É. Apor (ed.): Stein, Aurel: Old Routes of Western Iran. (Budapest Oriental Reprints, Ser. B 2.)
Chapter II. —In Kohgalu Tracts
1 0 0 IN KOHGALU TRACTS [Chap. II What impressed me even more during the several visits we exchanged was Colonel Zindeh-dil Khän's keen grasp of the country's real needs. His was not that spirit of easy contentment which makes so many an educated Persian with lively imagination take proud aims and fond hopes for achievements. What seemed to claim his chief efforts was the steady suppression of banditry, hard to cope with after long periods of tribal disorder and consequent insecurity, and the revival of trade along the. old road towards Färs. If this road could be made practicable throughout for motor traffic by the construction of bridges where the rivers of Khairäbäd, Deh-i-nau and Fahliün now present impassable obstacles, Behbehän with its abundance of fertile land and potential surplus of produce would resume once more the important role its predecessor, Arrajän, the ruined town about 6 miles to the north, had played during early Muhammadan days and probably in even earlier times. So my observations on the numerous indications of ancient traffic along the route I had followed provided a congenial subject of talk. But of my travels in distant Central-Asian parts, too, Colonel Zindeh-dil Khän was eager to hear more than the Persian abstract translation prepared years ago of one of my lectures could tell him. For as a native of Tabriz he has Turk blood in his veins and thus has his share, too, of the migratory spirit which has always carried the thoughts of his race far beyond the limits of the land it holds for the time being. Intervals between those days of rain had been used by Surveyor Muhammad Ayüb Khän and myself for the rapid inspection of several mounds visible from Behbehän
