'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎254] (363/496)

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mountains, 76°; Minaret of Shehraban, 78^°; Dastagerd,^ or Eski Bagh
dad, distant four miles, 115° ; Zindan, or Palace of Bebdarakh, five miles
distant, 135° ; Tomb of Benat-el-Husseyn, one and a quarter mile distant,
237J°; Sun’s centre at rising, for variation of tlie compass, 79° 2CK.
Re-mounting at 5*28 A. M., we crossed the Mahrut canal by a brick
bridge of one arch; and then altering our route to 81°, reached the vil
lage of Shehraban at G’dS. Took up our quarters in the best house the
place afforded, but a miserable hovel. The day, too, was excessively
hot, and the myriads of flies that swarmed around prevented us enjoy
ing the rest we so much needed. We however obtained the usual ob
servations. The Shehraban canal bisects the village, and is lost a little
to the south of it. It formerly watered Eski Baghdad, and, I believe,
supplied the Zindanf also, but we are informed here that a cut from the
Mahrut passed the latter. Shehraban^; is supposed to occupy the site of
the ancient Apollonya. Many mounds covered with broken pottery, and
the remains of numerous canals crossing each other in fantastic lines,
mark it as the former abode of a numerous and industrious population.
The now barren and densely heated plain, highly cultivated as it no
* The identification of Dastagerd in the present ruins termed Eski Baghdad, is
fully ascertained from numerous Oriental authors. See Major Rawlinson’s Me
moir in Vol X. of Royal Geographical Journal. It was a royal seat in the time of
the ill-fated Khusru Parviz, and was celebrated for its wealth and magnificence.
On the success of Heraclius, it was desolated by the Roman troops. Three hundred
standards taken from the towns and armies of the Western Empire, and a nume
rous multitude of Christian captives, which had graced the triumphs of Khusru’s
arms in Syria, were restored to liberty. Khusru himself, contrary to expectation,
escaped through a hole in the wall of his palace, and sought safety in an ignomi
nious flight, nine days prior to the arrival of the Roman army from Theophanes,
See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, Chap. XLYL, page 517.
t Position which the Roman army under the Emperor Heraclius occupied aftei
the defeat and flight of Khusru Parviz from Dastagerd. See note in Gour s
Theophanes, quoted in Major Rawlinson’s Memoir on the Atropatenian Ecbatana,
page 95.
J The name Ta/xepa employed in the MSS of Theophanes, and which in 8 10
Memoir above alluded to is recognized by Major Rawlinson as equivalent to 10
Oriental Tamerreh or Tamerret, I conceive is nothing more than a Greek conti^
tion of the name of the district, and not applicable to any particular town. Ta^p a
in all probability is a compound of the Arabic •* TaTrr date, and • b ^ lTa ’
“land^or “province, 5 ’and may well have been applied to this locality, from the
that in coming from either Europe or the N. E. part of Persia, the date-g 1 ’ 0 ^^
here first met with in a flourishing condition. The name, indeed, may have
written thus in the Greek MS. of Theophanes, in the same way as we have
for Nah rwan. Shehraban, in its miserable village, and stunted date-groves,
sadly on the present condition of this once fruitful province. By doub e a 1 , r
of the O its position was ascertained to be in latitude 34° 00' 9" Noit i, a
meridian altitude 33° SS' 45 r/ N. Its chronometrical difference from
31' 18" East.