Maimand

Maimand, a town in the province of Fars, Persia, a few miles east of Firuzabad and about 70 m. from Shiraz. It has a population of about 5000, almost wholly occupied with the manufacture and sale of rose-water, which is largely exported to many parts of Persia as well as to Arabia, India and Java. The district also produces great quantities of almonds. The rose gardens cover several square miles. In 1349 a great part of Maimand and of three little villages belonging to it became wakf (pious endowment) of the shrine at Shiraz of Mir Ahmed, surnamed Shah Chiragh, a son of Musa Kazim, the seventh imam of the Shiahs, and the remainder of the Maimand grounds was given to the shrine by Mir Habbib Ullah Sharifi and by Shah Ismail in 1504; the administration of the Maimand property as well as the guardianship of the shrine is still with the descendants of Mir Habbib Ullah.