The Geographical Part of the Nuzhat-Al-Qulūb

Abstract

WE have here an English translation of the original Persian text of the “Nuzhat-Al-Qulub” published in this valuable series three years ago. The author, Hamd-Allāh, was a man of note in his day, holding the post of Mustawfī, or State Accountant, to Abu Sa’īd, the last of the decadent Ilkhan dynasty, the first Mongol rulers of Persia, and great-grandson of Hulaqu, the conqueror of Baghdad. The author must have been in pos session of much geographical and statistical in formation, and in many ways his account of Persia and Mesopotamia in the middle of the fourteenth century is valuable; but he depended largely on materials collected by other writers, much of which is now available in published texts. The book takes the form of a gazetteer, but, except as regards places like Qazwīn, the author's native city, little new information is forthcoming. Perhaps the best chapter is that describing the mines of western Asia producing metals, precious stones, and other minerals. His science is that of his own day, that of the scriptures and traditions qf Islam, as when he tells us that one of the chief values of mountains is that they prevent the ground from moving. But the treatise abounds in miracles and folklore. Mr. Le Strange's special local knowledge is well exhibited in his identification of many of the obscure places mentioned in the text. The volume iis in every way creditable to the editor and to the trustees of the E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Fund.