نسخة مذيلة من "بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي" بقلم جورج كرزون، مع أوراق مدرجة [ظ‎‎٤‎٩‎١] (١٨١٤/٩٩٣)

26
PERSIA
the Palace enclosure, and abutting on the western side upon the
Great Meidan, a parallelogram, whose length is from north to south
and width from east to west. South-east of the Meidan is the Ark
or Citadel. From the western flank of the palace enclosure runs
the Chehar Bagh, or principal avenue to the great bridge of Ali
Verdi Khan, conducting to Julfa. Further to the east, a similar
avenue leads down to the second storeyed bridge, known as Pul-i-
Khaju. Older bridges exist at some little distance both to the
east and west of these two structures, while between them a fifth
conducts to the palace of Haft Best.
The centre of Isfahan is the Meidan-i-Shah, or Boyal Square,
which is undoubtedly one of the most imposing piazzas in the
Meidan-i- world. It was laid out and surrounded with buildings
Shal1 by Shah Abbas ; the king’s palace, the principal mosque,
and the Great Bazaar opened on to it; and it was both the scene
of the principal royal pageants, and the nucleus of city life. This
Meidan is 560 yards in length by 174 in width. 1 It is sur
rounded by a long low range of brick buildings, divided into two
storevs of recessed arches, one above the other. Originally the
lower of these were shops, opening on to the Meidan, and com
municating at the back with the big Bazaar, while the upper
storey consisted of chambers with balconies, that were thronged
on festival occasions. They have since been used as barracks, and
now present a blank and deserted appearance. A row of trees was
planted all round in front of these arcades, and in front of the
trees was a stone-edged canal filled with water. In 1809 Morier
reported that there was not a single tree in the Meidan and that
the canal was empty. A scanty row of chenars and poplars has
1 Nowhere have I been so bewildered at the confusing and contradictory
accounts of previous travellers as in their descriptions of the sights of Isfahan..
They differ irreconcilably in their orientation of buildings, in their figures of dimen
sions, in the number of avenues, pillars, bridges, arches, &c. To correct or even
to notice these countless inaccuracies would be a futile task. But as an illustra
tion of them I may here give the dimensions in yards or paces of the Meidan-i-Shah
as recorded by the principal historians of Isfahan, from which it will be seen how
absurd is the divergence between two independent visions. Della Valle 690-230,
Olearius 700-250, Tavernier 700-250, Chardin 440-160, Sanson 600-300, D. Des-
landes 600-400, Kaempfei 660-212, Struys 700-250, Le Brun 710-210, Olivier
700-230, Johnson 500-200, Porter 860-230, Binning 800-200, Ussher 880-250,
Pollington 600-200, Stack 300-180, Wills 440-220, Rawlinson 660-230. Here there
is a maximum divergence of 580 yards in length, and 240 yards in width, or a
cumulative error of over 125 per cent.