[See Major Sykes' Persia, Chaps, V. And Xxiii.]

Kerman was a Nestorian see, under the Metropolitan of Fars.

(Ilch. passim; Weil, III. 454; Lequien, II. 1256.)

["There is some confusion with regard to the names of Kerman both as a town and as a province or kingdom. We have the names Kerman, Kuwashir, Bardshir. I should say the original name of the whole country was Kerman, the ancient Karamania. A province of this was called Kureh-i-Ardeshir, which, being contracted, became Kuwashir, and is spoken of as the province in which Ardeshir Babekan, the first Sassanian monarch, resided. A part of Kureh-i-Ardeshir was called Bardshir, or Bard-i-Ardeshir, now occasionally Bardsir, and the present city of Kerman was situated at its north-eastern corner. This town, during the Middle Ages, was called Bardshir. On a coin of Qara Arslan Beg, King of Kerman, of A.H. 462, Mr. Stanley Lane Poole reads Yazdashir instead of Bardshir. Of Al Idrisi's Yazdashir I see no mention in histories; Bardshir was the capital and the place where most of the coins were struck. Yazdashir, if such a place existed, can only have been a place of small importance. It is, perhaps, a clerical error for Bardshir; without diacritical points, both words are written alike. Later, the name of the city became Kerman, the name Bardshir reverting to the district lying south-west of it, with its principal place Mashiz. In a similar manner Mashiz was often, and is so now, called Bardshir. Another old town sometimes confused with Bardshir was Sirjan or Shirjan, once more important than Bardshir; it is spoken of as the capital of Kerman, of Bardshir, and of Sardsir. Its name now exists only as that of a district, with principal place S'aidabad. The history of Kerman, 'Agd-ul-'Ola, plainly says Bardshir is the capital of Kerman, and from the description of Bardshir there is no doubt of its having been the present town Kerman. It is strange that Marco Polo does not give the name of the city. In Assemanni's Bibliotheca Orientalis Kuwashir and Bardashir are mentioned as separate cities, the latter being probably the old Mashiz, which as early as A.H. 582 (A.D. 1186) is spoken of in the History of Kerman as an important town. The Nestorian bishop of the province Kerman, who stood under the Metropolitan of Fars, resided at Hormuz." (Houtum-Schindler, l.c. pp. 491-492.)

There does not seem any doubt as to the identity of Bardashir with the present city of Kerman. (See The Cities of Kirman in the time of Hamd-Allah Mustawfi and Marco Polo, by Guy le Strange, Jour. R. As. Soc. April, 1901, pp. 281, 290.) Hamd-Allah is the author of the Cosmography known as the Nuzhat-al-Kulub or "Heart's Delight." (Cf. Major Sykes' Persia, chap. xvi., and the Geographical Journal for February, 1902, p. 166.) - H. C.]

NOTE 2. - A MS. treatise on precious stones cited by Ouseley mentions Shebavek in Kerman as the site of a Turquoise mine. This is probably Shahr-i-Babek, about 100 miles west of the city of Kerman, and not far from Parez, where Abbott tells us there is a mine of these stones, now abandoned. Goebel, one of Khanikoff's party, found a deposit of turquoises at Taft, near Yezd. (Ouseley's Travels, I. 211; J. R. G. S. XXVI. 63-65; Khan. Mem. 203.)

["The province Kerman is still rich in turquoises. The mines of Pariz or Parez are at Chemen-i-mo-aspan, 16 miles from Pariz on the road to Bahramabad (principal place of Rafsinjan), and opposite the village or garden called God-i-Ahmer. These mines were worked up to a few years ago; the turquoises were of a pale blue. Other turquoises are found in the present Bardshir plain, and not far from Mashiz, on the slopes of the Chehel tan mountain, opposite a hill called the Bear Hill (tal-i-Khers). The Shehr-i-Babek turquoise mines are at the small village Karik, a mile from Medvar-i-Bala, 10 miles north of Shehr-i-Babek. They have two shafts, one of which has lately been closed by an earthquake, and were worked up to about twenty years ago. At another place, 12 miles from Shehr-i-Babek, are seven old shafts now not worked for a long period. The stones of these mines are also of a very pale blue, and have no great value." (Houtum-Schindler, l.c. 1881, p. 491.)

The finest turquoises came from Khorasan; the mines were near Maaden, about 48 miles to the north of Nishapuer. (Heyd, Com. du Levant, II. p. 653; Ritter, Erdk. pp. 325-330.)

It is noticeable that Polo does not mention indigo at Kerman. - H. C.]

NOTE 3. - Edrisi says that excellent iron was produced in the "cold mountains" N.W. of Jiruft, i.e. somewhere south of the capital; and Jihan Numa, or Great Turkish Geography, that the steel mines of Niriz, on the borders of Kerman, were famous. These are also spoken of by Teixeira. Major St. John enables me to indicate their position, in the hills east of Niriz. (Edrisi, vol. i. p. 430; Hammer, Mem. lur la Perse, p. 275; Teixeira, Relaciones, p. 378; and see Map of Itineraries, No. II.)

["Marco Polo's steel mines are probably the Parpa iron mines on the road from Kerman to Shiraz, called even to-day M'aden-i-fulad (steel mine); they are not worked now. Old Kerman weapons, daggers, swords, old stirrups, etc., made of steel, are really beautiful, and justify Marco Polo's praise of them" (Houtum-Schindler, l.c. p. 491) - H. C.]

Ondanique of the Geog. Text, Andaine of Pauthier's, Andanicum of the Latin, is an expression on which no light has been thrown since Ramusio's time. The latter often asked the Persian merchants who visited Venice, and they all agreed in stating that it was a sort of steel of such surpassing value and excellence, that in the days of yore a man who possessed a mirror, or sword, of Andanic regarded it as he would some precious jewel.

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