Chap.XII of Monfieur Tavernier, 229 



CHAP. XII. 



Of the third Eft ate of the Kingdom, comprehending the Tradefmen and 

 Merchants: as alfo of the Trades, Manufactures , and Commodities 



THe Commerce of Perfians in all other Kingdoms, confifts in the Trade of the 

 Country and Forraign Traffick. Only with difference , that the Country 

 Trade is in the hands of the Perfians and fervs, the forraign Traffic in the hands 

 of the Armenians only, who are as it were the Kings and the Noble mens Fa- 

 ctors to (ell their filk. 



As for the Handicraft trades, there are fome Corporations that pay a certain 

 yearly duty to the King, as Shoemakers, Cutlers, Smiths,and others. Some are 

 free, as the Joyners and Mafons : though he get by their labour as much as others 

 pay him in money.For when the King requires twenty Mafons for a work which is 

 in haft, the Marmar Bajhi who is their Chief, fummons them together, and they 

 that give molt are excus'd. For when the King requires but twenty, he fummons 

 forty : and thus every man lives by his calling. The practice is the lame with the 

 Chief of the Joyners, and all other Trades, who are Officers pay'd by the King, 

 and never work unlefsthey plealè themfelves, commanding all that are under their 

 urifdi&ion. As for Carpenters and Joyners work, the Perfians know little what 

 elongs to it, which proceeds from the Icarcity of Wood '' that does not allow 

 them materials to work upon. So that for Chairs, Tables and Bedfteads , there 

 are no luch things to be (ten in Perfia : the Joyners bufinels being only to make 

 Doors and Frames for Windows, which they make very neatly of lèverai pieces 

 of wood join'd together, fo that a man can hardly put a Tennis Ball through the 

 holes where they put the glafs. Nor can it be expected that the Perfians mould 

 work like other Europeans, having no other Tools then a Hatchet, a Saw, and a 

 Chizzel , and one fort of Plainer, which a Frenchman brought among them. 



Their nobler Arts are Writing, for Printers they know none. All their Books 

 are writt'n, which is the reafon they fo much efteem that Art. There was an 

 Armenian who had let up a Printing-Prefs at Ifpahan, and had Printed the Epiftles 

 Of St. Paul, the (even Penitential Pfalms, and was going about to Print the whole 

 Bible, but not having the way of making good Ink, and to avoid the ill confequen- 

 ces of the Invention, he was forc'd to break his Prels. For on the one fide the 

 Children refus'd to learn to write, pretending they wrote the Bible themfelves,on- 

 ly to get it the fooner by heart : on the other fide many per fons were undone by 

 it,that got their living by writing. 



The Per/tans ulè three Ibrts of hands, the firft is call'd Neftalick^or the Set-hard : 

 the fécond Shakefte or Divanni, which is their Court-hand : the third Neskre, or 

 the Running-hand, very like the Arabic. They write with fmall Indian Reeds ; 

 and fay, that to write well,a man ought to lean fo flightly upon his Pen,that Ihould 

 a fly ftand upon the other end it would fall out of his hand. When they write they 

 hold their Paper in one hand to turn it according to the motion of the Pen, other- 

 wife they could not make their dairies large and free, as the Character requires. 

 They make their Paper of Cotton Fuftian, very courle, brown, and of no ftrength, 

 for the leaft folding tears it. They lleek it with a lleek ftone, and then rub it over 

 to make it more lleek. Their Ink is made of Galls and Charcoal pounded together 

 with Soot. . 



The Perfians reck'n four Languages among 'em. The Perfian call'd B click., that 

 is,fweet and pleafing. The 7%r^,call'd Saafcet, or the Rodomontado Language, 

 The Arabian, x.0 which they give the Epithite of Fefchijh or Eloquent : and the 

 fourth, call'd Cobahet ,or the Speech of the Country people. The Perfian in u(e 

 among the Gentry is compo9'd almoft of all Arabic words ; by reafon that the 

 Perfian is very barren. But the G ibbrilh of the Country people is fo corrupt that 

 they in the City can hardly underftand 'em. The Arabian is the Language of the 

 Learned, in which tongue their Books are written. The Language of the Court 



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