1887.] 
99 
C. E. Yate —Notes on the City of Hirdt. 
The main building of the Musalla consisted of a fine, lofty dome 
some 75 feet in diameter, with a smaller domed building behind it and 
many rooms around. 
The entrance to this was from the east through a lofty archway 
some 80 feet in height, the outer face of which was one great sheet of 
mosaic work, mingled with large inscriptions in gilt. Above the arch¬ 
way was a square-topped mass of masonry containing rooms and pas¬ 
sages of sorts, adding greatly to the height of the building. Beyond 
again, or to the east of this archway, was an enclosed courtyard some 60 
to 80 yards square, surrounded with corridors and rooms several stories 
in height, all faced with enamelled tile and mosaic work. 
The main entrance to the building lay through another massive 
archway, also some 80 feet in height; but though the inside of the arch 
was lined with tile work, the outside was bare and looked as if it had 
never been finished. Four minarets, some 120 feet in height, form the 
four corners of the building, and are still for the most part covered with 
tiles, though a good deal has been worn off by the weather, especially 
on the north by east, the side of the prevailing wind. 
The rooms around the courtyard are supposed to have been for the 
accommodation of students, who, doubtless, flocked to Hirat in the 
palmy days of Shah Rukh and Sultan Husain Mirza. 
Beyond the Musalla, a mile or more to the north of the city, there 
is an old domed building, covered with the remains of tile work, and with 
a hole in the centre of the floor giving access apparently to some under¬ 
ground chamber now mostly filled up. Local tradition declares that 
there used to be a passage from this chamber right into the citadel, but 
the appearance of the building would seem to show that it was built 
as a mausoleum, though no tombstones are visible. 
Some 40 or 50 yards off there are five or six tombstones lying about, 
both of white and black marble, some inscribed in Arabic and others 
in the JNast’aliq character, but only one of them could be deciphered, 
and that was to Amir Jalalu-d-din and dated A. H. 847 or A. D. 1444. 
There is also a stone bearing Amir Jalalu-d-din’s name in the 
Ziyarat-i-Shahzada Qasim, and the third between Gdzurgali and the 
canal, but who these Jalalu-d-dins were could not be ascertained. 
To the west of the domed building with the underground chamber, 
there are various other shrines and tombs of holy men, so holy that 
access to them by Shi’ahs even is forbidden by their Sunni guardians. 
One of these tombs is said to be that of Mankind Jami Sha’ir, but the 
inscription in the Nast’aliq character on a pillar at the head of the grave 
gives the name of Shaikh Zainu-d-din, and 1 mention it because the deter¬ 
mination of the date of his death, as rendered by the Abjad reckoning 
