'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎152] (187/714)

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PERSIA
The main feature of Meshed (next to the holy shrines) which
endears it to the Persian imagination and distinguishes it from other
Oriental capitals, is the possession of a straight street,
nearly one mile and three-quarters in length, which inter
sects the town from north-west to south-east, being interrupted only
in the centre by the imposing quadrilateral of the sacred buildings.
This street is called the Khiaban (i.e. Avenue or Boulevard), and
is regarded by the Oriental as the veritable Champs-Elysees of
urban splendour. Down the centre runs a canal, or, as we should
prefer to call it, a dirty ditch, between brick walls, about twelve
feet across, spanned by frail foot bridges and planks. The kerbing
and facing as well as the'bridges are said to have been originally of
stone. This canal appears to unite the uses of a drinking fountain,
a place of bodily ablution and washing of clothes, a depository for
dead animals, and a sewer. On either side of it is planted an
irregular row of chenars, mulberries, elms, and willows, in which
are many gaps, and the majority of which are very decrepit and
forlorn. 1 Then on either side again conies the footway, and then the
ramshackle shops of the bazaar, the total width being about eighty
feet. The Khiaban is tilled in the busy parts of the day with so
dense a crowd, that one can only proceed on horseback at a foot's
pace, even with outriders to clear the way in front. Everyone
seems to be shrieking and shouting at the same time. All classes
and nationalities and orders of life are mingled : the stately white-
turbaned mullah, the half-caste dervish; the portly merchant, the
tattered and travel-stained pilgrim ; the supercilious seyid in his
turban ot green, the cowering Sunni who has ventured into the
stronghold of the enemy; black-browed Afghans and handsome
Uzbegs, wealthy Arabs and wild Bedouins; Indian traders and
Caucasian devotees, Turk, Tartar, Mongol, and Tajik—an epitome
of the parti-coloured, polyglot, many-visaged populations of the
Last. Conolly, Ferrier, Vambery, and O'Donovan have left such
graphic descriptions of this living kaleidoscope in the Khiaban
that I will not strive to emulate their achievements. Perhaps the
most novel feature of the boulevard at the time of my visit was a
row of lamp-posts, at distances of fifty yards apart, which had just
been erected by the Governor.
1 One writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. says that Ihe Khiaban was originally planted with paims ; but
this I see no reason to believe. O'Donovan is strangely mistaken when he esti
mates the width of the street as 200 feet.