'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.' [‎292] (345/516)

29,2 MARAGHA.
The town is bounded on the east by sloping hills, which gradually
verge to high mountains. The mountain of Sahand, in shape like a
barn, bears from Maragha N. 37° E. and gives birth to the river Safy,
from which many jouhs or dikes are cut, and thus its waters are distri
buted throughout the surrounding cultivation. Its bed at the time we
crossed it was nearly dry, and the bridges appeared to be works more of
ostentation than of use; but the immense stones and rocks that are
thrown together confusedly in its bed, attest its violence at the season
of the floods.
Maragha is every where commanded by the hills which surround
it, and when seen from their summits exhibits a monotonous suc
cession of mud houses, without possessing one building of note to
attract a stranger's observation. It is flanked to the N. E. by a large
burial place, in which are many ancient stones, with Cuffick inscrip
tions, upon some of which are carved bows and arrows, swords and
shields, indicating a warrior; books and reading boards, denoting a
mollah, or learned man ; hammers, trowels, &c., the tomb of a mason,
and so forth. Upon one stone was the sculpture of a man (on horseback),
a circumstance which alone would distinguish the tomb of a Shiah from
that of a Sunni, who looks upon the representation of the human
figure as impious.
This place is inclosed by walls, now in many places so ruined
as to afford an easy access without the medium of a gate. It has
also outworks of turrets like Teheran, and many indications of having
been a much more flourishing place than it is at present. Indeed, the
Persians consider it as one of their most ancient cities, giving Balkh the
first place in antiquity, Sultanieh the second, and Maragha the third;
although in the history of Jenghiz Khan*, it is called a modern city,
built by the Caliph Merwan, the last of the Ommiades, who flourished
about the 127th year of the hejra.
I attempted to take a meridional observation, but the weather was
too clouded The tables of Ulug Beg make Maragha in 37° 20 lat.;
' - — - i . • ;
* Petit de la Croix's Transl. p. 328.