KIRMAN, or KERMAN, a province of Persia, is bounded on the east by a part of Seistan and Beloochistan, west by the province of Fars, south by Laristan, Mukan, 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 Gombaroon or Bunder Abass, on the shore of the Persian Gulf, about 280 miles in a direct line.
Even the soil of this habitable tract is in many places unproductive, 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 Pottinger, 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 south-westerly 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, varying from 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 Kirmanees are also famed for the manufacture of matchlocks. These they send to Khorassan, Cabul, Balkh, Buckharia, and the northern provinces; and in return receive assafetida, 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, copper, 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.