432 
ISPAHAN. 
neglect alone. The trees, to be sure, must always be valuable to 
the state, even when the city is no more. And during my 
intercourse with the Nizam-a-Doulah, who seemed to resard 
O 
the restoration of the old capital with the most liberal views, I 
had much pleasure in paying him more than a Persian com¬ 
pliment, while remarking on the fine wood with which he was 
fillins the desolated tracts of the town. 
My quarters being so near the Maidan Shah, afforded me 
many opportunities to walk thither on foot, and gratify my 
curiosity by examining it at my leisure. This vast square was 
formerly one of the chief ornaments of Ispahan ; enriched with 
shops, where every commodity of luxury and splendid manufac¬ 
ture were exposed to sale. Here, also, were the troops exercised, 
and the nobility exhibited their Asiatic tournaments, before 
their sovereign. In the centre of each side of this immense 
area, stands some edifice remarkable for grandeur or for cha¬ 
racter. In the north-west, we find the great gate, or rather 
tower of entrance to the bazar ; on which, in old times, stood 
the celebrated clock of Ispahan. The south-eastern side of the 
quadrangle shows the Mesched Shah, a superb mosque, which 
Shah Abbas built and dedicated to Mehedi, one of the twelve 
Imaums. On the north-east, is the mosque of Looft Ullah ; 
and on the south-west, the Ali Ivapi, or gate of Ali, forms a 
majestic parallel to the bazar porch on the opposite side. The 
length of the square, may be about 2,600 feet; its breadth 700. 
Each face presents a double range of arches, the longest range 
amounting to eighty-six, and the shortest to thirty. At a 
few paces from these arcades, we find a constant supply of water, 
running through a canal of black marble, and opening into a 
variety of basins of a similar material, full of the same refreshing 
