NOTES. 
403 
the mountains of Yemen ■: it was supposed indeed by the Arabs, to constitute the real object 
of Niebuhr’s Voyage. Description de l’Arabie, p. 123. A mountain so vast, and of 
a form so peculiar, was naturally connected with the traditionary mythology of the country; 
and accordingly Demawend was believed to cover with all its weight Zohak, the usurper 
in the earliest dynasty of their empire. See Champion’s Ferdusi . 
Rey, p. 232.]—The ruins of Rey have never been described by any European traveller: 
if a brief and nameless notice of them by Tavernier, tom. i. 313, (who had no suspicion 
of their history, and perhaps never saw them,) can be considered an exception. From the 
Oriental authorities indeed he was enabled to compile a table of latitudes and longitudes; 
and to insert Rey as 33° 35' lat. 70° 20 . long. Tom. i. p. 404. But even the position 
of the ruins appears imperfectly known to Chardin; and they were sought in vain by 
one of the latest and most intelligent of his successors, Oeivier, who looked for them con- 
siderably too much to the south. See tom. v. p. 160 1. Gardanne, who was at 
Teheran , allots to Rey only three lines; nor indeed does he state distinctly that he was 
writing from his own observation. Yet his account, however imperfect in itself, is striking 
in its close. “ A 1’est de Teheran , ruines de Rey, ancienne Rhages , et patrie de HarouN 
u el Rachid. Les Persans disent que Rey avoittrois millions d’habitans. Le mot Revo- 
u hition cxplique toutes les CalamitSs.” P. 72. 
The history of Rhages requires no illustration in the days of its greatness; and that 
greatness, with more than the fortune of other cities, has twice revolved. Its second rise 
under the Mahomedans, has indeed been less traced than its first origin, though it was the 
birth place of Haroun el Reschid, and one of the favourite seats of his magnificence. 
It was then one of the capitals of the Buiyct Sultans; see De Sacy, Memoires, &c. p. 145, 
147, &c. And was taken by Mahmud, of Ghizni , when he destroyed their dynasty. Mod. 
Univ. Hist. iii. 195. It was subsequently one of the two great cities of the empire of the 
Seljukians ; and as such demanded by the Emperor Rom anus, who in the decline of the 
Roman power, imitated all the insolence of its greatness. With the Parthians and the 
Persians, his predecessors had indeed often used this tone of presumption, and as often 
failed in the wars of which it was the prelude. Thus Crassus, when he was marching to 
his own destruction, told the Parthian Embassadors that he would give his answer at their 
captial: Julian, in the midst of his own unhappy expedition, replied to the overtures of 
Sapor, that he would himself visit the Persian court; and thus Romanus, with an inso¬ 
lence unparalleled and intolerable, required from Alp Arslan, before he would listen to 
any terms, the surrender of Rey, one of his capitals. The sequel of each event is too 
familiar to be noticed. Rey still remained one of the greatest and most flourishing cities 
of the East; Ispahan , NishapoUr , and Bagdad, alone rivalling it. Een Haukal, in the 
tenth century, describes it fully; but in his day, though the commercial and civil greatness 
of the city was at its height, its defences had declined; and the wall around the suburbs 
was falling to decay ; p. 176, p. 157, p. 172. Nevertheless it survived more revolutions ; 
it was a very considerable city when it was taken by Gengiiiz Khan, Petit de la 
Croix, p. 277; and still, two centuries afterwards, it was one of the seats of the govern- 
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