The naphtha spring of KhnikIn
is at the modern Naft Khanah
The provinces of the Byzantine empire were known
collectively
to the Moslems as Bilad-ar-Rum, 'the Lands of the Greeks';
the term 'Rum' standing for the Romaioi or Romans,
being in
early Moslem times the equivalent for ' Christian,'
whether Greek
or Latin. The Mediterranean too, was generally
known as the
Bahr-ar-Rum, 'the Roman Sea.' Then Bilad-ar-Rum,
abbreviated
to Rum, in course of time came more
especially to be the name of
the Christian provinces nearest to the Moslem frontier,
and hence
became the usual Arab name for Asia Minor,
which great province
at the close of the 5th (nth) century finally
passed under the rule
of Islam when it was overrun by the Saljuks.
The Moslems, by the injunction of their Prophet, were bound
each, once in a lifetime, to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Under the Abbasids, when the Moslem empire reached its fullest
extent, the pilgrimage was facilitated by the elaborate system of
high roads, all made to radiate from Baghdad, where the Tigris
was crossed by those coming from the further east and bound
for the Hijaz. Of this road system (which the Arabs had in-
herited from the earlier Persian kingdom) we possess detailed
contemporary descriptions ; and the chief lines, running through
the provinces named in the foregoing paragraphs, may here be
summarily described.
The most famous of the trunk roads was the great Khurasan
road, which, going east, united the capital with the frontier towns
of the Jaxartes on the borders of China. This, too, is perhaps that
which of all the roads is best described. Leaving East Baghdad by
the Khurasan gate, it went across the plain, passing over numerous
streams by well-built bridges, to Hulwan at the foot of the pass
leading up to the highlands of Persia. Here it entered the Jibal
province and after a steep ascent reached Kirmanshah, the capital
of Kurdistan.
Crossing the Jibal province diagonally, northeast,
the road passed through Ramadan to Ray.
From Ray
onwards it went almost due east through Kumis, FERMENTED
MILK CITY... having the
Tabaristan mountains on the left, and the^ Great Desert on the
south, till it entered the province of Khurasan near the town of
Bistam. Continuing onwards it came to Nishapur, then to Tus,
and on to Marv, beyond which it crossed the desert to the
Oxus bank at Amul, thence reaching successively Bukhara and
Samarkand in the province of Sughd. At Zamin a short
distance east of Samarkand, the road bifurcated: on the left
hand one road proceeded to Shash (Tashkand) and ultimately to
the ford at Utrar on the lower course of the Jaxartes ; the other
road, leaving Zamin, turned off to the right, towards Farghanah
and the Upper Jaxartes, coming to Akhsikath the capital, and
finally to Uzkand on the borders of the Chinese desert.
Rtid, both of which streams flowed
into the Caspian. The most
notable natural feature of this province
was the great salt lake,
now known as the lake of Urmiyah,
near which stood Tabriz
and Marighah, the provincial capitals,
while Ardabil, another
great town, lay to the eastward nearer the shore of the Caspian.
The chapter following describes a number of smaller provinces of
the nprth-western border. First GilAn, or Jilan,
on the Caspian,
where the Safid, breaking through the Alburz range, the
mountain barrier of the Persian highlands, flows through an
alluvial plain of its own making, pushing out a small delta into
the Caspian. Next, the province of Mughin at the mouth of the
combined Araxes and Cyrus rivers; then Arran lying to the
westward between the courses of these two rivers ; with Shirvin
to the north of the Cyrus, and Gurjistin (Georgia) at its head
waters. Lastly we have Moslem Armenia lying at the head
waters of the Araxes, which is the mountainous province sur-
rounding the lake of Van.
South-east of Adharbayjan spreads the rich province of Media,
which the Arabs very appropriately called Al-Jibal, 'the moun-
tains/ for its mountains overhang the lowlands of Lower
Mesopotamia, and, range behind range, stretch across eastward to
the border of the Great Desert of Central Persia. The western
part of the Jibal province, in later times, when the Kurds
attained fame and power, came to be known as Kurdistin ; and
in the later middle-ages, but by a misnomer, as will be explained
in due course, the province of Al-Jibal was often called 'IraK
'Ajami, or Persian, in contrast to Arabian 'Irik, which was
Lower Mesopotamia. The Jibal province included many great
cities; in the west Kirmanshah and HamadAn
(the latter the ancient Ecbatana) ;
in the north-east Ray (Rhages), and to the
south-east Ispahan.
At a later period the Mongols of Persia
founded SultArityah in its northern plains,
which for a time taking
the place of Baghdad, became the capital
of this portion of their empire,
which included both Mesopotamia and Persia
In the mountains of the Jibdl province
many rivers take their rise, among the rest
the KirQn, which the
Arabs called Dujayl or Little Tigris,
and which after a long and
tortuous course flows out at the head of the
Persian Gulf, a little
to the east of the combined mouth of the Euphrates
and
Tigris.
The province of Khftzistin, lying south of Media and east of
Lower Mesopotamia, occupies the lower course of the Kirtin
river, or Dujayl, with its numerous affluents. This country was
extremely rich; Tustar and Ahwiz were its chief towns; and its
lands being plentifully irrigated were most productive. East of
KMzistin, and bordering the Gulf, lay the great province of Firs,
the ancient Persis and the cradle of the Persian monarchy. Under
the Abbasids it still kept the division into the five Ktirahs, or
districts, which had been organized under the Sassanians, and
Firs was closely studded with towns, great and small, the most
important of which were Shiriz the capital, Istakhr (Persepolis),
Yazd, Arrajin, and Dirabjird. The islands of the Gulf were
counted as of Firs, and Kays island was in important commercial
centre before the rise of Hurmuz. The chief physical feature of
Firs was the great salt lake of Bakhtigan, which with other smaller
sheets of water stood in the broad highland valleys, whose
mountains were offsets of the ranges in the Jibal province,
already referred to. In Firs, the Darabjird district under the
Mongols came to be counted as a separate province, and was
in the ?th (isth) century called Shabinkirah ; the Yazd district
also, in the later middle-ages, was given to the Jibal province.
To the east of Firs lay the province of Kirmin, far less fertile,
almost lacking in rivers, and bordering on the Great Desert. Of
this province there were two capitals in Abbasid times, Sirjan and
Kirman city ; and the two other most important towns of the
province were Hurmuz, on -the coast ; and Jiruft, inland, a centre
of much commerce. The Great Desert of Central Persia is the
most remarkable physical feature of the high tableland of trin.
This immense salt waste stretches south-east diagonally across
Persia, from Ray, at the base of the mountains which on their
northern side overlook the Caspian, spreading in a broad band
or rather, in a dumb-bell-shaped depression the lower end of
which merges into the hills of Makrin, the province bordering on
the Indian Ocean. In the Great Desert there are few oases;
a salt efflorescence covers much of the barren levels, but the
desert in winter time is not difficult to pass, and many well
marked tracks connect the towns on either side. But on the
other hand the Great Desert is a real barrier to any continuous
intercourse between the provinces of Firs and Kirm&n, which lie
on its south-western side, and the eastern provinces which are
beyond its other limit, namely Khurasan with Sfstan to the south-
east, and this desert barrier has played an important part all
through the history of Persia. After describing what the Moslem
geographers have to say of the Great Desert, the same chapter
deals with the Maknin province, which on the east touched India,
running up to the highlands overlooking the Indus valley, part of
which -is now known as BalQchistin. On these regions, however,
our authorities are not very fully informed.
North of Makran, and across the narrow part of the desert
opposite Kirmin, lay the province of Sijistan or Stst&n, to the
east of the extensive, but very shallow lake of Zarah. Into this
lake drained the waters of the Helmund, and numerous other
rivers flowing south-west from the high mountains of Afghanistan
lying above Klbul and Ghaznah. Here Kandahar stood in a
plain between two of the affluents of the Helmund, and where
this great river flowed into the Zarah lake lay Zaranj, the capital
of Sijistan. North-west of the Zarah lake, and on the border of
the Great Desert, was the very hilly province aptly called Ktihisdin
(Land of Mountains), the chief towns of which were Tftn and
Klyin, well known as the Tunocain of Marco Polo ; Sijistan and
Kflhistin thus forming the southern border of Khuris^n, the great
eastern province of Persia.
Before describing this last, however, the three small provinces
of Ktimis, Tabaristin and Jurjin, which form the subject of the
succeeding chapter, require notice. Kfimis, of which the capital
was Damghln, lay in length along the north border of the Great
Desert eastward of Ray, comprising the southern foot-hills of the
mountain chain of Alburz which shuts off the high plateau of
Persia from the Caspian Sea. These mountains, and more
particularly their northern flank descending to the Caspian,
formed the province of Tabarist&n, otherwise called Mzandarin,
which extended from Gtlin and the delta of the White River
(Saftd-Rftd), on the west, to the south-eastern corner of the
Caspian. Here Tabaristin joined GurgAn, the ancient
HIRCANIA
