_ 240 _ long hair reaching down to the waist, made into two plaits falling from behind the ears. These are said to be the kin of Muhammad. The city is surrounded by walls of wattle and daub in the French style, already in ruins in some parts, but it is not so splendid for its public buildings for most of the houses are in the same wattle and daub, except for a few mosques, baths and caravanserais which are of brick. But it is famed as the outlet for all Persia and Turkey for all kinds of goods and fabrics, such as silks and garments from India, as well as spices. There are many, very rich merchants, who trade in all directions, and many other things of all kinds come there, for, many silks, satins, taffetas, turbans and brocades are woven there. It must have five or six thousand citizens, but it has little tilled lands; and for this reason most of the supplies of crops come to it from elsewhere; for there is little tilling, apart from a small amount near the city. The rest is sandy. It the city is situated to the east-south-west (sic) of the road, near a great range of mountains, and what it lacks in cornfields it has in excess in gardens, vineyards and orchards, by which it is almost completely surrounded, and these give fruit in great abundance, that is to say good
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