"دليل بلاد فارس. مجلد III." [و‎‎٤‎٢‎٥] (٩٨٢/٨٥٤)

repair. The circumference of the wall is about 4 miles, but in more recent
and peaceful times the suburbs have become enlarged, so that the original
outline is no longer clearly traceable.
Shiraz, like all other Persian towns, has a certain number of deserted
houses, which are allowed to fall into ruins, though it compares favourably
with most of them in this respect. More than half of the enclosed area of
the city is taken up with hazars, maiddns, the Governor’s place, gardens,
stables and other public buildings, leaving the remaining space for occupa
tion by the inhabitants.
The city has six gates, viz., 1, Isfahan ; 2, Bagh-i-Shah ; 3, Kazarun; 4,
Shah Da’i; 5, Qassab Khaneh; 6, Sa’id : and is divided into 11 quarters. A
writer in the Farsnameh-i-Nasirl, published in 1895, quoting a census stated
to have been taken in 1883, gives the total population of Shiraz, at the
latter date, as males 25,284 and females 28,323 ; total 53,607. From
the same census he furnishes the following details :—
f ’ Quarter. j
Houses.
Males.
Females.
1. Jshak Beg
687
2,720
2,710
2. Bazar-i-Murgh
318
1,510
1,638
3. Mala Kift
1,036
3,870
4,497
4. Darb-i-Shahzadeh
1.010
3,489
4,229
6. Darb-i-Masjid
160
438
449
6. Sar-i-Bagh
223
923
1,084
7. Sar-i-Duzak
798
3,448
4,500
8. Sang-i-Siah
465
2,082
2,207
9. Lab-i-Ab ..
920
3,904
4,000
10. Maidan-i-Shah
488
2,000
2,378
11. Jews’ quarter
222
930
1,040
6,327
:
25,340
28,732
Reliable statistics in regard to the Moslem quarters, of later date, are not
forthcoming ; but a census of the Jews’ quarter, taken in 1905, gives correct
ed statistics as follows : houses 296 ; population, male and female, 6,829.
Assuming that the whole population has been increasing, even slowly, during
the past twelve years, it is estimated that, allowing for an extraordinary
mortality of 5,000 during the cholera epidemic of 1904, the numbers at the
present time (1905) cannot be less than 60,000 persons of all classes. In
former days the first five quarters of the city, as above, and forming its east
ern portion, were known as Haidar Khaneh, from the devotion of their in
habitants to Sultan Haidar, ancestor and spiritual head of the Safavi dy
nasty ; the remaining five, or western quarter were called the Ni’mat Khaneh
from Shah Ni’mat Ullah, founder of the Darvish order, bearing his name.
These distinctions, often leading to conflicts of a sanguinary nature between
the two factions, have almost disappeared in the last sixty or seventy years.
The Shirazi is of a less mixed Iranian type than is encountered elsewhere,
as is evident from the darker complexions and clear-cut features, the brown