"دليل بلاد فارس، الجزء III، وهو يتضمن محافظة فارس، لورستان، عربستان، خوزستان، يزد، كرمانشاه، أردلان، كردستان" [ظ‎‎٣‎١‎٤] (٦٨٦/٦٣٣)

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SHU—SHU
sian rule; their efforts have been abortive, and their desire to better them
selves, their countrymen, and posterity has been met with the habitual
discountenance of their rulers, whose aim has ever been to prevent
Shustar from rising to that importance which its situation and natural
advantages justly entitle it to hold.
Close to the hills, watered on all sides by the river and canals,
numerous gardens close around; Shustar presents a most pleasing ap
pearance, and would in a short time, with proper encouragement, again
be held in that estimation it was formerly, and become one of the first
commercial towns in Persia.
Between the first range of hills under which the town is built, and
the second from whence the river first emerges, is the plain of A kill,
watered by the river and numerous canals, and presenting, as far as the
eye can reach, one vast corn-field, studded with numerous villages and
date and orange gardens. In it are also the remains of a very large
canal cut from the river near the second range of hills, and which even
now is upwards of 80 yards broad. This was carried through the plain
to the eastward of the river, irrigating the whole country. Modern
canals of great extent and in good repair with which the whole plain is
intersected serve at present to irrigate the country, to assist nature in
rendering this one of the most fertile spots in the whole province.
Selby has the following remarks on the position of Shustar : “ From
the Shustaris" leaning to the English, their hatred of the Persians,
who have by their tyranny, oppression, and exactions, well earned it,
the proximity of Shustar to India, which, thanks to steam, can now
be made, at any season a passage of, at most, 18 days, the greatest
facility for steam navigation offered by vast quantities of wood all
along the banks, all combine to point out Shustar as the spot from
which we might pour an unlimited force into the heart of the country.
In aturally strong, being completely insulated, capable of being rendered
almost impregnable, Shustar might, in our hands, become a thorn in
Persia s side, which she could never eradicate. From Shustar to the
interior of Persia there are five roads practicable for heavily laden
animals and even for guns—
1 . By Dizful to Khuratnabad to Karmanshah and Hamadan.
2. Direct to Isfahan through the Bakhtiari country by Gotwand and Bazuft.
3. By Kala-i-Tul, and Fallal, to Kumishah.
4. By Bihbahan, Dih Dasht to Falat and Kumishah.
5. By Bihbahan to Shiraz through the Mamaseni country.
Rivadaneyra’s Notes, 1875.
Shustai has 7,000 inhabitants,—Jths of town in ruins. When there
is much water, small steamers pass up the river as far as Shustar ; small
steamers can pass to Ahwaz.
Caiavans go to Bihbahan in eight days, but the route is rather difficult.
1 le contribution of Shustar to the revenues is 21,000 tumans.
Honey abounds in the hills to the eastward. Naphtha is found, and the
peison who has the monopoly of this pays 400 tumans yearly to the
overnment. Opium is largely grown, and its cultivation is yearly
incieasing, superseding cereals. The price is 12 tumans per man of