'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME II' [‎330r] (664/706)

YAZD
647
According to the lists of the revenue department (1910) the province of
Yazd comprises 951 villages and hamlets and cultivated grounds paying
land tax. There are 119 Gariyehs and 832 Mazra’ch in the following
districts : Humeh, Rustag, Mihrigird, Pishkuh, Taft, Miankuh, Pushtkuh,
Ardakan, Aghda, Kazab. Nudushan, Nam, Baliaabad, Rubatat.
The province had a population of not more than, 20,000 in 1900 .—(Preece ;
Schindler, 1910.)
For further details see Yazd town.
YAZD TOWN.— Lat. 31° 54' 32"; Long. 54° 19'; Elev. 3,870'.
A large town, capital of a district of the same name, is situated 200 miles
south-east of Isfahan, and some 220 north-west of Kirman.
History .—The town has long been known in history, but being near
no frontier, it has played a less troublous and a less distinguished part than
other cities of less importance. When the Arabs invaded Persia the Zoro-
astrians fled before the persecution of the Moslems towards Yezd and
Kirman. At Yazd they have since remained and it was from here that
the migration to Bombay was organized which transformed the down
trodden and persecuted Guebre into the prosperous Parsi of Bombay.
The Atabegs of Yazd maintained an independent rule for more than
two centuries, till at the end of the thirteenth century they were extin
guished by the Mongol Ghazan Khan. It was visited by Marco Polo in
1272, Friar Odoricus in 1325 and Josafa Barbaw in 1474. Tavernier was
here in the middle of the seventeenth century, and he was one of the
first to quote the native proverb, ( to live happily a man must have a
wife of Yazd, must eat the bread of Yazdikhast and drink the wme of
Shiraz.” Little was known of Yazd by Britishers till this century.
The province and town of Yazd was for long included amongst the
many Governorates of the Zill-; s-Sultan, but was taken away from him
along with most of his other oms in 1888. It was restored in 1890 and
was entrusted to H. H. Jalal-ud-Dauleh, son of the Zill-us-Sultan, but he
was soon removed and for two years the Government was in the hands of
minor officials ; however, in March 1895, H. H. Jalal-ud-Dauleh was re
entrusted with the Government, since which date the state of the town was
steadily improving up to 1900. Like most other places in Persia, Yazd
was the scene of disorders during the years 1908-12. In October 1910 the
town was in the hands of a mob of malcontents, and the Persian officials
were obliged to take refuge in the British Vice-Consulate.
Description.—liloe general appearance from outside is unprepossessing.
The chief thing which strikes a traveller is the number of wind towers
‘ bc dgiP ; every house has .one or more, also the abambors, which are very
numerous. The streets are narrow, dirty, unpaved and half filled with sand;
the houses built of sundried bricks ; outside, only mud plastered walls are
to be seen, the inside walls are faced with kiln-dried bricks. Every house
of any pretensions has at least two underground stories of rooms, some
have three ; to these rooms the towers convey air. In the centre of
each compound or yard of a house is an open shaft of some size going down
to the base of the lowest storey, which provides for the circulation of
air. In some houses an attempt is made to have a small garden, and the
walls of the shaft are much decorated with shrubs, etc.