COUNTRY OF. Meshech was the sixth son of Japheth, and is generally mentioned in conjunction with his brother Tubal; and both were first seated in the northeastern angle of Asia Minor, from the shores of the Euxine, along to the south of Caucasus; where were the Montes Moschisi, and where, in after times, were the Iberi, Tibareni, and Moschi; near to whom also, or mingled with them, were the Chalybes, who, it is probable, derived their Grecian appellation from the general occupation of the families of Tubal and Meshech, as workers in brass and iron, as the inhabitants of the same countries have been in all ages, for the supply of Tyre, Persia, Greece, and Armenia. There appears also to have been in the same neighbourhood, namely, in Armenia, a river and country termed Rosh: for so, Bochart says, the river Araxes is called by the Arabs; and that there was a people in the adjoining country called Rhossi. That passage in Ezekiel, xxxviii, also, which in our Bibles is rendered the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal,” is, in the Septuagint, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.” These Rossi and Moschi, who were neighbours in Asia, dispersed their colonies jointly over the vast empire of Russia; and preserve their names still in those of Russians and Muscovites.

MESHED (properly Mesh-hed, i.e., “place of martyrdom,” “shrine”), a city of northern Persia, capital of Khorâsân, 472 miles east of Tehrân, 201 miles north-west of Herat, 36° 17' 40” N., 52° 35' 29" E., lies on a plain watered by the Keshaf-rùd, a tributary of the Hefi-nid, and is surrounded by mud walls 4 miles in circumference, with a dry ditch 40 feet deep at some points, which could be flooded from the neighbouring reservoir and watercourses. Within this enclosure is a strong citadel, with good walls 25 feet high, residence of the prince governor of Khorâsân. There are five gates, from one of which, the Bala Khiabân, the Khiabân main street runs right through the city, forming a fine boulevard planted with plane and mulberry trees, and with a stream of dirty water running down its whole length. In the centre is an open parallelogram 160 yards by 75, encircled by double-storied cloisters, and pierced on the long side by a high arched porch leading directly to the great mosque, whose gilded dome rises above the shrine of the famous Imàm Rizâ. The marble tomb of the saint, which is the most venerated spot in the whole of Persia, and yearly visited by from 80,000 to 100,000 pilgrims, is surrounded by a silver railing, and approached by a flight of inlaid marble steps. Eastwick, the only European before O’Donovan who penetrated as far as the parallelogram, describes the mosque as large enough to contain three thousand people. It is flanked by two gilded minarets, one of which, 120 feet high, is extremely beautiful, with an exquisitely carved capital, built by Shah Abbâs. The façade is entirely covered with blue and white enamelled tiles. To the mosque are attached as many as two thousand attendants and retainers of all sorts, including no less ...

MESHED HOSEIN, properly Meshhed Hosein. See Kerbel a, vol. xiv. p. 48.

MESHED-ALI, i.e., the shrine of the “martyr” Ali, is a town of Asiatic Turkey, province of Baghdad, 50 miles south of Kerbela, close to the ruins of Kufa, and 2 miles west of the Hindiye branch of the Euphrates, the reputed burial-place of the caliph Ali. It stands on the east scarp of the Syrian desert, and is enclosed by nearly square brick walls flanked by massive round towers dating from the time of the caliphs. Under the gilded dome of the great mosque, which occupies the centre of the town, is the shrine of Ali, which is held by the Shfa as at least as holy as the Kaaba itself. Any Moslem buried within sight of the dome being certain of salvation, large numbers of bodies are yearly sent from all parts for interment here. Besides the mosque with its richly decorated façade, the only noteworthy building is a good bazaar supplied from Baghdad and Basra. The town itself, which Lady Anne Blunt describes as “an ideal Eastern city, standing in an absolute desert, and bare of all surroundings but its tombs,” consists of narrow gloomy streets lined by houses closely packed together. The locality is properly named Najaf, and gives its name to the neighbouring lake, a large depression filled by an eruption of the river, and ranging from 6 to 20 feet in depth. The accumulated treasures of the shrine were carried off by the Wahhâbites when they captured this place early in the present century. The population is estimated at 7000, including several Indian Mohammedans under the protection of the British resident at Baghdad.

The aspect of the shrine in the 14th century is described by Ibn Batuta, i. 414 sq. A plan of the town and description of its splendour before the Wahhâbites pillaged it is given by Niebuhr. See also Ibn Jubair, p. 214; P. Teixeira, Itin., cap. iv.