MARAGHA 
inflicted summary punishment on three men who had robbed a foot- 
messenger, carrying dispatches from the Ambassador to the Consul at 
Bagdad. To the robber he gave 2000 bastinadoes on the soles of his 
feet: the others, who had only been spectators, were bored with an 
awl, one through the nose and the other through the tongue. 
Maragha is situated in a long narrow valley, running nearly north 
and south; and the shape of the town, an irregular oblong, par¬ 
takes of that of the valley. On the west, it is girt by a range of 
low table hills, which were levelled by Halacou, King of Persia, 
grandson to Jenghiz Khan, in order to facilitate the operations of 
his magnificent observatory which he there erected, and where he 
caused Nassir Eddin Toussi, the celebrated astronomer, with several 
of the best astrologers of those days, to observe the motions of the 
heavenly bodies. Remains of this observatory, which some call the 
zeech, and some rasad, are still to be seen; and the horizontal surface 
of the surrounding hills attests how great must have been the labour 
for the perfection of this building. 
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