386

PERSI A.

PER SI A.

Miles.

SITUATION AND EXTENT.

Sq. Miles,

Length 1300 between 440 & 70° E-long. } 800,000

Breadth 1100

Boundaries.M mountains of Ararat, or Daghistan,

FODERN Perfia is bounded by the

which divide it from Circaffian Tartary, on the Northweft; by the Cafpian Sea, which divides it from Ruffia, on the North; by the river Oxus, which divides it from Ufbec Tartary, on the Northeast; by India, on the Eaft; by the Indian Ocean, and the gulfs of Perfia and Ormus, on the South; and by Arabia and Turkey, on the Weft.

The chief city and refidence of the fovereign is Ifpahan, a fine fpacious city.

The north and eaft parts of Perfia are mountainous and cold; the provinces to the foutheast are fandy and defart; thofe on the fouth and weft are very fertile. The air in the fouth is extremely hot in fummer, and very unwholefome. There is fcarcely any country that has more mountains and fewer rivers. The produc tions of Perfia are fimilar to those of India,

The Perfians are a brave, polite, and ingenious people; honeft in their dealings, and civil to ftrangers, Their great foible feems to be oftentation in their equi pages.

The Perfians, in general, are ftrict followers of Ma, homet's doctrine, but differ confiderably from the Turks. There are many Chriftians in Perfia, and a fect who worship fire, the followers of Zoroafter.

Perfia is governed by an abfolute monarch, called Shah or King, and frequently Sophi. The crown is hereditary, but females are excluded.

The Perfian empire was founded by Cyrus, after his conqueft of Media, 536 years before Chrift. It con tinued till it was overthrown by Alexander the Great,

331

331 years before Chrift. A new empire, ftyled the Parthian, was formed by the Perfians, under Arbaces, 250 years before Christ; but in A. D. 229, Artaxerxes restored it to its ancient title; and in 651 the Saracens put an end to that empire. From this time, Perfia was a prey to the Tartars, and a province of Indoftan, till Thamas Kouli Khan once more raised it to a powerful kingdom. He was affaffinated in 1747.

{350 & 600 E 1014. } 700,000

& 30° N. lat.

Boundaries.] BOUNDED by Turkey on the north;

by the Gulfs of Perfia or Baffora and Ormus, which feparate it from Perfia, on the east; by the Indian Ocean fouth; and the Red Sea, which divides it from Africa, on the west.

Divifions.

1. Arabia Petræ, northwest.

2. Arabia Deferta, in the middle,

3. Arabia Felix, foutheast.

Chief Towns.

Suez, E, lon. 33° 27′ N. lat. 29°50'

Mecca, E. len 43° 30' N lat. 21°20'

Mocha, E. lon. 44° 4' N. lat. 13°45'

It is remarkable that this country has always preferved its ancient name. The word Arab, it is generally faid, fignifies a robber, or freebooter. The word Saracens, by which one tribe is called, is faid to fignify both a thief, and an inhabitant of the desert. names justly belong to the Arabians, for they feldom let ay merchandize pafs through the country without extorting fomething from the owners, if they do not rob them.

These

We are told, that fo late as the year 1750, a body of 50,000 Arabians stacked a caravan of merchants and

pilgrims

pilgrims returning from Mecca, killed about 60,000 per fons, and plundered it of every thing valuable, though escorted by a Turkish army.

As a confiderable part of this country lies under the torrid zone, the air is exceffively dry and hot, and the country is fubject to hot poifonous, winds, which often. prove fatal, efpecially to trangers. The foil, in fome parts, is nothing more than immenfe fands, which, when agitated by the winds, roll like the troubled ocean, and fometimes form mountains, by which whole caravans have been buried or loft. In thefe deferts, the caravans, having no tracks, are guided, as at fea, by a compaís, or by the ftars, for they travel clffefly in the night. Here, fays Dr. Shaw, are no paftures clothed with flocks, nor vallies standing thick with corn; here are no vineyards or oliveyards; but the whole is a lonefome defolate wilderness, no otherwife diversified than by plains covered with fand, and mountains that are made up of naked rocks and precipices. Neither is the country ever, unless fometimes at the equinoxes, refrefhed with rain; and the intenseness of the cold in the night is almost equal to that of the heat in the daytime. But the fouthern part of Arabia, deservedly called the Happy, is bleffed with an excellent foil, and, in general, is very fertile. There the cultivated lands, which are chiefly about the towns near the feacoast, produce balm of Gilead, manna, myrrh, caffia, aloes, frankincenfe, fpikenard, and other valuable gums; cinnamon, pepper, cardamum, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, figs, and other fruits; honey and wax in plenty, with a small quantity of corn and wine. This country is famous for its coffee and its dates.

The most ufeful animals in Arabia are camels and dromedaries; they are amazingly fitted by Providence for travelling the dry and parched deferts of this country; for they are fo formed, that they can throw up the liquor from their ftomach into their throat, by which means they can travel fix or eight days without water. The camels ufually carry 8oolb. weight upon their backs, which is not taken off during the whole journey, for they naturally kneel down to reft, and in due time,

rife

rife with their load. The dromedary is a fmaller ani- ! mal, nearly resembling a camel, that will travel many miles in a day. It is an obfervation among the Arabs, that wherever there are trees, the water is not far off; and when they draw near a pool, their camels will smell it at a distance, and fet up their great trot till they' come to it.

In the Temple of Mecca, or fufpended on its walls and gates, are seven Arabian poems, called the Moala-" kat, which have been lately tranflated into English by Sir William Jones: the following ftanzas of one of the poems are tranfcribed, as they serve to gratify the curiofity, and also display a lively and entertaining view of the Arabian cuftoms and modes of living.

1. "Defolate are the mansions of the fair, the ftations in Minia, where they refted, and thofe where they fixed their abodes! Wild are the hills of Goul, and deferted is the fummit of Rijaam.

2. The canabs of Rayann are deftroyed; the remains of them are laid bare, and fmoothed by the floods, like characters engraved on the folid rocks.

3. Dear ruins! Many a year has been closed, many a month holy and unhallowed, has elapfed fince I èxchanged tender vows with the fair inhabitants.

4. The rainy conftellations of fpring have made their hills green and luxuriant; the drops from the thunder-clouds have drenched them with profuse as well as gentle showers :

5. Showers from every nightly cloud, from every cloud veiling the horizon at day-break, and from every evening cloud, refponfive with hoarfe murmurs. 6. Here the wild eringo-plants raife their heads; here the antelopes bring forth their young by the fides of the valley; and here the oftriches drop their eggs. 7. The large-eyed wild cows lie fuckling their young a few days old; their young, who will foon become an herd on the plain.

8. The torrents have cleared the rubbish, and difclofed the traces of habitations, as the reeds of a writer reftore effaced letters in a book.

3

*

. Or as the black dust, sprinkled over the varied marks en a fair hand, brings to view, with a brighter tint, the blue ftains of woad. 10. I food asking news of the ruins concerning their lovely habitants; but what avail my questions to dreary rocks, who answer them only by their echo? 11. In the plains, which now are naked, a populous city once stood; but they decamped at early dawn, and nothing of them remains but the canals, which encircled their tents, and the Thumaam-plants, with which they were repaired.

12. How were thy tender affections raised, when the damfels of the tribe departed; when they hid themfelves in carriages of cotton, like antelopes in their lair; and the tents, as they were ftruck, gave a piercing found!

13. They were concealed in vehicles, whofe fides were well covered with awnings and carpets, with fine fpun curtains, and pictured veils.

14. A company of maidens were feated in them, with 1. black eyes and graceful motions, like the wild heifers of Tudah, or the roes of Wegera, tenderly gazing on their young.

15. They hatened their camels till the fultry vapour gradually ftole them from my fight; and they feemed to pals through a vale, wild with tamarisks, and rough with large ftones, like the valley of Beifha." What is called the Defert of Sinai, is a beautiful plain near nine miles long, and above three in breadth; it. lies open to the northeast, but to the fouthward is clofed by fome of the lower eminences of Mount Sinai; and other parts of that mountain make fuch encroachments upon the plain as to divide it into two, each so capacious as to be fufficient to receive the whole camp of the lfraelites.

From Mount Sinai may be seen Mount Horeb, where : Mofes kept the flocks of Jethro, his father-in-law, when die faw the burning buh. On thofe mountains, are many chapels and cells poffeffed by the Greek and Latin monks, who, like the religious at Jerufalem, pretend

to