‘The Oriental geography of Ebn Haukal, an Arabian traveller of the tenth century’ [‎3] (56/388)

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Hindoostan, and such towns of these as contain Mussulman in
habitants: then we describe ^ UC j I j Azerhaigan, and its
territories; then ^\Sj^>jf^Kouhestan; then Deibnan;
then the Deryai Khozr, or Caspian Sea, and the
various nations surrounding it; then the deserts between
Khorasan and Fars-, then the province of Seiestan;
then Khorasan and yJljjU Maweralnahr, or Transoxania.
(Here, in the original manuscript, a Hank page occurs, on
which was to have heen delineated a general Map of the World,
or the Eastern Hemisphere.J
The author of this work informs us, that such is the form of
the earth, its various parts, inhabited and uninhabited. We have
divided it into empires or states, L-CJ memalek : and the signi
fication of this word is kingdoms ; in the singular,
ojCL^ memleket, ^one kingdom or state. Of all the regions of
this earth, none is more populous, cultivated, or flourishing, than
the empire of (^ L j ! Iran, or Persia; the chief glory of which,
in former times, was (Job Bah el (Babylon.) This is the country
of Pars : and the extent of this empire, in the time of the
ancient Persians, is well known; but the Mussulmans have since