'The lands of the Eastern Caliphate Mesopotamia, Persia, and Central Asia from the Moslem conquest to the time of Timur' [‎322] (361/586)

CHAPTER XXIII.
THE GREAT DESERT AND MAKRAN.
The extent and characteristics of the Great Desert. The three oases at Jarraak,
Naband and Sanij. The chief roads across the Desert. The Makran
province. Fannazbur and the port of Tiz. Other towns. Sind and
India. The port of Daybul. Mansurah and Multan. The river Indus.
The Turan district and Kusdar. The Budahah district and Kandabil.
/ The Great Desert of Persia stretches right across the high plateau
of Iran, going from north-west to south-east, and dividing the fertile
provinces of the land into two groups; for the Desert is continuous
from the southern base of the Alburz mountains, that to the
north overlook the Caspian, to the arid ranges of Makran,
which border the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Thus it measures nearly 800 miles
<in length, but the breadth varies considerably; for in shape this
immense area of drought is somewhat that of an hour-glass, with
a narrow neck, measuring only some 100 miles across, dividing
Kirman from Sistan, while both north and south of this the
breadth expands and in places reaches to over 200 miles 1 .
The medieval Arab geographers refer to the Desert as Al-
Mafazah, ' the Wilderness,' and carefully define its limits. On the
west and south-west it was bounded by the Jibal province, by the
1 The general outline of the Great Desert is given in Map I (p. 1),
details of the northern portion are shown in Map v (p. 185), of the lower part
in Maps VI (p. 248), vn (p. 323), and vm (p. 335). At the present day the
Desert, as a whole, is known as the Lut or Dasht-i-Lut (Desert of Lot); the
saline swamps and the dry salt area being more particularly known as the
Dasht-i-Kavir, the term Kavlr being also occasionally applied to the Desert as
a whole. The etymology of the terms Lid (the Arab form of the Biblical Lot)
and Kavtr is uncertain ; see Major Sykes, p. 32.