TABRIZ. 
276 
b*r*y>f 
deputed from the Prince to greet our arrival. He was accompanied 
by ten or fifteen men, and preceded by a led horse. As soon as our 
party perceived their approach, it was ridiculous enough to see how 
every one put on any the smallest piece of finery that he possessed, in 
order to strike the others with respect. The Mirza alighted from his 
mule and mounted a horse; and when we met, all the flattery and com¬ 
pliments were repeated with the same sincerity as before on our road 
to Teheran. They talked of themselves and their government with 
singular complacency, and of the Russians with the utmost contempt. 
The officer who came to meet us said, “ they fear us like dogs; we 
“ have every thing better than they have; they will never dare to shew 
“ their faces again/' 
Tabriz first appears between the angle of the bases of two hills, and 
then opens to the view by degrees. In the season in which we saw it, 
it formed a pretty object; as the constant monotony of the mud- 
walls and mud-brick houses was hid by the rich foliage of the trees, 
which are interspersed throughout the city. Close to the w alls, near 
the Teheran gate, is the complete ruin of a mosque, but still sufficiently 
preserved to she w how fine a structure it must once have been. It 
was built about six hundred years ago, by ~Shaii Siiem Gh uzan, 
(the~ successor of Shah Mahomed Khodabendeh, whose tomb has 
been described at iSultanieh,) but it has been destroyed by an earth ¬ 
quake within thirty years. The inhabitants extol the fruitfulness of the 
territory, and the salubrity of the air of Tabriz. Its very name, 
according to the Persian etymology, indicates the excellence of its 
situation, for it is composed of Tab a. fever, and riz fled A They 
*> lii,G rant’s fine and characteristic sketch, of the conquests of Nadir, he is led.te 
u Media’s vales, 
« Where Health on Tabriz breathes with all tier gales.” 
Restoration of Learning m the East , 1805, p. 87. 
The same derivation of the name from the qualities of the situation is given by Six 
