'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎519] (578/714)

THE NORTH-WEST AND WESTERN PROVINCES 619
from Europe, must be not too respectfully dismissed. Tabriz is
an Aryan word, derived from tab or tap, warm, tepid, and rez, riz,
resh, a verbal root meaning to flow. It signifies, therefore, ' warm-
flowing,' and originated from the hot springs in the neighbourhood.
This word became the classical Tauris, which at the close of the
third century after Christ was the capital of the Armenian King
Tiridates III. Its predecessor, located by Kawlinson at Takht-i-
Suleiman, was Ganzaca, or Gaza, the Kandsag of Armenian history.
To Zobeideh we may concede the distinction of having, in 791 a.d.,
rebuilt and beautified the city, a service which has more than once
in history procured for its author a founder's claim and honour.
In Marco Polo's time it was a city where ' the merchants make large
profits.' 1 The Spaniard Clavijo spent nine days here in 1404 and
nineteen days in 1405, on his journey to and from Samarkand ;
and so speedily had the city recovered from Timur's visitation
that even then, though formerly much more populous, it contained
200,000 inhabitants, and ' the finest baths in the whole world.' 2
A few years later it became the capital of the Kurdish dynasty of
Kara Koyunlu, or Black Sheep; but they in their turn were
expelled in 1468 by Uzim Hasan (Long Hasan), the chief of
the Ak Koyunlu, or White Sheep, who made himself sovereign of
Persia, and in whose reign the Venetian travellers, whose diaries
have fortunately been preserved and given to the world, visited his
dominions. Josafa Barbaro, who was at Tabriz in 1474, called him
King Assambai (i.e. Hasan Beg), and left a long account of the city.
Ambrosio Contarini called the King Ussun Cassan. A little later
the anonymous merchant whose travels have also been published in
the same collection 3 (1507-20) said the city was without walls but
twenty-four miles in circumference. As for the ladies, he seems
to have found time in the intervals of business to appreciate their
charms, for he leaves record that
The women are as white as snow. Their dress is the same as
always has been the Persian costume—wearing it open at the breast,
showing their bosoms and even their bodies, the whiteness of which
resembles ivory.
1 In 1320 there is evidence of a Venetian settlement at Tabriz, and in 1341
the Genoese had a factory An East India Company trading post. there, presided over by a Consul with a council of 24
merchants.
2 Narrative of Embassy (Hakluyt Soc.), pp. 87-89.
3 Travels into Tana and Persia (Hakluyt Soc.).