"أراضي الخلافة الشرقية في بلاد الرافدين، بلاد فارس، وآسيا الوسطى من الفتح الإسلامي إلى عصر تيمورلنك" [‎٣‎٠‎٢] (٥٨٦/٣٤١)

302
kirmAn.
[chap.
Sirjan had been recently repaired, so that the place was very
strong, and after the lapse of a year, as the siege operations were
making no progress, 'Omar Shaykh set out for Sirjan in person,
to bring matters to a crisis. He was however at this moment
recalled by his father, and met his death by mischance while
travelling through Kurdistan to join Timur at the royal camp
before Amid in Upper Mesopotamia. This was in 796 (1394)
and for another two years Sirjan still held out, the garrison
ultimately yielding to famine rather than to force of arms; and
by order of Timur, when Gudarz at length did surrender, he and
his few remaining soldiers were all massacred in cold blood, as
a warning to the disaffected throughout the province. Sirjan was
left a ruin, and though H^fiz Abrii, writing in the reign of the
successor of Timtir, still speaks of Sirjan as the second city of
Kirman (second to Bardasir), with a strong castle crowning a high
rock, the name of Sirjan after this date disappears from history,
and its exact site has only quite recently been discovered in the
ruins of Kal'ah-i-Sang, as already said 1 .
As mentioned above, the modern capital of the province is
Kirman city, and this, though not the first Moslem capital,
appears to have been an important town from early Sassanian
1 1st. 166. Muk. 464, 470. Yak. iv. 106, 265. Mst. 182. Hfz. 140a.
A. Y. i. 618, 667, 784. Mirkhwand, pt. iv. 170 ; pt. vi. 48, 69. The position
of Sirjan is given by the Arab geographers in marches from various known
places, often with an equivalent total in farsakhs or leagues. Unfortunately
in the Kirman province the stage-by-stage itineraries, with details of places
passed (as we have for the Jibal province, and the whole of Pars), are lacking.
The following, however, is a summary of the distances recorded, and they agree
with the position of Kal'ah-i-Sang for Sirjan city. From Shahr-i-Babak on
the north-west, where the high roads coming up from Shiraz and Istakhr
united, Sirjan was distant 24 and 32 leagues by different roads, and it was 38
to 46 leagues, or three long marches, from Great Sahik. From Rustak-ar-
Rustak (one short day's march north-west of Furg) Sirjan was four marches, .
and from Nlrtz five and a half marches distant. Going east and south-east, the
road from Sirjan to Jiruft measures six marches or 54 leagues; while to Rayin
it was five marches, and to Sarvistan (to the south-east of Rayin) 45 or 47
leagues. Finally, from Sirjan to Mahan was counted as three marches, and to
Bardasir (Kirman city) two marches. The authorities for these distances are
as follows I. K. 48, 49, 53, 54. Kud. 195, 196. I. F. 206, 208. 1st. 131,
13S, 168, 169. Muk. 455, 464, 473.