'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎257] (296/586)

XVII]
FARS.
257
Zuhayr, and Muzaffar being the names of three Arab tribes who,
having crossed to the northern coasts from the other side of the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , had here settled in Fars. In the 4th (10th) century
Sif ^marah was famous for an impregnable castle on the sea,
called Kal'ah-ad-Dikdan (or Dikbayah), also known as Hisn Ibn
'Umarah, where twenty ships could find safe harbourage, and the
only entrance into the castle was by working a crane set on the
walls. A short distance to the west of this lay the island of Kays,
or as the Persians wrote the name, Kish, which in the course of
the 6th (12th) century became the trade centre of the Persian
Gulf after the ruin of Siraf, which will be described presently.
A great walled city was built in Kays island, where water tanks
had been constructed, and on the neighbouring sea-banks was the
famous pearl fishery. Ships from India and Arabia crowded the
port, and all the island was full of palm gardens. In summer,
says Kazvini, the heat was greater than the hottest room in the
bath (Hammam): none the less Kays was a very populous town.
The island lay about four leagues from the coast, where the port
of embarkation was Huzti, to which, in the 7th (13th) century, a
caravan road came down from Shiraz through Laghir. Huzu,
though much ruined when Yaktit wrote, had been a strong for
tress in the 4th (10th) century under the Buyids, who made it their
state prison. Close to the town was the village called Saviyah
(with variants in the mss. Tabah or Tanah and the true reading
is unknown) 1 .
1 1st. 116, 140. I. H. 188, Yak. ii. 711; iv. 333, 974. F.N. 74 <5.
Mst. 171, 173, 180. Kaz. ii. r6i. The.name of the island is spelt Kays,
Kaysh, and Kish (with dotted k or undotted k).
The stages on the road down from Laghir to Huzu are given by Mustawft
(p. 200), but as no modern traveller has followed this route the names are not
to be found on the map, and are most uncertain ; the distances are in farsakhs
(leagues). 4 From Laghir 6 to Faryab district, thence 6 to the city of Saj
(Sah, Haj, Dah, with many other variants), thence 5 to Ab-Anbar-i-Kinar,
thence 5 to Haram (Siram or Marmaz), thence 6 down many steep passes to
the village of Daruk (Darzak^ Urak or Davrak), thence 6 to Mahan (Haman
or Mayan), and thence 6 by the pass of Lardak to Huzu on the sea-shore.'
The district Mustawfi calls Faryab is evidently identical- with Barab, half-way
between Kariyan and Kuran, as given by Mukaddasi (p. 454). The city of
Saj is a puzzle, none being known in this region, but possibly we should read
L e S. 17