Ormuz, p. 52.]—When Olivier, was in Persia, the Imaum of Muscat was negotiating with the Persian government the cession of Ormuz to him. Tom. v. p. 157. That island as well as Gombroon, is now in his possession; though he accounts for the customs to the King of Persia.
Pearls, p. 55.]—A belief in the influence of the rain on the formation of pearls, which Niebuhr mentions as prevalent among the Arabs in his own days, (Descr. de l’Arabie) and among their ancestors in the time of Benjamin of Tudela, six hundred years ago, may be traced up clearly to the time of Pliny, if not much earlier. (Lib. ix. c. xxxv. see c. li. and the note from Aristotle.) The Apologue of Sadi is a beautiful illustration of the Eastern opinion. Bruce says, “it is observed that pearls are always the most beautiful in those places of the sea, where a quantity of fresh water falls. Thus in the Red Sea,” &c. (vol. v. p. 226, app.) and it may be added, though the facts prove little without knowing the relative positions, that Bahrein, one of the most fertile pearl banks in the world, is likewise celebrated for the most extensive submarine springs of fresh water. See on those springs, Ives’s Voyage. Niebuhr, p. 286. See also Teixeira, in Mod. Univ. Hist. vi. 80. Hole in his curious illustration of Sindbad, regards these springs as the origin of “the river of fresh water that issued from the sea.” Sixth Voyage.
Horses, &c. p. 63.]—The custom of tying horses by the leg in the stable, is traced in Persia even to the time of Xenophon. Anab. lib. iii. c. 245. At the introduction of the Russian Embassador to Shah Hussein, the horses of the King of Persia were displayed in state as the procession passed: “they were all tied to a rope fixed to the ground at the extremities by a stake of gold, near which lay a mallet of the same metal for driving it. According to the custom of Persia the hind feet also were fastened to a rope, to prevent kicking.” Bell, vol. i. p. 100.
Elauts, p. 77.]—The wandering tribes have in every age constituted a considerable portion of the population of the Persian and Turkish Empires. In Asia Minor they are called Turcomans; in Assyria and Armenia, Curds; in Irak and Fars, Elauts; the Vloches of Herbert, p. 129, (by some considered the Eluths or Oigurs.) Their general character is the same; and they have continued to follow the same hereditary occupations with unbroken regularity. Ebn Haukal estimates the numbers included in their zems or tribes in Fars alone at five hundred thousand families, p. 83.
Lion on the tomb, at Derees, p. 85; see also, p. 94, &c.]—On the meaning of such an emblem, see Niebuhr’s Doubt in his chapter on Shiraz, tom. ii.
Bazar-a-Vakeel, p. 100.]—Scott Waring reckons the length of this great work of Kerim Khan, at half a mile! Franklin, at a quarter of a mile, p. 58; and a later authority at between seven and eight hundred yards.
P. 104.]—The Story of Cheik Chenan, may remind the reader of the Lay of Aristote.
The Bend-emir, p. 124.]—The Prince, from whose dyke thrown across it, the Bend-emir is asserted to have taken its name, is sometimes said to be Emir Azad a Dowlah, one of the Buiya Sultans; and as the river occurs in the route of Barbaro, 1472, within seventy years after the reign of Timur, as the “Bindamyr,” it is probable that it acquired that name from the earlier Prince. On the word Bund, see a note in Vincent’s Periplus, p. 157; and Moor’s Female Infanticide, p. 110, &c.
Persepolis, p. 129.]—The first account of Chehel Minar, that was brought to Europe after the revival of learning, occurs in the travels of Josaphat Barbaro, Embassador from the State of Venice to the Prince whom he calls Assambei, (who may be recognised indeed as the “Usan Cassanes,” “of some called Asymbeius,” in Knolles, p.409;) but who is better known as the Uzun Hassan or Cassan of D’Herbelot. The rarity of the volume in which these travels are contained may justify the insertion of an extract, Aldus, 1543. Josaphat Barbaro does not suspect that he is describing the Persepolis of the Classics; and labours therefore to find in the sculptures at Chehil Minar, something which may rather accord with the Hebrew origin assigned to it by one of the traditions of the country. In the bridge leading over the Bend-emir he had already discovered a work of Solomon; and he proceeds to point out, among the representations on the rocks, the figure of Solomon himself. Again, instead of Rustam, the Hercules of Persia, or rather instead of the real heroes, Artaxerxes and Sapor, whom that name has supplanted at Persepolis, Josaphat Barbaro perceives in a colossal image on horseback, the figure of Samson. The being in the air, which some have conceived to be the soul of a departed monarch, and which recurs in the engravings of the tombs by Le Brun and Chardin, is thus described: “Sopra di tutte e una figura simile a quelle nostre che noi figuriamo Dio padre in uno tondo; laqual ha uno tondo per mano, e sotto laqual sono altre figure piccole,” fol. 51. 6. He continues; among the lesser figures there is one, who has on his head a Pope’s mitre, “una mitria di Papa;” and has his hands extended, apparently as if he would give his benediction to those beneath him, who are looking up to him in fixed expectation of the said blessing. Near Samson are several other figures dressed in the French mode, “alla Francese,” and having long hair. M.I. The description is curious, and characteristic of the age; but even in the seventeenth century, Tavernier in the same manner fancied that he saw in the Sassanian sculptures at Kermanshah, priests, surplices, and censers, tom. i. 316. This indeed was almost the earliest account that had been given of the spot; and therefore, this error is more excusable. But now, when so much has been written on the subject, (whether the sculptures be the works of Semiramis or of the Sassanian Kings?) and more particularly when De Sacy has definitively proved by the inscriptions, that the figures are connected with the history of the latter Princes of the house of Sassan; we may be surprised that M. de Gardanne should have overlooked their design; and instead of recognising an object that had been illustrated by his countryman with so much learning, should pass it in his journal with the single remark: “Plus loin sur un rocher élevé, on voit une croix et les douze Apôtres sculptés.” p. 83.
Every nation has some proverbial expression of number, and “forty” seems popular in the East. Thus the palace of Ispahan is the Chehil Sitoon; and another built in imitation of it, at Moorshedabad, is called by the same name. Seir Mutagherin, i. 301. Chehil minar therefore signifies an indefinite number of pillars, whether more or less than forty; but even with all the allowance, which this expression may require, it is probable that in the time of Sadi, six hundred years ago, the pillars standing at Persepolis amounted really to forty. Chardin, tom. iii. 138. The remains at Persepolis are designated by another still more comprehensive form, “Hazar Sitoon,” the one thousand columns. De Sacy, p. 1. If the fragment engraved in the Archœologia, from the original transmitted by Richard Strachey, Esq. to his father, be really of the size of that original, as the notice affirms, and if it formed part of the series of sculptures, we may thence learn the average proportions of the subjects at Persepolis. Archœol. xiv. app. 282. But Le Brun sent over an entire figure from the reliefs; see the close of his work.