'Telegraph and travel. A narrative of the formation and development of telegraphic communication between England and India, under the orders of Her Majesty's Government, with incidental notices of the countries traversed by the lines.' [‎637] (678/782)

APPENDIX.
637
Babylon, but what euer it has beene, tia now a pleasant, fruitfull and
healthy City and the people curteous.
" T.y some tis called Coim, and by others Com, vnfitly, for they pro
nounce it Coom, J lie ( itie has two thousand Houses in her, welbuilt,
sweet and wel-furnished, her streets are wide, her Buzzar faire, and her
Mosque of most honourable esteeme among them, therein is richly
entombed Fatima, daughter and heire of their greatest Prophet
Mahomet, and married to Mortis Haly, the king and much
referenced prophet of the Persian. Her Tombe is round like other
Mosques, the Ascent three or foure steps of silver.
ibis City is watered with a sweet but small Kiver, which deriues
her spring out of the Coronian Mountaines, the aire here is second
to none for freshnesse, nor wants this Towne any fruit requirable for
the Zone tis placed in it, it has Grapes good and great store. Melons
of both sorts, Cowcumbers, Pomegranads, Pome-citrons, Apricocks,
Peaches, Plums, Pistachoes, Peares, Apples, Quinces, Almonds, Figs,
AValnuts, Cherries, Berries, and the best wheat bread in Persia (Gom-
hazellello excepted).
^sccie abouts was that great and terrible combat of Hismciel and
thirty thousand Persians, against Selymus the First and three hundred
thousand Turhs, where the victor Turks lost more then the van-
quisht Persians, and had been defeated, had not the great Ordnance
terrified the Persian horse: this battaile was fought Anno Domini
1514, begun at Coy in Armenia and ended here, and by the Turhes is
cald the Day of Doome."
Khoi, near which the battle was fought between the Sufi king
Ismail and the Sultan Selim I., must be some 600 miles, as the crow
flies, from Kum ; and much further still by any routes through which
troops could pass. Xor am I aware that there is extant any authority
in support ot the statement that the conflict " ended here." Professor
Creasy, in his history of the Ottoman Turks (vol. i. p. 224-5) says
the victory was complete, and that Selim, putting the male adult
prisoners to death, marched upon Tabriz, then the Shah's capital.
He levied, moreover, on the conquered city, a contribution of a thou
sand artizans, transferring them to Constantinople. The struggle
took place, it is believed, as stated by Malcolm, " on the frontiers of
Azarbaijan," or in that vicinity ; but the scene was, in all probability,
west of Tabriz. Of Kashan, we are told that it is " a famous citie in
Parthia, whose metropolis is Spawhawn, whence she is distant sixtie
miles and odde." He continues:—
" 1 he antiquitie of it is not much, in this name, either taking
beginning from Cazan Mirzey, sonnc to Hocem, or from Gassan, who
in the yeare 1202 was utterly ruined by the Great Cham, the rule