_ 299 _ foot-soldiers and agents of the tax-collectors of Tabriz and Hoi made there. They lived there to check the documents of the passing caravans, which showed how they had paid their dues. This is because this is the border-country and frontier of the domains and lands of Shah Tahmasp and the Grand Turk. At this time this house had been uninhabited for two or three years, because Shah Tahmasp, for the soul of his father, had removed and lifted all the rights over his lands and domains, as it appeared to him that in this way he was saving it his father’s soul. Truly, if he had been a Christian king in whom there could be virtue, he would have possessed it, because of the generosity and safety with which the caravans enter, leave and travel through his lands without anyone causing danger or asking for anything. The Turk and those who know were amazed at the great quantity of income he gave up, for in Tabriz alone the silk which comes from Xiruan which is an enormous quantity brought him a well of gold. Not content with this, he sent to tell the Turk that he should remove them his rights over Van and Carahemite, and over the other lands he had captured from him and his father. He asked him to
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy