'Report on the North-Eastern Frontier of Persia and the Tekeh Turkomans' [‎111v] (14/50)

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quently, when found fault with by the Central Government, he seized and restored the
200 camels carried off, but not the property with which they were laden. After this,
another party of Biluchis, having heard of the great success of the former bands in
plundering, attempted to emulate their deeds, but without first coming to an under
standing with the Amir of Kain. These were almost all killed. When I stayed to
rest my horses, I was warned by a passing caravan of the danger of halting where I
did, but I went a little way off the road, and lit no fire, so as not to attract attention.
At 30 miles from Zungi Chah I reached the first village in the Turshiz district, called
Allahabad, and, at 34 miles, Abdullabad. The whole of this Turshiz plain is very fertile.
Everywhere bushes grow naturally, and there is good natural grazing for camels, which
are found in very great numbers in this district. The Aim antelope I also saw in great
numbers. Wherever water is brought great crops of grain are produced, and all sorts
of fruit and vegetables are plentiful and good. The Turshiz district is celebrated for
its grapes. I halted one day at Abdullabad. It occupies a portion of the site of
a city called Eerozebad, which is said to have been destroyed by Tamerlane, or the
Amir Timour, as he is always called in Persia. There are some remains of fine brick
minars of ancient mosques still standing, and the situation of the ancient gateways,
many miles apart, can still he traced. In the village of Abdullabad is an ancient
Zoroastrian fire temple, built of small bricks. It is now used as a mosque, but it is
evidently a fire temple, and is not suited to its present use, as it is not turned towards
Mecca. The people all acknowledge that it was a fire temple, and has only com
paratively lately been transformed into a mosque. There are not so many ruins
here as I should have expected. Persian cities, being built of sunburnt brick, leave
very little trace behind after a few hundred years. One of the brick minarets to be
seen about two miles from Abdullabad has apparently been covered with encaustic
tiles, pieces of such tiles being scattered about near it. It is a great pleasure to get
into a fairly fertile land again after all the desert and barren country I have been
passing through for so many weeks. Cows and oxen are seen in the fields, and
ploughing is done by oxen, not by hand, as in the poorer country to the southward,
where camels and goats, sheep and donkeys, are the only animals to be seen. On the
8th November I marched over a fertile plain, with mountains on all sides, to the
prosperous village of Khalilabad, distance 22 miles. On the road the village of
Kundur is passed. Kundur has two good canals of water, each running in a full
stream about six feet wide. These streams are brought from the Shishdraz river. The
Shishdraz, which is marked in maps as passing Kundur, certainly does not do so as a large
stream, only these two small streams from it reach that place. It is called Shishdraz
because it is divided into six streams or channels, and two of these reach Kundur.
Khalilabad, where I stayed the night, has been a very strong place. There is a
fine old fort, much stronger than is usual in this part of the world, hut it is fast
falling into ruin. The many years of peace which Persia has enjoyed during the reign
of Nasur-ud-Din Shah has made the people careless of repairing their forts, and they
now prefer to live outside. The mountains surrounding this Turshiz plain are known as
Kuh Bejwird and Siah Kuh to the northward, and as Kuh Begou to the south.
On the 9th November I reached Sultanabad, the chief town of the Turshiz dis
trict. It is a clean, well-built town, strongly fortified, but the walls and ditches
have fallen into a state of utter disrepair.* Sultanabad is a place of some 6,000 in
habitants, surrounded by many flourishing villages. A very large quantity of
silk is here produced, which is exported to Constantinople, and the countries
bordering the Caspian and Black Seas. Very little if any silk is sent to
Western Europe, the price of silk being actually higher in Persia than it is in
Lyons and Marseilles, the European seats of the silk trade. Silk waste is very cheap
in the Turshiz district, and this can be exported at a good profit. The Persians are
unable to make any use of the silk waste, which is therefore of little or no value to
them. In Lyons, I am assured by one engaged in the Persian silk trade, goods as high
in price as 32s. a yard are manufactured from silk waste and refuse silk. In
Khalilabad I visited a silk reeling factory An East India Company trading post. , and made inquiries as to the prices of
the raw silk, cocoons, and eggs. In the Turshiz district more money is made by
the export of silk worms’ eggs than by any other product. No disease has ever
appeared among the worms in Turshiz, and the worm is celebrated as resisting disease
better than any other, even when hatched elsewhere. In consequence the eggs are
in much request, and fetch an exceptionally high price, being worth 18 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. , or
* Though on all maps a town called Turshiz is marked, there is no such town. Turshiz is only the name of
the district.