_Description of Merágha._ It is the seat of a Sultán commanding a thousand troops, and has a Judge, Kelenter, Darogha and Múnshi; it was built in the earliest time by Húshenk-sháh, and is the first town of Azerbeiján and its ancient capital, surrounded with fruitful gardens, eleven farsangs distant from Tabríz; eleven mosques, forty kháns, sixty mesjíds, forty convents of Dervishes, eleven baths and three thousand shops. The inhabitants are all weavers, who manufacture excellent Bogassin. The beautiful youth of both sexes at Merágha are everywhere renowned. The town has risen from its ruins since the havoc it suffered from the army of Sultán Murad III. Its builder in the time of Islám was Merván Ibn Mohammed Al-Himár, in whose time it extended to Mount Sehend and comprised seventy thousand houses; but since it was destroyed by the Moghols in Húlagú’s time, the buildings are at some distance from Mount Sehend, which as it intercepted the north wind, was the reason that the air of its former situation was so heavy. The water, however, issues from the mountain, and abundantly furnishes the houses and gardens. Its pomegranates and cotton are famous, the inhabitants are white and gazelle-eyed, of sweet words and shining faces; a great part of them secretly follow the orthodox rite of Hánefí. They mostly speak Pehleví; the whole country is divided into eight districts, viz.: Serajún, Penajún, Jerút, Kaodúl, Hestrúd, Behsánd, Engúrán, and Kizilorán; each district containing from eighty to one hundred cultivated kents; altogether five hundred and sixty kents, sixty towns, and seven castles; the description of which, if we could undertake it in detail, would alone fill a volume. We left Meragha and entered the district of Túrnachairí, wherein the town of Aján is situated; the kent of Petiker of one thousand houses is situated in this district. _Description of Aján._