P. 109) says the inhabitants of Yezd wove the
finest silk of Taberistan. - H. C.] The silk manufactures still continue,
and, with other weaving, employ a large part of the population. The
Yazdi, which Polo mentions, finds a place in the Persian dictionaries,
and is spoken of by D'Herbelot as Kumash-i-Yezdi, "Yezd stuff." ["He
[Nadir Shah] bestowed upon the ambassador [Hakeem Ataleek, the prime
minister of Abulfiez Khan, King of Bokhara] a donation of a thousand
mohurs of Hindostan, twenty-five pieces of Yezdy brocade, a rich dress,
and a horse with silver harness...." (Memoirs of Khojah Abdulkurreem, a
Cashmerian of distinction ... transl. from the original Persian, by
Francis Gladwin ... Calcutta, 1788, 8vo, p. 36.) - H. C.]
Yezd is still a place of important trade, and carries on a thriving
commerce with India by Bandar Abbasi. A visitor in the end of 1865 says:
"The external trade appears to be very considerable, and the merchants of
Yezd are reputed to be amongst the most enterprising and respectable of
their class in Persia. Some of their agents have lately gone, not only to
Bombay, but to the Mauritius, Java, and China."
(Ilch. I. 67-68; Khanikoff, Mem. p. 202; Report by Major R. M.
Smith, R.E.)
Friar Odoric, who visited Yezd, calls it the third best city of the
Persian Emperor, and says (Cathay, I. p. 52): "There is very great store
of victuals and all other good things that you can mention; but especially
is found there great plenty of figs; and raisins also, green as grass and
very small, are found there in richer profusion than in any other part of
the world." [He also gives from the smaller version of Ramusio's an awful
description of the Sea of Sand, one day distant from Yezd. (Cf. Tavernier,
1679, I. p. 116.) - H. C.]
NOTE 2. - I believe Della Valle correctly generalises when he says of
Persian travelling that "you always travel in a plain, but you always have
mountains on either hand" (I. 462). [Compare Macgregor, I. 254: "I really
cannot describe the road. Every road in Persia as yet seems to me to be
exactly alike, so ... my readers will take it for granted that the road
went over a waste, with barren rugged hills in the distance, or near; no
water, no houses, no people passed." - H. C.] The distance from Yezd to
Kerman is, according to Khanikoff's survey, 314 kilometres, or about 195
miles. Ramusio makes the time eight days, which is probably the better
reading, giving a little over 24 miles a day. Westergaard in 1844, and
Khanikoff in 1859, took ten days; Colonel Goldsmid and Major Smith in
1865 twelve. ["The distance from Yezd to Kerman by the present high
road, 229 miles, is by caravans, generally made in nine stages; persons
travelling with all comforts do it in twelve stages; travellers whose time
is of some value do it easily in seven days." (Houtum-Schindler, l.c.
pp.
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