The Sun and the Lion

"Don't say these words that are not conducive to national unity." Ibrahim then emphasized again to all the clerics present, making them nod in agreement for fear of offending Shah Khan Shah.

The voice of the nearby muezzin faintly reached his ears, and Ibrahim, with a straight face, glanced around: "If there is nothing else, please step aside first. It's getting dark now, and it's time to rest." .”

"Yes." Everyone filed out of the room. Ibrahim waited for them to leave. After closing the door, he walked out of the small reception room through another door.

Leather boots stepped on the newly laid tile floor in the corridor. Ibrahim, who was still thinking about his next trip, skipped the new decoration of the palace. He was not interested in it yet and did not perform any additional entertainment activities before falling asleep. .

Before arriving for the gathering on Sunday, Friday, Ibrahim walked around Baghdad and frequently compared it in his mind with the remaining memories of the last time he came here.

He first visited the government-run workshops in Baghdad, the most important of which was ordnance manufacturing. Officials from the firearms factory were the first to welcome the King of Kings into the door.

After several years of investment and promotion, the number of cities with firearms manufacturing capabilities has increased again, and Baghdad, a western center comparable to Herat, is no exception.

The largest Iranian firearms workshop west of the entire Zagros Mountains is located here. Its main production capacity is various types of light firearms, including breech-mounted swivel guns and heavy matchlock guns that can be carried on camels. Their main destination is Diyarbakir, where Governor Ustaji Khan finds ways to smuggle them to various rebels in the Ottoman territory or to arm Kurdish fighters loyal to Iran.

The remaining weapons are stored in the arsenal and awaiting distribution. The city defenses and independent castles have been renovated and even expanded to varying degrees in the past few years. The city defense forces have begun to equip a large number of firearms. Light artillery that can be deployed on walls has at least been deployed in Baghdad. It became popular in the city defense fortifications.

In addition, there is the manufacturing of armor, which is limited by production capacity and financial resources. The materials used for foreign aid are mainly leather armor and fabric armor, and the quantities are not large. The precious armors are sealed in warehouses, waiting for the opportunity to see the light of day.

Through the continuous records of the quartermasters of each province and the reports of the governor, Diwan, who is far away in the capital, can know how much ordnance was received and processed by the front line during that period of time approximately every six months, allowing Ibrahim to know that there was no war after the money was spent. Water drifts.

The textile workshops in Baghdad also operate in an orderly manner. However, these industries are not directly managed by officials, but are entrusted to chartered guilds. Merchants process wool, raw silk, cotton, linen and other raw materials into textiles and sell them to domestic and foreign markets. Even the official uniforms of lower-level officials and the uniforms of the standing army Military uniforms are purchased from guilds rather than supplied entirely by government-run workshops.

In addition to ordinary industries such as textiles, tanning, and metal processing, there are oil refining workshops outside the city walls, where workers continuously refine crude oil into different products. In addition to the most famous Baku, Arab Iraq and Khuzestan also have oil resource extraction and related processing industries, which are valuable specialties.

Thanks to the abundant oil, lighting fuels in cities in oil-producing areas are very cheap. The brightness of Baghdad's streets and squares comes from these liquids. Caravans also transport the kerosene to other cities for sale. Asphalt and asphalt are frequent users in the construction industry. Exporting these petroleum products can also generate a large amount of income, whether for paving roads, building houses or building ships, not to mention their military uses. It also has medicinal uses, with veterinarians and doctors using it as a topical drug to treat ringworm and scabies on the skin of livestock and humans.

As peace continues and the economy recovers, Baghdad's trade status is also rising. On the trade routes heading west to Aleppo and Bursa, whether starting from Isfahan or Hormuz, they have to pass through Baghdad. The number of foreign businessmen coming to visit this place is increasing year by year, and the Bazaar here is not inferior in any way. In Tabriz and Isfahan, the tax collectors were able to collect more and more taxes from the bazaars every year.

The city's affluence is not only reflected in stable prices, prosperous markets and busy workshops. Many of the buildings Ibrahim saw were brand new. It could be seen that the walls were newly painted. All the buildings within the city walls were They were made of bricks or even more expensive building materials. The streets he saw were all hardened by a mixture of asphalt and gravel and other aggregates. They were very smooth and easy for cars and horses to pass. The city wall itself had also undergone maintenance, reinforcement and expansion work. When he saw this, he almost began to reflect on whether the share left to the local finance was too much.

After a long period of decline, the demand brought about by the rebound in the number of citizens and the government's large-scale construction projects can be said to be a feast for the construction guilds. The construction workers built the most hardened roads, residential houses for new citizens, and mosques.

The number of religious buildings in Baghdad has also increased to meet the needs of the growing population. New mosques and other public buildings have been built with the active donations of officials and dignitaries to meet the growing needs for faith, education, welfare, health, etc.

The largest donation among them came from the royal family. Find Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan. com Shahan Shah and Shah Banu first invested, and then led the powerful to follow up to provide huge construction funds for the Kazimierz Mosque where the Holy Tomb is located. The newly built arches, courtyards, minarets and the most important halls are all there. Pilgrims who came to perform the Hajj showed off the wealth of the new empire.

Since the Holy Tomb is some distance from the city center, senior officials discussed with Qadi, who manages donations, and used local finance and donations to build an avenue connecting the Holy Land to the city and major roads for the use of all pilgrims.

There are many tents surrounding the Kazimierz Mosque, and a large number of pilgrims who exceed the capacity are placed in campsites on both sides of the road. Ibrahim came to Baghdad this time and did not go to the Holy Land with the public to show his piety, but his donation to the Holy Land and spending more money to provide higher-quality free food and accommodation for all pilgrims this year still solidified his zeal for religion. The persona of the business.

Due to the presence of the Armenian community, the new Christian church was approved several years ago and has now been completed. However, compared with the Christian Church in Isfahan, the size of St. Gregory's Church is much different from the largest mosque in the city. It has become a gathering place for Christian travelers.

When he appeared at the largest mosque in Baghdad on Juma Day, the crowd suddenly became commotion because of the arrival of the King. It is not a secret that the King of Kings has settled in Baghdad for the past few days. Previously, he was observing the new look of the city on the streets. It became a sight, observed by curious citizens and travelers. At that time, he did not order the guards to disperse the people watching on both sides of the road, nor did he summon any of them to talk with him in an interesting manner.

Ibrahim glanced at everyone gathered here, just to see how popular he was among the local people. He was satisfied with calming the restless mood in the crowd and watched today's gathering.