CHAPTER VI

TABRIZ, THE RESIDENCE OF THE CROWN PRINCE

'In his retreat to Tauris or Casbeen.'

- MILTON, Paradise Lost, 10. 435.

TABRIZ, the residence of the heir apparent to the Persian throne, and the commercial centre of Azarbaijan, is a city whose age and birthplace are not known, but it may count a thousand years as but a fraction of its life. The Persian tradition which ascribes its founding to Zobeidah, the wife of Harun al-Rashid (better known as the Caliph Haroun Alraschid of the Arabian Nights, A.D. 800), sets its date too late, as in the case of Kashan and other cities which are said to have been built by this heroine. It is true that a fountain at Tabriz is called after her name, but the city can be shown to have existed under the Sasanians, four centuries before her time.1

Tabriz has been identified with the ancient Gaza, Ganzaca, by some scholars, but this identification is not accurate,2 nor are we positive that it was formerly called Shahistan,' King's-town,' by the Persians and had its name changed to Tabriz ('this revenge,' ta-vrezh) by the Armenian king Khosru I, who sacked the city, A.D. 346, in revenge for the death of his brother, and then called the place 'this revenge,' a name which the city has

1 The tradition of Zobeidah as founder is given by Mustaufi, Nauzhat al-Kulub (A.D. 1340), and he gives the Mohammedan year of the founding as A.H. 175 A.D. 790; see Barbier de Meynard, Dict. géog. de la Perse, p. 132, n. 2. For a sketch of the history of Tabriz I would refer

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to Rev. S. G. Wilson, Persian Life and Customs, pp. 323-325, New York, 1895. To Mr. Wilson, who was my host during a stay of five days in Tabriz, I am indebted for much information regarding the city.

2 For the more likely association of Gaza with Shiz, see p. 131, below.

borne ever since as a memorial of the event. The Persians again recovered possession of Tabriz from its Armenian conquerors, but owing to its exposed position on the frontier the town has frequently been subjected to foreign invasion and occupation, by Arab, Seljuk, and Mongol, one of the fiercest of the stormings being that by Timur Lang (Tamerlane), who sacked it with his Tartar hosts in the latter part of the fourteenth century. Terrific earthquakes also have shattered it again and again, A.D. 858, 1041, 1721, and 1780, killing thousands of people and destroying its main buildings. Nevertheless the city has maintained its position as a great Persian metropolis, inherited from its rank as a capital under the Mongols, and has enjoyed prosperity as a centre of trade and commerce, so that Tabriz remains to-day what the Arab traveller Yakut called it when he visited it in 1203 (A.H. 610), the principal city of Azarbaijan, flourishing and well populated.' The number of its inhabitants is not less than one hundred and seventy thousand.

A view of the city is disappointing if we expect to find lofty buildings and that variety of color which we associate with the Orient. Instead of this, there is a monotonous expanse of flatroofed, single-storied houses, broken only by the domed arches of the bazaars and the high wall of the ancient citadel. Clay and mud plaster, for the most part, are used in the construction of buildings, and these give a dull appearance to the unimposing architecture. The houses, with windowless outer walls, turn their backs on the street and show their faces only to the exclusive brick courtyard in the interior. The entrance is made through an unpainted wooden door, studded with heavy nails, like the portal of a Norman keep, and having a small grating above to admit light and air. In the courtyard we may find a small garden, and, if so, a tank for preserving that precious commodity, water; but the general appearance of the interior, like its unattractive entrance, is not such as to lead one to 2 Yakut, p. 132.

1 Wilson, Persian Life, p. 323.

THE CITY AND ITS GOVERNMENT

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suppose how handsomely the house may be decorated on the inside with rugs, old tapestry, pieces of Persian armor, and faïence.

As we walk about the town we have to find our way through a labyrinth of streets, narrow passages, and side alleys, some of the latter being less than six feet wide, and ultimately we reach the outskirts of the city. Walls surround Tabriz, as they have from the earliest times, and their circuit has gradually increased with the compass of the town. Gardens border these walls, with vineyards and orchards lying beyond, and Tabriz has been famous for its fruits and vegetables for over a thousand years. But there was little to suggest this abundance. The suburbs, when I saw them, were buried in snow, and so also were low hills adjacent to the plain on the north and northeast, which looked dwarfed in comparison with the heights of Mount Sahand that rise to an altitude of nearly twelve thousand feet on the south and are clad in ermine most of the year round.

As a municipality, Tabriz has more pretence to government than any other Persian city except Teheran, although there could be no comparison, of course, with a well regulated European city in the matter of efficiency. Twenty-four different wards are recognized, each managed by a magistrate (kadkhudā), who is responsible to the burgomaster (baglar-bagi), and he in turn to the governor of the province (ḥākim), and thus ultimately answerable to the Shah.2 The streets are generally unpaved, except in a few places where cobble-stones are laid, and when I was at Tabriz in March, little attempt was made to remove the snow and slush, and I understand that the dust and dirt in summer are equally intolerable. As the streets are not regularly lighted, persons who go out after dark carry huge cylindrical lanterns, resembling our Chinese

1 See the praise of its apricots by the Arab geographers Yakut (A.D. 1200) and Mustaufi (A.D. 1340) given in Bar

bier de Meynard, Dict. géog. de la Perse, p. 132.

2 Cf. Wilson, Persian Life, p. 66.