_ 96 _ Item: Buzabad is situated to the north or north-east, with a river of good water and many fruits. Here we paid six reis per load in dues for the guards who guard those plains against thieves. We left here, travelling sometimes west-north-west and the north-west, but because there are so many bends [in the road] and mountains one cannot be certain of directions. On the following day, 22 September, we arrived in the noble and populous city of Kashan. Item: Kashan: This city is so populous that the caravan was at the gates for more than two hours without being able to enter because of the throngs of people entering and leaving on foot and on horseback. It is a great and very fine city of five or six thousand citizens, but an infinite number of people in addition on account of the great trade conducted there; this is because it is the outlet from Persia and Turkey for all the merchandise, silks, Indian cloths, spices etc. It has important, rich merchants, but many more come there, and it is inhabited by Persians, Turkmens, Jews, natives of the country, most of them wearing hoods which fit close to the head, as is their custom. Some boast of being the kin of Muhammad, and they wear their hair long to the waist, divided into two tresses which fall from behind the ears. It is encircled by a mud wall, which has
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