'Military Report on South-West Persia, Including the Provinces of Khuzistan (Arabistan), Luristan, and Part of Fars' [‎69] (104/466)

69
summits of these hills are usually tabular; their sides furrowed by innumer
able torrents, which sweep down with irresistible violence during the rainy
season. They are consequently precipitous, and frequently inaccessible to
heavily laden-animals {see popes 42 Sf 43),
The country rising 1 from the coast in a succession of tablelands, it follows
that the southern and western slopes of these hills are longer than the northern
and eastern.
They are seldom inhabited to any considerable extent, except during the
winter, when rain water accumulates in the bottoms, and the hills are then
clothed with grass and flowers. The soil is favourable to the growth of corn
and barley.
To the south and west of the low hills are those vast plains known by
the Persians as Arabistan, stretching in one almost
tu p ams. interrupted flat to the Tigris, the Shatt-al-Arab, and the
sea [see pages 40, 48).
Detailed descriptions of the inhabitants of the above hilly country, of their
villages, productions, cultivation, &c., are given later on.
The coast plains and their inhabitants have already been described.
Irak Ajami*
To the north of Luristan lies Irak Ajami, on the line traversed between
Hilly country north Khoramabad and Kum, a more or less mountainous prov-
of Luristan. ince consisting generally of huge rounded undulations,
reaching to heights of 700' to 1,000'above the general elevation of the plateau
(5,800 to 6,000'). The Roswand range is an exception to this rule.
Few of the peaks are within the range of perpetual snow. In the valley
the soil is often a rich clay or a shaly clay; the chief rock met with is shale.
The range extending from Khonsar to Mount Alwand is granitic; that to its
south from Karmanshah, by the Shuturun-Kuh, Kuh-Zard, Kuh-Sabz, to Kuh-
Dina is cretaceous.
The mule tracks across the undulations present few difficulties {see
Road Reports No. 1, 2, 8, and 3a).
The general run of the hills is north-west and south-east.
To the north of the fertile valleys described on page 14 as stretch
ing between Burujird and Isfahan lies a mountainous but fertile region
composed of the huge rounded undulations of shale and clay above described,
and beyond them to the north lies the Eoswand range {see pages 226 to 233) ■.
To the north of this lower and barren range are spacious and fertile valleys,
bounded in their turn by other mountains of lesser altitude, and separated from
each other by spurs of hills which shoot from the Roswand across the valleys.
These latter, taken in succession form north-west to south-east, form the
districts of Kazzos, Kamarah, and Gulpaigan; while to the north of them,
beyond the third range of hills, are Malair, Chaharru, Sultanabad, Faraghan,
and Maballat {seepages 233 to 245). This successive lowering of the moun
tain chains northwards is repeated southwards between the main kernel, i.e.,
Shuturun Kuh, Sabz-Kuh, Kuh-i-Dina, and the Gulf.
For climate {see pages 13, 237, and Road Reports No. 2, 3, 8a).
The spring is a delightful season of the year, but cold towards its commence-
Climate. ment, as the snow melts late and a keen north wind blows
from the mountains. The heat sets in towards the
middle of June, and lasts till the middle of August, when the harvest is
* The ancient Media, originally peopled by the Turanian Scyths, an important people 1,500
years B.C.