Page:India in the Fifteenth Century, being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India.djvu/130

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
21
INDIA IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

the mausoleum of the Imaum Fakhr-eddin-Râzi and the dome-shaped monument of Mohammed-Sultan-Schah.

The fourth corresponds to the space which separates the bridge Andjil from the bridge of Kâred.

The fifth comprises a space equal to that which extends from the garden of Zagan to the bridge of Andjegan.

The sixth is equivalent to the space contained between the King's gate and the gate of Firouz-abad.

The seventh fortress, which is placed in the centre of the others, occupies an area ten times larger than the marketplace of the city of Herat. It is the palace which is used as the residence of the king. The distance from the gate of the first fortress, which lies on the north, to the first gate, which is situated in the south, is calculated to be two parasangs. It is the same distance from the east to the west. The space which separates the first fortress from the second, and up to the third fortress, is filled with cultivated fields, and with houses and gardens. In the space from the third to the seventh one meets a numberless crowd of people, many shops, and a bazaar. At the gate of the king's palace are four bazaars, placed opposite each other. On the north is the portico of the palace of the raï. Above each bazaar is a lofty arcade with a magnificent gallery, but the audience hall of the king's palace is elevated above all the rest. The bazaars are extremely long and broad. The rose merchants place before their shops high estrades, on each side of which they expose their flowers for sale. In this place one sees a constant succession of sweet smelling and fresh looking roses. These people could not live without roses, and they look upon them as quite as necessary as food.

Each class of men belonging to each profession has shops contiguous the one to the other ; the jewellers sell publicly in the bazaar pearls, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds. In this agreeable locality, as well as in the king's palace, one sees numerous running streams and canals formed of chiselled