406 
NOTES. 
few small vessels against the Turcomans), which Persia had ever formed in the Caspian, 
was thus annihilated. Nadir Shah collected a fleet in the Gulph also; and made 
Bushire the port of Shiraz. Niebuhr, tom. ii. p. 75. Here he had assembled from 
twenty-two to twenty-five ships, built for him at Bombay and Surat, &c.; but these were 
all neglected and dispersed at his death. 
* Language of Ghilan , p. 288.]— Ghilan , the country of the ancient Gelce, was, according 
to Ebn Hadkal, p. 174, the level tract along the Caspian, of that province, which in its 
mountainous parts was called Bilan. Now Bilem was with Media Inferior , Mazanderan , 
and the countries between the Caspian and the Tigris, one of the original seats of the 
Pehlavie. Heeren. Act. Soc. Gotting. tom. xiii. Bilem w r as also a retreat of that lan¬ 
guage. In the breaking up of a great empire, the institutions of the conquered race 
always linger in the extremities. The Caucasus, the country of Berbend , Segestan , and 
Kerman , thus sheltered the ancient language and religion of Persia : and thus the moun¬ 
tains of Bilem retained till the tenth century, the worship of fire; and perhaps, therefore, 
the Pehlavie , with which that worship had been connected. Ebn Hadkal observes of 
Taberistan , the adjoining tract, “ they have a peculiar dialect, neither Arabick nor Persian: 
<c and in many parts of Beilman their language is not understood.” In a country separated 
by these circumstances, and by its local situation from the rest of Persia, it is not impro¬ 
bable that there may still exist some traces of a distinct language : and as to the imperfec¬ 
tions incident to the want of written memorials, Sir Wm. Jones, in his Discourse on the 
Arabs, has prepared us to think that Dr. Johnson’s reasoning is too general. 
The Cookery of the Turcomans , p. 290.]—Their cookery is something like that of the Arabs 
described by Capper. There is a full account of the two hordes, the Eastern and Western 
Turcomans, in a note by the French editor of the Genealogical History of the Tatars, 
p. 535-8. See also Tooke, ii. 93. Their wealth in money in every age has been very great; 
because, like the Arabs, and every other pastoral people on the confines of great civilized 
empires, they sell the necessaries of life, and will not buy the luxuries. La Roque, p. 157, 
remarks accordingly, that in the time of Pliny, the riches both of the Romans and of the 
Parthians were melted dowji among the Arabs. PIarmer’s Observations, vol. i. p. 122. 
Chardin in his MSS. notes in Harmer, says, that they are like Abraham, “ very rich 
<( in cattle, in silver, and in gold.” 
Chap. X FI .]—The country from Tabriz and Arz-roum may almost be considered as 
new ground in European description. Gardanne is the only other traveller who has 
traced this route, (Journal, See. p. 21-35); but the information which he collected in his 
passage is so limited, that he appears to know nothing of the Lake of Shahee ; or rather in 
travelling along its shores, he confounds it with that of Van , which is at least one hundred 
miles from the spot where he places it; p. 35. The country between Arz-roum and 
Tocat is described by Tournefort, torn. ii. and by Tavernier, tom. i. p. 12-19: and as 
one of the great roads from Bagdad , &c. falls in at Tocat , the further progress to Con- 
