The six voyages of John Baptista Tavernier, Baron of Aubonne through Turky, into Persia and the East-Indies, for the space of forty years : giving an account of the present state of those countries, viz. of the religion, government, customs, and commerce of every country, and the figures, weight, and value of the money currant all over Asia : to which is added A new description of the Seraglio / made English by J.P. ; added likewise, A voyage into the Indies, &c. by an English traveller, never before printed ; publish'd by Dr. Daniel Cox

CHAP. II. Of certain particular Actions which denote the Vertues and Vices of the Kings of Persia, from Sha Abbas the first to Sha-Soliman the present King. And first of Sha-Abbas the Great.

SHa-Abbas, who was a passionate Lover of Honour, sought all ways ima∣ginable to furnish his Empire with the supports of wealth and good Government. He would not suffer any Indian or Banian to live as a Trader in his Dominions; they having crept in since under the Reigns of Sha-Sefi the first, and Sha-Abbas the second, who came very young to the Throne. Neither had Sha-Abbas any reason to permit them to trade in his Kingdom; for they are worse Usurers than the Jews, and seldom it happens, but that they have all the Money in the Nation, which they take up at nine or ten in the hundred, and let out again upon pawns at two and a half per Cent. a month. From such devou∣ring Pests and Vipers as these, Sha-Abbas thought it but reasonable to preserve his people; so that before these Vermin crept into Persia, the Money was all in the hands of the Armenians of Zulpha. And indeed those Banians have been the ruin of many poor people, of which I will only bring one example among many.

I was at Ispahan in the year 1662, when one of those Banians lent six or seven Tomans per Cent. a month to a poor Persian, who had utter'd several pieces of Linnen upon the place. Those Banians will have their interest paid every month; but the Persian had slipt three or four, having no Money to pay, in regard his Debtor could not pay him. Thereupon the Banian dunn'd him perpetually, and threaten'd to have him drub'd till he pay'd it, according to the Persian custom. The Mother of the Persian troubl'd to see her Son haunt∣ed in that manner, one morning as he was going to the Meydan, bid him, if he met the Banian, that he should be sure to bring him home, and she would pay him his interest, and some of the principal, with some Money that she had sav'd of her own. Toward evening the Banian met his Debtor, whom he rea∣dily follow'd home upon promise of payment. The Mother desir'd him to set upon the Coursi, which is the place where they make their fires, it being cold snowy weather, and set fruits before him to eat. While he thus eat and warm'd himself, night came on apace, and the woman putting him in hopes of payment, spun out the time so long, that the Banian not being unaccustom'd to cold wea∣ther and late hours, was easily perswaded to stay all night at the Persians House. When 'twas time to go to bed, the Banian threw himself upon one Quilt, and the Persian upon another. About two hours after midnight, the Mother comes sostly into the Chamber, with a sharp Razor in her hand, intending to have cut off the Banians head; but unfortunately mistaking, kill'd her own Son in∣stead of the Banian. The Banian having had such an escape, stole cunningly out of the House, and declaring the murther to the Divan-bequé, or the Chief Justice, He caus'd the woman to be apprehended, and brought before him; who con∣fessing the fact, he commanded her to be ty'd to the tail of a young Mule, and to be dragg'd about the City till the Mule had kick'd her to death.

In the year 1667, eight or ten days before I departed from Ispahan, there was a Banian found buri'd in a Street near the Capuchins house; they had cut off his arms and legs, and so put him into the hole; but buri'd him so shallow that the Dogs scrap'd away the Earth, and discover'd him; but who committed the fact, was not then known.

Sha Abbas was not only willing that all the trade should be in the hands of his Subjects, to make profit thereby, and to draw the Money into his King∣dom, but he would not suffer it to be transported when it was brought in. He saw that the Pilgrimages of his Subjects to Mecca, their Expences and Pre∣sents carry'd out abundance of his Ducats of Gold; therefore more politick than religious, he strove to hinder those Pilgrimages as much as in him lay; and

going himself in person to Meshed in Pilgrimage to the Tomb of Iman-rez al∣ready spoken of, over which one of the Legs of Mahomets Camel hangs as a a great Relict; and upon his return relating and giving out strange Miracles of Iman-rez, on purpose to divert his Subjects from going to Mecca.

Among the rest of the cunning knacks that Sha-Abbas made use of, to know how squares went in his Kingdom, without trusting too much to his Ministers, he oft'n disguis'd himself, and went about the City like an ordinary inhabi∣tant, under pretence of buying and selling, making it his business to discover whether Merchants us'd false weights or measures or no. To this intent one evening going out of his Palacein the habit of a Countryman, he went to a Bakers to buy a Man of Bread, and thence to a Cook to buy a Man of Rost-meat, (a Man is six Pound, sixteen Ounces to the Pound). The King having bought his Bar∣gains return'd to Court, where he caus'd the Athemadoulet to weigh both the Bread and the Meat exactly. He found the Bread to want fifty-seven Drams, and the Meat forty-three. The King seeing that, fell into a great chase against three or four of them that were about him, whose business it was to look after thos things; but especially against the Governour of the City, whose Belly he had caus'd to have been ript up, but for the intercession of certain Lords. Besides the reproaches that he threw upon them for being so negligent in their Employments; and for their little affection to the publick good, he laid before them the injustice of false weights; and how sadly the cheat fell upon poor men, who having great Families, and thinking to give them eight hundred Drams of Bread, by that fraud depriv'd them of a hun∣dred and forty three. Then turning to the Lords that were present, he de∣manded of them, what sort of justice ought to be done those people? When none of them daring to open their mouths, while he was in that passion, he com∣manded a great Oven to be made in the Piazza, together with a Spit long enough to roast a man; and that the Oven should be heated all night, and that they should make another fire to be kindl'd hard by the Oven. The next morning the King caus'd the Baker and the Cook to be apprehended, and to be led quite thorough the City, with two men going before them, who cry'd to the people, We are going to put the Baker into a red hot Oven made in the Piazza, where he is to be bak'd alive, for having utter'd Bread by false weights; and the Cook is to be roasted alive, for having sold meat by false weights. Thus those two men serv'd for an example not only to Ispahan, but to all the Kingdom, where every one dreaded the severe justice of Sha-Abbas.