A History of Persia/Chapter 1
A HISTORY OF PERSIA,
&c. &c.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
A history of Persia under the Kajar Princes may be appropriately prefaced by an account of the general condition of that country and of its inhabitants during the reigns of the kings of that dynasty. Such an account, however, may be the more suitably condensed in this work, inasmuch as a full description of the manners and the religion of the people of Persia at the beginning of this century has been already written by an English author,[1] and as it may be said of the customs of the Shah's subjects, as it was of the laws of the Medes and Persians of old, that they alter not.[2]
The dominions of the Shah are inhabited by a population variously estimated at from five to ten millions of souls. As no census is ever taken in Persia it is impossible to obtain correct information on this point. Seeing that the superficies of the country is three times as great as that of France, even the larger of the above figures would give a very small number of inhabitants in proportion to the extent of the land. That such should be the state of things cannot be considered surprising when one reflects that the cultivable, and even the cultivated, portion of the kingdom is but a small portion of the total area. The salt desert is a waste which supports only the wild ass and the gazelle, and in many of the provinces of Persia the extent of cultivated ground is limited by the supply of water, no land being capable of producing crops except such as receives artificial irrigation. A very much greater extent of ground might be cultivated if water were forthcoming for the purpose, and much of the vegetation of the table-land of Iran owes its existence to the water that has already been brought to the gardens and fields by artificial means. All that has, up to the present time, been done in this respect has been done by the Persians themselves, and it is, therefore, needless to remark that much more might be done to secure an abundant supply of water by bringing European skill and energy to bear on the solution of the problem. Water is procured in the district of Tehran by digging a series of deep pits, and establishing an underground communication from the higher to the lower. After a certain distance the water appears on the surface of the ground, and it runs in an open channel to its destination. These water-courses are called "kanats," and the whole plain of Tehran is covered with them. The earth taken up where the shafts are sunk forms little mounds at the mouths of the pits, and rows of these can be traced in all directions. Besides these artificial streams there are many small natural rivulets which continually flow down from the slopes of the Elburz mountains, but which of themselves would be far from sufficient for supplying the wants of a large city. At the distance of twenty-four miles to the west of Tehran the river of Kerij bursts through a mountain gorge into the plain, and a portion of its waters has been turned from its natural course and brought eastwards to the city by means of a canal. Where this canal joins the river a large body of water flows into it from the latter, but ere the water has traversed its course of four-and-twenty miles its bulk has diminished to one-seventh part of the original volume. The porous soil it runs over absorbs the remaining six parts, with the exception of what escapes by evaporation. A more energetic race to whom water was as precious as it is to the inhabitants of Tehran would long ere this have constructed a covered water-tight aqueduct to replace the open canal, which would increase the supply of water sevenfold. There are other means which might be adapted for supplying the element that is wanted to turn so many square miles of desert into fertile fields and gardens where, instead of the thorn, should come up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar the myrtle-tree. The most obvious of these is to construct strong barriers at the foot of some of the lower ravines of the Elburz mountains, the chain of which lies ten miles to the north of Tehran. The whole chain is covered with snow each year from top to bottom, and from October till April the whole of the upper part for a height of thousands of feet remains white. In April and May this precious snow melts and flows down through the ravines, and inundates the plain, which at that season is in no want of an extra supply of water. But were a series of reservoirs constructed, as they very easily might be, at the foot of the rocky ravines, the precious fluid would be saved and would be available for use in the succeeding months.
Means might be had recourse to for supplying the district of Tehran with water even on a larger scale than would be yielded by the adoption of the plan indicated above. The country to the north of the Elburz mountains happens to be as abundantly supplied with streams of water as the plain to the south of that chain is destitute of them. If the course of one of these rivers could be diverted towards the south a great boon would be conferred on one district and no loss inflicted on the other, and it is the opinion of engineers that, by cutting out a new channel for one of these streams from a point sufficiently high, a river might be turned, by the aid of some tunnelling, into the plain of Tehran. Every drop of water that is brought supplies the means of extending the cultivation, and thus of attracting a greater fall of rain. It is observed that the yearly fall of rain in the plain of Tehran greatly exceeds that of former times, when the amount of cultivation was much less. In the district to the north of the Elburz chain, where the whole face of the earth is covered with forests and jungle and crops, the amount of rain which falls is excessive. If, therefore, the Persian Government were to plant trees along the edges of all the watercourses in the plain of Tehran, and were to sow fir-cones along the southern slopes of the Elburz, which are moistened all the summer through by melting snow, it might be reasonably anticipated that in a few years' time their labour would be rewarded by a greatly increased fall of rain each year. In the meantime the general aspect of the country in which the modern Persians live may be best described as a vast desert, in which many fertile oases are scattered here and there; but from this description must be excepted the district between the Elburz mountains and the Caspian Sea, as well as the fertile province of Azerbaeejan. The country, such as it is, and uninviting as it seems to the eye of a stranger, is the object of the admiration and the love of every true Persian. I do not mean to assert that love of country, as Europeans understand the term, is pre-eminently a Persian's quality. A Persian is perhaps prepared to do as little for his country as any man on earth, but while he holds his country's interests as of no moment whatsoever in comparison with his own, he yet thinks in his heart that there is no land in the world at all comparable to the land of Iran, I believe most Persians who should be sentenced to perpetual exile, and warned that they would be liable to be condemned to death if again found upon their native soil, would, like Shimei, be unable to resist the temptation of viewing once more what is as dear to them as Jerusalem was to the descendant of Judah.
By the way in which Persians in other lands talk of their own country one would imagine that Persia was the most charming region of the whole world. Its climate, its water, its fruits, its houses, its gardens, its horses, the shooting it affords, its scenery, its women, are all the subjects of the most unqualified praise on the part of the Persian in Europe or in India. In the midst of the evidences of European splendour and luxury he boasts how superior in every respect is his native land, and while partaking in European society and dissipation, he longs to drink once more at the fountainhead of the wine of Sheeraz, and to listen once more to the recitation of the odes of Hafiz.
Persia is peopled by men of various races. A very great proportion of the population of Persia is composed of wandering tribes, that is of a large number of families who pass a portion of the year in the hills. It is in this sense only that they can be considered wanderers. They invariably occupy the same pasture-grounds one year after another. Their chiefs are possessed of great authority over the tribesmen, and all dealings between the government and the tribes are carried on through the heads of these divisions. Through the chief the taxes, whether in money or in kind, are paid, and through him the regiments which his tribe may furnish are recruited. The office of chief is hereditary. The tents in which the tribesmen dwell are for the most part composed of a light framework of the shape of a beehive. This is covered with a coating of reeds, and above it is placed a thick black-felt. It has but one door, and no window or chimney. This is the Turkoman tent, which is used by the Shahsevend and other tribes, but the Eelyats in central Persia make use of tents of another construction, with flat or slightly-sloping roofs.
The provinces near the Persian Gulf contain many Arabs and men of Arab extraction. Such are for the most part the inhabitants of Laristan, and of the country lying to the left of the Shat-el-Arab and of the lower part of the Tigris. The Bakhtiari mountains, between the valley of the lower Tigris and the plain of Ispahan, are the dwelling-place of tribes of another race, and of whom and their country very little is known. The mountains of Kurdistan give birth to a warlike people, who are attached to their own tribe-chiefs and who never go far from the borders of Turkey and of Persia, sometimes proclaiming themselves subjects to the Porte and sometimes owning allegiance to the Shah. At the foot of one part of these mountains, on the borders of the lake of Uroomiah, there is a plain on which dwell twenty-five thousand Christian families, who hold the tenets of Nestorius. At Ispahan, at Tehran, at Tabreez, and in other parts of Persia, there is a more or less considerable population of Armenians. At Hamadan, at Ispahan, at Tehran, at Meshed, at the town of Demavend, and elsewhere in Persia, Jews are found in considerable numbers. The province of Gilan is inhabited by a race of men peculiar to itself, the descendants of the ancient Gelae. The people of Mazenderan speak, as do the Gileks, a dialect of their own. The province of Astrabad is partly inhabited by Turkomans; and in the districts claimed by Persia, which border on Affghanistan and Beloochistan, the Affghan and Belooch elements are prominent in the population. At Kerman a few Hindoos reside, and at Yezd there are about two thousand families of the original fire-worshippers of Iran. But the two principal races to be met with in Persia are the Turks and the Persians or Mongols. The former are, as a general rule, spread over the northern provinces ; the latter over the southern. The Persians of Mongol extraction for the most part speak only the Persian language, while those of Turkish race speak the Turkish language in preference to the Persian.
The inhabitants of Persia may be divided into two classes those who inhabit the towns and villages, and those who dwell exclusively in tents. The former class remain stationary during the greater part of the year, the richer orders only leaving the towns for two months during the summer heats, when it is possible to obtain cool air in the hills or upper grounds close by. The tribes who dwell in tents move from place to place with the varying seasons of the year. In the spring time they drive their flocks and herds to their accustomed pasture-grounds, and if they have a right to the pasture of mountains which are inaccessible in spring they move up to their summer quarters as soon as the snow disappears. Winter finds them on the plains prepared, in their black tents, to brave its utmost rigour. These Eelyat tribes serve each a separate chief. For the Eelyats of Fars there is a hereditary chief called the Eelkhani, to whom they all owe allegiance; from whom they receive the laws that rule their conduct; and to whom they pay the revenue imposed upon them. They contribute a certain number of soldiers to the Shah's army. Very little is known as to the numbers and the peculiarities of these nomads. The Eelyat tribes of Turkish descent have an Eelkhani appointed by the Shah. Besides these tribes there are wanderers who are less numerous and who occupy a less prominent position the gipsies common to so many countries.
The Persians of almost all the denominations I have mentioned form a healthy and robust population. Probably the comparatively small amount of chronic or hereditary diseases amongst the adult inhabitants may be principally owing to the fact that all children in Persia are, when very young, exposed to a mode of treatment which must tend to put an end to the weak and unhealthy amongst them, as effectually as if the Spartan law were in existence by which all deformed children were not permitted to be brought up. The climate of the northern part of Persia is in winter exceedingly severe, but with all its rigour little children are dressed in an attire which leaves the stomach entirely unprotected. The mortality amongst children is, I suppose in consequence thereof, very great; and the infants who survive this rough treatment grow up for the most part to be healthy and vigorous. After they have passed the tender years of infancy and early childhood, their education and training are not such as to impede the free development of their youthful bodies. Most of the Persians go through some sort of education, but that their learning is not pushed to any great length may be gathered from the fact that reading the Persian language fluently is still a rare accomplishment in Persia. The Persians grow up both ignorant and superstitious, believing for the most part in Mahomed and Ali and Hussein; believing in the predictions of their soothsayers and astrologers, in lucky hours and the evil eye, and in the occult science which derives its name from the Magi. Persians are, as a general rule, not devoid of intelligence ; but their cleverness is too often allied to want of honesty and moral rectitude. The children amongst the ancient Persians, we are told, were taught to ride, to speak the truth, and to draw the bow. The chief thing impressed on the sons of their representatives would seem to be that which was taught to the children of the Spartans namely, never to allow themselves to be found out in telling a falsehood. This lesson they certainly take to heart. Nothing is more difficult than to convict a Persian of telling an untruth, and nothing at the same time less common than to hear the plain facts of a case from the lips of an inhabitant of that country.
Like their ancestors, the modern Persians are taught to ride. They make use of high-peaked saddles, and wedge their feet into flat iron stirrups, and lean well forward, so that when their horses fall they not only come with great violence to the ground, but generally find their feet entangled. Nevertheless, they ride courageously at full speed over the very worst ground, and by the very brinks of the most appalling precipices. They are utter strangers to the fear that comes of physical nervousness. When their courage fails them, as it too often does, the fact is to be attributed to moral causes. They are skilled in the knack of throwing the jereed and catching it again without once having checked their speed ; and like the Parthians of yore, these with their bullets as those with their arrows, can check the pursuit of their enemies by deliberately turning round in their saddles and aiming steadily and firing, while all the time they are galloping before the face of the foe. A skilled Persian horseman, too, can avoid the blow of a spear thrown after him by swinging himself over the saddle and suspending himself by his legs until the danger be past.
The Persian character does not seem to have, for the most part, produced a favourable impression upon Europeans.[3] But as the character of no nation is without its defects, so is there no people whose character can be said to be wholly bad. Many good qualities are to be found side by side with the crimes and vices that defile the land of Persia. The people in general are patient and easily governed. The poorer classes are frugal and respectful. The poor are not allowed by their rich countrymen to starve for want of food. Fathers of families, as a general rule, make a suitable provision for all their offspring, whether born in lawful wedlock, or illegitimate. All classes own willing allegiance to their lawful sovereign, and men conduct themselves towards each other with good nature and with the outward forms of respect. On the other hand, one cannot live amongst Persians without becoming aware of the absence from their character of many of the qualities that make human life most pleasant, and of the presence, in their stead, of many of the habits and vices that are held elsewhere to disgrace humanity. If there be any beauty in truth, in honesty in dealings between man and man, in uprightness and independence of character, in wedded love, in family life and family affection, in readiness to sacrifice fortune or life, if necessary, for the public good, in tolerance towards others in points relating to religion, in fair play towards others, in gratitude for past kindness, in modesty, in a consistent endeavour to provide for the well-being of posterity such beauty it would be vain to expect to meet with in Persia. ***** Two hundred and fifty-three monarchs have in succession mounted the Persian throne,[4] and the theory of the Persian constitution is to the effect that theKing is the state, and that all men live for the king. The authority of the Shah, however, is kept in check by the precepts of the Koran ; by the courts established for the administration of justice, according to the Sherra, or written law ; and by those in which decisions are given according to the Urf, or customary law. All appointments to offices throughout the kingdom are made by the Shah or by those to whom he delegates his authority. The King of Persia is constantly attended by a set of gentlemen who are denominated peishkhidmets, or waiters in the presence. They correspond in rank and title to the lords and gentlemen in waiting at the courts of Europe. They are not only contented, like them, to assume the denomination of household servants, but they perform the actual duties of domestic retainers. The Shah's dishes at breakfast and at dinner are placed upon the tablecloth by men holding a high position in the country, some of them being the sons of his ministers, and others being themselves governors of provinces. The Shah's kalean, or pipe, is held by a nobleman, when his Majesty thinks proper to smoke ; and when he leaves the room the royal slippers are placed before his feet by a man who may, perhaps, any day be chosen to represent the majesty of Persia at a foreign court. Indeed, some of the favoured aides-de-camp and gentlemen-in-waiting would scarcely care to exchange their position, in which they bask continually in the sunshine of the royal presence, for a mission to a foreign court, which they would consider at best as a sort of honourable banishment. Those of the Shah's personal attendants who have been appointed to be governors of provinces seldom or never care to proceed to their respective governments. They appoint deputies to rule in their place, whilst they continue to stand in the presence of the king, subject though they be to those little inconveniences that arise from the sudden ebullitions of temper to which even the mildest of men occasionally give way. A peishlchidmet who may he unfortunate enough to arouse the royal anger is adjudged, without appeal, on the spot to the punishment of the bastinado, which, however, can generally be modified by a little adroit bribery.
The terms of flattery with which a king's ears are in Persia besieged from infancy, might be supposed sufficient to destroy much of the original goodness of a prince's disposition. The sons of the Shah are in their childhood surrounded by an establishment of ceremonious adulators, and the heir-apparent is usually named at a very early age to be the titular governor of the principal province of Persia. He goes to reside at Tabreez, and is thus removed from the guardianship of his mother, who is probably the only person in the world who cares sufficiently for his best interests to correct him when he ought to be corrected, and to check him when he ought to be checked. He receives thus an artificial education, and by being forced at so early an age to take a prominent part in public ceremonials, he becomes prematurely a man, when it would be better for him to be still a boy. At the age of fourteen or fifteen he is married to a wife, of whom, the chances are, he soon grows tired. He then marries another, and then a third, and his anderoon goes on increasing. Up to the present time no prince royal of Persia has ever had the good fortune to travel abroad. Were the king or the heir-apparent to do so, many of the arts of civilization might, to some extent, no doubt, be introduced into Persia on his return ; but the risk of finding his throne threatened by others is at all times too great to admit of the Shah venturing to leave Persia.
The King of Persia chooses his wives not exclusively from amongst the princesses or the highly-born ladies of the land, but equally from amongst the whole of the daughters of his subjects. Any peasant, if she be beautiful, may become the favourite wife of the Shah, and the mother of the heir-apparent. The son of the present King, who was first designated to be his successor, was born of the daughter of a peasant. The boy died, as did his only full brother, and in his place the son of a princess was named the King's heir. It is probably to the free admixture of stranger blood in the royal family of Persia that the healthiness and the unusually great personal attractions of the princes and princesses are chiefly to be attributed. ***** The Persian Government, as I have said, is formed upon the principle common to all independent Mussulman nations, namely, that the head of the state is an absolute King, who is expected to rule according to the laws laid down in the book containing the decisions of the successors of Mahomed.
In all dubious cases the Koran forms the authority to which both sides can appeal, and the meaning and application of the Koran are expounded by the men of the law, who make it the business of their lives to prepare themselves for explaining the sacred texts, and to point out and apply the decisions of the fathers. This is the law of the country, and though the Shah has power over the law insomuch that in cases not coming within circumstances specified in the written or traditionary Mahomedan code he may exercise his own discretion, yet as being a Mahomedan the Shah is under the same law as his subjects, and Mahomedanism has too much force in Persia to render it safe for any king to interfere with the dispensation of law according to the principles laid down for the observance of the disciples of Mahomed. But the learned doctors are only the expounders of the law, and merely give their opinions upon points referred to them. They have no authority to see their precepts put into practice, or to insist on their decisions being carried out. The enforcement of the law is the province of the Shah, and of the ministers and governors in authority under him.
The sovereign in Persia has unlimited power to name his own Vizeers, and afterwards to degrade them when it suits his views to do so. The normal state of things in all Mahomedan governments is that there should be a Grand Vizeer ; but this post has remained vacant in Persia for the last six years, since the disgrace of the late Sedr Azem, who is one of the very few eastern Grand Vizeers who have lost their place without at the same time losing their life.[5] The Prime Minister, when such a functionary exists, is the alter ego of the Shah the superintendent of every branch of the administration, and the referee on every disputed question. In the absence of a Grand Vizeer, many of the functions proper to such a post devolve on the Shah himself. There are several Vizeers in office, each at the head of a department, but although one of them is president of the council of ministers, they do not, out of the council chamber, owe obedience to any one save to the Shah, to whom such matters are at present referred as used in former days to be settled by the Grand Vizeer. The President of the Council is the Mostofi-el-Memalek the Secretary of State—who is Minister of Finance. The other Vizeers, or secretaries, are the Minister of the Interior, under whom are all the provincial governors ; the Minister for Foreign Affairs ; the Minister of Justice ; the Minister of Public Works ; the Master of the Mint ; the Minister of War, who is also Commander-in-Chief of the Army ; and the Comptroller of the Privy Purse and Private Secretary of the King. Each of the Vizeers has a large number of secretaries and clerks under him, to attend to the duties of his particular department.
The Persian Government cannot be said to be a very efficient or an energetic one. Great confusion prevails in almost every branch of the administration. The Ministers retain their power during the Shah's pleasure, and it is believed that one of the chief objects of securing office in Persia, next to that of gaining the royal favour, is to amass as much money as the direction of a department is capable of affording. Almost everything in Persia is a question of money. The Vizeers have not only to pay for their posts on their first being appointed, but they have afterwards from time to time to pay for the privilege of continuing in office. In return, they, as a matter of course, think it right to apply the same rule to their subordinates and clients, and the result is that justice is a thing to be bought, rather than claimed as a right, and that a man who is rich enough to compound for his offences may do almost what he pleases.
All governors of provinces and of towns must pay for their appointments, which they hold not for any special period, but during the king's pleasure. They do not, as a general rule, exercise the power of life and death over those they govern ; but this authority is delegated to the rulers of the chief provinces of the empire at a distance from the capital, such as Azerbaeejan, Fars, and Khorassan. It is found that, as a rule, men remain in office much longer than would be supposed, seeing that dismissal does not follow incapacity, but depends chiefly on the caprice or the necessities of the head of the State. It is no uncommon thing for a man to remain five or even ten years at one post, and when an official personage quits one government or office, it is, as a general rule, only to go to another, for no Persian makes such poor use of his time in office as not to be rich enough when it is over to purchase for himself another post. The authority of the governor of any province or district at a distance from the capital is so great, that few of those under it care to subject themselves to the effects of his anger by making representations against him at Tehran ; but when a notoriously bad governor is named to a town or district, the people occasionally send a present to the Shah, with a request that the dreaded ruler may be transferred to another post. ***** There is no system of national schools in Persia. All the towns and villages are provided with moollahs, or priests, who give instruction to children ; but the terms upon which they do so are arranged between the masters and the parents of those they instruct. Boys of all ages attend these schools, where they are taught to read the Koran, to read the Persian writing, to add and multiply figures, to write, &c. The schoolmaster generally receives a present from a boy's father on the son's being able to prove that he can read any part of the Koran. The terms upon which a youth is taught the slender amount of information which the village instructor can convey to him are very moderate ; but, notwithstanding this, education is still so far behindhand in Persia, that a man who can read and write prefixes the word meerza to his name by way of an advertisement of his acquirements. Girls are allowed to attend a moollah's class up to the age of seven years, after which their education is confided to the care of a learned woman. Children of high rank are instructed in their father's house by persons hired for the purpose. Girls are taught to read, and to write, and to sew, and occasionally their education includes some instruction in Persian music. But the range of their ideas is by no means wide, and a man more instructed than a Persian generally is would not, probably, find their society very engaging.
An exception to the rule by which education in Persia is left to private persons, is in the case of the college which has been established by the Government at Tehran. The pupils in that establishment are maintained at the Shah's expense during the course of their instruction. The college is placed under the direction of the Minister for Public Works, and amongst the professors there are several Europeans. The French language is taught to those who wish to study it, and the English language is professed and taught by a Frenchman. The other branches of an ordinary country education in Europe are also more or less provided for.
Of late years the Shah has been in the habit of sending a certain number of youths to France to be there instructed in medicine and in the different other branches of ordinary learning. Several of these have come back to Persia, but they are looked on with an eye of distrust by the majority of their less instructed countrymen, who take care to do all in their power to prevent them from having the opportunity of putting in practice anything they may have learned, and thereby throwing others into the shade. Whether any material results will in time follow this movement no one can as yet pretend to have sufficient grounds for knowing.
*****
The national religion of Persia is Mahomedanism of the Sheeah sect. The Persians maintain the inalienable right of Ali to the immediate succession to the throne and mantle of Mahomed. The ministers of religion enjoy great influence amongst all classes of the people, and it may be observed, as being illustrative of the respect felt by Persians for the Mahomedan religion, that, though they are notoriously untruthful, they do not dare to take a false oath if it be administered by a Mujtehed, or high priest. Indeed, these functionaries are very loth to administer oaths, for fear of entangling a true believer in falsehood. The peculiar feature with regard to the religion of the Persians is the extreme veneration which they feel for the memory of Hussein, the son of Ali. That Imam does not seem to have done anything which merited the honours that are yearly paid to his shade. Ten successive representations are devoted to the exhibition of his sufferings and death, and each year, on the first day of the month of Mohurrem, most Persians appear clad in the sombre garments of mourning. During that month each quarter of a Persian town has a theatre for this religious representation, in which the impassioned beholders sit in long rows regarding the performance on the stage. The interior decoration of these theatres is sometimes very gorgeous. Each takeah has a patron, who takes care, for the sake of his own reputation, that the interior be suitably arranged. The one whose patron is the Shah, is, as might be supposed, the most magnificent of all. His Majesty assigns to the merchants of Tehran the honourable task of decorating the different portions of the royal takeah, and the merchants gladly respond, at their own cost, to the invitation.
His majesty and all the court are present at the different representations, and no cost is spared for the dresses of the actors or the illumination of the stage. So dear is this performance to the Persians that all classes contribute willingly of their wealth or their labour to render it successful. The experienced moollahs who are employed as stage managers may be seen hurrying through the town on their mules, going from one takeah to another to give the benefit of their experience. Singers lend their voices to swell the mournful chant. Little children are brought on the stage, and repeat their parts with surprising correctness, and with much feeling. The owners of the finest armour lend their glittering helmets and burnished coats of mail to deck the warriors of Yezeed. Carpenters work for nothing in constructing the tiers of seats for the audience, and soldiers come forward gladly to represent the contending hosts on the Arabian plain. If by any accident a man be killed during the performance of the Tazeeah it is considered that his soul goes directly to the regions of eternal bliss. If anything go wrong during the representation it is considered to be a sign of the displeasure of the Almighty. In this year, 1864, a violent storm took place during the holy days at Tehran. Before the fierce volume of dust and wind tent after tent went down, inflicting death and injury on those within, and destroying a countless amount of property. So dire a calamity must have followed a special offence, and the priests and holy men were not long in finding out the reason of this display of the wrath of heaven. There is among the priesthood of Tehran a moollah whose remarkable gifts entitle him to be numbered among the sons of thunder. He was the favourite divine of the capital, and his brethren were sufficiently jealous of his acquirements and of his popularity. He was admitted to preach in the anderoons, and was supposed to be a man altogether immaculate. It came to be known, 'however, that, like the rigidly virtuous Cato, he was not insensible to the charms of wine, and his enemies took care that he should be one day publicly discovered in a state of drunkenness. He was brought before the chief priest to receive a sentence, which was proportioned rather to the scandal that had been created than to the rarity of his offence. He was condemned to a cruel and degrading death ; a penalty which, however, on the eve of the days of the festival, was remitted by the Shah, who is a lover of the highest attribute of kings. His Majesty furthermore commanded the eloquent moollah to preach on one of the days of Mohurrem, which day was followed by the occurrence of the storm that swept away the royal Tazeah, and thus the other priests had no difficulty in divining the cause of the hurricane.
Ere the royal tent had fallen, a last effort was made by a saintly man to avert the coming calamity. This fanatic, who was willing to show his faith by deeds, declared to the bystanders that the tent could never fall which contained so holy a thing as himself. He therefore spurred his horse into the midst of the arena, from whence he invoked the mercy of Him on whom he called. But all was in vain. A fresh gale at that instant hurled the tent from its base, and buried horse and rider under its folds.
Many pious sheeahs disapprove of the holy subject of the death of Hussein being represented on the stage. In some parts of the Shah's dominions, no theatrical exhibition takes place, but priests read in families the same mournful story during the appointed days of Mokurrem. During these days the whole nation is moved to hysterical sorrow to a degree scarcely to be credited by those who have not witnessed it. Not only do women and children, but bearded and aged men, sob and cry as if their hearts would burst, when under the influence of the actor's performance or of the preacher's eloquence. Nor is it only when at the theatre or the mosque, or the prayer-meeting, that Hussein's mournful story is present to their thoughts. They carry to their houses the impression of the preacher's words, and it is no uncommon thing to meet in those days in the streets of the city a band of young men chanting a dirge-like song, the burden of which is—" Alas ! alas ! for Hussein." ***** The military force of Persia consists, in theory, of a hundred thousand men, infantry, cavalry, and artillery ; the greater proportion of this number being regular infantry. The cavalry is nearly all irregular, and is in general only called on for local service under the chiefs of the particular district where it is raised. The Shah's body-guard consists of two regiments of regular cavalry, of about 800 men each. One of these bodies of horsemen are called gholams, or slaves, of the Shah, and are considered to hold a very honourable station in society. There has been lately raised another small troop of body-guards known by their accoutrements of silver. The irregular cavalry are variously habited, according to the custom of the country whence they are drawn. One small troop in Kurdistan is clad in mail and complete armour. There are about 5,000 artillerymen in the Persian army, and this branch of the service is by no means badly organized. It is their artillery that gives to the Persians the advantage in their contests with the Turkoman tribes.
The Persian soldiers afford excellent material for an army, but the military system of the country is such as to neutralize the good qualities of the private sentinels. Persian soldiers are naturally and individually sufficiently brave. They are remarkably hardy, patient, and enduring. They require scarcely any baggage, and can march thirty miles a day for many successive days, while living on nothing but bread and onions. They patiently endure almost any treatment, however hard. Their pay is always kept in arrears, generally for two or three years. When it is issued the men do not receive it in full. The lieutenant-colonel of a regiment exacts a certain contribution from the captains, who in turn demand a sum for themselves from the soldiers, and so on. Enlistment is compulsory, each district and each tribe being obliged to furnish its quota of men. For this service there are no volunteers, as the hardships of a Persian soldier's life are too well known throughout the country to induce the peasants willingly to encounter them. Each regiment is recruited from the district where it was raised, and the men serve not for any specified period, but until they are no longer capable of serving. In their old age they may obtain their discharge and find other occupation for themselves, or be thrown on public charity. The Persian regiments are not generally provided with a surgeon, but the hospital arrangements of each corps are under the superintendence of the commanding officer, and they are bad or not, according to his honesty or capacity.
There is no commissariat department in the Shah's army, and all baggage is carried by asses. The troops are armed with percussion muskets, which are now supplied from the Persian arsenals. As the soldiers are generally without any ready money, and get no rations, they receive permission to work as labourers in the fields, or as mechanics. It is on the proceeds of such labour that a large portion of the army mainly subsists. The officers, excepting those in the higher grades, occupy a very modest position in a Persian social point of view. An officer below the rank of major is not considered to be a gentleman. All grades in the army are filled up from favour or from bribery, and consequently there is much incapacity to be met with amongst the officers in command. As a general rule they have little or no knowledge of military affairs, and they have as little reliance on themselves as their men have confidence in them. They are not wanting individually in physical courage, but their moral deficiencies neutralize in the hour of battle any physical good qualities of which they may be possessed. The chiefs have not patriotism sufficient to induce them to face death, willingly, for their country's sake, and the soldiers, believing that the chiefs have neither skill nor courage, generally take to flight before a determined opponent. The Persian regiments are trained after the European manner: they are taught by a number of instructors of different European nations, but these officers hold no command in the Persian army. Their labours are in a great measure thrown away, owing to the habit which prevails of granting a whole regiment leave of absence for six or eight months together a boon which is often conceded to a corps on condition of its relinquishing its claims to arrears of pay. ***** The conditions to which working men in Persia are subjected vary to a certain degree in the different provinces of the kingdom. I shall endeavour to state what their life often is in the districts near the city of Tehran. The faleh, or labourer, is ready to undertake almost any description of occupation. He works in the city as an assistant to a mason, mixing lime or carrying bricks, or, if he be wanted, he is equally ready to give aid in the cultivation of gardens or fields in the country. His working hours are from sunrise to sunset each day of the week except Friday, which is generally observed as a day of rest. About ten o'clock he has an interval of half an hour for breakfast; and from one to two o'clock he rests again to take food, to say his prayers, and sometimes to sleep for a little while. He generally works in a lazy manner, and requires to be kept under the eye of an overseer. For a day's labour he receives, in Tehran, a sum varying from 5⅓d. to 11d., according to the season of the year, and in the country he generally receives rather more than at Tehran. In the winter he is often out of work, and in the springtime his labour is cheaply bought; but as summer advances he is more in request, and in the autumn his wages are at the highest point to which they reach. Of the sum which he daily earns he spends generally about one-half or three-fourths for his breakfast and dinner and clothing, and he lays by the rest against the winter, when he will have nothing to do; or else he sends it to his wife. The Persian labourer is, as a general rule, a married man. If he have to go forth from his native village in search of work he usually leaves his wife behind him. If his wife have children she does not go out to service, but if she be unencumbered she often takes employment in the household of some gentleman. The wife of a labouring man in Persia, although she seldom does any work in the fields, can assist her husband to some extent in earning the bread of the family. She can undertake the making, or the mending, or the washing, of clothes, and she can utilize her spare time in preparing cotton-twist and in various other ways. Her clothes, and those of her children, if she have any, are the reverse of costly; her husband wears but one suit of garments in the year; and the house-rent they pay is light. The staple of a labouring man's food is bread, which commodity is usually sold at Tehran at the rate of one man (or 6¾ lbs.) for 8 shahis, or 4d. Beef is cheap and abundant in winter, but it is not eaten at other seasons of the year. As a general rule Persian peasants eat meat three or four times a week, if they cannot afford to eat of it every day. In the autumn they salt mutton for the winter consumption. They enjoy a plentiful supply of milk, cheese, and rice. Mutton is usually sold at from twopence to threepence to the pound. Rice is the article of food most in demand;[6] vegetables are cheap, and of various kinds; and fruit, including grapes, mulberries, melons, and water-melons, is in the summer and autumn months exceedingly abundant, and to be had at the lowest imaginable prices. Sherbets and ice are within the means of the poorest people, and, altogether, in respect of diet, the condition of the labouring man in Persia can bear a favourable comparison with that of the peasant of most other countries.
Much has been said and written regarding the oppression to which the country population in Persia are subjected from those placed in authority over them, or from powerful personages who may pass through their districts. But, whatever may be the case in other parts of the country, in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital the rural population are not subjected to much habitual tyranny. They pay their contributions towards the support of the Government, and supply their proportion of soldiers for the army, and if any one attempt to put exactions upon them they can make their voice heard by their landlords, or, if necessary, by the Shah himself, who has recently established a way for receiving petitions direct from any one whomsoever. The occasions on which Persian villages suffer most are when governors or princes pass through a district on their way to their posts, accompanied by a numerous train of exacting followers. A royal progress, too, is a source of no small loss to the population of those parts of the country through which the king passes. His Majesty, it is true, pays liberally for all the provisions supplied to his numerous travelling establishment, but it is to be feared that the money so given by the king never finds its way into the pockets of those whom he intends to be its recipients. The king is for ever on the move, and it occasionally happens that when he announces his intention of honouring some particular province with a visit the inhabitants, so far from feeling elated, send his Majesty a large present in money in order to induce him to spare them the intended honour.
The Persian peasants' recreations are the yearly-recurring festivals, when work is wholly or partially suspended. These are the new-year, the gathering of the harvest, and the seasons appointed for observance by the religious authorities. Every village in Persia is supplied with a bath, which is a source of great enjoyment to the villagers. An ice-house is attached to each village. The houses occupied by the Persian peasantry are sufficiently comfortable, and generally contain felts or carpets, and such articles of domestic furniture as are necessary for the use of a family. Although slavery exists in Persia all field-labour is free, the slaves being only employed in domestic service. Persian Mahomedan peasants are not even tied down to one spot, but can go from one village to seek work in another, according to their own convenience. Each village, however, has a patron, or feudal-lord, at whose expense the peasants are all entertained on the recurrence of the yearly feasts. All Persians of any consequence maintain a large number of idle retainers about them, who contribute nothing to the general wealth of the country.
The class of men who obtain their daily bread by the charity of others is also very numerous in Persia. There are no poor-laws or workhouses, and, therefore, to private charity is left the task of relieving the wants of the indigent. If such relief were only extended to the diseased, the aged, and the infirm, the calls upon the charitable would be comparatively slight; but I believe the greater proportion of the beggars of Persia to be composed of able-bodied men, who lack no means, except the will, necessary to enable them to earn their own bread. The fraternity of dervishes or religious mendicants is spread over the country. They are for the most part an entertaining set of men, who enjoy the good things of this life, and who appeal for charity, not to any physical claims to it, but to their religious character solely. These useless members of society are of two classes, those who reside in towns and live at their ease in the midst of their families, and those who make a vow of celibacy, and who wander about the country. The distinguishing badges of the first of these two classes are the dervish's cap, the peculiarly shaped axe carried over the shoulder, and the water-cup slung over the arm. There are hundreds of these jovial beggars scattered over Persia, and many of those in Tehran find their employment so lucrative that they are enabled by it to live in well-appointed houses, and to eat of the fat of the land. They have a chief who disposes to a certain extent of their gains, and who assigns to each dervish the post he is to occupy on the annual occasion when the house of each wealthy person in Tehran is besieged by a member of this brotherhood, who refuses to quit his position outside the door until he has received his contribution. The dervish pitches a small tent or covering for himself in the street, and makes a small plot of garden beneath it, and there he sits from morning till night, and nearly all night through, until he has received his money. When he has been suitably paid he retires at once, and there is no fear of another taking his place. But if the master of the house be indifferent to the inconvenience of having a spy constantly at his gate, whom there is no dislodging, the dervish after a time has recourse to other measures than the mere display of patience. In the dead of night he blows his horn under the windows of his victim, and the sound of this blast is considered so peculiarly unlucky, that the master of the house is at once beset by all within it, and entreated no longer to defer giving his contribution. The dervish does not have recourse to this extreme measure until he has allowed a suitable time to elapse. He probably thinks it his duty to earn his money by remaining at the gate for some days, and it is also a sign of importance to have a dervish at one's door, and therefore the house-owner is in no hurry to remove him, so long as he abstains from using his horn.
The dervishes who take a vow and roam about the country may be supposed to be influenced by motives of religion. They are often thinly clad, and if they receive much in charity they do not seem to indulge in many luxuries. Their heads are bare, and their aspect altogether such as to open the hearts of the charitable. Besides the dervishes, there are many professional beggars in all the towns of Persia. In Tehran they had so increased in numbers, that in the year 1863 all beggars were prohibited from asking for charity in the city. Many of these are real objects of mercy—the halt, the maimed, and the blind—but many of them also are strong men who only put on the appearance of blindness in order to draw down pity. But what they want in real claims they generally make up for in the eloquence and loudness and perseverance with which they ask for alms. There is no hour of the day, and no day of the week, that does not, according to them, seem to afford a special reason why people should at that particular time be charitable. It would seem to be held by them as being almost beyond question, that a mendicant who demands alms on the night of Friday is entitled to receive relief. A still more cogent reason is the recurrence of any feast-day, such as that of the birth of Mahomed, or of Ali, or of Hussein. One is asked for the sake of God, and for the sake of the holy Prophet, for the sake of the blessed Ali, and of the martyred Imam, or for that of the revered Zeinul- Abedein, to take pity on the poor, and to relieve their necessities.[7] A little flattery, too, is generally applied to the passers-by. A domestic servant is called a khan; a syed is loudly reminded that he is the descendant of the blessed Prophet; and a respectable Persian gentleman is boldly addressed as a prince. The mendicants often sit in groups of twos or threes, and while the one makes an eloquent and touching appeal to the feelings of the passers-by, the others emphasize it by the words "Illahi amen!"—"Oh, God! amen!" ***** Within the last thirty years an expensive and flourishingtrade has sprung up between Persia and various European nations. Cotton, silkworms, silk, wool and other raw produce, are exported to England, France, and Russia, and in return Persia receives manufactured goods and articles of luxury from Europe. As the imports exceed the exports, Persia is each year drained of a very considerable amount of gold or of silver to make up the balance. The quantity, indeed, of precious metals which must have been collected in Persia must have been very considerable in order to have withstood for so long the drain which has been now going on for years. It is the opinion of some European merchants that money will soon become so scarce in Persia as to reduce the imports to the measure of the exports. Money bears in Persia a value beyond that which it has in almost any other country. The legal rate of interest is twelve per cent., but no money, as a general rule, can be obtained on such easy terms. Twenty-four per cent., with ample security, is easily obtained for a loan, and sometimes as much as sixty per cent, a year is extorted by usurers in contributions of five per cent, a month. Were the Persians given to taking thought for the morrow, they could very easily either provide in their own country many articles, —such as sugar—which are now imported from abroad; or, on the other hand, they could, by making means of communication between the interior and the seaports, pave the way for an indefinite increase of the exports from their country. But political economy is not as yet studied in Persia, and things go on year after year from bad to worse, the experience of the past leaving little room for hope of any amelioration in the future.
It may seem strange that there should be a very large consumption of wines and of spirits in a country the bulk of the people of which are Mahomedans. Such, however, is the case in Persia. Wines are valued for their intoxicating qualities and not at all for their flavour, and therefore the inferior wines of the country are more in demand than the costly produce of the grapes of Europe.
Persia, on the whole, is an unusually healthy country, but there are certain diseases which are more prevalent amongst Persians than amongst many other nations. When one bears in mind the great elevation of the tableland of Persia, the numerous chains of mountains with which the country is intersected, and the consequent variation of temperature to which the people, living as they do in a sunny land, are exposed, one learns without surprise that fevers prevail to a great extent amongst the Persians. For another reason this complaint prevails in the low-lying provinces of Persia, namely, because they are overrun with moisture and with vegetation, and the hot sun produces malaria. This could in a great measure be remedied by draining. Consumption is rare amongst Persians, although it is not altogether unknown. Dysentery is a common disease amongst them, and cholera and small-pox have at intervals made great ravages in that country. Diseases of the eye are also exceedingly frequent, the glare everywhere being very strong in summer, and dust-storms being constantly encountered.
During the last two thousand years, whose history we possess, Persia has been repeatedly overrun by foreign conquerors, and the sequel of each conquest has been the same, namely, that the influence of climate and of luxurious Persian habits has relaxed the energies and the original virtues of the invaders, and disposed them in turn to fall victims to another conquering people. No truth is more plainly written on the page of universal history than that a foreign race loses its distinguishing qualities unless continually reinforced by recruits from its native land. The last complete invasion of Persia occurred sufficiently long ago to admit of time having softened down the enthusiasm and the energy of the conquerors. The races who at present inhabit Persia have become habituated to the climate, and are as much the growth of the soil as are the castor-oil plant and the pomegranate. The dry, rarefied climate of the high table-land of Persia redeems its inhabitants from sluggish dulness of the imagination, but it does not redeem them from the listlessness produced by the Eastern Sun.
The inhabitants of Persia are contented with their condition and dead to all desire of progress, to which indeed their religion is a sufficient bar. Under these circumstances it is in vain to look for the dawn of a brighter day over the realms of Iran until a fresh element be introduced into its population. A demand for foreign luxuries may be generated by the perseverance of foreign traders, and some barbarous practices may fall into disuse through the influence of European missions, but neither the Persian people nor the Persian Government possesses the energy requisite for any real progressive movement in the path of civilization. The impulse necessary to produce such a movement in Persia, if it ever be given, must, as in the case of Hindustan, be given by a race of foreign conquerors, and until the course of time bring round a fresh settlement of energetic peoples in Persia, that country must linger on in its present condition of semi-stagnation.
- ↑ Sir J. Malcolm.
- ↑ The admirable work of the Chevalier Chardin contains such a correct, detailed description of the customs, religion, and productions of Persia, that it is unnecessary to enter into a minute examination of these. I shall in this chapter confine myself to the endeavour to give the English reader a general idea of the state of society amongst the modern Persians, and of the conditions of life in that country.
- ↑ Of the many authors who have described the modern Persians, I shall only here quote from two—the late Sir H. Pottinger, and the late Sir J. Macdonald. The former writes:—"Among themselves, with their equals, the Persians are affable and polite; to their superiors, servile and obsequious ; and towards their inferiors haughty and domineering. All ranks are equally avaricious, sordid, and dishonest, when they have an opportunity of being so ; nor do they care for detection when they have once reaped the benefit of their superior genius, as they term it. Falsehood they look upon in all cases where it facilitates their ends, not only justifiable, but highly commendable, and good faith, generosity, and gratitude are alike unknown to them. * * * * In short, to close this outline of the Persian diameter," I shall add, without the fear of confutation, that from my own observation, I feel inclined to look upon Persia at the present day to be the very fountainhead of every species of tyranny, cruelty, meanness, injustice, extortion, and infamy, that can disgrace or pollute human nature, or have ever been found in any age or nation." Sir J. Macdonald observes : " The Persians are a remarkably handsome race of men, brave, hospitable, patient in adversity, affable to strangers, and highly polished in their manners. They are gentle and insinuating in their address, and, as companions, agreeable and entertaining; but, in return, they are totally devoid of many estimable qualities, and profoundly versed in all arts of deceit and hypocrisy. They are haughty to inferiors, obsequious to superiors, cruel, vindictive, treacherous, and avaricious without faith, friendship, gratitude, or honour."
- ↑ See Chardin.
- ↑ Written before the accession to power of the Sepah Salar, in March, 1865.
- ↑ The potato is not esteemed by the Persians. That vegetable, it may be remarked, does not, as some writers have been led to believe, bear the name of Alu-i Malcolm. The Persian word for potato is Seeb i zameen, which is an exact translation of pomme de terre or erd-apfel.
- ↑ If a European pass, they will appeal in the name of Hezret Eesa, the Jesus, or in that of the Virgin Mary.