NOTES. 
897 
should have overlooked their design ; and instead of recognising an object that had been 
illustrated by his countryman with so much learning, should pass it in his journal with the 
single remark: “ Plus loin sur un rocher eleve, on voit une croix et les douze Apotres 
sculptes.” p. 83. 
Every nation has some proverbial expression of number, and u forty” seems popular in the 
East. Thus the palace of Ispahan is the Chehil Siloon; and another built in imitation of 
it, at Moorsliedabad , is called by the same name. Seir Mutagherin , i. 301. Chehil minar 
therefore signifies an indefinite number of pillars, whether more or less than forty; but 
even with all the allowance, which this expression may require, it is probable that in the 
time of Sadi, six hundred years ago, the pillars standing at Persepolis amounted really to 
forty. Chardin, tom. iii. 138. The remains at Persepolis are designated by another still 
more comprehensive form, “ Hazar Sitoon ,” the one thousand columns. De Sacy, 
p. 1. If the fragment engraved in the Archoeologia, from the original transmitted by 
Richard Strachey, Esq. to his father, be really of the size of that original, as the notice 
affirms, and if it formed part of the series of sculptures, we may thence learn the average 
proportions of the subjects at Persepolis. Archceol. xiv. app. 282. But Le Brun sent 
over an entire figure from the reliefs ; see the close of his work. 
Ispahan , p. 139.] — Ispahan had been for ages one of the greatest cities of the East, and 
was possibly the Aspa and Aspadana of the ancients. In 1472 it contained one hundred 
and fifty thousand souls; a number which, according to Barbaro, was but the sixth of 
its former population. It had declined in political importance till Shah Abbas trans¬ 
ferred thither the seat of Empire from Casvin. It rose rapidly to a second greatness : in 
extent it almost covered the plain. It was itself twenty-four miles in circumference, and 
according to Chardin, u a dix lieues a la ronde, on comptait quinze cents villages.” 
Tom. iii. 83. Chardin thought its population equal to that of London, and fixed it at 
six hundred thousand souls. Tavernier, almost at the same time, comparing it with 
Paris, says, it has but one-tenth of the population. (See on the relative population of 
Paris, London, and Rhages, Sir Wm. Petty’s Essay.) Tavernier is clearly wrong, 
and certainly much more inaccurate than the other extreme of one million and one 
hundred thousand, stated by the European merchants in Ispahan. Yet there is an error 
probably in both the larger estimates. The number of houses in Chardin’s estimate is 
a fixed standard, thirty-eight thousand : at fifteen in a house, the amount would not equal 
the population which he assigns as the lowest number; and it would require more than 
twenty-eight in a house, to justify the larger calculation. Olivier indeed remarks on 
another occasion, tom. v. 163, that u on doint compter en Perse au moins 7 ou 8 
“ Persans par maisons;” but though this is much higher than the average of Europe, and 
P)uch higher than Mr. Morier has calculated throughout his travels, (with the single 
exception of Bushire), it will not give much above half the estimate of Chardin. It may 
perhaps be observed that the numbers in Ispahan during the AJj'ghan siege, and which are 
variously stated from seven hundred thousand to a million, will confirm the general 
accuracy of the former statement; but it should be recollected, that the amount on that 
