'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎320] (359/586)

320
KIRMAN.
[CHAP.
Commercially Kirman stood far behind Fars, and the Arab
geographers give us no detailed account of the trade of the
province. Kirman as a whole, Mukaddasi states, grew dates and
dhurrah as food-stuffs; dates were exported to Khurasan, and
indigo to Fars, while the cereal crops raised in the Valashgird
district were taken down to Hurmuz, and thence shipped to
more distant countries 1 .
The geographers of the 3rd and 4th (9th and 10th) centuries
give far less detail concerning the high roads of Kirman than is
the case when they are treating of the Fars province. Further,
as a rule, only the inexact measurement of the day's march
{marhalah) is given, and for most of the roads the reckoning
from stage to stage in leagues {farsakh) is wanting.
The roads from Fars into Kirman converged on Bimand,
which, as already said, lay four leagues to the west of Sirjan.
From the north-east, one road from Unas and the RMhan
district came down to Bimand (given by both Istakhri and
Mukaddasi); while from Great Sahik to Bimand (and Sirjan) we
have two roads, both measured in farsakhs, one by Shahr-i-
Babak (given by Ibn Khurdadbih only), and another leading
directly across the desert to Bimand, to which there are two
alternative routes, one (Ibn Khurdadbih) by Kariyat-al-Milh,
4 Salt Village,' the other by Rubat-Pusht-Kham, 1 Crook-back
Guard-house' (Kudamah and Istakhri). Further, Mukaddasi gives
the road from Niriz (in marches) to Bimand and Sirjan; while
both he and Istakhri describe the route from the south-west which
came up from Rustak-ar-Rustak in somewhat over four days ?
march, going direct to Sirjan 2 .
From Sirjan to Bardasir (Kirman city) it was two days' march.
Mustawfi says 20 leagues, but no halting-place or town is
Mst. 182, 222. I. B. ii. 230. A. F. 339. A. Y. i. 789, 809, 810. J.N. 258,
260. The name of the king who transferred the capital to the island is
variously given as Shams-ad-Din, Kutb-ad-Din, or Fakhr-ad-Din. The island
of Hurmuz was taken by the English in 1622 ; for its present state see Stiffe,
Geographical Magazine, 1874, i. 12, and J.R.G.S, 1894, p. 160. The name
is spelt indifferently Hurmuz, and Hurmuz.
1 Muk. 470.
2 I. K. 48, 53. Kud. 195. 1st. 131, 168. Muk. 455, 473. Mst. 201.