156 
PERSIAN MANUSCRIPTS. 
Cotton is also manufactured at Ispahan into cloths of different 
qualities, from the plant which grows in the neighbourhood of the 
city. Nine-tenths of the Ispahan cotton is consumed on the spot, and 
the rest is exported. Their principal cotton manufacture is the kadek, a 
strong and excellent cloth, which resembles nankeen, and which is 
worn by all ranks of people, from the King to the peasant. It is also 
exported to Russia by the Caspian sea, and is there used for the un¬ 
dress of the Russian soldiery. The kerbas is another cotton cloth, of 
which the shirts and drawers of the lower orders are generally made: 
stronger qualities of it are used for tent-coverings, &c. They paint 
cotton stuffs with a hand stamp, and they then are called c7^^7, (perhaps 
from our chintz,) and wash them on the banks of the Zaian derood, 
which they do by beating the stuff on a stone, and then spreading it on 
the sand to dry. 
Paper, gunpowder, sword blades, glass and earthenware, are also . 
manufactured at Ispahan, but not in great quantities. 
No regular bazar for books is established at Ispahan, as at Constan¬ 
tinople, but we were well supplied with manuscripts by the delals, or 
brokers, men who are useful though dishonest, who generally procured 
for us the books we wanted by searching for them in shops, or in pri¬ 
vate houses. Several very fine manuscripts were brought to us, besides 
a great variety of Persian drawings. The Persians are not so bigotted 
with respect to the pollution of the Koran by the touch of infidels as 
the Turks, for many copies were brought to us for sale; but they hold 
it in great respect; for one day a Mollah brought us some books for 
sale, which he spread upon the ground before us. One of us by 
chance placing his foot upon a Cuffick MS., containing sentences of the 
Koran, was reprimanded by the Persian, who exclaimed, “ Beware, 
that is the word of God !” 
September proved as unhealthy as the foregoing month; but our 
attention was diverted from the miseries of our sick by a threatened 
invasion of the Bakhtiarees, who, under their chief Achmed Khan, were 
in open rebellion, and had approached near the city. The alarm was 
great: guards were placed at all the principal avenues, particularly 
