MODERN PERSIA AND ITS CAPITAL 



379 



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Photograph by E. K. De Witt 



A SHIA MOHAMMEDAN SHRINE 



The mural decorations, done in vivid color, represent scenes in Hosein's ill-fated attempt to 

 gain the caliphate (see also illustration on page 376). 



lator has rose-flavored ice cream to sell, 

 and the gentleman industriously fanning 

 the little charcoal brazier is dispensing 

 another delicacy, hot-boiled potatoes, or 

 possibly succulent slices of huge sugar 

 beet. 



All of this, with a wandering magician 

 performing his amazing feats at one cor- 

 ner, and at the next, perhaps, a profes- 

 sional story-teller in the center of an 

 entranced crowd, conveys the impression 

 rather that a traveling carnival has come 

 to town than that this is the customary 

 life along the most prominent avenue of 

 an important capital. 



The bazaars possess a never- failing in- 

 terest for the Westerner. Here a large 

 part of the city's trade is carried on in 

 what might be described as one immense, 

 primitive department store. Under low, 

 vaulted brick and mud roofs covering 

 many acres of territory, the leading Per- 

 sian merchants and craftsmen not only 

 sell their wares, but manufacture many 

 products as well. 



More than twenty-five miles of narrow. 

 arched passageways wind and twist past 



literally thousands of small shops, which 

 are merely alcoves, from six to twenty 

 feet square, set in the flanking walls. 

 Here and there archways in the wall 

 open to caravanserais, which are large 

 courtyards surrounded by arcades and 

 ware-rooms, where caravans can be 

 loaded and unloaded and the goods 

 safely stored. 



Round holes, which appear at regular 

 intervals in the tops of the continuous 

 series of domes forming the roof of the 

 passages, let in dusty bars of dim light 

 on the busy interior. 



On a busy afternoon this labyrinth of 

 half -lighted tunnels is crammed with a 

 hurrying, shoving, noisy mob in which 

 donkeys, camels, horsemen, and pedes- 

 trians mingle in a confused mass ; and 

 when a reckless carriage driver tries to 

 force his way along, with shouts of 

 "Khabar dar. khabar dar!" (Take notice, 

 take notice!), there is a mad scramble 

 of the crowd to flatten itself against the 

 walls. 



The dealers in different types of com- 

 modities have grouped themselves roughly 



