'A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the years 1808 and 1809, in which is included some account of the proceedings of his Majesty's Mission, under Sir Harford Jones, Bart., to the Court of the King of Persia. With twenty-five engravings from the designs of the author; a plate of inscriptions; and three maps.' [‎406] (489/524)

406
NOTES.
few small vessels against the Turcomans), which Persia had ever formed in the Caspian,
was thus annihilated. N adir S hah collected a fleet in the Gulph also; and made
Bushire the port of Skiraz. N iebuhr , tom. ii. p. 75. Here he had assembled from
twenty-two to twenty-five ships, built for him at Bombaj/ and Surat, &c.; but these were
all neglected and dispersed at his death.
Language of Ghilan, p. 288.]— Ghilan, the country of the ancient Gelce, was, according
to E bn H aukal , p. 174, the level tract along the Caspian, of that province, which in its
mountainous parts was called Dilem. Now Dilem was with Media Inferior, Mazanderan,
and the countries between the Caspian and the Tigris, one of the original seats of the
Pehlavie. Heeren. Act. Soc. Gotting. tom. xiii. Dilem was also a retreat of that lan
guage. In the breaking up of a great empire, the institutions of the conquered race
always linger in the extremities. The Caucasus, the country of Derhend, Segestan, and
Kerman, thus sheltered the ancient language and religion of Persia : and thus the moun
tains of Dilem retained till the tenth century, the worship of fire; and perhaps, therefore,
the Pehlavie, with which that worship had been connected. E bn H aukal observes of
Taberistan, the adjoining tract, " they have a peculiar dialect, neither Arabick nor Persian:
" and in many parts of Deilman their language is not understood." In a country separated
by these circumstances, and by its local situation from the rest of Persia, it is not impro
bable that there may still exist some traces of a distinct language : and as to the imperfec
tions incident to the want of written memorials. Sir W m. J ones , in his Discourse on the
Arabs, has prepared us to think that Dr. J ohnson's reasoning is too general.
The Cookery of the Turcomans, p. 290.]—Their cookery is something like that of the Arabs
described by C apper . There is a full account of the two hordes, the Eastern and Western
Turcomans, in a note by the French editor of the Genealogical History of the Tatars,
p. 535-8. See also T ooke , ii. 93. Their wealth in money in every age has been very great;
because, like the Arabs, and every other pastoral people on the confines of great civilized
empires, they sell the necessaries of life, and will not buy the luxuries. L a R oque , p. 157,
remarks accordingly, that in the time of P liny , the riches both of the Romans and of the
Parthians were melted down among the Arabs. H armer's Observations, vol. i. p. 122.
C hardin in his MSS. notes in H armer , says, that they are like A braham , u very rich
t( in cattle, in silver, and in gold."
C hap. XVI.'] The country from Tabriz and Ar%-roum may almost be considered as
new ground in European description. G ardanne is the only other traveller who has
traced this route, (Journal, &c. p. 21-35); but the information which he collected in his
passage is so limited, that he appears to know nothing of the Lake oiShahee ; or rather in
travelling along its shores, he confounds it with that of Van, which is at least one hundred
miles fiom the spot where he places it; p. 35. The country between Ar% -roum and
Tocat is described by T ournefort , tom. ii. and by T avernier , tom. i. p. 12-19: and as
one of the great roads from Bagdad, &c. falls in at Tocat, the further progress to Con-