‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎176r] (356/722)

tumans of Irak, and the duties levied within the city upon all warehouse
and shop keepers (indeed upon every dealer, from the richest merchant to
the person who sold bread in the streets), for twenty-five thousand more.
The latter tax evidences a thriving trade in the city; and from the rent of
the customs an idea may be formed of the value of the imports.
Camels laden with gross commodities, such as sugar, spices, indigo, &c.,
are each taxed ten reals, or at the average rate of five per cent.; and mules
and yabus pay proportionately.
More valuable merchandise, such as shawls, cloths, &c., is taxed at the
lesser rate of one in forty, or two-and-a-half per cent. It may be calculated
that two-thirds of the import customs were levied at the rate of two-and-a-
half and one-third at the rate of five per cent., which supposes merchandise
to the value of five hundred thousand tumans to have been sold or exchanged
at Mashhad, or to have passed through that city on its way to other places.
At Mashhad are fabricated silk velvets, silk pieces and kerchiefs of colours,
satin, and checked cotton cloths. Fulad-i-Khurasan, or steel for the
watered sword blades which are in such repute, is prepared for sale here; but
very few swords are made. There are only five shops in the city, and their
work is not particularly good. A little shagreen is prepared; and horse and
ox hides are also cured. Further, the turquoises of Nishapur are sold in
great quantities at Mashhad ; and it is a market for the produce of Kurdis
tan lamb and sheep skins, coarse felts and carpets, and such provisions as
are supplied by Iliat tribes.
From Yazd are brought fine silk velvets, plain and coloured silks (in pieces
and made-up), mixed silk, cotton cloths of all sorts and sizes, felts of several
qualities, shoes, and loaf sugar (made from Indian brown sugar, which is got
from Shiraz). These articles also find their way from Ispahan and Kashan;
and from the latter places are brought gold and silver leaf, kinkob, cotton
socks, pen-and-ink cases, metal trays and lamps, cooking pots, and other
domestic utensils, chiefly made from copper tinned over.
From Shiraz come dates, tobacco, lemonjuice, lacquer-work, mats, and
ivory heel-tops ; from Karman, shawls o,f all sorts, opium, carraway seeds,
senna, and bruised indigo-leaf for beard dye; and chiefly from the south
come the exports of Hindustan, sugar and sugarcandy, spices, musk, amber,
cornelian and other stones, leather, kinkob, Indian and a lew Knghsh
chintzes, Indian fine cloths, and indigo. _ . . „
The indigo that is brought from India into this country is ox two
qualities—that manufactured by the English, which is called _ nil-i-
faringi/ and a very inferior sort, made chiefly in Sind, but which is most
used. The price of English indigo at Mashhad is eighty Irak reals for a
Tabriz man; but it sometimes sells for a hundred and a hundred-and-twenty,
and even for a hundred-and-fifty reals the man. There is not an extensive
demand for it, and it is only used to stain glass and the enamelled tiles,
which are used in Persian buildings for drawings, and perhaps to dye the
best silks. The second sort, or as it is called m India the kacha indigo,
finds its way into Khurasan from Sind via Kandahar and Herat, and a so
from the Panjab by the way of Kabul and Bukhara. Its cost at Mashhad
is twenty reals for a Tabriz man. i
Shawls, saffron, and paper are brought to Mashhad from hashm
From Herat are brought carpets of all prices, asafcetida lead (from mines
near Herat), cast iron, saffron from Kain, pistachio nuts, buzghunj
(mastish), slur-e-khisht (manna), birzand (a gum), ispira* (a yellow >e)
and carraway seeds.
39