'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME II' [‎51r] (106/706)

BAR-BAR
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BARB VR—
A small village in the Hazardarreh district, to the right of the Tehran-
Hamadan road, 5 miles from Khanabad.— (Schindler.)
BARBARl—
A village in Azarbaijan, situated on the banks of the Jaghatu river. The
larger part of the population is composed of Nestorians, the minority being
formed by Armenians and Chaldean Catholics.—
BARDARASH—
A place in the Zagros mountains, Kurdistan, near Panivin.— (Gerard.)
BARDISAR— '
A stream of Azarbaijan rising in the Zagros mountains, which after an
easterly course past the town of Urumieh falls into the Urumieh lake. Just
south of Urumieh the road to Ushnu crosses it by a bridge of five arches.—
(Ainsworth.)
BARFARUSH —Lat. 36° 32- P"; Long. 52° 42' 0".
The commercial capital o' Mazandaran; lies 26 miles west of Sari, 90 miles
north-east of Tehran, 20 miles east of Amul, and 2 miles from the banks
of the Babuh It is connected with Tehran by two roads, the one via Savadkuh,
the other via Damavand. The town is situated in the midst of flat country,
about 15 miles from the mountains and a like distance from the sea shore;
it is surrounded on all sides by cultivation of rice, sugar, and cotton;
it is built amidst tall forest trees, and as the houses are small, stand
in groups and are surrounded by mud walls, it is difficult to believe one
self in the middle of a large town, and impossible to guess its extent from
a hasty observation. It has at present about 12,000 houses which are
neat and well built, population 40,000 ; the streets are narrow, but clean and
paved. The bazar contains about 500 to 600 wooden shops, which are full
of European goods. In the summer the town is almost deserted by the in
habitants, who fly to the mountains. There is a Persian Government tele
graph office here.
Barfarush is still the chief commercial town of Mazandaran, from which
the others principally derive their supplies, and from which the produc
tions of the country are exported to the neighbouring provinces. From
Astrabad the returns are in soap, felts, namads and horse coverings (Jhuls),
manufactured by the Turkomans. From Tehran are received British manufac
tures and those of the interior of Persia, prints from Isfahan, velvets from
Kashan, and great quantities of dried fruits from the neighbourhood of Hama-
_ e tra( ^ e with Russia passes through Mashad-i-Sar, the port of
Barfarush, where there is a custom-house. There are cocoon-drying establish
ments at Barfarush and near Gorboran, and two steam cotton gins and
presses at Barfarush. Cotton, silk, flax, oranges and lemons are produced,
. 1 he -Russians have a native consular agent at Barfarush to look after the
interests of their merchants, a few of whom reside in the place. Between
the town and the Babul river, is a Royal Garden and palace on an island
m the centre of a lake filled by the overflow from the river. The
garden and buildings are in the usual neglected condition.—(Aa/ner; Stack ;
Curzon ; Rabvno.) Barfarush was occupied by Russia in 1911 with 300 men’
and is still (1913) held by a Russian garrison.
C300GSB