the only object within was an immense stone, which might be “the base of a single piece” described by Arrian; but as he was repeating the account of another, the difference is of little consequence, if it exists. I suspect however, as many of the buildings at Persepolis are so put together that they might once have seemed one vast block, that the present structure might also at one time have possessed a similar appearance. The eternity of his monument indeed, which Cyrus contemplated by fixing it on one enormous stone, would be equally attained by the construction of this fabric, which seems destined to survive the revolutions of ages. And in the lapse of two thousand four hundred years, the absence of an inscription on Mesjed Madré Suleiman would not be a decisive evidence against its identity with the tomb of Cyrus.
I retraced my steps towards the column and pilasters, and passing to the left of them, proceeded to a ruin, probably of one of those buildings which we call fire-temples, and corresponding at least exactly in dimensions, structure, and ornament with that at Nakshi Rustam. Its door opened to the north. On an adjacent hill to the east, at the distance of about three hundred yards, are the remains of a fort erected with the same stupendous materials, as the works on the plain. The blocks are all of white marble, and bear the finest polish. From this height our encampment at Moorgh-aub bore N. 55 E. Having descended again into the plain, crossed the beds of numerous Kanauts, and started several covies of partridges; I reached my tent highly contented with the unexpected gleanings of the day.
Moorgh-aub is a large village, in which there is a fort and many enclosed gardens; and near it are springs of fine water which irrigate the whole plain.
20th. Continuing our road to the N. we passed over a country of ascents and descents, which can hardly be dignified by the denomination of mountains. The different bearings of the road were N. 30 W., then N., then E., then N. E., until we quitted the hills, when the road took a northerly direction, which we kept with some trifling variations for the remainder of our stage. At about nine miles from Moorgh-aub, we arrived at a caravanserai now almost ruined, called from the village which once stood in its neighbourhood, Khonéh Kergaun. Near it a river runs to the west, and over it is a bridge of three arches. We arrived at Deibeed at four o’clock, after having travelled a distance of twenty-five miles. We were seven hours and a half on the road, and we generally calculate our rate of going at little more than three miles in the hour. The country, through which we passed, was naked and arid; the plain only was cultivated, and that partially. It is quite destitute of wood, an article which, of all our necessaries, was collected with the greatest difficulty. On the summits of the mountains, particularly on their northern aspects, were thin patches of snow, and some were scattered even near our encampment. Deibeed is only a caravanserai; close to it is an artificial mound of earth, covered with the foundations of a building, which, from the light brick of its construction, appeared to us a modern work.
The evening set in gloomily; Deibeed is considered the coldest spot in this region, and the snows in the winter have sometimes impeded the progress of travellers for forty days together. The Mehmandar looked at the sky with apprehension; and the Governor of Moorgh-aub, (Aga Khan, an Arab of an old and respected family, who had accompanied us to the bounds of his district to provide amply for our passage) shared his forebodings. He had himself often experienced the severities of this country, and he, better than any one, knew the distresses which the detention of two or three hundred men in a spot so destitute and insulated would occasion. He had provided sustenance for ourselves and our cattle for one night only, and this he had transported with great trouble from Moorgh-aub and other villages. Indeed through the whole of our march great and early were the preparations made by the chiefs of the country for our reception. If these were the difficulties of our passage, the march of an army would not be easily conducted. The country in its present state could not complete magazines of provisions, even if it were required by its own government. It must however be always recollected, that this is the least fertile province of the kingdom.
21st. The snow did not fall, and we proceeded; we travelled nearly north during the whole of this day, and at the termination of our march (a distance of fourteen miles) entered a pass, which is more particularly dreaded as a stoppage in snows. We rested for the night at Khona Khorréh, a poor caravanserai now, but once, by the appearance of its walls, a respectable building. We had here much cause to regret the pleasant and copious streams of Moorgh-aub; for the water which supplied our camp was taken from a pond twenty feet in circumference, so impregnated by the ordure of camels that it appeared quite black. After sun-set, a fresh breeze sprung up from the S. W. It increased in the night; and at about two in the morning blew a furious gale.
Sunday the 22d. The wind continued to rage during the whole of this day, and only fell at night. Heavy clouds from the S. W. overtopped the whole of the surrounding mountains and precipitated themselves down their sides, in the manner of the clouds at the Table Mountain at the Cape, when it blows from the S. E. Many of our tents were blown down and much damaged. Notwithstanding the fury of the tempest we did not omit to put up our prayers and thanksgivings for all the blessings bestowed upon us; and the storm around only added, I hope, to the solemnity of our devotion. The very fine weather with which we have been blessed was certainly a theme of gratitude. We had not had even a shower since our first departure from Bushire; and the oldest inhabitants of this part of the country utter constant ejaculations of astonishment at the extreme moderation of the season, which they are pleased to attribute to the good luck of the Envoy.