PERSIA 194 PERSIA teri-anean aqueducts convey the water to more remote situations. Productions and Climate. — The vege- table productions of Persia embrace all kinds of legumes and cereals, except rye, oats, and rice; barley and wheat are the most abundant crops. Drugs of various kinds are obtained, such as senna, rhu- barb, gums, opium, etc.; as also oils, cot- ton, indigo, sugar, madder, dates, pista- chio nuts, and tobacco; while in flowers, and the perfumes extracted from them, especially the attar of roses, no country in the world can compare with Persia for beauty, fragrance, and abundance. Silk is an important item; and planta- tions of mulberry trees of great extent are very numerous. Vast flocks of sheep and goats are pastured over the country, the property and wealth of the wander- ing tribes of the interior, the Eelauts, a kind of Bedouins, devoting themselves to pastoral habits. The animals for which Persia is famous are camels, horses, mules, oxen, asses, and buffalos. The mineral wealth consists of silver, copper, lead, iron, antimony, salt, preci- ous stones — especially turquoise — bitu- men, and springs of naphtha. There are also large, undeveloped fields of coal and petroleum. One of the features of Persia is the abundance of salt in the soil, and the large number of its salt lakes; about 30 pure salinas have no out- let; and one, the largest, Urumiah, is 280 miles in circumference, and, though supplied by 14 rivers, its water is so dense, bitter, and loaded with salt, that no fish can live in it. Another, called the Bakhtegan, is 42 miles long. Situ- ated near the former are some remark- able ponds, whose waters are petrifying. The climate of Persia embraces the rigors experienced on the mountains of the snowy N., and the heat felt on the sandy plains of Africa. Cyrus the younger told Xenophon that his father's empire was so vast that in the N. the people perished of cold, and in the S. were suffocated with heat. Manufactures. — The manufactures of Persia are numerous and important, and embrace all kinds of silk fabrics, satins, taffetas, textures of silk and cotton, silk and goat's hair, or silk and camel's hair; brocades, camel's hair shawls, gold tis- sues, gold velvet, camlets, carpets, cot- tons, leather, firearms, sword blades, saddlery and jewelry. Commerce. — The imports of 1917-1918 amounted to £15,602,200, and the exports to £11,290,500. ^ The chief imports were cotton, sugar, rice, manufactures of iron and steel, petroleum, and yarn. The chief exports were fruits, cotton, opium, animals, petroleum, and carpets. In 1917-1918 the industries suffered from drought and famine, which were followed by an epidemic of influenza, which great- ly reduced the riopulation. The harvest of 1919 was excellent and promised a revival of activity. Industry in general suffered by interruption of commerce with Russia, which before the World War had been large. Transportation. — In August, 1919, the British Government signed an agreement with Persia providing for the construc- tion of railways and other forms of transportation. There were in 1920 less than 100 miles of railway. Practically all the traffic is carried on by roads, and these for the most part are poor. There are about 6,500 miles of telegTaph line. Finance. — There are no available fig- ures later than 1913-1914. At that time the revenue amounted to £1,480,778. The gross customs receipts in 1916-1917 were approximately £850,000. Government. — Up to 1906 Persia was an absolute monarchy resembling in its form of government Turkey. The shah was the absolute ruler. In 1905 the peo- ple demanded representative government and in January, 1906, the shah gave his consent to the establishment of a na- tional council. This, however, was never established and it ceased to exist as a legislative body in 1915. The govern- ment of the country is in the hands of a cabinet consisting of eight ministers. It is divided into 33 provinces, each of which is governed by a governor-general. Language and History. — The Persian language is the most celebrated of all the Oriental tongues, for strength, copious- ness, beauty, and melody, and is written from the right to the left. Persia is divided into 12 provinces, namely: Azer- baijan, Kurdistan, Luristan, and Khusis- tan, on the W. ; Farsistan, Laristan, and Kirman, on the shores of the Persian Gulf, or S.; Irak-Ajemi and Khorassan, in the interior; and Ghilan, Mazanderan and Astrabad, in the N., or along the Caspian shores. The modern capital is Teheran. The earliest account we pos- sess of Persia is from the Bible, from which we learn that, in the time of Abra- ham, 1921 B. C, that portion of modern Persia known as Elam, or Suisiana, southern Persia, was a powerful mon- archy. But the Persians, as a nation, first rose into notice on the ruins of the great empires founded on the Euphrates. Babylon was taken by Cyrus, and his empire extended wider than any before established in the world. It comprised, on one side, the W. of India; on the other, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt; and was only bounded by the prodigies of valor with which the Greeks defended
