KIRMAN, or Kerman, a province of Persia, is bounded on the east by a part of Seistan and Beloochìstan, west by the province of Fars, south by Laristan, Mukran, and the Persian Gulf, and north by Irak and Khorassan. It has been in all ages partitioned into the habitable and desert regions; the former extending, in extreme length, from Regan, in Nurmansheer, to Robat, on the boundary of Fars, about 305 miles, and in breadth, from the southern limit of Irak to the town of Gom-baroon or Bunder Abass, en the shore of the Persian Gulf, about 280 miles in a direct line.

Even the soil of this habitable tract is in many places unprolific, and the face of the country barren and waste. There is not a river in the province, the few streams that occur being merely mountain torrents swelled by the rains, and dry during the remainder of the year; and were it not for a few springs in the mountainous districts, and the karezes or under-ground aqueducts (a singular contrivance, common in Persia, by which water is conducted, by means of pits from thirty to ninety feet deep, and about 100 paces apart, and connected by a common trench, sometimes a distance of thirty or forty miles), the inhabitants could not possibly exist. In this manner water is procured with extraordinary pains and attention, and withal not more than sufficient to cultivate a very trifling portion of the soil. The only exception to this description is the district of Nurmansheer , but, even here, the abundant supplies of water, once so common, have much decreased within the last twenty years; and Lieutenant Pöttinger, in travelling through this country, concluded, from the vast tracts of desolate plains which are encountered in travelling across the country from the east towards Kirman, that^ the desert was fast encroaching on the regions of cultivation.

The country is, generally speaking, mountainous. The principal range of mountains is that which divides Nurmansheer from Laristan, and thence, running in a southwesterly direction, approaches within four days of Gombaroon. Here, running along the coast to the west and north-west, it joins the mountains of Fars, in latitude 29. 40. N. and longitude 54. E. In its course it throws out numerous ramifications, both to the northward and southward. So entirely do these hills intersect the country, that the plains which they separate seldom exceed ten or twelve miles in breadth, though often of an indefinite length. The climate of the province varies of course with the inequality of the ground. Snow lies to a great depth on the mountains in winter, and, from their loftiness, it does not melt for the greater part of the year; so that the people in the plains are frequently seen panting from extreme heat, whilst it is freezing in the adjacent mountains. The cold mountain air also is far from salubrious, as it brings along with it agues, fevers, and other diseases; so that the natives prefer the most sultry weather.

To the southward of the great chain of mountains, and between their base and the sea, lies the Gurmseer, or hot country, which is a narrow strip, varyingfrom thirty to ten leagues in breadth, and extending all along the sea-coast of Persia, from Meenab, the capital of Laristan, to the mouth of the Shatool-Arab or Bussorah River. The portion of this tract that lies within the limits of Kirman is almost solely composed of saline sand; it produces nothing but dates of a very inferior quality, and the climate is peculiarly unhealthy.

The desert region of Kirman extends 270 miles in length, from the northern boundary of Nurmansheer, in latitude 29. 30. north, to the mountains of Khorassan, in latitude 34. north; and in breadth 200 miles, from the city of Yezd, in longitude 55. 40. east, to a range of mountains separating it from Seistan, in 60° east. The whole of this tract is a salt desert, and so decidedly barren, that it does not even produce grass, or any other vegetation, for eighty or ninety miles at a stretch; nor is there a drop of water. The Afghan army, on its march to invade Persia in 1719, lost one third of its numbers in this desert. There is a path from Kirman to Herat in Khorassan, by which couriers can travel in eighteen days; but the risk is so great that a high sum is always demanded for such a journey.

This province is famous for very fine wool, produced by great flocks of sheep and goats, which are fed on the mountains, cold in winter, and hot and arid in summer. Not only is the wool of the sheep of very fine quality, but the goats produce a down that grows in winter at the roots of the hair, in the same manner as that of the Thibet and shawl goats, and nearly as fine. This is spun into various fabrics, which almost vie with the celebrated shawls of Cashmere in fineness and beauty of manufacture. From the wool of the sheep are made shawls, numuds, and felts, which are celebrated all over Asia. The wool is prepared in a peculiar manner, being immersed in a wash, the ingredients of which are known only to the makers. The Kirnianees are also famed for the manufacture of matchlocks. These they send to Khorassan, Cabul, Balkh, Buckharia, and the northern provinces; and in return receive assafoetida, gums, rhubarb, madder, and other drugs; Buckharia skins, furs, silk, steel, copper, and tin (the last three articles are for home consumption; they export the remainder to India, Sinde, Arabia, and the Red Sea); pistachio nuts, rose,leaves and buds for making conserve, gums, cotton, carpets, and buttons. They import from India tin, lead, iron, coppér, steel, pepper, and all other spices; chintz both European and Indian, indigo, muslin, tea, satin, gold, flowered silks, gold-cloth, cocoa-nuts, china and glass-ware, broad cloth, &c. From Sinde they receive white cloth and coloured stuffs for turbans; and from Arabia and the Red Sea coffee, gold-dust, ivory, musk, frankincense, stones, &c.

Kirman, or Kerman, called also sometimes Sirjian, a large city, and capital of the above province, situated on the western side of a capacious plain, so close to the mountains, that two of them, on which there are ancient forts, completely command it. It was in early times one of the most flourishing cities in Persia, and was inferior to none in size except the capital, Ispahan. It became, by its situation in the direct road from Khorassan, Balkh, Buckharia, the countries beyond the Oxus, and all the northern part of the Persian empire, to the sea-port of Bunder-Abass, a great emporium of eastern commerce, and the centre of wealth, learning, and magnificence. The date of its foundation is not ascertained, but Lieutenant Pöttinger states, on the authority of a manuscript history of the conquest in the 90th year of the hejira, or about the 700th year of the Christian era, that Kirman was then a very extensive city, full of riches, and celebrated for the excellence of the shawls and arms made in it; and he imagines that its foundation is coeval with the renowned city of Ormuz. No city has been subject to greater reverses of fortune, or oftener the scene of severe, destructive wars, both foreign and domestic, than Kirman[7:12:739]. It has been successively taken and plundered by the caliphs, by Ghengis Khan, Tamerlane, the Afghans, and Nadir Shah: in addition to all that, it has suffered from civil broils, in the course of which it has often been taken by storm. The last event of this kind took place in the year 1794, when it was betrayed into the hands of Agha Mahommed Khan, uncle of the present king, and founder of the Kajjar dynasty,* who had besieged it in vain for several months. Under this eastern barbarian the city was given up for three months to incessant ravages by a licentious soldiery. All its fortifications and elegant structures, which were raised by the Afghans, were razed to the ground; and the cruel conqueror, after sacrificing to his revenge every person of whom he had the slightest suspicion, carried 30,000 of the inhabitants into slavery, or exiled them to the'distant provinces of Mazunderan and Azerbijan. After this dreadful calamity, the city lay desolate for some years after the accession of the present king, who directed the fortifications to be rebuilt on a reduced scale. They are still, however, large, and consist of a high mud wall, with nineteen bastions, and a dry ditch twenty yards wide and ten deep. The works are entirely encompassed by ruins. There are four gates, and the ark or the citadel, in which the governor’s palace is built, and which is on the southern face of the fort, is defended by similar works. The bazar is well supplied with articles of every description, and from every nation: one part of it is covered in with very elegant domes, built of a beautiful blue stone, dug from quarries in the adjacent mountains. There are eight or nine caravanserais within the walls, besides many inferior ones outside. Kirman contains 30,000 inhabitants, consisting of Armenians, Hindus, or Jews, resident in the place, and of a small proportion of Guebres or Parsces. The trade of the town, though considerable, has never revived to its former extent; and it is not likely that it will again do so, as the great resort of merchants is now to the sea-port town of Bushire, farther up the Gulf of Persia, to the prejudice of Bunder-Abass, and of course of Kirman, of which Bunder-Abass is the port. Its manufactures of shawls, matchlocks, and numuds or felts, are celebrated all over Asia, and are said to afford employment to upwards of one third of the inhabitants, whether male or female. The former are made from the famous wool already described, and rival those of Cashmere in delicacy of fabric and texture, though they are not equal in downy softness and warmth. The revenues of the city, which in 1810 amounted to L.25,000 per annum, and are said to be rapidly increasing, are employed by the prince in maintaining his court, and a body of troops for the protection of the city and neighbourhood from the incursions of the wild predatory tribes of the mountains. These duties arise from a heavy tax on shawls and matchlocks. Camels, horses, &c. which enter any caravanserai in the city, are charged each one rupee. Long. 56. 6. E. Lat. 29. 56. N.