'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎567] (634/714)

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THE NORTH-WEST AND WESTERN PROVINCES 567
heori^,. a re we ^ an ^ populous with trade, its local manufactures of
:h i . copper ware, of leather (largely used for trunks and saddlery), and
of red and white wine, are widely known and patronised; and its
astute artificers, besides working in silver and gold, are said to be
adepts at the manufacture of spurious coins. It contains a large
resident colony of 1,500 to 2,000 Jews, with whom Hamadan has
ever been a peculiarly sacred spot, owing to the alleged tombs of
Esther and Mordecai, which are shown in a building adjoining the
Musjid-i-Jama, in the heart of the town. A conspicuously modern
cupola rises above the chamber in which, in wooden sarcophagi
carved all over with Hebrew characters, are said to repose the
bodies of the queen and her uncle. From early times this shrine
has been a favourite resort of Hebrew pilgrims; nor is it regarded
with any other feeling by the Mohammedans, many of whose
saints are drawn from the Old Testament calendar. To them
these tombs would appeal far more than the grave of the once
famous philosopher and physician, Abu Ali-ibn-Sena of Bokhara,
a.d . 980-1036 (Europeanised, by those strange processes of which
Europeans alone are capable, into Avicenna), to which Layard
could not anywhere find a guide.
Of far greater interest is th e historical and archaeological prob
lem of the identity of Hamadan with the celebrated Ecbatana of
Ancient the ancient world. The identity of the names (Hamadan,
Ecbatana ^e old Persian Hagmatana of the inscriptions, which is
the Agbatana or Ecbatana, signifying treasure-house, of the Greek
writers) leaves no doubt that the modern city occupies the site of
one or an Ecbatana of ancient times. But there were no less than
seven such Ecbatanas, of which four were on Persian or Median
soil, suggesting that the name was a descriptive designation of a
capital or royal city. It is now generally admitted that Hamadan
is the Ecbatana of the Achasmenian kings, 1 from Darius son of
Hystaspes down to the Macedonian conquest, where their court was
held in summer, where their treasures were accumulated, where
Alexander collected such vast piles of plunder, where he halted and
sacrificed on his return from the East, and where Hephaestion died.
But was it also the Ecbatana of Herodotus, the capital of the
1 This is supposed to be the Achmetha where ' in the palace that is in the
province of the Medes,' the decree of Cyrus was found, ordering the rebuilding of
the Temple at Jerusalem, Ezra, vi. 2. According to Polybius, the columns and
beams of the palace were of cedar and cypress, and were entirely covered with
plates of silver and gold.