Yezd, In Pre-Mahomedan Times, Was A Great Sanctuary Of The Gueber Worship,
Though Now It Is A Seat Of Fanatical Mahomedanism.
It is, however, one of
the few places where the old religion lingers.
In 1859 there were reckoned
850 families of Guebers in Yezd and fifteen adjoining villages, but they
diminish rapidly.
[Heyd (Com. du Levant, II. p. 109) says the inhabitants of Yezd wove the
finest silk of Taberistan. - H. C.] The silk manufactures still continue,
and, with other weaving, employ a large part of the population. The
Yazdi, which Polo mentions, finds a place in the Persian dictionaries,
and is spoken of by D'Herbelot as Kumash-i-Yezdi, "Yezd stuff." ["He
[Nadir Shah] bestowed upon the ambassador [Hakeem Ataleek, the prime
minister of Abulfiez Khan, King of Bokhara] a donation of a thousand
mohurs of Hindostan, twenty-five pieces of Yezdy brocade, a rich dress,
and a horse with silver harness...." (Memoirs of Khojah Abdulkurreem, a
Cashmerian of distinction ... transl. from the original Persian, by
Francis Gladwin ... Calcutta, 1788, 8vo, p. 36.) - H. C.]
Yezd is still a place of important trade, and carries on a thriving
commerce with India by Bandar Abbasi. A visitor in the end of 1865 says:
"The external trade appears to be very considerable, and the merchants of
Yezd are reputed to be amongst the most enterprising and respectable of
their class in Persia. Some of their agents have lately gone, not only to
Bombay, but to the Mauritius, Java, and China."
(Ilch.
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