'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎307] (346/586)

20-
xxi]
kirmAn.
'I
I Hi
307
soinet
in 681 (1282) and was buried under the dome of the Madrasah-
i-Shahr, or city college. The green dome within which her
tomb was placed bore an inscription on its walls, giving the names
of the architects, with the date 640 (1242) when the building was
completed, namely during the nominal reign of the son of Kutluk;
Khan, whom his sister Turkhan Khatun afterwards set aside J.
Of other towns in the Bardasir district the Arab geographers
give on the whole but meagre accounts; groups of villages, so
common in Fars, did not exist, and generally in Kirman each
town was separated from its neighbour by a wide stretch of desert
country. A score of miles to the south-west of Kirman city lies
Baghin, and a like distance beyond this Mashiz, both on the road
from Kirman to Sirjan. At the present time these are the only
towm in this quarter, and both are frequently mentioned by Ibn
Ibrahim, in the Saljuk chronicle, when relating events of the latter
half of the 4th (10th) century. It is curious therefore that neither
Baghin nor Mashiz should be mentioned by any of the earlier
Arab geographers, nor by Mustawfi, nor, apparently, by any of the
Persian authorities who have described the campaigns of Timflr.
Two short marches to the south-east of Kirman city lies the
town of Mahan, at the present day celebrated for the shrine at
the tomb of Ni'mat-Allah, the SClfi saint and 'Nostradamus' of
ersia, whose prophecies are still current throughout Moslem
Asia. He died in 834 (1431) aged over a hundred years, and is
said to have been a friend of the poet Hafiz. In the 4th (roth)
century Mukaddasi describes Mahan as a town chiefly inhabited
by Arabs. 1 he mosque was near the fortress, which, surrounded
by a ditch, stood in the middle of the town; and for a day's
march around the land was covered with gardens which were
irrigated from a stream of running water.
The Kubbat-i-Sabz was completely ruined by an earthquake in 1806. It is
escnbed by Major Sykes, who gives an illustration p. 264) representing
he building as he saw it before the earthquake. Major Sykes gives a descrip
tion of it, p. i 94) as also of the mosque ofTuran Shah, who reigned from 477
to io97) - ibn ibrahtm ' ^ 34,177.187, I8 9 , i 9 o,
Mirkhwand, part iv. 129, 130. See also Stack, i. 202, 204. Schindler
Keise m Persien,' Zeitschrift der Gesellsc (Berlin)
PP- 329, 330-
l88l.