ABSTRACT
The cities of Kerman and Yezd, lying far removed from the main travel routes, possess a special interest by reason of their particular geographic situation. Like all populated localities on the plateau, both cities lie closely encompassed by high mountain ranges from the slopes of which their water supplies are largely derived. As situated on the edges of the vast salt desert which extends over the greater part of eastern Persia—Yezd almost in the geographic center of the country and Kerman in the southeast— owe their development to the convergence upon them of century-old caravan routes leading from Turkestan in central Asia to the Persian Gulf and from the west of Persia to India. The remoteness of Kerman and Yezd made those cities ideally suited in the seventh century, with the conquest of Persia by the Arabs and the adoption of Islam, as places of refuge for those Persian adherents of the old Zoroastrian faith who maintained their ancient religion.
