'Report on Kurdistan' [‎17v] (39/220)

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The trees are mostly oak, and according to natives give fourteen products,
some of which are gazangebin (manna), mazuj (gall-nuts), ballut (acorn),
sichkeh, kelkap, kharnukh, kezkeh, kanderun, gazaleh, angushter, darsiah,*
but I have been unable to find the translation of these last eight words.
Other products of this districts are gums, mastic and tragacanth, and large
quantities of tobacco (tumbaku).
The inhabitants do not cultivate much grain and are obliged to import a certain
amount of barley and wheat.
In this district, however, a plant called “ deymilleh” is grown which supplies
the greater part of the food of the inhabitants. It is a kind of millet with long
stems and 1 irg; ea s.
Partridges are plentiful here, and much hunting with hawks is done.
The principal place of the above district is Baneh.
Lat. 35° 39'
Baneh town. Long. 45° 54'
Elev. 5,400 feet.
Baneh is situated on the bank of a tributary of the river Kalvi, and there is
a deep ravine on the other side of the town.
It numbers at present 900 houses, of which 40 are of Jews and 90 of Ottoman
subj ts.
In 1832 Gerard estimated the population of this place at 600 houses.
It has 1 hamman, 8 mosques and a Masjid-i-Juma, and 3 caravanserais to
accommodate merchants who come here during the gall-nut gathering season.
The Governor of the district lives here. The town has a prosperous '.ook»
and the Khan s residence is fine and well furnished.
A peak, Arbaba, three miles south of the town, has its slopes covered with
vine yards more than half-way up.
Near to Baneh the road traverses a mud flat—a depression in the plain
some two miles in width, which wou d form a serious obstacle to the passage of
guns or waggons. This mora s—which it really is in winter—may be turned by
a long detour over a rough hill skirt.
The town was formerly known as Beruzeh and, according to Rich who visited
Kurdistan in 1820, it was a wretched, filthy place, scarcely deserving the name of
town.
The Governor of the district of Baneh is called Sultan, a title granted by
Nadir Shah to the frontier governors as a retort to the title of Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. (Pad-Shah)
given by the Turks to their frontier governors, and to the present day the custom
of sounding the neghareh khaneh in Baneh, instituted by the same Nadir Shah,
js still maintained.
The town of Baneh was built about 160 years ago by Isma’il Sultan, a gover
nor of this district and descended from SulaimanBeg, who is buried’one mile to the
west of the town (some say this tomb only contains one of his teeth), and whose
tomb is now a place of pilgrimage, in the vicinity of which it is considered a crime
to touch the trees, so that there is a fine forest at this spot.
Haji Zaman Khan, who for 18 years was governor of Baneh until he fell
in disgrace when Mu’ayyid-ud-Dauleh was governor of Kurdistan, is also a des
cendant of this Sulaiman Beg.
* Dr. Oskar Mann mentions also qir (tar), qau, muLLur and shatlankush (peeteh-
Kuhi in Persian).