"رحلات في آشور، ميديا، وبلاد فارس، بما في ذلك رحلة من بغداد مروراً بجبل زاغروس وصولاً إلى حمدان، في أكباتانا القديمة، والبحوث في أصفهان وأطلال برسبوليس، ورحلة منها مروراً بشيراز وشابور وصولاً إلى ساحل البحر. وصف البصرة، بوشهر، البحرين، هرمز، ومسقط، وسرد لحملة ضد قراصنة الخليج العربي، مع رسومات توضيحية لرحلة بحرية لنيرتشوس، والمرور ببحر العرب إلى بومباي. [‎٢‎٣‎٠] (٥٨٢/٢٦١)

230 ISPAHAN.
one of the best sovereigns that ever ruled Persia ; the happiness of
subjects being his sole object, during the whole of his reign. His
favourite amusement, in hours of relaxation from public duties,
was the chase ; and in the indulgence of this passion, indeed, he
lost his life.
Sir John Malcolm, in his visit to one of this monarch's hunt
ing seats, heard almost exactly the same story of his skill as an
archer, as was related to me by a domestic who explained the
painting of the subject on the walls here. # The king is re
presented sitting in a chair, while his horse is held by an at
tendant ; and his banished favourite is seen bearing on her should
ers a large black cow, and with it ascending a flight of ten steps
leading to an apartment above. The doors of this pictured
room were securely made, neatly panelled, and the grain of the
sycamore wood of the country imitated on a varnished ground
by waves of gold. The windows over the doors leading to the
garden were among the most beautiful of any that I had seen in
Ispahan; they were of a pointed arched form, richly covered in
small hollow work of the most ingenious patterns, and the har
mony of colours in the extremely minute pieces of glass which
filled these intervals was perfection itself. As the doors below
were double, so were these windows; the hollow between the
inner and the outer ones occupying all the thickness of the
wall, from three to four feet. The outer windows were now
spread over with paper, yet, even in this state, the rich effect
of the light was inconceivably fine.
Behind the suite of apartments connected with the great hall,
were other courts and gardens, filled with canals and fountains,
and surrounded by buildings fit in every sense to form the abodes
of luxurious and powerful sovereigns; in all of which, labour and
wealth had been lavished, as if neither seemed of any value or ac
count. Large squares, with open troughs for horses around them,
* Malcolms History of Persia, vol. i. p. 119.