TABRIZ, or Tabreez, a city of Persia, and capital of the province of Azerbijan, and for a considerable time the residence of Abbas Mirza, the heir-apparent of the Persian crown. It is seated in an immense plain at the foot of a mountain, on the banks of a small river whose waters are applied to the cultivation of the land. Tabriz was formerly a magnificent city, and, according to Chardin’s account, contained, when he visited it in 1686, 15,000 houses, as many shops, 300 caravanserais, 250 mosques, magnificent domed bazaars, and 550,000 inhabitants, though this last appears rather an exaggerated estimate. At present, Morier does not consider it to be more than one tenth of its former magnitude. All the large buildings have been destroyed by earthquakes. Two of these occurred during the last century, and were particularly fatal: 100,000 inhabitants perished, having been swallowed up in the yawning abyss of the earth, with their houses; and others crushed under masses of falling ruins. Notwithstanding these calamities, a new city has arisen amid the desolation of the old; and on all sides are to be seen the ruins of houses, streets, &c., which afford some idea of the extent and magnificence of the former city. Tabriz is at this day three miles and a quarter in circumference. Morier, who visited this place in 1809, mentions that it is surrounded by walls built of sun-burnt bricks, and by towers of kiln-burnt bricks placed at irregular distances from each other. After his second visit in 1811, he mentions that, four years before, Abbas Mirza had made Tabriz his capital, and that he had repaired and beautified the walls, and otherwise improved the city. Sir R. K. Porter, by whom Tabriz was visited in 1817, also says that it had been lately re-fortified by order of the prince Abbas Mirza, who then resided in it. It is now surrounded with a thick wall, protected by towers and bastions, with the addition of a very deep dry ditch, the whole embracing a circumference of 6000 yards. The object of the prince is not so much to adorn as to strengthen the city; and, besides the fortifications, a maidan or square has been laid out by him, and surrounded with barracks for the troops which he is organizing according to European tactics. He was also building a palace for his own residence, which possessed, however, none of that pomp which distinguished the royal residences of former days. Beyond this boundary to the north and east extend the suburbs, which rise amid the ruins and broken ground which formerly composed the city. Four gates of no very imposing appearance open into the new city. They are surmounted by turrets, and ornamented with slight minarets covered with chequer-work of blue and green tiles, collected from the remains of the ancient vaulted mosques. Out of the 250 mosques mentioned by Chardin, the ruins of only three are visible. The most considerable is that of Ali Shah, erected nearly 600 years ago by Ali Koja, which still presents lofty arches and the mouldering vaulted work of splendid domes. This building, both within and without, has been cased over its whole surface with lackered tiles of porcelain, adjusted with singular taste and ingenuity into a variety of intricate and elaborate figures of green, dark, and light blue, interspersed with Arabic sentences in letters of gold; and a broad band of rich legends formed in white upon this beautifully varied ground, and interwoven with flowers in green and gold, winds round the whole extent of the building. This fine ruin is within the new fortifications of the city, where are also the remains of the ark or citadel. The latter building comprehends within its limits the remains of a mosque, which is a very finely constructed mass of brick-work, about eighty feet in height; at the top of which three small chambers have been constructed, whence the town and the surrounding country are seen as if laid out on a chart. The prince at one time intended to reside in this place; but it was sub [7:21:68] sequently converted into an arsenal and manufactory of arms, which was visited by Morier, and in which he saw stores of guns, artillery, and the other materiel of war, and numerous carpenters, wheelwrights, and others, with European tools, and a blacksmith’s forge at work. To the south-east of the city, at the foot of a sloping hill, is a powder-mill, worked by water, and erected entirely by a Persian. It is, says Morier, by far the best structure at Tabriz, being built of brick, stone, and marble. The remains of this structure that still exist, after repeated shocks of earthquakes, prove the original solidity and excellence of the workmanship. About two miles to the south-west of the new walls of the town, but far within the remnants of the old boundaries, stand the magnificent remains of the sepulchre of Sultan Kazan. The intervening ground is marked with shapeless ruins, even stretching beyond the sepulchre to a great extent. The tomb itself has the appearance of a huge mound of mingled lime, dust, tiles, and bricks, surrounded, however, with spacious arches of stone, the remains of its former grandeur. Beyond the eastern gate of the town, the ruins of the ancient city reach for more than three miles over the valley, and on the adjoining heights which skirt the base of the hills. On one of the most commanding of these subordinate acclivities stands the vast and venerable structure of an ancient fortress, which from its position and strength must have commanded the whole valley. At what period this vast structure was first built, is entirely unknown; but the thickness of the walls, the massy towers, and the splendid materials of its interior parts, plainly show the great labour and cost at which it must have been reared. No sun-dried bricks have been employed in this building, which consists of huge masses of loose stones and mortar thrown together, and afterwards closely faced with large stones. A very large tower, looking towards the town and the valley, flanks the south-west front of the castle, which seems in a less impaired state than any of the other quarters. In the interior of these ruins are found several vaulted and spacious underground apartments, and near them the remains of a magnificent mosque. The shattered walls are filled up with heaps of tiles, dust, and furnace-made bricks, interspersed with the pieces of white transparent marble called Tabriz marble, which is dug up in immense blocks from the mountains on the banks of Lake Ooroomia. Sir R. K. Porter also marked the foundations of other considerable buildings, and the site where baths had been constructed. He ascribes the destruction of these edifices on the heights more to the devastations of war than to earthquakes, as the ruins that still remain mark out very clearly the plan and architectural dispositions of the edifice. The plain in which Tabriz is situated is bounded to the north-east, the east, and south-east, by a chain of barren mountains, conspicuous for their red and ochreous appearance. These mountains rise immediately behind Tabriz, and recede into a deep vale, which, being watered by a plentiful stream, is perhaps more highly cultivated than any tract of its size in Persia, and is remarkable for beautiful and picturesque scenery.

It is generally understood that the ancient name of Tabriz was Ganzaca; and no notice is found of it as the capital of Azerbijan until the fourth century of the Christian era. From that period, under the names of Ganzaca, Tauris, Tabriz or Tabreez, it has been esteemed the capital of the province. But it must have subsequently declined in consequence, as the houses of the city only amounted to 3000 when Heraclius took possession of it 300 years after. It was not till after the accession of the Sefi race of kings that Tabriz regained its former importance. It must have been a great city when it was visited by Chardin in 1686, who rates its population at 550,000. But in 1727 it was nearly destroyed by an earthquake, in which 70,000 people are said to have perished; and in a succeeding shock, which took place in 1787, only 40,000 remained to be engulphed; a proof that the population had in the mean time greatly declined. Longitude, according to the observations of the unfortunate traveller Brown, 47. 17. 46. E. Latitude, according to Major Monteith, 38. 4. N.