400 
VILLAGE OF GUZ. 
years ago, a detachment of musketeers were regularly posted 
here, to check the incursions of the bold and still independent 
tribes from the Louristan and Baktiara mountains ; who used 
to come down in formidable bands, laying waste the villages, or 
carrying off whole caravans in their way to and from Ispahan. 
But the steady execution of the laws against these, or any other 
depredators, when discovered and taken, has, for a time at least, 
entirely put a stop to such sallies ; and, consequently, to the 
necessity of a stationary military guard. This old caravansary- 
fort stands about half-way between the Queen’s caravansary, 
before described, and the village of Guz, or Gaz, where we 
were to halt for the day. When we reached it, the keeper, who 
was a very intelligent person, told me the distance might be 
about six farsangs from Mourcha-Khorde. 
Guz is a very extensive village ; and close to it we found our 
proposed quarters ; the magnitude and solidity of which, at once 
declared the building to be of Sefi origin. Our host’s inform¬ 
ation on the subject, was, that the Khodjeh-bashi, or chief-eunuch 
of the court of Shah Abbas, being a man of great riches and a 
magnificent spirit, not only built this caravansary, and the two 
we had seen at a distance on the commencement of our march 
over the plain, namely, Aga Kamel Bela, and Aga Kamel- 
pa-ine, but several others, in different parts of the country. The 
name of this officer, so worthy of the splendid reign in which he 
lived, was Aga Kamel. And, as these sort of edifices are erected 
on almost the same plan throughout the empire, varying only in 
dimensions, materials, or ornaments, I shall take the oppor¬ 
tunity of some hours’ rest in that of Guz, to describe, from its 
details, the general accommodations of them all. 
The extent of this building is an exact square, of one hundred 
