ISPAHAN. 
164 
of the square are occupied, one, by a lofty and beautiful portico, and 
the remaining two by rooms for the students, twelve in each front, ar¬ 
ranged in two stories. These apartments are little square cells, spread 
with carpets, and appeared to me admirably calculated for study. In¬ 
deed, the quiet and retirement of this college, the beauty and serenity 
of the climate, and the shrubbery and water in the courts, would have 
combined to constitute it in my eyes a sanctuary for learning, and a 
nursery for the learned, if it had been in any other country. We had 
some conversation with the Director of the college Medresse Jedeh , 
Mirza Mahomed Cossim. He is an old man, and possesses a very 
high literary reputation in Persia, and appeared indeed to know much 
more than the greater part of those whom we had seen, and to be a 
perfect master of the history of Persia. He was extremely inquisitive, 
and his questions were acute and pertinent; he was much delighted 
with our drawings, and with the map of our route, which we had 
laid down. 
The palaces of the King are enclosed in a fort of lofty walls, which 
may have a circumference of three miles. The palace of the Chehel 
Sitoon, or “ forty pillars,” is situated in the middle of an immense square, 
which is intersected by various canals, and planted in different directions 
by the beautiful chenar tree. In front is an extensive square basin of 
water, from the farthest extremity of which the palace is beautiful be¬ 
yond either the power of language or the correctness of pencil to deli¬ 
neate. The first saloon is open towards the garden, and is supported 
by eighteen pillars, all inlaid with mirrors, and (as the glass is in much 
greater proportion than the wood) appearing indeed at a distance to be 
formed of glass only. Each pillar has a marble base, which is carved 
into the figures of four lions placed in such attitudes, that the shaft 
seems to rest on their four united backs. The avails, which form its ter¬ 
mination behind, are also covered with mirrors placed in such a variety 
of symmetrical positions, that the mass of the structure appears to be 
of glass, and when new must have glittered w T ith most magnificent 
