'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.' [‎226] (257/582)

225 ISPAHAN.
Shah: a noble work in its original state, but now almost abandoned,
as there were only some inferior Moollahs who occupy a few of the
numerous chambers around its stately courts. The outer gateway
of this spacious edifice, which fronts a long range of gardens,
is closed by large folding-doors, which, like those of the royal
mosque, are coated over with sheets of silver, on which, devices
and inscriptions are executed in relief. The interior court is laid
out in fountains, canals, and gardens, in which large spreading
trees yield an agreeable shade, and beds of flowers give the
appearance of a constant spring. The ranges of chambers below,
as well as those in the galleries above, are conveniently adapted
for the retirement of study, and have each of them the proper
offices attached behind, for the comfort of those who may in
habit them.
As Assad Ullah Khan was still our guide, and we rode with
a large retinue of servants, our appearance commanded respect;
and indeed we every where met with it. Even here we were invited
into the neat apartment of a Moollah, and served with sweetmeats
and caleoons by his own hands. This man, as we were assured
after our visit, was one of the most learned in Ispahan; though
in a conversation which was introduced on the subject of the
demonstrative sciences of astronomy and mathematics, as well as
the less certain ones of chemistry and medicine, he hardly seemed
to be aware that these branches of learning were better under
stood in Europe than in Persia. His geographical knowledge
did not even extend to the relative positions of the countries
forming the boundaries of his own. In astronomy, the motions
of the heavenly bodies were not at all familiar to him, though he
knew the effect popularly ascribed to the conjunctions of the stars
and planets. Chemistry and medicine were in no way connected
with his studies; and his notions of both, were those of a man
who had neither heard nor thought on the subject in his life
time. But in polemical divinity, the distinctive features of Soon-
neeism and Sheeahism, and in the doctrines of the Soofees, he was