'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎347] (398/714)

TEHERAN
347
decessor. Successive sovereigns, particularly those of the reigning
dynasty, have extended and beautified the cluster of buildings
raised above his grave, the ever-swelling popularity of which has
caused a considerable village to spring up around the hallowed
site. The mosque is situated in the plain, about six miles to the
south-south-east of the capital, just beyond the ruins of Ehey, and
at the extremity of the mountain-spur that encloses the Teheran
plain on the south-east. A narrow-gauge line of rails the only
railroad in working order in Persia—runs from a station near the
southern gate of the city to the shrine, which is also approached
by a tolerable cart-road. Of the railway I shall have occasion to
speak hereafter. At a short distance from the terminus for the
line goes no farther—we come to the portal of a covered and
crowded bazaar, leading down to the main gateway of the mosque.
But the warning of a chain stretched across the entrance teaches
us that this bazaar is hast, or sanctuary; and, where the Moham
medan criminal of the deepest dye can enter and abide with im
punity, the Christian visitor must pass aside. By skirting the
bazaar it is possible, however, to arrive at a side court of the
mosque, adjoining the main quadrangle with the minarets and the
golden dome, and into this no one seemed to object to our enter
ing. To any but a Mussulman visitor there is nothing to be seen
except the crowd.
Tai more interesting than the sanctuary or the worshippers of
the saint are the famous, but fast-disappearing, ruins to which it
Ruins of stands in such close proximity. I shall not here discuss
Rhey the question whether the remains still visible at Rhey are
those of the famous Rhages or not. That they are those of the
Arabian Rhey there can be very little doubt ; but whether the
latter occupied precisely the same site as the Parthian and the
Achaemenian Rhages is perhaps more open to question. Sir H.
Rawlinson is, I believe, inclined to identify the latter with certain
of the ruins in the neighbourhood of Veramin ; nor is it out of
keeping with the traditions of most Oriental cities of any great
size that they should at different epochs of their lifetime have occu
pied different sites. Leaving the vexed question, however, to the
savants, I shall here, in narrating the history of Rhages, or Rhey,
assume the identity of the two names.
First comes the mythical period, starting from a legendary
foundation by the patriarch Seth, and illumined by other great