"رحلات في آشور، ميديا، وبلاد فارس، بما في ذلك رحلة من بغداد مروراً بجبل زاغروس وصولاً إلى حمدان، في أكباتانا القديمة، والبحوث في أصفهان وأطلال برسبوليس، ورحلة منها مروراً بشيراز وشابور وصولاً إلى ساحل البحر. وصف البصرة، بوشهر، البحرين، هرمز، ومسقط، وسرد لحملة ضد قراصنة الخليج العربي، مع رسومات توضيحية لرحلة بحرية لنيرتشوس، والمرور ببحر العرب إلى بومباي. [‎٢‎٧‎٧] (٥٨٢/٣٠٨)

VISIT TO THE RUINS' OF PERSEPOLIS.
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have included all the ruins in the plain of Moorgaub, as well as
Istakhr, Merdusht, and the bridge of the Bund Ameer within it. #
Istakhr, or Istakel, was represented to us as a large castle on
the mountain, exceedingly difficult of access, built of large stones,
having one gate of entrance, but neither columns nor sculpture,
and now entirely in ruins.f
Quintus Curtius, after describing the debauch of Alexander,
and his destruction of the temple at Persepolis, says that this
city, whose forces were sufficient to make Greece tremble, was
reduced to a state so deplorable that it was soon abandoned, and
but for the Araxes leading to a discovery of its position, the place
where it stood would hardly then have been known. J The same
* The river which goes through the Plain of Merdusht is called the Kur by Khondemir
and some other authors ; and the name of Bund Ameer, now applied even by the people of the
country to the river itself, was originally given to a dyke over it made by Azad-u-Dowlah, the
ruler of Fars and Irak, and Vizier to the Caliph of Bagdad. A. H. 367. A. D. 977.— Hist,
of Persia, vol. i. p. 309.
f The hill fort of Istakhr was used as a place of confinement to so late a period as A H.
898. A. D. 1492, when Sultan Ali and his brothers, in the disputes to succession among the
early SafFavean devotees, were imprisoned there upwards of four years.— Hist, of Persia, v. i.
p. 499.
J On approaching this city, Alexander is said to have assembled his chiefs, and to have
observed to them, that there had never been any city more hostile to the Greeks than Perse
polis, the ancient residence of the kings of Persia, and the capital of their empire; that it
was from thence came those immense armies which had overrun Greece, and from thence that
Darius and Xerxes had brought them to desolate Europe with their wars; and that therefore
it was necessary to revenge all those evils upon this city as the source of them. The Per
sians having already abandoned it, the army of Alexander entered it without opposition, and
found there immense treasures surpassing all their former spoils. It was at a feast succeeding
the pillage of the city that Thais, a courtezan of Greece, in the midst of the entertainment,
exclaimed to the King, ' There never can be an occasion more favourable than the present to
acquire and deserve the gratitude of the Greeks, by giving to the flames the Royal Palace of
the Persian kings. The nations whose cities the barbarians have abolished will expect from
Alexander such an act of justice !' This, says the historian, was the advice of a courtezan,
and of one who was intoxicated ; nevertheless, it was no sooner given than the King arose,
and was followed by his guests, who, still heated with wine, exclaimed, ' Revenge for Greece !
—Destruction to Persepolis !' The King was the first to throw his torch, his officers followed,
and the concubines. The palace was built chiefly of cedar, and the destruction was so