'A second journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, between the years 1810 and 1816. With a journal of the voyage by the Brazils and Bombay to the Persian Gulf. Together with an account of the proceedings of His Majesty's embassy under Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart. K.L.S. With two maps, and engravings from the designs of the author.' [‎156] (197/516)

156
PERSIAN MANUSCRIPTS.
Cotton is also manufactured at Ispahan into cloths of different
qualities, from the plant which grows in the neighbourhood of the
citj. Nine-tenths of the Ispahan cotton is consumed on the spot, and
the rest is exported. Their principal cotton manufacture is the kadek, a
strong and excellent cloth, which resembles nankeen, and which is
worn bv all ranks of people, from the King to the peasant. It is also
exported to Russia by the Caspian sea, and is there used for the un
dress of the Russian soldiery. The kerbas is another cotton cloth, of
which the shirts and drawers of the lower orders are generally made:
stronger qualities of it are used for tent-coverings, &c. They paint
cotton stuffs with a hand stamp, and they then are called chit, (perhaps
from our chintz,) and wash them on the banks of the Zaian derood,
which they do by beating the stuff on a stone, and then spreading it on
the sand to dry.
Paper, gunpowder, sword blades, glass and earthenware, are also
manufactured at Ispahan, but not in great quantities.
No regular bazar for books is established at Ispahan, as at Constan
tinople, but we were well supplied with manuscripts by the delals, or
brokers, men who are useful though dishonest, who generally procured
for us the books we wanted by searching for them in shops, or in pri
vate houses. Several very fine manuscripts were brought to us, besides
a great variety of Persian drawings. The Persians are not so bigotted
with respect to the pollution of the Koran by the touch of infidels as
the Turks, for many copies were brought to us for sale; but they hold
it in great respect; for one day a Mollah brought us some books for
sale, which he spread upon the ground before us. One of us by
chance placing his foot upon a Cuffick MS., containing sentences of the
Koran, was reprimanded by the Persian, who exclaimed, « Beware,
that is the word of God !"
September proved as unhealthy as the foregoing month; but our
attention was diverted from the miseries of our sick by a threatened
invasion of the Bakhtiarees, who, under their chief Achmed Khan, were
in open rebellion, and had approached near the city. The alarm was
great: guards were placed at all the principal avenues, particularly