by the Affghans in 1722, and only a portion of it has been since rebuilt.
It owes, as has been said, its celebrity to the possession of the mosque and sanctuary erected to the memory of Fatima, the daughter of Imam Reza, and which for centuries past has been the burial-place of the Kings of Persia. Attached to this sacred edifice are four courts, and the dome of the building, which is of gold, bears witness to the piety of Fetteh Ali Shah. The tomb of the Holy Virgin of Koom is protected from the defilement of the vulgar by a railing of massive silver, crowned at the corners by balls of gold. In adjoining chapels lie the ashes of several of the Persian monarchs: amongst them those of two of the Sefaveeans; Sefi the first, and Abbass the second. Nothing can exceed the beauty of these places of burial. The flooring is of tablets of porphyry painted in gold and in blue, and the vaulted roofs are equally rich and picturesque. The tomb of Sefi is composed of ivory, ebony, camphorwood, aloes and other sweet-smelling timber worked together in mosaic, and fastened by ligatures of fine gold. The chapels of the more recent royal personages whose ashes repose at Koom are attended by a service of priests, who by day and night read from the Koran and pray for the souls of those whose tombs they guard. To one of these chapels, and to the reverend care of the priests of Koom, were consigned the mortal remains of Fetteh Ali Shah, in the full hope and confidence that when the last trump should sound and the dead should rise to life, the monarch would be found to be under the all-availing protection of the Holy Virgin Fatima.
