'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOLUME II' [‎184v] (373/706)

kirmanshah
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Isfahan! merchants import native prints and cotton goods, such as Jcalam-
kars, prints, lahdfs, abbas, etc., and gaz and givehs from Isfahan; and ex
port to Isfahan Manchester prints, iron, tea, cowhides, wool, giVms and gaz*
aldfl. Their imports come to 100,000 tumdns, but are exceeded by their
exports ; the consequence being that bills on Isfahan are always offering in
the bazaars.
Hamadan merchants import naphtha, rice, Russian prints, glassware and
hardware (coming from Rasht); export to Hamadan, dates from Man-
dali, gall nuts, grease, ghi, raw hides, tea, spices, iron, lead, Manchester
goods and window glass. The exports exceed the imports. There are other
Hamadan merchants, who work exclusively as commission agents for
releasing goods from the eustom-hcuse and forwarding them to Hamadan.
Bankers. —There are here a few bankers whose business seems to be mostly
the granting of loans against mortgages.
The Shirkat Amtia ’Umumi, a Persian commercial bank, has had for
about a year an agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. here ; and, since March 20, 1902, the Imperial Bank
of Persia has opened a branch in Kirmanshah.
The sarrdfs of Kirmanshah are merely money-lenders or brokers, and have
no influence on the market; they pay a tax of 600 kr~ns per annum.
One finds in Kirmanshah, Shi'ahs, ’Ali Illahis, Babis, a few Sunnis and
Jadid-ul-Islain Jews and Christians.
The greater part of the town population is of the Shl’ah persuasion ; it was
formerly ’All Illahi, but Haji ’Ali Khan, former Governor of Kirmanshah who
built the Musjid Juma’ is said to have forced the inhabitants to pray in the
mospie, and to have thus rendered, in the course of a few years, the Shi’ah
persuasion paramount in the town of Kirmanshah. Most of the tribes are
’All Illahi, many are Shi’ahs, whilst a few nearer the Turkish frontier are
Sunnis.
As already mentioned, there are here about 20 Jewish merchants, but
these are from Baghdad, and are only temporary residents. There is a fixed
population of Persian Jews numbering about 150 houses, or about 750 souls,
who live by small trade and hawking.
A few Chaldean Christians, amounting all told to 30 souls, have settled
here; one of them is engaged in trade, the others live by the manufacture
of a aq and wine of very inferior quality.
The real language of the town of Kirmanshah is Kurdi. The town
dialect is very close to the Sinjabi and Kalhur Kurdi. Unfortunately for
this language, of which so little is known, the Kurds think it a mark of educa
tion to insert in their conversation Persian words here and there. The
result of this mixture of language is that many Kurdish words are getting
lost.
Pilgrims. —About 23,000 passports were delivered this year to pilgrims
for Karbala, Najaf, andKazimain. Only pilgrims travelling on horse, mule
or donkey-back, require passports; pilgrims on foot, women and children
require no passports. Well-to-do Persians go on horseback or in takiehravdns
(litters), whilst women usually go in kajdvehs. It is estimated that from
50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims pass Kirmanshah yearly en route to Karbala.
Pilgrim caravans have usually a “ chd ' sh ” or guide who from time to time
sings religious hymns. The caravan is lead by a “ pishahang ” or heavily