'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎308] (347/586)

308
KIRMAN.
[CHAP.
Ghubayra and Kughun, two towns lying one league apart,
of which apparently no trace remains at the present day, were
to the south of Mahan, being one march west of Rayin
(which still exists). In the 4th (10th) century Mukaddasi de
scribes Ghubayra as a small town surrounded by villages, with
a fortress in its midst, while outside was the market recently
built by the Buyid governor Ibn Hyas, already many times
mentioned. Both this place and Kfighftn had fine mosques and
the water was from underground channels. Some fifty miles
east of Kirman, and on the borders of the Great Desert, lies
Khabls, which was counted as three marches distant from Mahan.
The level was low, for the desert is here far below the plateau of
central Persia on which the city of Kirman stands, and Khabis,
as Istakhri remarks, is very hot, and the date palm was conse
quently much grown. Mukaddasi adds that there was a fortress
here, and the town had four gates. It was very populous, much
silk was manufactured, for the gardens were celebrated for their
mulberry-trees, being watered by a stream that passed through
the town. Excellent dates, too, were exported .
Two marches to the north-west of Kirman is the city of
Zarand, and half-way between the two, during the middle-ages,
lay the town of Janzariidh, of which apparently no trace remains.
Mukaddasi describes JanzarMh as possessing a mosque standing in
the market, where abundance of fruit was sold, for the town was on
a river, the Janz. Zarand still exists, and Mukaddasi speaks of the
castle near by, which Ibn Ilyas, the governor, had recently built.
Zarand was in the 4th (10th) century a place of considerable size,
it had six town gates, and the mosque was in the Maydan or
public square, which was surrounded by market streets. Here a
kind of fine gauze, used for linings and called was made.
These Zarandi gauzes were largely exported to Pars and 'Irak,
and in the 4th (10th) century were in great repute.
1 Ibn Ibrahim, 66, 108, 109,121. 1st. 234. Muk.462,463. Col.C. E. Yate,
Khurasan and Sis tan, p. 11. Major Sykes (Persia, p. 41) found a grave-stone
in Khabis dated 173 (789), also the ruins of a building that appears to have
been a Christian church, or some non-Moslem shrine. As of the Khabis sub-
district Mukaddasi (p. 460) mentions the four towns of Nashk, Kashld, Kuk,
and Kathrawa, but no details are given of position, and apparently all trace of
them is now lost.