The New Student's Reference Work/Tabriz

Tabriz (tȧ-brēz′), an old city of Persia, on Aji River, 40 miles from Lake Urumiah.  A ditch and a brick-wall with seven gates surround the city.  Water, a rare thing in the east, is plentiful.  The fine ruin of the Blue Mosque is covered in part with arabesqued, blue tiles.  The citadel is a brick-building, whose walls have been cracked by earthquakes.  The chief manufactures are leather, silk and gold- and silver-smithing.  Tabriz is on a caravan-route, and is a city of business importance, doing a large trade with Russia.  Tabriz, the ancient Tauris, became the capital of Armenia in 297 A. D.  Zobeida, the wife of Haroun-al-Raschid, greatly enlarged it.  It was sacked by Timur in 1392, and after being held by the Turkomans was taken by the Persians in 1500.  The place has often been damaged by earthquakes, that of 1721 causing, it is said, the death of 80,000 persons.  Population 200,000.  See Eastwick’s Three Years in Persia.