'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎156] (187/582)

FROM KERMANSHAH
by a thong, talked of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle, whose Systems
of Ethics he had read in Arabic, with a freedom and accuracy that
proved him to be better acquainted with the philosophy of these
sages, than many who had read them in their original languages.
He conceived Aristotle to have been a man of the greatest
mind, but too universally occupied on all subjects of human
enquiry. Socrates, he thought, was too fond of the neatness and
pith of a saying, to be always just or excellent in its meaning;
but Plato he considered to be the prince of moral philosophers,
and estimated the worth of his short Treatise on the Immortality
of the Soul, at a higher rate than all the volumes which all the
other philosophers of his age and country had written.
This Dervish was well acquainted with all the countries he had
visited, and they included nearly every part of Asia. His conver
sation was most interesting; and I regretted beyond measure the
being unable at the moment to note down many striking particu
lars, which, for want of immediate record, soon escaped my me
mory.
Of Herat, the place of his birth and long residence, he re
peated the tradition of its being founded by one of the Emirs of
Neriman, the hero of the world, who bore the name of Herat, and
gave it to this city, which, after being once destroyed, was rebuilt
by Alexander the Great. He repeated to us the Persian proverb,
which says, " If the soil of Ispahan, the fresh air of Herat, and
the water of Khorassan, were united in one spot, the inhabitants
of it would never dieas well as that which says, " The world is
like a vast sea, in the midst of which the district of Khorassan is
i e a fine oyster, and Herat is the pearl contained within its
enuinera ^ ec ^ tombs of several learned men there,
and spoke of many wonderful works of the infidels in the neigh-
ourhood, now in ruins; admitting also, that in the dynasty of the
Cjhaundes, there were in the city of Herat itself twelve thousand
^ / ousanc ^ public baths, caravanserais, and water-mills,
un red and fifty colleges, five temples and monasteries, and