'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎531] (594/714)

THE NORTH-WEST AND WESTERN PROVINCES
531
Besides the main line of European telegraph whicli enters
Persia by Julfa on the one side, and passes through Tabriz on its
way to Teheran, there are local wires in Persian hands,
Telegiaphs runn - n g f rom Tabriz to Namin, above Astara, on the
Caspian, 136 miles ; to Suj Bulak, in the Kurdish country, 125
miles; through Khoi to Bayazid, on the Turkish frontier; and
through Khoi to Urumiah, on the other side of the Shahi Lake.
Before I pass on to the western and southern environs of
Tabriz, the memories of a great past and the dignity attaching to
illustrious names compel me to devote a paragraph to the
Ardebil * • j i j . ^ J -j.
now semi-rumed, but once renowned and prosperous city,
Ardebil. Situated on a plain about equidistant between the
Caspian and the remarkable extinct volcano of Savalan, whose
snowy crown rises to a height of 15,791 feet above the sea, 1
Ardebil was elevated into the first rank of Persian cities, as the
residence and last resting-place of the famous saint Sheikh Sefi-
ed-Din, the direct descendant of the seventh Imam, and contem
porary of Timur. 2 In the fifth generation from him came Shah
Ismail (1480-1524 a.d .), the founder of the Sefavi dynasty, who
first established his power and was finally interred, as sovereign of
all Persia, in Ardebil. No wonder that two sepulchres so holy
should, throughout the duration of the Sefavi dynasty, have at
tracted to Ardebil a host of pilgrims, and have conferred upon it
the distinction almost of a royal city. In a decayed and crumbling
mosque, the tombs may yet be seen, over that of the Shah being
suspended a sandal-wood case, beautifully inlaid with ivory, the
gift of the grateful exile of Hindustan, the Emperor Humaiun, to
Ismail's son. Shah Tahmasp. In the main hall of the same build
ing, behind silver gratings and a golden-plated gate, is the tomb
of the Sheikh, overlaid with costly carpets and shawls. An adjoin
ing hall contains a superb collection of old faience, principally
China vases, the offering of Shah Abbas for the daily service of
rice, amounting to 8,600 lbs., that was issued to the pilgrims;
1 In the early part of the century local tradition asserted that at the top of
this mountain existed the miraculously preserved body of a great prophet (Morier's
Second Journey, p. 238). In 1825 Captain Shee climbed to the summit and found
a tomb in which lay a skeleton, half exposed, and half buried in soil and ice
{Journal of the R.G.S., vol. iii. p. 28).
2 I am driven, therefore, to hope that when Thielmann {Journey, vol. ii. p. 29)
somewhat vaguely describes him as 'a great saint who died in 1834,' he has been
made the victim of a printer's error for 1384.
m m 2