'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎99] (146/748)

FEOM ISFAHAN TO SHIRAZ
99
interests of the latter are officially represented in the city by the
Nawab An honorific title; an official acting as a provincial deputy ruler in South Asia; or a significant Muslim landowner in nineteenth century India. Haider Ali Khan, a member of a distinguished family once
prominent in the Deccan, but for many years resident in Persia.
One face of the palace fronts the principal Meidan, which is a
desolate expanse containing a number of guns. 1 On its northern
Old P i S ^ e a ■' ar S e building, now occupied by the Indo-European
and Persian Telegraph establishments, but formerly the
diwan-klianeh, or audience-chamber, of the palace of Kerim Khan.
An arched gateway opens from the square on to a fine garden,
containing a hauz or tank, at whose upper end, on a platform, the
face of which is adorned with sculptured bas-reliefs in marble,
is the large recessed chamber, now filled with official bureaux
and counters, that once held the twisted marble columns and
the Takht-i-Marmor, or Marble Throne, previously described as
standing in the talar or throne-room at Teheran, whither they
were removed a hundred years ago by Agha Mohammed.
From the Meidan, access is gained to the Bazaar-i-Vekil,
or Regent's Bazaar, an enduring monument of the public-
Bazaar spirited rule of Kerim Khan. This bazaar, which is the
and trade finest in Persia, consists of a covered avenue, built of
yellow burnt bricks, and arched at the top, about five hundred
yards in total length. It is crossed by a shorter transept, 120
yards long, a rotunda or circular domed place marking the point
of intersection, where are a cistern and a platform above it, at
which the merchants meet for talk or consultation. From the
bazaar, gateways lead into extensive caravanserais, the most
spacious of which appeared to be that occupied by the Persian
Custom-house. In the Bazaar-i-Vekil were all the din and jabber,
the crush and jostle, of an Eastern mart, which is the focus
of city life in the daytime, and is apt to give to a stranger an
exaggerated impression of the volume of business. In the in
creased activity, however, of the southern trade-routes in Persia
in recent years, Shiraz, both as a consuming and as an export
market, has borne its share. An immense trade in all European
goods has sprung up with Bombay, most of the Persian merchants
having agents in that city. The chief imports are cotton fabrics
from Manchester; woollen tissues from Austria and Germany;
loaf sugar from Marseilles (Russian loaf sugar stopping short at
1 There were reported to me to be only 1,800 infantry and 300 artillery in the
province.
h 2