Res̲h̲t , a town of the Persian province of Gīlān [ q.v.], in the Caspian Sea lowlands and lying on a branch of the Safīd Rūd [ q.v.] in lat. 37° 18ʹ N. and 49° 38ʹ E. It has long been the commercial centre of Gīlān, with its fortunes fluctuating with the state of sericulture and silk manufacture. However, the town is not mentioned by the early Arabic geographers, who localise the silk industry in ¶ the province of Ṭabaristān to the east [see māzan darān ], and it is the Ḥudūd al-ʿālam which first gives the name, but as a district, not a town (tr. Minorsky, 137, §…