'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎521] (584/714)

THE IsCXHTH-AN EST AND AVESTEivN PROVINCES 501
sent to Moscow and were enshrined in great state in the Kremlin
There were only eight gates to the city, but fifteen colossal keys'
also manufactured for the purpose, were despatched to the same
destination, and, I doubt not, are treasured as among the proudest
trophies of Muscovite prowess. The city was restored to Persia
upon the conclusion of peace in February of the following year.
Since 1805 Tabriz has been the capital and residence of the
Heir Apparent, having been first chosen for that purpose in the
Recent cas e of Abbas Mirza, the selected son of Fath Ali Shah
figures Kinneir, about 1810, described it as 'one of the most
wretched cities in Persia/ and as having only 30,000 inhabitants.
Morier, in 1812, gave it o0,000. In the long reign of peace that
has succeeded the Russian war, the numbers have gradually
swollen, being reported at different intervals as from 100,000 to
140,000, until at the present moment they are said to be between
170,000 and 200,000. In 1886 General Schindler reported the
town as containing eight imamzadehs, 318 mosques, 100 public
baths, 16G caravanserais, 3,922 shops, twenty-eight guard -houses
and five Armenian churches; but a good many of these figures,
represent deserted fabrics, while the majority of the so-called
mosques are tehehs or public prayer-places ; so that the totals
give an exaggerated impression of the existing city.
Imposing and extensive as Tabriz must once have been, there
are at this moment positively only two monuments of antiquity
The Blue W01 ^7 an y notice, and both of them are in a state of
andCitadel riUn " ^ ^ 0f theSe iS ^ Kabud M "sjid, or Blue
Mosque, so called from the magnificent specimens of
enamelled faience by which it was once encrusted. It was built by
Jehan Shah, the last sovereign of the Black Sheep dynasty (1437—
1468 a.d .). 1 Earthquakes have shattered its walls; its dome has
1 It is scarcely credible that M. Binder, at other times an intelligent traveller,
should have confused this monarch with the Mogul Emperor Shah Jehan. ' The
Blue Mosque,' he says, ' was built by Shah Jehan in 1670, and it is to him that
«e owe the Mausoleum of Agra, of Secundra, and the palace of Delhi, which
struck me so much on my voyage to India.' {An Kurdistan, p. 63.) Here is quite
a neat collection of errors, apart from the crowning mistake of identity and of
wo centuries. For Shah Jehan could hardly have built a mosque anywhere in
70, having been deposed in 1658 and having died in 1665; nor did he build the
^ ausoleum of Secundra, which was raised by Jehangir in honour of his father
ar. As regards the Blue Mosque, I have followed the account given by most
istorians. At Tabriz, however, local tradition ascribes the foundation to Ghazan
an, the third Mongol sovereign.