SULTANIA. 
277 
in the most delightful part of the country, with a celestial atmo¬ 
sphere ; and numerous palaces, both for the king, his viziers, and 
emirs, adding to its magnificence.” —■ “ Without the city,” con¬ 
tinues the same writer, “ are delicious gardens, supplied with 
excellent water from wells. The Sultan Abousayd (who was the 
son of Mahomed Khodabund, and the last of the Halukoo race, 
which ceased A. D. 1392,) began a superb building in the city, 
but died before its completion. His remains, however, repose 
within its walls. In ancient days, the Princes of Ghattliam 
passed their summers here; and then it was called the plain of 
Scharoizk.” 
This writer, so near the time of the city’s attributed origin to 
Sultan Mahomed Khodabund, allows that it had been a place of 
royal residence “ in ancient days,” before; and it seems hardly 
to be doubted, that the singular felicity of the situation, would, 
from all ages of the Persian empire, be occupied by some town ; 
which might change its appellation according to the whim of the 
different princes, who, after embellishing the place, might choose 
to give it a new name. Besides, the aggrandizer of a city is 
very likely to be complimented with the title of its founder. 
Something of the kind may hereafter occur again, with regard 
to Sultania. His present Majesty is now restoring the city, by 
gradually building around, and amongst its ruins: should it 
proceed, as he designs, future Persian traditions may altogether 
forget the past towers of Sultania, and assert that the first city 
on the plain was that of Sultanabad, and that its founder, of 
course, was Futy Ali Shah. 
The Persian manuscript I have just quoted, makes a mistake 
in attributing the unfinished structure in Sultania, to Abousayd : 
it was the work of that prince’s father, Sultan Mahomed Khoda- 
