Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎488v] (987/1814)

20
PERSIA
20 PERSIA
outside Isfahan, and we read in the pages of Olearius of the king
stationing himself on the summit and anticipating the Hurlingham
or the Monte Carlo of the nineteenth century by shooting the birds
(which represent two varieties of the genuine ‘ blue-rock, and aie
called by the Persians hcibutcLT^ or b the blue one ) as they bolted
from the apertures.
Above the low buildings of the city, as we draw nearer, emerge
a blue dome and a single minaret. Presently the road passes
Approach between garden walls, and, through the familiar labyrinth
to the city 0 f intricate lanes, we enter the former capital of Persia.
Traversing the town, but avoiding its principal marts and thorough
fares, I came out on the far side into the Avenue of the Chehar
Bagh, crossed the Zendeh End by the great bridge of Ali Verdi
Khan, and having spent another half-hour in diving in and out of
the still more intricate alleys of Julfa, arrived at the house of my
host. Here I shall pause to give a detailed account of the past
and present of the renowned capital of Shah Abbas. 1
Isfahan or Ispahan (the former is the commoner pronunciation,
the p being softened into/, as in the case of Pars for Pars [Persis]),
is probably the same name as the Aspadana of Ptolemy, 2
Hlstory an( I m ay possibly be derived from the family name of the
race of Feraidan, who were called Aspiyan in the Pehlevi dialect,
elsewhere Athriyan. Whatever part, however, may have been
played by myth in determining the nomenclature of the place, we
need not admit the same element into a discussion of its actual
history, which we will therefore not pursue into the nebulous period
of Jamshid and his successors. Under the Achaemenian kings, a
1 For descriptions of Isfahan at various periods, I recommend the following, in
addition to the works already cited in a footnote upon the route from Teheran :
P. della Valle (1618), Yiaggi ; Sir T. Herbert (1627), Some Yearcs' Travels,
pp. 154-69; Olearius (1637), Narrative of Embassy, p. 291 et seq.\ J. B. Tavernier
(1640-70), Travels, bk. iv. cap. v. ; Sir J. Chardin (1665-77), Coronation of Soly-
man and Voyages (edit. Bangles), vols. vii. and viii. p. 141 ; A. Daulier-Deslandes
(1665), Les Beautez de la Perse, pp. 19-53; J. Thevenot (1665-7), Travels, caps,
iv. et seq. ; J. Struys (1672), Voyages, caps, xxxi.-xxxii. ; J. Fryer (1676), Travels ;
P. Sanson (1683), Memoire‘, E. Kaempfer (1684-8), Amccnit. Exot., lib. i. ii. ;
C. Be Brun (1703), Travels, caps, xxxviii.-xlviii. ; Krusinski (1700-22), History of
Revolution,^. et seq.', J. Bell (1717), Travels', A. Dupre (1808), Voyage, caps,
xliv.-v. ; Ch. Texier (1840), EArmenie, la Perse, &c., vols. i. and ii. ; E. Flandin
(1840-1), Voyage en Perse, vo\. i. caps, xviii.-xxii., vol. ii. caps, xxx.-ii. ; Sir
H. Rawlinson, Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th edit.) ; E. Stack (1881), Six Months
in Persia, vol. ii. cap. ii.
2 Bib. vi. cap. 4.
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