SCANNED BY DUANE TROXEL; NOT SPELLCHECKED OR PROOFREAD

THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED ONLINE IN THE HOPE THAT A VOLUNTEER WILL 
PROOFREAD AND FORMAT IT. IF YOU CAN HELP, PLEASE CONSULT THE STYLE 
SHEET AT <a href=http://bahai-library.com/editors/style.sheet.html>bahai-library.com/editors/style.sheet.html</a> AND THEN 
WRITE TO JONAH WINTERS. THANK YOU, YOUR HELP IS GREATLY NEEDED!




CURZON, GEORGE N.
PERSIAN AND THE PERSIAN QUESTION
(both volumes)

LONDON: LONGMAN & CO, 1892


ess to enlarge. The most casual 
between visitor to the true East is no stranger to its strange in the East 9 and West tensity. 
Countries which have no ports or quays, no railways or stations, no high-roads or streets (in 
our sense of the term), no inns or hotels, no bedsteads or tables or chairs) but where traveller 
is sufficiently equipped so long as he is provided with saddle and some soap, are severed by a 
sufficiently wide gap from our own to appeal to the most glutted thirst for novelty. Do weever 
escape from the fascination of a turban, or the mystery of the shrouded apparitions that pass for 
women in the dusty alleys? How new to us is a landscape where there are nd hedgerows or 
timber, no meadows or fields; where in the brilliant atmosphere minute objects can be 
distinguished for many miles,ËË where the cities are not swathed in smoke, and the level roofs 
are not broken by shafts or chimneys. How mute and overpowering the silence that prevails 
over the lone expanse, so different from the innumerable rural sounds that strike upon the ear 
at home. And how grateful a climate where fogs and vapours never strangle, but where the sun 
strikes with straight lance from the zenith.
In no Oriental country that I have seen is the chasm of exterior divergence between Oriental and 
European scenery more abrupt than in Persia. It is difficult to bring home to English
I have seen a small object, such as a single but or building, for at least twenty miles before 
reaching it; and every traveller in Persia will confess to the frequent exasperation of hope thus 
baffled and delayed.

|PPage_14
readers, whose ideas of nature ate drawn exclusively from the West , the extremity of the 
contrast that meets the eye. Mountains Extreme in Europe are for the -most part blue or purple 
iR in Persia, colour; in Persia they are -flame-red, or umber, or funereal drab. Fields in 
Europe, when not decked with the green of grass or crops, are crimson with upturned mould. In 
Persia thev are only distinguishable from the brown desert by the dry beds o~ the irrigation 
ditebes. A typical English village consists of detached and often picturesque cottages, half bidden 
amid venerable trees. A typical Persian village is a cluster of filthy mud buts, wbose outline is 
a crude combination of the perpendicular and the horizontal, huddled within the protection of a 
decayed mud wall. Outside the Caspian provinces and a few mountain valleys there is not a 
forest, and barely a wood in Persia that is worthy of the name. One may travel for days without 
seeing a blade of grass. Rivers do not roll between trim banks, nor do brooks babble over stones. 
Either you are stopped by a foaming torrent, or you barely moisten your horse's fetlocks in 
fording a pitiful thread.
For my own part-so normal and blunted after a while do these sensations become-I find a more 
abiding charm in the contrast Intrinsi existing, not between the lives of the East and West, but 
contF _
radic in the elements and conditions of Oriental life itself. It tion is a contrast equally visible in 
the inanimate and in the human world. Extensive plains are suddenly terminated, almost without 
slope or undulation, by gaunt and forbidding peaks, A drear and colourless desolation in winter 
is succeeded by riotous, though ephemeral, verdure and a thousand tints of flowers in the 
spring. Even in the green and cultivated spots, the moment we leave the charmed circle of water 
distribution the stark desert recommences, and the transition is as awful as from life to death. 
An entrancing warmth by day is expiated in thq autumn and winter months by biting cold at 
night and in the hours immediately preceding sunrise. Nature seenis to revel in striking the 
extreme chords upon her miraculous and inexhaustible gamut of sound.
And how faithfully do the cities and people respond to the The He. of suggestion that is always 
eloquent around them. Majestic life ruins that tell of a populous and mighty past rear their 
heads amid deserted wastes and vagabond tents. ËËTiny and

|PPage_15
ill(c)nurtured children grow up into robust men. Conversely, female beauty in early youth is 
followed by a premature decay and ugliness beyond words. Just as from a distance a town 
surrounded by its orcbards looks a gem of beauty, but shrinks upon nearer approach into a 
collection of clay hovels; and just as in the exterior of these houses, consisting of blank and 
unsightly walls of mud, there is no hint of the flower-beds and tanks, of the taste and comeliness 
that sometimes prevail within, so does the human exterior tell a contradictory tale of its 
inmate. Splendide mendux might be taken as the motto of Persian character. The finest domestic 
virtues co-exist with barbarity and supreme indifference to suffering. Elegance of deportment 
is compatible with a coarseness amounting to bestiality.The same individual is at different 
Moments haughty and cringing. A creditable acquaintance with the standards of civilisation does 
not prevent gross fanaticism and superstition. Accomplished manners and a more than Parisian 
polish cover a truly superb faculty for lying and almost scientific imposture. The most 
scandalous corruption is combined with a scrupulous regard for specified precepts of the moral 
law. Religion is alternately stringent and lax, inspiring at one moment the bigot's rage, at 
the next the agnostic's indifference. Government is both patriarchal and Machiavellian-
patriarclial in its simplicity of structure, Machiavellian in its finished ingenuity of wrong 
doing. Life is both magnificent and squalid the people at once dispicable and noble the panorama 
at the same time an enchantment and a fraud.
I desire before concluding to say a few words about the literature to which the study of Persia 
has given birth, more especially Literature the literature of discovery and travel. Few 
countries so of travel sparsely visited have been responsible for so ample a bibliography. The 
reason is obvious. To each new-comer the comparative rarity of his experience has been 
conceded as the excuse for a volume. In the category of these productions are to be found works 
as painstaking and meritorious as ever passed through the press. Nor is their value in any 
degree diminished, it is, on the contrary, enhanced by the fact that the list of which I speak 
includes some of the most worthless rubbish that ever blundered into print. I shall hope shortly 
to publish in a supplementary volume as complete a bibliography of Persian history and travel 
as my own studies and existing sources of information have enabled me to

|PPage_16
compile; but I append here a table which I have drawn up, as the
result of personal reading, of the names of all such travellers, within my knowledge, as have, 
since the beginning of the tenth century, added to our geographical or historical acquaintance 
acquaintance with Persia by themselves visiting, and writing about the country, and whose 
compositions are, with few exceptions, accessible to the public. To the name of each traveller I 
affix the date, not of the publication of his workË"Ësince that appears to me to be but an 
illusory guideË"Ëbut OF his own visit to Persia or residence in that conutry. And when I add that 
the collection of these figures has involved reference in every instance, with barely an 
exception, to the original work of the author, sometimes far from easy to procure, and that the 
cases are few in which I have not myself perused the work in question, it will, I think, be 
conceded that such a catalogue, the first of the kind that has ever been compiled with reference 
to Persia, is the result of no mean labour. In the following tables I include no writer whose 
work was not, originally written, or has not subsequently been translated, in a European tongue:
ó
 the 
King of kings.
Premising, therefore, that these are the simpleat and most obvious lines of access, I will 
commence upon the north with the Scheme of Enzeli-Teheran route, and will next describe the 
rechapter maining northern approaches; after which the eastern, southern, and western 
entrances will succeed each other in natural order. The Persian port, or rather landing-place 
(for, as will be seen, Persia enjoys no such luxury as a port), on the Caspian is at Enzeli, a 
villacre upon a low spit of land enclosing upon 1. Enzeli- 0 Teheran the sea side a broad but 
shallow lagoon, known as the route Murdab, or Dead Water, on the inner or southern shore of 
which, at a slight distance from the sea, is situated the considerable town of Resbt. It is in this 
sense that travellers commonly sp eak of landing in Persia at Resht.
Enzeli is served by the steamers of -the Russian Caucasus and Mercury Company, running from 
Baku, which place there are Means of several methods of reaching from Europe. (1) Train may 
reaching be taken to Constantinople, boat (Messageiies, Austrian Enzeli Lloyd, or Russian) from 
thence to Batum-3 or 4 days -and train vU Tiflis to Baku-32 hours; (2) train may be taken, 
vid Berlin and Cracow to Odessa, and Russian steamer thence to Batum-3 days - (3) Tiflis may 
be reached overland from St. Petersburg and Moscow by rail to Vladikavkas, and by carriage 
over the famous Dariel Road-136 miles-into Georgia; (4) there is still another method of 
reaching Baku, viz. by rail across Russia to Tsaritsin, on the Volga, thence by river-boat to 
Astrakhan, and thence by Caucasus and Mercury Company steamers down the west coast of the 
Caspian, touching at Petrofsk and Derbent-21 . 2 days-to Baku. This is perhaps, in point of 
time, the most ex
|PPage_
28
peditious route. In any case the traveller cannot rely upon reaching Baku under eight or nine 
days from London.
From May to November the Caucasus and Mercury steamers run weekly~ and sometimes bi-
weekly, to Enzeli, leaving Baku as Caspian a rule on Sunday night; during the remainder of the 
steamers year somewhat irregularly. After touching at the Russian (once Persian) port of 
Leii~_oran, and the frontier village of Astara on Monday afternoon, they are timed to arrive at 
Enzeli -a total distance of 197 nautical miles, in from 30 to 36 hours from the start, i.e. at 
some time on Tuesday morning.
Here, however, the peculiar and doleful idiosyncrasies of Persian travel are not unlikely to 
begin, for there is often such a Landing at surf on the bar I that it is quite impossible to land 
pasEnzeli sengers in boats; and in the winter months it not infrequently happens that the 
unhappy voyager, after being tossed about for several hours in sight of his destination, is taken 
all the way back again to Baku, whence, after a mournful week of dabbling in naphtha and 
becoming saturated with petroleum, he returns in order to repeat the experiment. Should the 
elements, however, prove propitious at Enzeli, lie is transferred to a small steam-launch, in 
which lie is conducted to Thethe projecting spit of land, at the western extremity of 
Murdabwhich stands the custorn-liouse of Enzeli, and where also is a somewhat decayed but 
picturesque five-storeyed pagoda or summer-liouse belonging to the Shall.The decorative 
features of this structure, which is painted blue, red, and green, increase in smartness as they 
approach the upper storeys, the topmost 0 f which is reserved for the use of His Majesty; but 
they are in a state of great dilapidation, and are moreover often rendered i I Tivisible by a mat 
covering, intended as a protection against the appalling damp. From here the launch steams 
across the Murdab,
t0
~ yage of about ten miles, in all hour and three-quarters. This shallow and wind-swept lagoon is 
some thirty miles long from east to west, by twelve in maximum breadth from north to south, 
and is peopled with every variety of wild fowl 
I This bar is such an obstruction that ships drawing over five feet of water cannot enter, but 
must lie outside. The Persian Government has often been pressed, but has never yet taken any 
steps, either to remove or reduce it. For an account of the Shah's small stearn yacht, the 
ËË Nasr-ed-Din,ËËwhicb is generally on the 31urdab, videa later chapter on the Navy.
ËËËËTAYS A ND MEANS
29

|PPage_
cormorants, geese, swans, duck, coots, divers, guillemots, gulls)pelicans, crane, and snipe. 
They dot the surface and swarm in the islets and reed-beds on its inner fringe, ËËSupplying a 
foretaste to the sportsman of the richness of the entire belt of country between the sea and the 
mountains, which abounds in game. At the southern extremity of the lagoon the launch is 
exchanged for a native boat, which is towed up a creek for five miles to the fishing village of 
Pir-i-Bazaar.
Pir-i-Bazaar (i.e. Saint of the Bazaar; more probably PilehBazaar, i.e. the Cocoon Mart, so 
called from the silk industry) Pir-i- consists of a caravanserai, a few houses and sheds,ËË 
and Bazaar a fishing establishment, a weir being thrown across the stream at this point, 
resulting in a multitudinous capture of a species of carp. Rickety carriages are here available 
which transport the new-comer along a vile road, roughly paved, for a distance of six miles 
through the jungle to Resht. The R6sht river, or Shah Rudbar, flows down to the sea; on the left 
hand, and snakes and tortoises . crawl in the slimy watercourses and swamps on the right.
Of Resht I shall have something to say in a later chapter upon the northern provinces of Persia, 
of one of which, viz. Gilan, it is the ReBht capital city. In this context it is regarded solely as the
first town in which the traveller sets foot on Persian soil, and as the starting-point of his 
journey into the interior. From the aspect of the place and of the surrounding country he will 
probably derive an impression of Persian scenery and life which requires very early to be 
abandoned, and which is as unlike the general characteristics with which he will afterwards 
become so sorrowfully familiar as Dover is unlike Aden. At Resht he sees red-tiled cottages and 
mosques, lanes, and hedgerows, and gardens, which speak to him of other lands, whilst in the 
wealth of wood and water that is spread around he observes a favourable indication of the 
fertility of Persian soil. Let him take his soul's fill of both sights; for the modest yet 
appreciable architectural features of Resht he will see nowhere repeated beyond the Caspian 
littoral, and the forests and rivers will presently be succeeded by stony deserts and treeless 
peaks.
At Resht the traveller will form his first experience of that Persian wayfaring, of whose 
pleasures and pains I shall have so much to say as I proceed. Here he must decide between the 
only

|PPage_
so 
two practicable methods of travel in that country, viz. riding chapar, i.e. by Government post-
or riding with his own animals Choice of and appointments by caravan. The formerËËmcaiis 
rapid, means of if exhausting and sometimes painful progress; the latter Progression. Cha- is 
attended with less physical discomfort, but is apt to par-riding be unutterably tedious, and, as 
the same animals must be used day after day, unconscionably slow. Ill the one case the traveller 
is an item or piece of animate baggage, who is transferred from his starting-point to his 
destination with as much swiftness as a succession of mediocre -and sometimes aboiniliable 
steeds can manage to convey him, or as his own inclinations. or strength will permit. He 
transports his wherewithal oil hors ËË eback with him, he sleeps in chapar-khanehs, or 
post-houses, which occur at regular intervals along the route, lie carries his food in portable 
shape or buys it on the way, he, pays a fixed tariff for horses and accommodation, he diverges 
not one inch from the main track, he seldom looks behind him, and he has but one appetite -viz. 
to get on.
The other plan involves much forethought and preparation-the purchase of a camp and 
equipments, the hiring of a large number Caravan of riding and baggage animals and of servants 
to look ning after both, and all the responsibilities consequent upon the superintendence of a 
numerous following. On the other hand, it leaves the traveller absolute discretion as to his 
movements, and, while it never allows him to hurry (for baggage animals cannot be trusted to 
do more than twenty-five miles on an average in the day), it gives him unstinted liberty to 
dawdle. According to his objects and tastes, therefore, the stranger will have very little 
difficulty in choosing between the two. If he is anxious to go ahead, does not mind roughing it a 
little, and is fairly active and strong, he will travel chapar. If lie has ladies or a family and 
household with him, if he is not inured to much riding, still more if he requires to move slowly 
and investigate or explore, and most of all if he wishes to diverge from the, beaten track (for 
there are less than a dozen post,-roads in Persia, the number being restricted to the chief lines 
of communication), lie will travel caravan. In either case he will probably do wisely to adopt 
the speedier method as far as Teheran, where he can then make up his plans as to the future; 
whilst, if lie can persuade some friend at the capital to send down a gholam (courier) or a 
Persian servant
Ìó, from three to four days.
Such is the main and the easiest avenue ofËËapproach to the Persian capital from the Caspian. 
Under peculiarly favourable Length of COnditions~ and with a perfect correspondence of trains 
journey and steamers, the journey from London to Teheran can be accomplished in a fortnight. 
In the majority of cases it occupies a little less than three weeks. I pass now to the overland 
routes which enter Persia from the north-west, and have for their immediate objective the 
commercial capital Tabriz, Teheran being reached therefrom, via
Kazvin, by a postal road whose length from Tabriz is about 360 miles.
Of these routes there are two, of which the one is taken by caravans laden with other than 
Russian merchandise, and, in order II. Trebi- to escape the prohibitory tariffs of Batum and the 
zond-, starts Tabri freight charges of the Transcaucasian Railway, route from the Turkish port 
of Trebizond, in the south-east comer of the Black Sea, following from there a very steep line of 
country, 500 miles in length, to Tabriz. This route, as I shall subsequently show in a chapter 
upon the commerce of Persia, has been somewhat extensively adopted by English trade during 
the last half-century, and particularly since the final abolition by Russia of the free transit 
across the Cau~6asus in 1883, and is unquestionably the shortest way by which merchandise 
can reach Tabriz. It is not likely, however, to be followed by the traveller, unless he is anxious 
to visit the Turkish fortre ss of Erzeruni en route, or- to pursue a local examination of the 
Kurdish or the Armenian Question.ËË
.It is described by Lieut.-Col. Stuart (1835), Tom-nal of a Be8idewe in N. Persia, pp. 76-
138; Ch. Texier (18,19), Desar~ption de IËËArmMie, la Per8e, *c., vols.i.,H.; M. Wagner 
(1843), Travels in Per8ia,vols.ii.,iii, part Iii.; Arm. Vamb6ry

|PPage_
40 
The second is the line taken by the Russian import and export traffic, and also by a large 
number of travellers, which approaches III, Tiflis- Tabriz from the direction of Tiflis, 
crossing the frontier Tabriz between Russia and Persia at Julfa, on the Ara's (Araxes). 
route In former times Tiflis was the starting-point of this route for all travellers by road; I 
but since the Caucasian isthmus has been crossed by a railroad the station of Akstafa, about 50 
miles east of Tiflis, is the usual point of departure where the train is left) 2 and where vehicles 
or horses are engaged for the journey.3
(1862), Life and Adventures, caps. iv., v., vii.; and byJ.Bassett (1871), Persia,t7w Land of 
the -1mams, cap. ii. The list of caravan stations between Trebizond and Tabriz, and the duration 
of the journey in hours between each (1 be Turkish hour or measurement by time being the 
precise counterpart of the Persian far8akh, or measurement by distance-i.e. the marching pace 
of a baggage animal in the hour) is as follows:-Trebizond-Djevizlik (6), Kbamsikeui (5), 
Ardassa (8), Gamushkbaneh (5), Murad Khan (5), Kadrak (5), Baiburt (6), Kop Dagh Khan 
(6), Ash Kaleh (9), llidja (8), Erzerum (3), Hassan Kaleh (6), Amrakum (5), Deli Baba 
(6), Tayar (5), Mullah Suleiman (7), Kara Kilissa (7), Tashlitchai (5), Diadin (6), 
Kizildizeh (5), Ovadjik [Persian frontier] (5), Karaaineh (7), Zorova. (6), Pereh (6), Khoi 
(3), Seyid Haji (5), Tessich (6), Diza Khalil (7), Mayana (6), Tabriz (3). Total, 172 hours, 
or (at the normal calculation of three miles an hour) 516 miles. Colonel Stuart, in 1835, 
calculated the distance as 490 miles.
I The journey from Tiflis to Tabriz has been described by Sir J. Chardin (1671), Travels, pp. 
238-252; J. P. Morier (1814), Second Journey, pp. 301-320; Lieut.-Col. Stuart (1833), 
Journal of a Residence in N. Persia, pp. 145-169, E. B. Eastwick (1860), Journal of a 
Diplomate, vol. i. pp. 146-178; A. H. Mounsey (1865), Journey through the Caucasus, pp. 
50-90; A. H. Schindler (1881), Zeit. d. Gesell. fWr Erd. z. Berlin, vol. xviii.; Mine. Dieulafoy 
(1881), La Term, pp. 12-43; 1-1. Binder (1884), AuXurdi8tan, pp. 17-51. The last named 
gives an accurate account of the journey as at present accomplished, by rail to Akstafa, vehicle 
to Julfa, and chapar to Tabriz.
2 Duration of journey from Tiflis to Akstafa 3J hours by quick train, 5 hours by ordinary 
train; first-class fare, 5 roubles.
3 A podorojva, or postal order, for the purpose must be procured at Tigis, and entitles the 
bolder to the hire of horses and use of the post-houses along the road. A carriage (either a 
phaeton or a springless wooden troika) can be hired for the entire distance from Akstafa to Julfa 
(but not beyond) for 30 to 40 roubles. The hire of rost-horses is at the rate of 3 kopecks per 
verst Q mile) per horse, _plus a regulation gratuity of 20 kopecks to the driver at each stage. 
The stages between Akstafa and Tabriz, and the distances in versts are as follows: 
AkstafaUzuntali (221) Caravanserai (171), Tarsa Chai (181), Dilijan (141), Semenofska
, 4 1 2 2 2 0 81), Helenofska (21ËË2), Achti (16J), Fontanka (12), Eilyar (191), Erivan 
(15), Agha Hamdali(13), Kamarlu (15), Davalu (181), Sadarak (183), Bascbnurasobin
4 (221), Tartshah (10), Kivrak (19), Bejukdusi (121), NakhChivan (21), Alinja.
t 4 Chai (25), Julfa (13). Total, 363a versts, or 2421 miles. Of the above stations
ó
 Imliewar, Rajmi Sabun, Aamij, Giseir 
Khubaz, Kubaisa, and Hit.
which 
were infinitesimal in 1887, rose to 9 3 5,8 2 2 1., a total which suggests to England the urgent 
necessity of developing, if possible, her own sources of supply in Beluchistan, India, and 
Burmah. In Russian hands the port of Batum, hitherto not a particularly good one, except for the 
great depth of water close up to the shore, is being rapidly improved. A mole had been built on 
the inner side of the north breakwater during the past year, and is to -be fortified by a turret at 
the end; piles, were being sunk all round the shore-line, which will be fitted -with a stone 
quay, and it is ultimately intended to carry forward an additional breakwater from the 
lighthouse on the south till it overlaps the pier oil the north. The entire cost of these harbour 
improvements is estimated at about half a million sterling, which will be borne by the Imperial 
Government. Lately (October, 189 1) it has beeTj stated in the press that the trading port is to 
be transferred to Poti, where great docks will be constructed, while Batum will remain a 
military and naval establishment, and an arsenal. But I doubt this.
Strategical requirements are, indeed,. far from being neglected
FROM LONDON TO ASHKABAD
63;
at Batum. They are being advanced with a strenuousness and a. purpose that sufficiently indicate 
the value set by Russia upon this maritime key to her Caucasian -base. Five large forts-some of 
Russian them not yet completed-command the shore line, and

|PPage_
military are already mounted with over twenty guns of heavy dispositions calibre, The 
principal battery, in the centre of the town, immediately overlooking the harbour, contains 
twelve guns of, it is said, f~om eighteen to twenty-two tons each. All strangers, and even 
Russian civilians, are strictly excluded from its precincts. Practice was proceeding, on the day 
that I left, at canvas targets. moored out at sea. Higher up on the side or summits of the first 
range of hills behind the harbour, four other batteries are being, or have been constructed, 
armed, for the most part, with mortars. The permanent garrison of Batum is three battalions, 
kept at theirmobilized strength of 1,000 men each. At the time of my visit four other infantry 
battalions were in the immediate neighbourhood, engaged in constructing a military road into 
the interior up a valley where it will be masked from marine attack by the intervening hills. 
These details will show that Russia is keenly alive to the importance of her new acquisition; and 
that, should a naval armament ever steam up from the Bosphorus with hostile intent, she is not 
likely to be caught napping at Batum. An interesting commentary is thus afforded upon the 
complacent puerilities about Batum that were the commonplaces of a certain class of English 
politicians at the time of the Berlin Congress in 1878.
Nothing can exceed the beauty of the line of railroad from Batum to Tiflis. Leaving Batum on the 
south, it describes a Railway semicircle round the town on the outside, and follows the from 
Batum to coast on the north for a distance of thirty miles in the Tiflis direction of Poti before it 
plunges inland into the valley of the Rion, that ancient waterway of the Phasis, up which sped 
the, adventurous keel of the I Argo.ËË The vegetation is almost tropical in its luxuriance; 
maize is planted everywhere in the low lands; and the hills are wrapped from foot to crown in a 
sumptuous forest mantle. At every station, where are sidings, long lines of tankcars stored with 
oil crawl by like an army of gigantic armourplated caterpillars, and disappear down the stretch 
of rails just vacated. Each portentous insect is laden with a wealth to which that of the Golden 
Fleece was nothing, and which attracts to the Phasis many a modern ËËArgoËË that would 
have struck Jason with

|PPage_
64 
even greater consternation than the magic of the Colchian princess. As the line ascends, clinging 
closely to the bed of the stream almost to its source in the watershed that separates the Caspian 
and Black Sea drainage, the scenery becomes more imposing. The mountains climb to an airier 
height, and the train creeps tortuously through solemi gorges and magnificent glens. The station 
platforms are crowded with wild Georgian urchins-true sons of the mountains-anxious to 
exchange for a few kopecks long strings of chestnuts or bunches of miniature grapes. Stately 
bearded figures, close pinched at the wais , t by the tightly fitting tcherkess or Circassian 
pelisse, and wearing a curled lambskin bonnet, tall leather boots, and a small armoury of 
damascened weapons, attend the arrival and departure of the trains with military regularity, 
and survey the scene with stalwart composure. The railroad from Batum to Tiflis, a distance of 
about 220 miles, or at least from Poti to Tiflis, has now been open for many Suram years; bu , t 
the , Russians have for some time been engaged Tunnel upon extensive alterations upon a section 
of the line works between the stations of Rion and Michaelovo, where the existing rails climb 
the steep and laborious gradients of the Suram mountain at a height of 3,000 feet above the sea. 
The alterations involve not only the piercing of a tunnel three miles long through the mountain, 
but the entire realignment, at a more practicable level, of the railroad for a distance of several 
miles, an undertaking which necessitates the construction of new bridges and viaducts, as well 
as an immense amount of cutting, stonework ËË and embankment. A large number of workmen 
were engaged upon this task when I passed a year before. In the interim 0; great advance had 
been made. The spring of 1890 was named as the period when the works would be finished, but 
it was not till October that the tunnel was opened, after the Russian fashion, with a religious 
service; nor did that mean the completion of the whole undertaking. The Russian Government is 
putting itself to an enormous outlay in this quarter, a fact which illustrates the importance 
attached by it not only to see-Lire, but to easy and rapid rail communication in the 
Vaucasus.ËË The -works struck me as being conducted on a large and worthy scale, and as 
being marked by great strength and solidity. The Suram Tunnel is remarkable
I It has since been announced (November 1890) that a military railway has been authorised, 
connecting the fortress of Kars with the main line.
FROM LONDON TO ASHKABAD
65
as surpassing all European tunnekin the dimensions of its profile. The St. Gothard Tunnel has a 
section of only sixty square metres, but that of the Suram Tunnel is ninety metres. Perhaps it is 
the

|PPage_
expense thus incurred that accounts for the heavy charge for passenger traffic from Batum to 
Baku. A first-class ticket costs 471 roubles, for a distance of 560 miles-that is, at the rate of 
2 over 2d. a mile. The locomotives between Batum and Baku are entirely propelled by residual 
naphtha, or m3tatki, ËËas it is called, driven in the form of a fine spray into the furnace. 
Over the Suram. mountain a double Fairlic engine pulls in front, while a second pushes and puffs 
behind. I found that the time consumed in getting to Baku wag three hours longer than formerly. 
Upon inquiring the reason, I was told that the railway used to belong to 6 company, but has since 
been purchased by the State. To those who know the ways of the Russian Government this was 
quite enough.
Tiflisis too well known to travellers to deserve mention. Those only who are unacquainted with 
the East are likely to go Tiflis into ecstasies over its modest, though perhaps singular
attractions, among which Orientalism plays every year a less and less distinguished part. The 
town was in some excitement over an agricultural and industrial exhibition, the first ever held 
in the Caucasus, which had just been opened in a series of wooden pavilions on an open space 
outside, the town. Here were collected specimens of the agriculture, horticulture, viticulture, 
pisciculture, and arboriculture, as well as of the textile fabrics and manufacturing industries 
of the Caucasus, together with objects from Central Asia ËËand Transeaspia. , The local 
manufactures, whether in metals or textiles, were varied and interesting, but the general level 
of the exhibition did not rise above that of an agricultural show in an English county town; and 
the grounds appeared to be visited quite as much for the sake of the bands and refreshment 
booths as for more business-like objects. The H6tel de Londres at Tiflis is perhaps the most 
wonderful rendezvous of varied personalities that is to be found in the East. HRel de Situated on 
the dividing line between Europe and Asia, Londres and on the high road to the remote Orient, 
almost every pilgrini to or from those fascinating regions halts for a while, within its 
hospitable walls. Here the outgoing traveller takes his last taste of civilisation before he 
plunges into the, unknown. Here, too, the returning wanderer enjoys, very likely for the first

|PPage_
66 
time for months, the luxury of sheets, and forgets his hardships over the congratulatory glass of 
champagne. Here, for instance, at the time of my visit, were collected a young French vicomte, 
fresh from the slaughter of ovis 1)o1i in the Tian Shan Mountains upon the Mongolian frontier; 
a high official of the AngloEuropean Telegraph Department in Persia; an Irish engineer 
employed on the Transcaspian Railway ; the Polish contractor who built the famous wooden 
bridge over the Oxus; two English sportsmen fresh from a hunting expedition amid the glaciers 
of the Caucasus; as well as Russians, Armenians, and the polyglot crowd that is always to be 
found upon the fringe of civilisation. Dragomans, who have accomp-aiied eminent travellers and 
have left their names in well-1-mown books, loiter about the doorway and present their 
travel-worn letters orrecommendation. Clearly, as I write at home, can I recollect the emotions 
of anticipation, half hesitating and half confident, with which I have more than once started from 
the threshold of the H6tel de Londres ; no less than the satisfaction with which, my purpose 
accomplished, I have at a later date re-entered its doors. After three daysËË stay I was not 
sorry to leave Tiflis, the more so as some enterprising Tiflite took advantage of ËËmy parting 
Departure moments at the station to relieve me of a porte-monnaie from Tiflis containing 101. 
in roubles. Considering, however, that the hour when the train starts is about midnight, and 
that the voyager seldom gets off without a wait of nearly two hours in the midst of a packed and 
constitutionally predatory crowd, I regarded myself as having purchased at a reasonable price 
the privilege of departure, and turned my back without annoyance upon the amenities of the 
West. Baku, with its chimneys and cisterns and refineries, with its acres of rails outside the 
station covered with tank-cars, its grimy Baku naphtlia-besprinkled streets, its sky-high 
telegraph poles
and rattling tramears, its shops for every article under the sun, its Persian ruins and its 
modern one-storeyed houses, its shabby conglomeration, of peoples, its inky barbour, its 
canopy of smoke, and its all-pervading synells-Baku, larger, more pungent, and less inviting 
than ever, was reached on the evening of the day after I had left Tiflis. The population is now 
estimated at no less than 90,000, a growth which is almost wholly that of the last fifteen years, 
and is the exclusive creation of the petroleum
FROM LONDON TO ASHKABAD
67
industry. When I inquired the basis -of this calculation, the reply was given that it was only an 
approximate census; and that, when asking for accurate or official statistics, I was surely 
forgetting in what country I was travelling. I remember once being told in

|PPage_
Russia that the only really scientific -table of statistics which the Government had issued for 
some years was one relating to the consumption of vodka and its effect upon the national 
mortality. The population was divided into three classes : the moderate drinkers, the excessive 
drinkers, and the total abstainers; and it was triumphantly demonstrated by the returns that the 
first named were rewarded with the longest span of life; a result which was as warmly 
welcomed by the Excise Department as it was acceptable to the consuming public. The story, so 
non 6 vero, 6 ben trovato.
From Baku to Uzun Ada I crossed the Caspian in the same English-built boat, the 
ËËBariatinski,ËË in which I had made the Across the passage last year. Though now an old 
vessel, she is still Caspian one of the best of the Caucasus and Mercury Company's fleet. The 
total number of their steamers plying between the different ports of the Caspian is fifteen, and 
they are in receipt of a large annual subsidy from the State for the conveyance of mails a . nd 
troops, and also for the use of their boats for transport in case of, war. One of these steamers 
sails from Baku to Uzun Ada twice a week-on Wednesdays and Fridays, leaving at 5 P.M. We had 
a beautiful passage, the Caspian having exhausted its h-umours after a storm of ten daysËË 
duration; and, after a long steam up the serpentine channel framed in yellow sand hills, reached 
Uzun Ada at 2.30 the next afternoon. General Annenkoff was residing at Uzun Ada at the time, and 
extended to me his customary, hospitality, talking with enthuGeneral siasm of the present and 
future of his railway, and Annenkoff expounding his well-known ideas of a Russo-Indian 
railway and an Anglo-Franco-Russian alliance. I Subsequently, at an im . rovised 
entertainment, he drank courteously to the health
p of the English visitor, who, if he did not altogether share these roseate views, had, at any rate, 
on a previous occasion shown his willingness to do justice to the Transcaspian Railway, and 
honour to the policy of its promoters. Uzun Ada appeared to me to have somewhat extended its 
scanty and unstable dimensions during the past year; and the piers and surrounding sand were 
literally The population in October 1889 was 1,650 persons.

|PPage_
68 PERSU
packed with bales of cotton waiting for shipment. The General hoped to be able to undertake the 
extension from Samarkand to Tashkent, which, he said, had been finally sanctioned, in the 
forthcoming summer; I and at no distant date to effect a junction with the projected Omsk-
Tomsk line through Siberia to Vladivostock. Nor in the dim future had he renounced his pet 
project of a Aterv-Penideh-Herat-Kandahar diversion, which should bind the East and West in 
friendly fusion. At Uzun Ada the number of native passengers waiting to take tickets at the single 
small window of the ticket office-Uzbegs Native from Bokhara, Sarts from Samarkand and 
Tashkent, passengers Chinese Mohammedans from Ku1ja, Turkomans, and even Afghans, 
returning from pilgrimages to Mecca or other sacred slirines-was so great that it was not till 
two hours after the quoted time that the train steamed out of the station. It appeared to be 
difficult to persuade these inveterate Orientals either to regard the price of a ticket as a fixed 
quantity or to comprehend the French system of the queue. They fought and jostled each other at 
the tiny opening; and when the ticket distributor named the price, in true Asiatic fashion they 
offered about. half the sum in the expectation of a leisurely haggle and a possible bargain. . A 
cloudless sun on the following morning showed me again the starino, waste of the Kara Kum and 
the crumpled mountain
zn The Desert gorges of the Kuren Dagh. Great improvement was
noticeable at most of the railway stations-more trees, more water, greater general comfort. We 
passed Geok Tepe at 11.30 A.M., and I had time to pay a flying visit to the ruins of the famous 
fortress whichËËI have described at length in my previous work. The solidly-built walls of 
rammed clay appear to dwindle very little, and, unless artificially levelled, should be visible 
for at least a, century. It has since been announced (November 1890) that a new use is to be 
made of Geok Tepe. A penal settlement is to be established here, and a large prison erected for 
convicts from the Caucasus sentenced to hard laboar, whose constitution is unequal to the rigour 
of Siberia. Russian convicts at work amid a native population by whom, only ten years ago, 
Russian prisoners in battle were being put to death, will -be a dramatic accessory thoroughly 
in keeping with the, surroundings. Two hour,-, behind
I Nevertheless, it the tinie of going to press (winter 1891), it bas not been begun.
FROM LONDON TO ASHKABAD .
69
our time (having made no effort to pick up arrears), and nineteen hours after leaving Uzun Ada, 
we steamed into the station of

|PPage_
Ashkabad (literally ËËabode of loveËË), the capital of Transcaspia, situated 300 miles from 
the Caspian. Here I was to leave the train, and here was to commence the long ride of 2,000 
miles which lay in front of me before my programme of Persian travel was exhausted. I watched 
the noisy departure of the locomotive with the feelings of one who is saying good-bye to an old 
and faithful friend.
I

|PPage_
70
ó
 Annenkoff's passion for economy and a plausible balance-sheet, though 
excellent in their way, have somewhat retarded the proper development of the railway. A triple 
Wire runs parallel to the line from the Caspian to Samarkand, whence it is continued to 
Tashkent;- whilst branch

|PPage_
76 
wires conduct from Kizil Arvat to Bujnurd, and thence to 0hikishliar and Astrabad, from 
Karibent to Sarakhs, from Merv to Takhta The Bazaar (Penjdeh), from Charjui to Khiva, from 
Bokhara telegraph station to Bokhara town, and, I was informed, ËËfrom Charjui to the 
advanced post of Kerki on the Oxus. Elsewhere it has been reported that the service in the latter 
case is performed by pigeon-post. The question of connecting the Russian wires from their 
advanced point at Sarakhs or Takhta Bazaar with those of India vid Afghanistan, touching Herat 
and Kandahar on the way, and thereby of providing an alternative overland telegraphic route 
from Europe to India, is one that has suggested itself to certain English and Indian authorities. 
But, apart from the advisability of the project, which is open to question, the circumstances are 
not at present such as would be favourable to its execution. On the occasion of my first visit to 
Transcaspia in 1888, the duration of the journey from Uzun Ada to Samarkand-a disthnce SMd 
and of 900 miles-was seventy-two hours. This has now been service reduced for the passenger 
and postal trains, which run two or three. times a week, according to the season, to a little over 
sixty hours, of which ton are consumed in ttoppages. Slo Wer trains, mixed passenger and 
merchandise, circulate every day, and occupy about fifteen hours longer in the transit. 
Refreshment cars of moderate but serviceable quality are now attached to the trains, and have 
replaced the stationary buff6ts, except at the larger stations. The figures of recei pts and cost of 
working of the Transcaspian Railway, which are sometimes officially published, sometimes
communicated by General Annenkoff to newspaper sheet correspondents, and sometimes gleaned 
from private sources, are unfortunately as conflicting as the different estimates which have at 
various times been derived from the same, variety of sources of the original cost of 
construction. The working expenses of 1887 showed an excess of 40,OOOZ. above the receipts ; 
those of 1888 an excess of 30,0001. A deficit in the balance-sheet of the same amount was 
expected in 1889; but the ËËNovoe VremyaËË has published the total of working expenses in 
that year as 241,7311., and declared that the receipts were 7,OOOZ. in excess. General 
Annenkoff, however, gave me much more ambitious figures at Uzun Ada. The budget of M. 
Vishnegradski, the singularly able
TR&NSCASPIA
77
Russian Minister of Finance, who himself visited Transcaspia in the autumn of 1890, returned 
the working cost of the Transcaspian Railway and Oxus Flotilla combined.in 1889 as 
287,2351., figures which are not irreconcilable with those above quoted from the

|PPage_
I Novoe Vremya.ËË On the other hand, the same Minister's estimate for 1890 contained an 
addition of 120,4471. to the figures of 1889, or a total of 407,6821. for the combined charges 
of railway and flotilla during that year. I have since heard that a surplus of 29,00014 is 
claimed for 1890.1 About one fact there can be no doubt-viz. that the goods traffic -upon the 
railway is enormously on the increas~, and that it will Goods reach infinitely greater 
proportions still. The total traffic weight of goods carried upon the railway in 1889 was 
21,741,880 ponds, or 350,675 tons; out of which Central Asian indigenous product and raw 
material amounted to 9,069,081 pouds, or 146,275 tons. In, the same year the value of 
manufactured goods and sugar imported by the railway into Transcaspia, .13okhara, and 
Turkestan was 94 per cent. higher than in 1888; while the value of exports conducted thereby 
from Central Asia to Russia, and consisting of cotton, wool, silk, dried fruits, and grain, 
increased 127 per cent. -Of the goods thus conveyed by far the most remarkable, and an as yet 
unexhatisted, rise has been that in exports of cotton from the ever-spreading Asiatic 
plantations. InËË 1888 the amount so carried was-1,213,274 pouds, or 19,655 tonS,2 in 
ËË 1889 it was 2,200,000 pouds, or 35,484 tons; in January 1890 it was 252,760 pouds, 
or 4,077 tons (of which 193,229 pouds, or 3,116 tons, came from Bokhara); figures which 
indicate a much higher monthly average than in the preceding year, even although they do not 
quite come up to General Annenkoff's confident expectation, which he confessed to myself, of 
a total of 4,000,000 ponds in the whole year. In June, however, more than a quarter of a 
million ponds were reported to be lying on the piers at Uzun Ada waiting for shipment, while the 
railway was said to be bringing up some 20,000 ponds daily. The receipts for the first five 
months of 1890 were also said, largely in consequence of this increased export, to be larger by 
more than 50,0001. than in theIn February 1891, however, the Xovoe Vremya stated the 
surplus at 323,6101., figures which I can hardly credit. ; Before the construction of the 
TraDscaspian Railway the total annual export of cotton from Central Asia to European Russia by 
camel caravan, vid Orenburg, was 9,680 tons.

|PPage_
. TRANSCASPIA 79
corresponding period of 1889. Afghan merchants were further declared, for the first time since 
the completion of the railway, to have established direct relations with it by the despatch of 
several hundred bales of cotton to Charjui.1 The great mercantile use made of the railway, and 
the stream of goods traffic pouring towards it from all points of the compass, organisa- have 
necessitated a thorough Custom-house organisation. tion of in Transcaspia. This has been 
constituted on the basis, Customs familiar in Russian practice, of exclusion, so far as possible, 
of foreign competition, preferential treatment of subject populations, and protection of home 
products and manufactures. The chief Custom-liouse is at Uzuii Ada, but posts are also 
established at Kizil Arvat, Ashkabad, Artik, Kaalika, Dushak, Tej end, Sarakhs, Merv, Yuletan, 
and Taklita Bazaar. Anadvalorem, duty of 2-1 per cent. is levied at Uzun Ada on all foreign goods
2 imported by sea. A similar duty, calculated at local market prices, is also levied on all goods of 
European, Persian, or Indian origin, brought by land into Traiiscaspla, whether for local 
consumption or in transit to Bokhara, Kliiva, or Turkestan. All such goods, if exported from 
Uzini Ada to European Russia or the Caucasus, are -further liable to in ad valorem duty of 5 per 
cent. (the duty previously levied being returned). On the other hand, goods from Bokhara, 
Khiva, and Turkomani a, for European Russia or the Caucasus, are allowed to pass through Uzun 
Ada free of duty. Similarly, all Persian goods in transit to Europe are passed duty free if 
forwarded by Asbkabad or other stations of the Transcaspian Railway.
Thesefacts, as well as everything that I saw or heard on my second visit, tend to bear out my 
previous conclusions as to the
immense commercial future that lies before the TransGreat commercial caspian Railway. 
Skirting or traversing countries of future great though inadequately developed resources, 
con)manding the export and import traffic of Transcaspia, Khorasan, Bokhara, North 
Afghanistan, and Russian Turkestan, conveying to those countries the exclusive productions of 
Russia, and taking away from tl~em in return the cotton and silk and wool and tissuesIn order 
still further to encourage and. develop the growth of cotton by Russian mercliants in Central 
Asia, the Minister of Finance in 1890 ratified a project for leasing 170,000 acres in 
Turkestan to the I Central Asian Commercial and Industrial Society,ËËthe lease to run for 
ninety years, and no rent to be paid for the first fifteen.
and furs of the East, it will in a few yearsËË time be the artery of the whole of Central Asia, 
along which the life-blood of half a continent will throb, commingling the already lialf-
amalgamated strains of East and West. This. railway is a far more potent. weapon to Russia in 
her subjugation of Asia than half a dozen

|PPage_
Geok Tepes or a dozen Panjdehs. It marks a complete and bloodless absorption. Great credit must 
be allowed to General AnnenkoffËË for the inexhaustible energy with which he has worked for 
this consummation.
Touching the facilities of the line for English travellers, I heard that less objection is now 
raised to the appearance of Facilities strangers than was formerly the case, though this 
appeared forEngliBh to be a general belief rather than an induction from travellers recorded 
cases. So great, however, is the traffic ËË upon the line that a stranger might conceivably 
travel along it unobserved. He would, however,.of course, be liable to be warnedËË~ff or sent 
back if he could not produce a special permit from St. Petersburg. It is possible, As time goes 
on, that the stringency of these regulations may be relaxed. Nevertheless, the experience of 
,subsequent English travellers upon the railway, including -a lady, was not a favourable one. 
They were treated with some discourtesy and suspicion, the First Secretary of a British 
Legation being actually brought, upon a fictitious charge, before a Russian police court at 
Samarkand. These amenities were, I subsequently heard, intended as a reply to my own too 
truthful description of Russian affairs and policy in Central Asia.ËË
I have already spoken of the Mullah Kari-Krasnovodsk extension, now sanctioned. The suggested 
branch from Charjui to Kerki along the left bank of the Amu Daria, which was a good deal. talked 
about at the time of the Afghan war scare in the spring of 1889, has since disappeared from 
view, and will probably not
I am tempted to say in this context that there is small inducement to any English writer to 
endeavour to treat Russia with fairness or generosity in matters where the two nations happen 
to be political or national rivals. After issuing a work which aspired, and was, I believe, 
considered, to render greater justice to Russian labours and aims in Central Asia than any 
recent publication, the only Russian acknowledgment that I received was a sneering article from 
the bestknown Russian writer in the English press, the blackening out of eTery passage of my 
book that was anything but complimentaxy to Russia by the Press Censorship of that country, 
and the remark, in a leading Russian newspaper, that if an Englishman could pay such a tribute 
to the merits of Russians in Central Asia, what, fools must the latter be not to take greater 
advantage of our innocence I

|PPage_
80 
TRANSCASPIA
81
atrain be heard of till forward operations are contemplated. On I
and the Volga at the same time by a rail to Petrofsk from Tsaritsin. the other hand, the extension 
from the present terminus at Simultaneously a commission has been entrusted with the task of 
Extensions Samarkand to Tashkent, which I previously predicted as reporting upon the 
feasibility of a tunnel through the main range of the probable,has emerged into clearer 
perspective; and of the Caucasus from Vladikavkas or some neighbouring point Transct-Lspian
GeneralAnnenkoff hoped to be able to start work upon to a station on the Batum-Tiflis line.ËË 
Surveys are also being Railway
it in Mav 1890.1It has since been announced that made for a line from Adji-Kabul on the 
Batum-Baku line to Astara the. Czar has given his approval to the scheme drawn up by a on the 
Persian frontier. The fact that all these rival projects are special commission for the great 
Siberian Railway, debouching upon at the same moment on the tapis is an indication of the 
importance the Pacific at Vladivostock, which is to be 4,785 miles in length, c most wisely 
attached by Russia to the improvement of her direct to occupy ten years in construction, and to 
cost a sum variously communications between European Russia and the Caspian; since eStiTnated 
it from twenty-five to forty millions sterling.2 Should the any military operations undertaken 
upon the eastern side of the scheme be carried out, it cannot be long before the Transcaspian 
latter sea must depend for their reinforcements and supplies almost Railway, prolonged by then 
to Tashkent, will be carried forward wholly upon correspondence with the West. till it joins the 
Siberian trunk line and. completes the, circle with While in Transcaspia I penned the following 
words to the I TimesËË European Russia. The point of junction is said to have been fixed 
newspaper: I My ears have been, as usual, assailed with stories of
the intrigues and scandals, the drinking, gambling, and at Omsk. In. Transcaspia itself a branch 
line is talked of from Russian Karibent on the Tejend to Sarakbs. This would take Russia morale 
in other vices, that, unknown to the authorities at home,
Transeighty miles nearer to Herat. caspia are said to prevail in Russian military circles in 
Trans Casting our eyes back upon Europe, where the Caucasian rail- caspia. So persistent and, 
it may be added, so consistent are
able corollary and complement of the contain a large percentage of truth. way system is the 
indispens, these tales that they must Parallel Traiiscaspian Railway, we find that after many 
delays the Young men who have committed in iscretions, or ost money, or

|PPage_
European Vladikavkas-Petrofsk line is said once again to have taken to bad habits in European 
Russia are banished to a tempoextensions received the Imperial sanction;3 although other voices
t rary purgatory in Central Asia, in forgetfulness of the fact that are heard recommending a 
junction with the Central Russian lilies In r
the painful tediu ËËof life in those regions is an incentive rathe
than a deterrent to rI Captain A. C. Yate, the latest English traveller on the Transcaspian 
Railway
every Russian station in Central Asia is rife with gossip - and (October isgo), informs me that 
there is now an idea of continuing the line fromscandal. Every prominent man has a host of 
enemies who would Samarkand to Khokand, so as to avoid the expense of bridging the Syr Daria.
2 After a protracted controversy between the rival schemes of a combined railstick at nothing in 
order to pull him down. An outward show of and waterway, anda continuous railway, the latter 
was decided upon in March
discipline masks acute discontent, evil tempers, and ill-regulated 1891. The line will run 
from, Zlatoust, the present terminus of the Samara-Ufahabits. Much must be forgiven in 
consideration of the frightful line to the mining districts of Miask and Cheliabinsk (~4 miles); 
thence vid
climate and the utterly odious life. But it is questionable whether Tukalinsk, Kaensk, Mariensk, 
Krasnokarsk, and Kansk, to Nijni Udinsk (1,736 miles), the estimated cost of this section being 
11,807,5001. or 6,5001. a mile.a Power so represented in Central Asia is one whose moral 
prestige Thence the line will run vid, Uchtuskaia, Irkutsk, S. Baikal, Sretensk, andis likely to 
remain, in the ascendant, or whether its forces, if Habarovka, to Vladivostock, (2,965 miles.) 
Total length, 4,785 miles; total esti-directed against an enemy, might not be found to have been 
weakroated cost, 36,765,0001., or an average of 7,6801. a mile. Work has been com
0 ened by the long-existing canker.ËË menced at both extremities; and a few versts of rails 
were hurriedly laid at Vladivostock to enable the C7,arevitch to perform the opening ceremony 
in the These remarks, which were not lightly or unadvisedly written, summer of 1891.
8 This line would be 160 miles long, and would, it is estimated, cost 1,200,0001. It is said that 
such a line, leaving the main railway at a station north of In the Russian Financial Estimates for 
189 1, a sum of 100,0001. is allotted for theVladikavkas, might follow the Roki Defile through 
the Caucasus, pierce a tunnel preliminary expenses of construction. From Petrofsk toËË 
Baku, a further ex-less than five miles in length, and emerge, at a distance of 113 miles, upon 
Gori, tension, 220 miles in length, is also discussed. on the Tiflis Railway. But the cost would be 
enormous.

|PPage_
I
82
ó
 e presumed to have been gained by Great Britain in the Karun 
Concession of 1888, Russia now put on the screw at the Persian Court ; and, among the 
stipulations of a secret agreement which has not been divulged, insisted upon the immediate 
completion of the Ashkabad-Kuchan road. The Shah did not relish the injunction, but was 
powerless to resist. General Gasteiger Khan was relieved of his office, it being variously alleged 
that he bad quarrelled with the, Governor-General of Khorasan, and that he had been found 
secretly corresponding with the Russians; and the contract was entrusted to the Malek-et-Tajar 
or Head of the MerchantsËË Guild at Meshed, who undertook to complete the work in a year at a 
cost of 13,0001., receiving in return a concession of the rest-houses, wells, and collection of 
tolls along the route. This was the situation when I travelled upon the road in the beginning of 
October 1889. Leaving Ashkabad in a southerly direction, the road strikes across the plain 
towards the mountains. It is of uniform width, RusBian twenty-five feet, and, although near the 
town it was full section of holes, yet the gradients, even in the steepest parts, are such as to 
render it easily available for the passage of artillery. At a distance of eight miles it reaches the 
foot of the hills and then winds up a lateral valley parallel to the axis of the main range of the 
Kopet Dagh. Later on an ascent in zigzags commences, leading, at a distance of fifteen miles, into 
a narrow mountain gorge, at whose bottom is a stony torrent bed, empty when I passed it, but 
evidently liable to a sudden rush of water in times of melting snow or flood. It must be economy 
rather than any practical object that has induced the Russians to cross and recross this torrent-
bed, not by bridges, but by a rough stone causeway built through the channel itself, and already 
in many places broken up and swept away. A second series of zigzags leads, at about the
FROM ASHKABAD TO KUCH.A-N
89
twenty-fiftli mile, into a desolate upland valley, across which the road runs in a dreary line 
until, again passink into the hills, it reaches the Russian village of Baj Girlia (literally, ËË 
Takers of the TollsËË), previously known as Andaii, at about one mile beyond

|PPage_
which the crest is mounted that marks the boundary between Russian and Persian territory. 
Neither on the road nor at the frontier were there any Russian soldiers, though the Chief of the 
Staff at Ashkabad had presented me with an order for passing any
Persian BAJ GIRHA
that I might encounter. The fact is, Russia can afford to leave this portion of her Asiatic frontier 
absolutely unguarded, aggression from Persia b ËË eing out of the question, and none but 
Russians or natives going the other way. Near the end of the road, however, and at a short 
distance from the frontier, I found a large rectangular stone building in course of construction, 
which is, I believe, to serve the purposes of a guard- and rest-house combined. The Persian BaJ 
Girha, where there is a Custom-house at which dues are levied on caravans from Ashkabad, is a 
small village of mud

|PPage_
90 PERSIN
huts, clinging to the hill side, at about two i-niles from the frontier down a valley ; and here it 
was that, stumbling along on foot with my bridle on iny arm, I fortunately struck my canip. A 
glorious moon, idealising the gaunt and soinbre landscape, had cheered iny solitary ride and 
guided me to my destination. There was not ail atom of verdure on the brown bleak hills; and not 
a sign or sound of life on the road except a rare caravan moving with music of camel-bells 
through the silence.. The mountain range through which -I had been passing, in whose spurs and 
branches I spent another two days before reaching ThK-Lichan, and in whose rugged eastern 
rainifications I B.rederwas to wander for the ten days followilig, is the eastern
n Mountains prolongation of the great Elburz range that runs like a migbty rock wall along the 
entiVe northern border of Persia. Connected with the Caucasian system -upon the west, it 
follows at distances varying from ten to thirty miles the south coast line of the Caspian, 
throwing up on its way the prodigious peak of Demavend (19,400 ft.), until, temporarily 
arrested in the valley of the Gurgan beyond Astrabad, it assumes a new lease of vigour in the 
knotted mountain ridges that stand one behind the other like infantry files, with an axis pointing 
from north-west to southeast, in the middle district between the Tiirkoman plains and the 
northern skirts of the Great Persian Desert. Further on the connection is as distinct with the 
inisnamed Paropainisaii range above Herat, itself a western continuation of the tremendous 
Hindu Kush. In the region under examination, the border ranges on the north are known by the 
names of the Kuren Dagh and Kopet Dagh, whilst the main and still higher inland ridge, enclosing 
the valley of the Atrek on the south, bears the successive names of Ala Dagh -Ind Binalud Wall. 
The upland valleys concealed between these parallel barriers have an average elevation of 
4,000 feet, and are dominated by peaks that claim an altitude of from 8,000 to 11,000 feet. It 
is said that in Khorasan alone there are not less than sixteen summits which answer to this 
description. Nothing can exceed the bleak sterility of their outward form. Unredeemed by any 
verdure but a stunted and scanty growth of juniper, watered by few springs, and with little, or 
no soi.1 upon the slopes, the grey limestone tells with frank and forbidding effrontery its 
remote geological tale. It, was not out of keeping with the chill and savage character of these 
hills that until the last decade they were
FROM ASHKA.BAD TO KUCHAN
91
the chosen haunt of rapine and murder, the Turkomaii man-himters sweeping down like a flame 
through their sullen gorges, and falling with sword and musket upon the villages and flocks that 
presumed

|PPage_
to survive their repeated devastations.
It was said, when the Russians began to build the AshkabadKuchan road, that they contemplated 
in the future laying upon it Projected a line of rails-whether a railroad or a steam 
tramwayrailroad that should facilitate their connection with Meshed. As has been pointed out to 
me, however, by an English Engineer officer who has inspected the work, such cannot possibly 
be the case, the zigzags by which the ridges are surmounted being of a character with which, in 
their present condition, no railroad in the world could grapple; while the same may be said of 
many of the angles on the Persian section of the road between Baj Girha and Kuchan. It would be 
easy enough to lay a line of rails from Kuchan to Meshed, where the track would run upon a level 
plain. But no purpose would be served by such an outlay; and it is more probable, as will be 
pointed out later on, that, if Meshed is ËË to be brought into correspondence with the Russian 
railway system, it will be from the opposite direction.
From Baj Girha there are two short marches, vid Durbadam and Imam Kuli, to Kuchan. The 
distance is said to be 12 farsakhs, nominally 48 miles. I reckon the stages, however, from 
Ashkabad as follows :
Asbkabad to Baj Girha
Baj Girha to Persian Do.
PersianËËDo. to Imam Kuli
Imam Kuli to Kuchan .
Miles
30
2
21
23
Total 76
Between the frontier and Kuchan, the present camel and mule ~track does not follow precisely 
the same line as will the chauss6e. Persian The latter, it is understood, will make a d6tour by 
section of Aughaz, and will avoid other steep or difficult places. the road Nevertheless, I kept 
continually striking upon the incomplete works, small segments of the road being finished, 
others only marked out, and others again in the hands of the workmen. I met some hundreds of 
these in batches,ËË blasting the rocks, or building unsubstantial bridges, which will probably 
be destroyed by the first flood. A German engineer had been engaged to infuse
I Their wages were about 61d. a day.

|PPage_
92 
Durbadara andImam Kuli
a little science into the proceedings, but he died a month later ; and if native engineering talent 
has since been thought sufficient, it is a poor look-out for the durability of the undertaking. The 
labourers I saw at work were engaged in the most leisurely fashion; and if the Malek-et-Tajar 
completes his contract in double the time specified I shall be very much surprised. Passing 
down the valley in a south-easterly direction from Baj Girha, the present route leads through 
stony hills and glens that reminded me strangely of the forlorn belt of country in Palestine that 
is crossed between Jerusalem and Samaria. A little further we entered a narrow defile, which 
was so steep that I was obliged to dismount and lead down my horse. Small watch-towers perched 
like eyries on the cliff tops, and a rudely constructed wall of stones built across the ravine, 
were reminders of the not yet forgotten days of Turkoman forays. At the end of the gorge we 
emerged upon a small circular plain, in which the village of Durbadam. takes advantage of the 
presence of a mountain stream, deriving therefrom both its raison dËËgtre and wherewithal of 
lite. A square enclosure with high mud walls and projecting towers at the angles was a sight with 
which I was to become daily if not hourly familiar later 01-1, and which was an elementary 
obligation of tactics imposed by the Turkomans, upon every village within a hundred miles of 
their border. At Durbadam. (14 miles) I spread a carpet in an orchard and lunched. Following 
the gorge by which the river Sharek enters the valley, and where the new road will cross the 
stream several times, and will be very liable to demolition by floods, we came into more open 
country, and passed the first of two villages known as Imam Kuli on the left. Hearing sounds of 
lamentation proceeding from a miserable hovel, and observing a circle of women and children 
weeping and bewailing outside, I went up and found that one of the natives of the village, a 
husband and a father, had been killed by a fall of rock, while blasting on the new roadway, in the 
gorge which I had just quitted. The dead body, naked, but covered with a sheet, lay with its feet 
in the doorway. I gave the poor creatures a few krans, as they looked miserably poor. Outside the 
village I passed a shallow gravelly trench dug by the roadside, where, amid a little cluster of 
stony mounds, the hapless victim was about to be laid to rest. At 3 P.m., in a wider opening of 
the valley, dignified by occasional clumps of poplar, I reached the main
I
FROM ASHKABAD TO KUCHAN

|PPage_
village of Imam Kuli, built, aF; are all these Persian mountain villages, in tiers upon the hill 
side-a serie s of squalid mud terraces pierced by low holes for doorways. The headman of the 
village offered me his house, but I preferred the prospect of cold in a tent to the certainty of 
fleas indoors. Here I was met by a messenger from the Ilkhani or Chief of Kuchan, whose capital 
I was to visit on the morrow, and who had been apprised of my arrival. The emissary, an old 
gentleman with white beard most imperfectly dyed with henna, inquired at what hour I proposed 
to arrive at Kuchaii, as his master wished to give me a befitting reception outside the town. I 
gave him the rendezvous at noon. He suggested that I should spend an entire day at Imam Kuli-a 
solicitude on iny behalf which I found to be due to his own reluctance to make the return journey 
to Kuclian with sufficient speed to anticipate my arrival. I replied that-the irresistible 
attractions of Kuchan drew me on. As I started at seven oËËclock the next morning, a party of. 
pilgrims for Meshed, who had come from Resht, vid Uzun Ada and Zobaran to Ashkabad,1 passed 
out of the village on donkey back in Kuchan front of ine,-singing loudly in praise of Ali and 
Husein, and other saints of the Shiah calendar. I followed the main road o Lit of the valley, and 
then struck off to the south-west, taking a short cut over a rolling range of hills which 
constitute the watershed between the streams that drain north to the Atek and those that drain 
south to Kuchan. In a ravine on the left could be discerned the small villages of Kelat-i-Shah 
Mohammed, watered by a kanat or underground aqueduct, and further on Kelat-i-Mullammamud 
(Mullah Mahniud ?). There was no contrast o co our on the barren hills, even though they now 
became lower and more undulating, while their flanks had in parts been ploughed for grain. The 
landscape might have been draped in khaki, that excellent but unlovely material with which we 
clothe our soldiers in torridclimes. Zobaran (15 miles), though the name signifies plenty, did 
not by its appearance betray that it enjoyed plenty of anything but stones and dust. However, a 
tiny rill of clear water fed a
I The Transcaspian Railway is very largely used by Mussulman pilgrims of both persuasions, 
making their way to or from the sacred shrines. For the Sunnis of Central Asia it supplies an 
agreeable abridgment of the long journey to Mecca, and is equally serviceable for that to Kerbela 
and Nejef. By the Persian Shiahs and the Mahometans of the West, it is enormously used on the 
pilgrimage to the shrine of-Imam Reza at Meshed.
93

|PPage_
94
ó
 mer wife, a Turkoman woman, to 
death; and, moreover, he inherits in full measure the parental addiction to drink.
. It is, I fear, as a drunkard that the old chief is best known to

|PPage_
102 
English readers and has been commemorated by English writers. During the past twenty years 
be has been visited and interviewed His repu- by several Englishmen : by Colonel Valentine 
Baker in tation 1873, Captain Napier in 1874, Sir C. MacGregor in 1875, and Edniund 
OËËDonovan in 1880 ; I and by most of these authorities was found either drinking or drunk, 
or slowly recovering from the effects of drink, Kiichaii being noted for its white wine, and the 
Khan having a partiality besides for brandy, arrack, and any spirit that is sufficiently potent. 
General Grodekoff, who was despatched to Khorasan in disguise in 1880 by General Skobeleff, 
with the knowledge of the Shah, in order to purchase supplies for the Russian army then 
operating against the Tekke Turkomans in Transcaspia, was well aware beforehand of the 
propensities of the Kurdish chieftain, and in his official account of the mission entrusted to him 
very candidly avows the steps by which lie sought to inoratiate himself with his too convivial 
liost: Knowing that he was fond of liquor, we placed several bottles of wine, liqueurs, and vodka 
before him ; and in a very short time the Shuja had drunk several glasses of different wines, and 
then called in his singers and musicians. The men who came with him, his surgeon, and his 
favourites, Vali Khan and Ramzan Khan, drank themselves stupid, and a regular orgy began. Next 
day I went to see the Amir, and presented my documents to him. Bottles were already standing 
before him, and he explained that he was recovering from his intoxication. During our 
conversation be repeatedly partook of brandy, opium, hashish, and wine, and by noon was quite 
drunk. In the evening of the same day be invited us to a European supper, and again got 
intoxicated to the last degree.ËË Zn In the negotiations that followed, General Grodekoff was 
alternately impressed by the astuteness of the Ilkliani and disgusted by his habits. Once his 
editor writes:- A three daysËË sojourn in his society showed Colonel Grodekoff that the Amir 
was very much in possession of all his faculties - that lie was not to be deceived by our giving 
ourselves out as commission agents; and that, although lie was a drunkard, still lie saw and 
remembered everything.
, The an ËË thorities on Kuchan are J. B. Fraser (1822), Journey into Khorasan, cap. xxii. 
and Appendix B, (Sir) A. Burnes (1832), 1ËËravels into Bokhara, vol. iii. pp. 74-81; 
Colonel Val. Baker (1873), Clouds in Me Past, pp. 277-278; Captain Hon. G. Napier (1874), 
1 Diary of a, Tour in Khorasan,ËË Journal of the R. G.S., vol. xlvi. p. 87; (Sir) 0. MacGregor 
(1875), Journeyfltrouglb Khorasan, vol. ii. pp. 8388; E. OËËDonovan (1880), Ehe Merv 
Oasis, vol. i. cap. xxviii.; General Grodekoff (1880), The War in Turkontania (Russian), vol. 
iv. cap. xvii.
FROM ASHKABAD TO KUCHAN
103

|PPage_
But on another occasion: To carry on business with him was more than difficult. One had to drink 
with him, to listen to his drunken speeches, to be present at his orgies, and still to be on 
one's guard not to show signs of disgust which, would at once have called forth the anger of 
the barbarian. Truly the world has produced few such brutes, as Colonel Grodekoff expressed 
himself in a telegram to General Skobeleff.
It would appear, however, that the Khan has only perpetuated himself, and bequeathed to the 
estimable son whom I have before named, a taste which he had himself inherited from his 
father; for when Fraser was the guest of Reza Kuli Khan in 1822 he relates that he saw I the 
Khan and the whole court dead drunk! There is a certain fine continuity, therefore, in the family 
proceedings.
It may be imagined that, knowing as much as I did about Amir Huseini Khan, my familiarity with 
whose antecedents would Two interË"Ëprobably have caused a severe shock to the old gentleman 
views had he been aware of it, I looked forward with some anxiety to my interview. Donning my 
frock coat, which I confess looked somewhat incongruous beneath a Terai hat, and my groloshes, 
and attended by as large a retinue of my own servants as I could muster,ËË I followed the 
escort of six persons who had been sent by the Khan to conduct me to his palace hard by. The 
fagade over the entrance gateway was in the form of a triple arch filled with elegant bas-
reliefsËËin white plaster, made after. the fashion of an Italian villa, behind which a neat little 
kiosque rose above the roof. Passing through the gateway, which was filled with guards, I was 
conducted to the left into a large open court, about twice as long as it was broad, the lower end. 
of. which was divided into flower-beds, while above the middle was a hauz, one of those large 
tanks common to every Persian house of any pretensions, and so cunningly constructod that the, 
water just laps over the stone brim and trickles down into a channel outside. On the pavement 
beyond were standing some thirty individuals with their backs turned to the tank and their faces 
towards, the upper end, where I could see into an elevated aiwan or reception chamber, 
separated
I It is a cardinal point of rersian* etiquette when you go out visiting to take as many -of your 
own establishment with you as possible, whether riding or walking on foot; the number of such 
retinue being accepted as an indication of the -rank of the master.

|PPage_
104
ó
 iny 
clumps

|PPage_
of trees, which owed their existence to some stray watercourse or to a happily unchoked kanat.1 
Of these villages we passed in
I I shall have occasion so frequently to speak of kanat8, and they constitute so striking,and 
almost invariable a feature of the Persian landscape, that, for the benefit of those who have not 
seen them, I will describe what they are. A kanat (identical with the Beluch and Afghan kariz) is 
a wbterranean gallery or aqueduct conducting the water from its ËËparent springs in hill or 
mountain to the village where it is required either to promote cultivation or to sustain life. The 
process of construction is as follows. Experimental shafts are first sunk until a spring is tapped 
in the bi.-her ground. Then the labourer begins at the other~ end, where the water is required 
upon the surface, or at intervening points, and digs a trench or cutting, on a very slightly 
inclined plane, in the direction of the ËËspring. As he goes further and gets deeper 
underground, circular pits or shafts are opened from above, at distances of twenty yards or 
more, by which the excavated soil is drawn up to the surface and heaped round the mouth of the 
shaft. In time the subterranean tunnel reaches the spring, and the water flows down the nicely 
calculated slope to its destination. The sbaf ts are subsequently used to keep the gallery clear and 
free from obstruction. A village with any extent of cultivable soil is, therefore, as a rule, the 
apex from which radiate a number of kanat lines, often several miles in length, to the nearest 
mountain, the long succession of shafts resembling an array of portentous mole-hills thrown up 
one after the other across the plain. The water-way, however, is very easily blocked or choked 
-or in other ways impaired, whereupon the whole labour is repeated ab initio, two parallel 
kanat lines being often encountered within a few yar ds of each other, the earlier of which has 
been totally abandoned. It will easily be understood how dangerous are the open shafts of the 
latter. The d6bri8 round their summits gets washed in by the rain, so that nothing remains to 
mark the mouth of the pit; and many are the animals that have found a premature death by 
falling down. Their skeletons can sometimes be seen wedged half-way down the shafts. Riders 
and their horses have had the most extraordinary escapes, and the case is well known at Teheran 
of a gentleman who, while out hawking, suddenly disappeared from view, having dropped down a 
disused shaft, but was hauled up along with his horse without any damage to either. The kanat 
shafts are the favourite abode of bluerock pigeons, who, if the hands be clapped at one opening, 
will dart out of the next, providing shots that would puzzle even the professors of Hurlingham. 
In the account of his Persian travels, given by one of the Venetian Ambassadors, Signor Josafa 
Barbaro, over 400 years ago, occurs an interesting passage about the digging of kanat8, which 
was thus rendered into English in a quaint transla. tion of the sixteenth century: I Neere to the 
ryver they make a pitt like unto a well, from whense they folowe, diggeng by lyvells towardes 
the place they meane to bringe it to; so that it may evermore distende chanell wise; which 
chanell is deeper than the botome of the foresaid pytt, and whan they have digged about

|PPage_
116 
succession Fathiabad, two miles from Kuclian; Sarkhan, seven miles; Tafirabad, a collection of 
low cubical domes, fifteen miles, and Daslitabad. Black goatsËË-hair tents scattered here and 
there showed that not all the Kurds had taken to sedentary life, but that some retained their 
nomad instincts ; while an occasional deserted village marked the site of a destroyed kanat or 
exhausted spring.. At Kelata,l about twenty-two miles from Kuchan, I dismissed the victoria, 
with instructions to go home on the morrow - and mounting my liorse, and leaving the high road 
to Meshed and the telegraph poles oil the right, continued for another eight miles on the level to 
Chamgir, a small village some way short of Radkan. As we rode along the plain, now quite 
destitute of vegetation, a lovely lake of water, the creature of the Eastern inirage, trembled and 
glittered on the horizon, and ever receded while we advanced. Towards evening the north-east 
hills, oil which the declining sun shone with full orb, acquired a startling glory with tints of 
rose and coral ; the opposite range, plunged in the shadow, was suffused with an opaline vapour 
that temporarily endowed it with almost ethereal beauty. Presently they both * relapsed., the 
one into a russet brown, the other into a cold and ashen grey. I camped in all orchard outside the 
village. At one of the lianilets which we had passed during the day I saw a decidedly primitive 
manner of threshing barley straw. A Primitive threshing-floor was prepared of trodden earth 
outside the threshing walls, and upon this Ë Ëthe straw was spread out; while a long wooden 
cylinder or roller, armed with big wooden spikes, like the barrel of a colossal musical box, and 
drawn by bullocks, was driven slowly round and round over the heaps. The result was that the 
straw was chopped up into small pieces, which constitute the kah, or fodder, that is the common 
food of horses and mules in Persia. This mode of,threshing and the implement employed are as 
old and unalterable as are most of the habits and utensils of the East. It is described at length by 
Chardin over two hundred years ago,2 and by even earlier travellers, and will doubtless be 
visible in remote hamlets two hundred years lience. XX. paces of this cbanell, than digge they an 
other pitt like to the first, and so frorn pitt to pitt they con4igh the water alongest these 
chanells whither they won,ËË But the system is older yet, for It is described by Polybius (lib. 
x. 25). 1 Kelata is the plural, and signifies a collection of villages or hamlets, each of which is 
usually distinguished by a separate title. 2 Toyages (ed.it. Laxigl6s), vol. iv, pp. 105-106.
FROM KUCHAN TO KELAT-I-NADIRI
117
It is impossible to tire of the interest and humours of camp life. The traveller arrives first on 
his superior mount, and selects Camp life a favourable spot, beneath the protection of trees, and 
if

|PPage_
ó
 passage having originally
been foitified by that monarch, who was the grandson of Hulaku
Khan, and is said to have retired to Kelat after being defeated on
one occasion in battle by his uncle, Ahmed Khan.ËË A fine inscrip
tion on a smoothed surface of rock upon the right-hand wall of the
GATE OF ARGAWAN SHAH
defile beyond the gate records this act of the sovereign. The present barricade is only a modern 
substitute for that which was built by Nadir Shah, and which, I do not doubt, was a far more 
substantial structure.
I This monarch, called by the Persians Argawan Shah, but raore commonly spoken of as Arghun 
-Khan (1284-1290 A.D.), was the remarkable man to whom Marco Polo was sent by Kubla 
Kban from China in charge of a Tartar bride, who opened diplomatic intercourse with the 
sovereigns of Europe, including King Edward I., and who, like his father, Abaka Khan, was 
almost a Christian, and degraded the Mussulmans from all publio office.
FROM KUCHAN TO KEI.AT-I-N.ADIRI
129
In the fond belief that all my previous fears had been groundless, I put my horse into the bed of 
the stream, and, accompanied Entrance by Ramzan Ali Khan, Gregory, and Shukurullah, also 
detected on horseback, rode through the central arch. No one appeared or challenged. I had time 
upon the other side to note the inscription of Argawan Shah, and to observe a round tower at the 
summit of an eminence commanding the entrance, and had already advanced about a hundred 
yards towards the houses of a village that appeared upon either side of the defile, when suddenly 
a terrific shouting was heard from the gate behind us, and a miserable soldier, still half asleep, 
and pulling his tattered cotton tunic about his shoulders, came running out, yelling at the top of 
his voice. Answering cries were heard; and presently there poured out of the wall, which was 
really a gate-tower and had casements on the inner side, a motley band of half-clad individuals, 
for the most part in rags, though an occasional button with the Lion and Sun upon it, and one 
pair of blue trousers with a red stripe, showed that I was in the presence of some of the serbaz 
or regular infantry of the King of Kings. As I did not want to begin with a fracas, and as the 
soldiers

|PPage_
were clearly doing their duty, although they had been within an Colloquy ace of letting me slip 
through unobserved, I halted and with the we entered into conversation. At first they were very 
guard violent and tried to pull back our horses. But when I represented that I had no intention of 
going further without leave, they became calmer. I inquired for the officer in command. There 
did not appea r to be such a person. I next asked where was the Khan of Kelat. The reply was, 
given that he was at his village, two miles away. Accordingly I despatphed Shukurullah (as a 
Persian and therefore free from suspicion), with a soldier mounted on the same horse behind 
him, to the Khan, to tell him who I was, and to request permission to pass through Kelat and out 
on the other side; or, if this could not be granted on his own responsibility, then to telegraph to 
Meshed. While the Persian was away I remained in the rocky gateway conversing with the 
soldiers. It was bitterly cold, for the sun Attitude of would not strike the chasm for some hours, 
so I bought the serbaz Some brushwood and lit a fire. When they heard that I was an Englishman 
they seemed disposed to be more friendly; for they said that if I had been a Russian they would 
have shot me

|PPage_
J
130
ó
  through 
Meshed which the stream, coursing in rapid zigzags between the walls, occupied the whole of the 
slender space between. Above the lower slopes the cliffs rose in craggy magnificence to a sheer 
height of 1,000 or 1,500 feet. This ravine equalled in savage splendour anything that I had seen 
even during the past week of astonishing scene ry ; and I could not help thinking that if those 
who rave about the Alpine passes, set though they be in the incomparable framework of snow and 
ice, could travel to this unvisited corner of Asia, even their senses would be bewildered by
I Jmryzey tltrougk K7wrawn, vQl. ii. pp. 44,49.

|PPage_
142 PERS1A FROM KUCHAN TO KELAT-I-NADIRI 143
so amazing a succession of natural phenomena, each one of w hich of communication from valley 
to valley. These gorges are would attract a stream of pilgrims in any better-known land. 
frequently of almost inconceivable abruptness and grandeur.
At this point we finally left the mountains and debouched on Each one presents a score of 
positions of absolute impregnability; to the eastern continuation of the, same plain from which I 
had and I do not suppose that more savage mountain scenery, in zones Scenery of diverged a week 
before at Radkan. The moment, there- below the snow line, exists anywhere in the world. The 
base of North- fore, is an opportune one for casting an eye in swift these defiles seldom admits 
more than a torrent bed blocked with eastern Khorasan retrospect over the country and 
surroundings in which I enormous boulders, and the walls are frequently vertical to a height 
had been travelling since I entered Persia, and which embrace theËË of from 500 to 1,000 
feet. The higher mountains rarely display least known and yet most typical characteristics of 
North-eastern even the scantiest vegetation, being sterile, stony, and forbidding Khorasan. I 
summed up my impressions, without, h ËË owever, to a degree, though the loftiest peaks are 
majestic with splintered describing my journeys, in the ËËTimesËË in these words outline, 
and occasionally some astonishing natural phenomenon ËËAfter leaving Kuchan, I struck 
eastwards through the moun-is encountered, like the southern wall of Kelat. Cultivation is 
tains, and spent eight days in wandering about amid the mountain
almost wholly confined to the valley bottoms, and is there depenvalleys of this rugged and almost 
inaccessible corner of Khorasan. dent upon precarious streams and watercourses dug therefrom 
Being hampered by a camp and mules, I was limited to about to the arable plots. Each village is 
like an oasis in a brown twenty-five miles a day, but even so succeeded in traversing about 
desert; and the squalid mud huts, with their fringe of green 200 miles of this interesting and 
rarely visited country. The poplars and orchards, present an appearance almost as refreshing 
names of most of the villages are not upon any English map, and to the wayfarer as the snuggest 
of English homesteads. only a few larger or more notable localities, such as the famous The 
ordinary beasts of burden in these mountain villages are stronghold of Kelat-i-Nadiri, are 
known to European ears. It is very small grey donkeys, camels being only seen: when belonging 
astonishing how difficult it is in these parts to procure reliable to a caravan, and a horse 
being.beyond the means of the
Animal information about anything, most of all about that which should and human poorer 
people. The and hill slopes provide a slender
life be best known-liamely, the distance between adjoining placesËË. i herbage that sustains 
large flocks of black sheep and Afarsakh, nominally about four miles, is the sole unit of 
measure- goats, which are met with every-where, guarded by big dogs.

|PPage_
ment, but, judging by my own experience, it may mean anything Mutton is consequently cheap 
and abundant. Rude wooden from two to five. The commonest thing is to be told that a place
Ploughs unshod with iron are drawn by yokes of black oxen; but is half a farsalch distant-a 
term which, being used to imply any cows and milk are not to be met with in every village. 
Fowls fraction less than the whole farsa7ch, may describe a distance of abound, and can be 
always bought for about 3d. apiece. The either one mile or three miles and a half. The scenery 
through valley of Ku.chan revels in every kind of fruit, but further north which I travelled, and 
which may be said to extend over the whole I was not able to procure any. Rice appeared to be the 
staple of North-eastern Khorasan, is singularly uniform in its character- food of the peasantry. 
These struck me as a fine and masculine istics. A series of lofty mountain ridges, with an axis 
inclined race, and as a very different type from the Persian of the towns. from north-west to 
south-east, run parallel to each other at varying They spring for the most part from a different 
stock, being not of distances, the intervening hollows being in the more northern Iranian, but of 
Turkoman or Turkish origin, and are far more like parts deep gorges admitting little more than 
a torrent bed at their the Uzbegs or Tartars in appearance than the Persians. They wore bottom, 
while further south they widen into valleys watered by sheepskin bonnets on their heads, not 
unlike those of the Turkomountain streams and dotted with villages, and eventually into mans, 
but less lofty in the crown, canvas bound round their legs broad, rich plains, such as that of 
Kuchan to the north and with thongs, and big loose shoes of untanned cowhide similarly Nishapur 
to the south of the Binalud Kuh mountains. Transverse attached.ËË The women were 
everywhere visible, but, as a rule, ravines cut these ridges, often at right angles, and provide a 
way carefully concealed their features, not with a veil, but with the,

|PPage_
144 FROM KUCHAN TO KELAT-I-NADIRI 145
upper cotton garment drawn over the lower part of the face. My horse, I sped as quickly as I 
could over the intervening Such as I saw were prematurely old and ugly, the melancholy law 
plain. of the East.ËË Nobad Geldi and I weregalloping in front, and the old redIn extension of 
what was here said, I may add two other tailed charger was showing the best of his speed, when, 
ceasing observations upon the peculiar orograpby of the country. In the to hear the clatter of the 
rest of the party behind me, I
Accident
first place the dividing lines between the watersheds are to the turned round to see what had 
befallen. At a distance Physical cavalcade pecu- seldom the highest ranges or crests ; 
illustrations of which of 200 yards Gregory's horse was lying on its back, liarities 
phenomenon I noticed in the case both of the dividing furiously kicking its heels in the air. Its 
load la scattered in
y line between the Atek or Transcaspian and Kuchan drainage, and every direction on the ground. 
The unhappy Armenian was again of that between the Kucban and Meshed drainage -*i.e. the 
slowly extracting himself from under the horse and ruefully streams that run respectively to 
the Caspian and the Heri Rud. rubbing his knee. Ramzan Ali Khan, also on foot, and covered 
Secondly, the rivers, instead of pursuing a course parallel to the with dust, was seen careering 
over the plain after his horse, which axis of the mountain ranges, or, in other words, running 
down the was disappearing in an opposite direction. It appeared that deep valleys between them, 
and then turning the corner where the Gregory's animal, overtired, and unable,ËËwith its 
heavy load, to saddle dips, prefer to pierce the ranges almost at right angles to keep the pace at 
which we were going, had stumbled and fallen their previous course ; Nature having provided 
for that purpose on the top of Gregory; anathat the Afghan, dismounting in order transverse 
fissures and (rashes through the very heart of the rock, to extricate his colleague, had received 
a kick on the head which
7 which they could never have forced for themselves, and which do knocked him over. All was 
soon right again, and, leaving the not betray the symptoms of aqueous detrition, but must rather 
slow movers to follow at their own pace, I pushed on. At five have been caused by extreme 
tension at the moment of original I s fro the town we came to a massive high-backed bridge,
Mi e in elevation. of eleven arches, spanning the slender current of the Keshef Rud.1
Once upon the plain, we passed in quick succession the villages The bridge, which is called Pul-
i-Shall (King's Bridge), looked of Anderokh and Rezan, which appeared to revel in an 
abundant ridiculously out of proportion to the attenuated volume of theËË
water supply and in a wide area of cultivation. Far Approach stream, which was only about 
twenty-five feet in width, and was to Meshed away on the southern side of the expanse the 
mountains barely moving. The , ramps of the 

|PPage_
bridge had originally been behind Meshed could be seen, broken up into detached ridges, I but in 
common with all good work in
paved with big cobbles, with sharp and serrated points. I strained my eyes to catch in Persia, 
these had for the most part disappeared, and the ruined the distance the glint of the golden cupola 
and minars -of the k legs than to e them.
causeway was better adapted to brea sav holy Imam. Slowly the mist curled upward, as though a 
silken Continuing for a mile, we reached the enclosure of the tomb window-blind were being 
delicately raised by cords; and first a of Khojah (or KhwaJali) Rabi, a holy man who is 
variously reported sparkle, and then a steady flash, revealed at a distance that must as having 
been the personal friend and the tutor of Imam still. have been from twelve to fifteen miles the 
whereabouts of Tomb of
KhojahReza, and whose body, in order to be near that of his the gilded dome. Though my emotions 
were not those of the Rabi
sainted companion, was interred in -this spot. The devout pilgrim who had very likely travelled 
hundreds, perhaps
tomb is surrounded by a garden, in which there is abundance of thousands, of miles to see the 
hallowed spot, though I did not breaktrees, and which is entered by a lofty gateway containing 
rooms into wild cries of ËËYa Alil Ya Husein, and though I did riot tear
This river, (Keshef, old Persian Eash
Tortoise) called also Ab-i-Mesbed off fragments of my dress and suspend them upon the nearest 
bush,(Water of Meshed) and sometimes Kara Su (Black Water), rises in the Cbashmehaccordin
g to the formula of the pious Shiah, I yet looked with i-Gilas, a marsh between Chinaran and 
Radkan, and, collecting the drainage of the interest of one who has heard and read mueb from 
afar upon the Meshed Valley, passes by the gorge of Ak Derbend (White Defile) to Pul-ithe 
famous city which I was approaching; and, putting spurs to Khatun (Lady's Bridge), on the 
Russian frontier, where it joins the Heri Rud,
and in conjunction with the latter forms the Tejend.

|PPage_
146 FROM KUCHAN TO. KELAT-1-NADIRI 147
in arched recesses. From the surroundings it was evident that it is a favourite holiday resort of 
the people of Meshed, being indeed the only place of any attractiveness in the environs of the 
city. Thinking that the building also contained a mosque, and was, therefore, of an ecclesiastical 
character, I did not attempt to enter it, but merely took a photograph from the outside. I heard 
afterwards that, as with other tombs, any one can visit it who will. The present building is not 
the original mausoleum, but, as the inscription says, was raised by Shah Abbas the Great on the 
remains of the earlier structure. A second restoration was now in course of execution; for the 
building was enveloped in a scaffolding, and workmen were replacing the blue tiles on the 
exterior of the dome, most of which had peeled off and dis
-,appeared. MacGregor spoke of the tile-work, in 1875, as better than any in Persia. But of 
this, too, a great deal had vanished; and what had once been a magnificent circular frieze below 
the spring of the dome now existed only in segments and patches. Hard by is buried the father of 
Agba Mohammed Shah (the founder of the reigning dynasty), Fath Ali Khan Kajar, who incurred 
the hostility of Nadir Shah, and was beheaded by his orders.
Soon the road passed between dusty emrthen walls and over small ditches, the uniform suburbs 
of the cities of the East. The Entrance long line of the city wall now appeared, projecting to 
Meshed towers connected by a curtain, and defended by a shallow ditch. Passing through the 
gateway, where a shabby guard sprang, to his feet and presented arms with an ostentatious 
rattle of his musket, we rode for nearly half- an hour through the blank and unlovely alleys 
that constitute four-fifths even of the proudest Oriental capital; and after crossing the Khiaban, 
or central avenue of Meslied-more about which will belong to my next chapterpulled up at a low 
door, over which a large painted shield displayed the insignia of the British Government and 
indicated the residence of Her Majesty's Consul-General and Agent of the ViceroyËËof 
India. In a minute's time I was shaking hands with Colonel Charles Stewart.
The march from Kardeh to Meshed is called eight farsakhsl but is not in reality more than 
twenty-four miles. Accordingly, the route from Kelat to Meshed is as follows:
Kelat-i-Nadiri to Vardeh Vardeh to Kardeh Kardeh to Meshed
Total 20
Approximate disFarsakhj
Itance in miles

|PPage_
5 7 8
20 26 24
70
SUPPLEMENTARY ROUTES TO AND FROm KELAT
KELAT To DEREGEZ (vid Archingan 70 miles). Col. Val. Baker (1873), Clouds in the East, pp. 
210-229; (Sir) 0. MacGregor (1875), Journey througA Xhorasan, Vol. ii. pp. 63-75. KELAT 
TO MEsHED (vid Kanegosha and Karategan), two alternative route&. (Sir) C. MacGregor 
(1875), Journey throuyk Khora8an, Vol. ii. Appendix IL

|PPage_
148 . 
CHAPTER VII
MESHED
Some reverence is surely due to the fame of heroes and the religion of nations.-GIBBON, Decline 
and 1411 of the Roman -Empire.
MESHED has in the course of the past half-century been visited and described at greater or less 
length by several Europeans, among Previous whom Englishmen have been in the ascendant, in 
merit chroniclers as well as in numbers. I append a catalogue of their of Meshed names and 
publications,ËË so tha ËË t the reader may know whither to refer for such information as he 
may desire about particular periods or individual men. If I add one more to the list of these 
chroniclers, it is because 1 aspire not to replace, but to supplement their labours. 1 shall, as 
far as possible, avoid the repetition of what has been better said by them, believing implicitly 
in reference to the original source where that is feasible. But it will be within my power both to 
correct certain errors into which they have fallen, and to impart greater verisimilitude to the 
picture
I J. B. Fraser (1822), Journey into _Khgragan, cap. xvii.; Lieut. A. Conolly (1830), a,-erland 
Jourwj to India, vol. i. cap. x.; Dr. J. Wolff (1831 and 1844), Travels and Adventures and 
Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara; (Sir) A. Burnes (1832), Travels into Bokhara, vol, iii. cap. 
xiv.; J. P. Ferrier (1845), Caravan Journeys, cap. ix.; N. de KhaDikoff (1858), 3Umoire mir 
la Partie miridionale de PA8ie Centrale, pp. 97-108; ~Ve8hid, la Cittil santa e il suo 
Territorio; E. B. Eastwick (1862), Journal of a Diplomate, vol. ii. pp. 200-233; A. Vamb6ry 
(1863), Life and Adventures, cap. xxvii.; Neine Wanderungen und.Erlebnisse in Persien; 
Captain H. C. Marsh (1872), Ride through Islam, pp. 98-112; Seistan Boundary Commission 
(1872)-(i.) Col. Euan Smith, Bastern, Per8ia, vol. i. pp. 357-366 ; (ii.) Dr. H. W. Bellew, 
From the Indus to the Tigris, pp. 360-368; Colonel V. Baker (1873), Cloudg in the East, cap. 
x.; (Sir) C. MacGregor (1875), Journey through Khorasan, vol. i. pp. 277-end, with a plan 9f 
the city, p. 284; J. Bassett (1878), Persia, the Land of the Imams, pp. 221-235; E. 
OËËDonovan (1880-1881), The _21ferv Oasis, vol. i. cap. xxviii-xix., vol. ii. cap. xxx.; P. 
Lessar ( 1882), Pete?-mann's Mittheilungen, 1884, viii.; Lieut. A. C. Yate (1885), 
Travels ivitA the Afghan Boundary Commission, cap. x. Prior to this century the descriptions of 
Meshed are short and scattered. But an interesting account of the city in 1741 is to be found in 
Voyage de l7nde a1rekke, by Abdul Kerim, pp. 48, 70-74, trans,lated into French by M. 
Langl6s.
MESHED
149.
by bringing it up to date. The fixed residence of an official representative of the Qu I een in 
Meshed is alone sufficient to mark an epoch in its history
|PPage_
I may dismiss with the briefest notice the rudiments of knowledge about the holy city.
dom or Witness and fame are alike due to the fact that History
in the ninth century A.D. the hol Imam Reza, son of Imam usa an hth of the twelve Imams or 
Prophets, were here interred. Rumour relates, but apparentTy without -any very certain 
foundation, that, having incurred the jealousy of the Khalif Mamun (son of the renowned Harun-
erRashid), whose capital was Merv, the saint, then residing at the. city of Tus,ËËfifteen miles 
from the modem Meshed, was removed at his orders by a dish of poisoned grapes; although 
another tradition represents the holy father as having comfortably died in his bed, or whatever 
was the ninth century equivalent thereto, at Tus. Whichever be the truth, the body of the 
departed prophet was interred in a tower in the neighbouring village of Sanabad, where also (a 
curious corollaryto the story of the murder) lay the remains of the Khalif's father, the 
illustrious Harun. Sanabad gradually became an object of religious attraction and worship, and 
Ibn Batutah, who travelled hither about 1330 A.D., found the
mosque of the Imam in existehce, and highly revered .2 In 1404 the courtly Spanish 
Ambassador, Don Ruy Gonzalez di Clavijo, passing Meshed on his way to the Court of Timur at 
Samarkand, left a similar record.3 Shah Rukh, the youngest son of Timur, subsequently 
embellished the. mausoleum; while his wife, Gowher Shad, erected the magnificent mosque 
which still exists alongside.
Mashhad is the locative n6n. of the root s~ ~~, to witness. 2 -that I the Meshed of El Reza is a 
large and well-peopled city, abounding in fruits. Over the Meshed is a large dome adorned with a 
covering of silk and golden candlesticks. Under the dome, and opposite to the tomb of El Reza, is 
the grave of the Calif Harun-el-Rashid. Over this they constantly place candlesticks with lights. 
But when the followers of Ali enter as pilgrims they kick the grave of El Rashid, but pour out 
their benedictions over that of El Reza.ËË It is clear from the above that in the fourteenth 
century. Meshed was as much a place of Sunni as of Shiah pilgrimage. 2 1 Imam Reza lies buried 
in a great mosque in a large tomb, which is covered with silver gilt. On account of this tomb the 
city is crowded with pilgrims, who come here in great numbers every year. When the pilgrims 
arrive, they dismount and kiss the ground, saying that they have reached a holy placeËË 
(Hakluty Society edition).

|PPage_
150 
It was not, however, till the accession of the Sefavi dynasty, at the beginning of the sixteenth 
century, that Mesl~ed, as it had now for long been designated, became a centre of world-wide 
renown. Having established the Shiah heresy as the national creed, it was in the highest degree n 
ecessary for the new occupants of the throne to institute soine shrine which should divert the 
flow of pilgrimage and money from Mecca, and appeal to the enthusiasm of the entire Shiah 
community. Just as Jeroboam set up the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, in order to divert the 
Israelitish pilgrims from Jerusalem, so the Shahs Ismail, Tahmasp, and Abbas loaded the 
mosque of Imam Reza with wealth and endowments, visited and sometimes resided in the 
city,ËË and loft it what it has ever since remained, the Mecca of the Persian world. It does not 
indeed rank first among Shiah shrines; for just as Ali (son-in-law of the Prophet and in 
succession to him, accordil~g_to the Shiah canon, the true leader of the faith) and his son, the 
martyred Husein
, are superior in holiness even to the, Imam Reza, so their tombs at Neief (61- Meshed Ali) and 
KerbelL_Ljj~ superior sanctity to the shrine of Meshed. But Nejef and Kerbela, are both 
situated on Turkish-i.e. on alien-soil; and unpatriotic would be the soul that, while paying its 
devotions to those sacred spots, did not also bum with th e desire to behold and to offer its 
prayers at the religious centre of Iran, and to kiss the railings of the Imam's grave .2 The 
situation of Meshed, however, so near the confines of Turan, rendered it liable to constant 
inroad and attack, and in common with all the border cities of Khorasan it has had a stormy and 
eventful history. In the reign of Shah Abbas (A.D. 1587) it was once taken and sacked by the 
Uzbegs. It suffered severely during the Afghan invasion of Mahmud. But it revived under the 
patronage of the conqueror Nadir Shah, who, although after his accession to the tl~rone lie 
eschewed and endeavoured
I Abbas the Great is said, upon one occasion, as a proof of his piety, to have walked with his 
court the entire distance from Isfahan to Meshed, while the Astronomer Royal measured the 
distance with a string, and returned the total as 199 farsak7ts and a fraction. 2 1 asked a Shiah 
sevid of Kerbela the pzdeLin which the Holy-Places of the Moslem faith are _-s
~ccA by his persuasion, and his answer was as follows (1). Mecca, (2) Medina, (3) Nejef, (4) 
Kerbela, (5) Kasimcin, near Baghdad, (6) Meshed, (7) Samara, on the Tigris, (8) Kum. But a 
Persian Shiah would rank Meshed after Kerbela. Thej~11&Eftm~ ~etg_Mccca confers the title 
Haii. that to Kerbela Kerbelai. and to Meshed Me8h0di.
A
MESHED

|PPage_
161
forcibly to expunge the Shiah faith,ËË yet often held his court at Meshed, restored and 
beautified the sacred shrine, and built in the city a tomb both for himself and for the son whom 
he had blinded in a fit of jealous passion. After his death, Meshed remained in the possession of 
his blind grandson, Shah Rukh, under whose infirm rule its population, harried by almost 
yearly invasions of the Uzbegs, sank from 60,000 to 20,000, until at the end of the century he 
was deposed and tortured to death by the brutal eunuch Agha Mohammed Khan Kajar, the founder 
of the reigning family of Persia. During the present century Meshed has several times been in 
rebellion against the sovereign power, having inherited a detestation of the Kajars, recurrent 
outhreaks of which have necessitated more than one punitive expedition; but along with the rest 
of the kingdom it has now passed in peaceful subjection into the hands of Nasr-ed-Din.
Meshed is surrounded, as are all Oriental towns of any size, by a mud wall with small towers at 
regular distances, and projecting bartizans at the angles. The wall was originally nine feet thick 
at the bottom and four feet thick at the top, besides having a parapet one foot in thickness, but is 
now in a .state of utter disrepair. There was formerly a small ditch or Pusse-braye, below the 
rampart, with a low parapet on the crest of the counterse.arp, and a broader ditch beyond. But 
the process of decay has merged these structural features in a common ruin, and in most parts 
they are not to be distinguished from each other. The circumference of the *walls has been 
variously calculated at four, four and a half, and six.miles; but any calculation is difficult, 
owing to the irregularity of the plan.2 They are pierced by five gates: the Bala Khiaban, or 
Upper Avenue, and the Pain Khiaban, or Lower Avenue Gate, at the two ends of the main street; 
the Naugan, Idgah, and Sarab. The ark or citadel, my visit to which I shall presently relate, is 
situated on the south-west wall .3 1 The attempted restoration of the Sunni creed by Nadir Shah 
was an act of policy, intended to reunite the Mussulman world from Tabriz to Delhi under the 
sceptre of a single monarch. ~ 2 MacGregor's plan (vol. i. p. 284), which was made by Col. 
Dolmage, is the only one that I know, but is not thoroughly accurate. Eastwick, in riding round 
the walls and describing the plan of the city, seems, by some strange error, to have reversed the 
points of the compass, turning north into south and east into west. . 3 For the geographical 
position of Meshed, vide a paper by Major.T. H. Holdich in the Froceedinys of the -R.G.S. (New 
Series), vol. vii. (1885) pp. 735-738.
Size and
PlEm of
the city
ó
 eir visit are pressed upon them, in the shape of the local 
manufactures of the. city, of amulets
and trinkets, and of turquoises engraven with sentences from the Koran. The most remarkable 
feature, however, about this section of the parallelogram is that, belonging to the Imam, it is 
holy ground, and consequently affords an inviolable sanctuary, or bast, to any malefactor who 
succeeds in - entering its precincts. Some writers declare that even Christians, Jews, and 
Guebres (the Persian

|PPage_
name for the Parsis) are permitted to use it for the same purpose; but this I elsewhere heard 
denied. To a Mohammedan, however, it is a safe refuge from his pursuers, with whom, from the 
security of his retreat, he can then make terms, and settle the ransom which is to purchase his 
immunity if he comes out.ËË The idea of sanctuary is of course familiar to the Oriental mind, 
and is embodied in the Cities of Refuge of the Pentateuch. Nor should it excite the indignant 
surprise of the English reader, seeing that in our own country and capital at no very distant date 
a similar refuge for debtors existed in the famous Alsatia between Blackfriars, Bridge and 
Temple Bar, which also had an ecclesiastical foundation, having originally been the precincts of 
the Dominicans or Black Friars. The Bast at Meshed is so emphatically the property of the 
Imam, that any animal entering its limits is at once confiscated by the authorities of the 
shrine.In Persia the idea of bast seems, it is difficult to say why, to have a threefold localisation 
: (1) In sacred buildings or mosques (compare the ËË horns of the altarËË in the Jewish 
tabernacle) ; (2) in the stabies or at the tails of the horses belonging to the sovereign or 
members of the royal family; (3) in the neighbourhood of axtillery-e.g. in the Meidan-i-
Tapkhaneh, or Gun Square, in Teheran, and particularly in contact with the big gun which stands 
outside the palace. Chardin (edit. Lan&s, vol. vii. p. 369) says, two centuries ago, that it 
applied to the tombs of great saints, to the gateway of the Royal Palace at Isfahan, and to the 
kitchen as well as the stables of the KiDg. The selection of the royal stables and horses as an 
especial sanctuary would appear to be due to the extravagant attention that has always been paid, 
in a country where there are superb breeds of horses, and where every man is a horseman, to 
this part of the establishment of the sovereign. There is a Persian saying that I a horse will 
never bear him to victory by whom its sanctity has been infringed;ËË and Malcolm (vol., ii. 
cap. xxiii) quotes a Persian MS., which attributed all the misfortunes of Nadir Mirza, the 
grandson of Nadir Shah, to his having put to death a fugitive who bad taken sanctuary in the 
royal stables. The MS. adds these interesting particulars: I The monarch or chief in whose stable 
a criminal takes refuge must feed him as long as he stays there; he may be slain the moment 
before he reaches it or when he leaves it; ËËbut while there, a slave who has murdered his 
master ~;nnot be touched. The place of safety is at the horse's head, and if that is tied up in 
the open air the person who takes refuge~ is to touch the head-stall.ËË In later times, the tail, 
though perhaps more venturesome, appears to have been as much fraught with protection as the 
bead.

|PPage_
156 .
At the end of the bazaar of the Bast, a lofty archway, rising high above the adjoining wall, leads 
into the Sahii, or principal 2. The court, of the Holy Buildings. This is a noble quadrangle, Sahn 
150 yards long by 75 yards wide, flagged with gravestones of the wealthy departed,.whose 
means have enabled them to purchase this supreme distinction, and surrounded by a double 
storey of recessed alcoves. In the centre of this court stands a small octagonal structure or 
kiosque, with gilded roof, covering a fountain which is supplied by the main canal, and 
surrounded by a stone channel constructed by Shall Abbas. The water of this fountain is used for 
purposes of ablution by the pilgrim as he enters. Upon the four sides the walls between and 
above the recesses are faced with enamelled tiles; and in the centre of ~each rises one of those 
gigantic portals, or aiwans (archways set in a lofty rectangular frame), which are 
characteristic of the Arabian architecture of Central Asia. These arches are embellished with 
colossal tiles, bearing in Kufic letters verses from the Koran. An inscription on the southern 
aiwan says that it was built by Shah Abbas II. in A.H. 1059. The lower bands of Kufic characters 
on all the aiwans were., we learn from a similar source, added in A.H. 1262. Upon the summit of 
the western aiwan rises a cage, very rashly assumed by Eastwick to be made of ivory, from 
which the muezzin gives the call to prayer.ËË The eastern aiwan is that which leads to the 
Holy of Holies, the tomb-chamber of the Imam; and its special character is indicated by the 
gilding with which its upper half is overlaid. An inscription upon it -says that it was finished 
by Shah Sultan Hugein in A.H. 1085 ; and some later verses record that it was gilded by Nadir 
Shah in A.H. 1145 with the gold that had been plundered from India and the Great Mogul. The 
Sabn contains two minarets, which, according to descriptions, and from what I myself saw from 
the roof of a bazaar within the Bast, do not appear to be placed in analogous positions on either 
side of the main entrance. The older minaret, built by Shah Ismail or Shah Tahmasp, springs 
from the mausoleum itself. When Fraser was here on his second visit in 1834, it had been I so 
shaken or damaged, that for fear of its falling they had taken it down.ËË It was afterwards 
rebuilt. The second or larger minaret was erected
Chardin says that the reason why these cages were constructed for the Inluezzins in Pensia was 
the fear lest from the summit of the minarets they should see too much of female life in the 
courts of the neighbouring houses.
MESBED
157
by Nadir Shah, and rises from behind the opposite gateway. - The upper part of these minarets 
is in each case overlaid with gilded copper plates, and is crowned with the cage4ike gallery that 
is

|PPage_
common to the Persian style. The sun flashes from their radiant surface, and in the distance 
they glitter like pillars of fire.
And now we approach the chief glory of the whole enclosure, the inosque and sepulchre of the 
immortal Imam. I say immortal
advisedly, for the theory upon which the shrine and the
vast system dependent upon it subsist is that the sainted
Reza still lives, and responds miraculously to the petitions of his worshippers. The Hazret, as 
he is called-i.e. His Highness, -is the host of his guests. He supplies their bodily wants while 
they remain within his domain; and equally he answers their prayers, and furthers their 
spiritual needs. It is open to any pilgrim to consult him, and Delphic responses are easily 
forthcoming in return for a suitable fee to one of the attendant priests. From time to time also 
the rumour goes abroad that some astonishing miracle has been effected at the shrine of His 
Highness. The cripple has walked, or the blind man has seen, or some similar manifestation has 
occurred of god-like effluence.ËË The tomb itself is preceded by a spacious chamber, 
whoseËË marble floor is overlaid with rich carpets. Above it, to a height of seventy-seven 
feet, swells the main cupola, whose gilded exterior2
I This is no new thing, for, 200 years ago, the French missionary, Father Sanson, narrates and 
mercilessly analyses the same phenomena. I Shah Abbas has made this tomb famous by a great 
many false miracles he caused to be pr actised there; for, placing people there on purpose who 
should counterfeit themselves blind, they suddenly received their sight at this sepulchre, and 
immediately cryËËd out, Ë Ë A miracle; Ë Ë he procur*d so great a veneration for this tomb 
of Imam Reza that most of the greatest lords in Persia have desirËËd to be buryËËd in this 
mosque; and to which they give great legacies.ËË Nadir Shah, on the other band, had a most 
intense contempt for these manufactured miracles. Vide a story related by Malcolm, History, 
vol. ii. p. 51. 2 A very interesting passage occurs in the narrative of Chardin (edit. Langl6s, 
vol. iii. p. 228), who, being in Isfahan in the reign of Shah Suleiman in 1672, went to the house 
of the King's goldsmith to see these very gilt plates being made as tiles for the dome of Imam 
Reza, which bad just been destroyed by an earthquake. In the English translation of Lloyd (vol. i. 
p. 237) it appears as follows: I These plates were of brass (no-cuivre, i.e. copper) and square, 
10 inches in breadth and 16 in length, and of the thickness of two crown pieces. Underneath 
were two Barrs 3 inches broad, solderËËd on crosswise, to sink into the Parget (i.e. plaster) 
and to serve as cramp irons to fasten the tiles. The upper part was gilt so thick that ËËone 
would have taken the tile to be of massif gold. Each tile took up the weight of 3 Ducates and a 
quarter of gilding, and
8. Mosque of Imam Reza

|PPage_
158 MESHED 159
marks the sacred spot to the advancing pilgrim, and gladdens his weary eyes from afar. The 
walls of this chamber are adorned with a wainscoting of kashi-i.e. enamelled tiles, above which 
are broad bands of Arabic writing in the same material. There is a hum of voices in the building; 
for servants of the shrine are heard reading aloud from the KoraD, seyids are mumbling their 
daily prayers, greedy mullahs are proffering their services to the new arrivals; and many are 
the exclamations of pious wonder and delight that burst from the bewildered pilgrim, as, after 
months of toil and privation in the most cheerless surroundings, there flash upon his gaze the 
marbles and the tile work, the gold and the silver, the jewels and the priceless offerings of the 
famous shrine. Encrusted within and without with Vold I it isËË ËË savs Vamb6rv, who 
himself saw it, ËËunqiiestionabv the richest tomb in the whole Ts-lamiteworld. 
_~61_thouvh_-si_n_cethe date-of its has been several times plunde fretted work of the 
interior still contain an incalculable amount of treasure.The walls are adorned with 
thi~_r_arest ~trinkets aWd an ai -of diamonds, there a sword and shield jewels: here grette, 
studded with rubies and emeralds, rich old bracelets, large massive candelabra, necklaces of 
immense value.ËË Well may the worshipper, as he enters, bow his head till it touches the 
ground, before he approaches the main object of his devotion, the sepulchre it-self, At different 
times the tomb has been surrounded with railings of gold and silver and steel. The first of these 
was originally set The up by Shah Tahmasp, but was in part dismantled and Prophet's 
plundered by the grandson of Nadir Shah. The last was tomb the gift of Nadir himself. - Three 
doors lead to the, shrine, one of which is of silver, another of gold plates studded with precious 
stones, the gift of Fath Ali Shah; the third being covered with a carpet sewed with pearls. Upon 
the railings round the tomb are hung silver and wooden tablets with appropriate forms
came to about 10 crowns value. They were ordered to make 3,000 at first, as I was told by The 
Chief Goldsmith, who was overseer of the work,ËË I By none more than those who should have 
been responsible for its safety. The two sons of the blind Shah Rukh and grandsons of Nadir Shah 
in particular could not keep their avaricious hands from the shrine which their grandfather bad 
bonoured and embellished. Nasrullah Mirza pulled down part of the gold railing round. the 
saint's tomb, and Nadir Mirza took down the great golden ball, weighing 420 lbs., from the 
top of the dome; while both brothers freely plundered the lamps, carpets &c., inside.
of prayer and inscriptions. I Before each of them a little group of
the devout is posted, either to pray themselves or to repeat the
petitions after the leader of their common devotions. This they
do with cries and sobs, as though thus to open to themselves the
gates of eternal bliss. It is indeed a singular and sublime

|PPage_
J s spectacle to see how these rude sons of Asia kiss with unfeigned
tenderness the fretwork of the grating, the pavement, and especially
the great padlock which hangs from the door.
_Dly the priests
and the sevids are uninfluenced ~y these feqling~_of devqtioi~.
Their onlv concern is with the -Dence which they may collect.
They force their way everywhere among the devout, nor do they
retire till by felicitations or other good offices they have obtained
the desired mite. When the pilgrim, filled w-ith awe, walking
backwards, has at last left the building, he has earned for himself
tho honorary title of Meshedi, a title which he has inscribed on his
signet and his tombstone, and which he ever after prefixes to his
name as an agnomen.ËË
In the absorption consequent upon visiting the mausoleum of
the Imam, the pilgrim probably recks little of the dust of the
Other famous Harun-er-Ra-shid, which reposes beneath a sar
tombs cophagus hard by. Nor, perhaps, will he think much of
the tomb of Abbas Mirza, the son of Fath Ali Shah, and wrand
father of the present monarch, which also stands beneath the
sacred roof. Other tombs and chambers, moreover, there are
opening out of the principal shrine, but of minor importance, and
these may be dismissed without further notice.
I now come to a very prevalent error which it is desirable in
the interests of truth to expose. It was started by Mr. Eastwick
Europeans in 1862, when he claimed for himself that he was
who have ËËthe only European that ever went into the mosque of
seen the
shrine Imam Reza at Meshed, certainly the only one that entered
as a Enrop~an.ËË I And it has been repeated and aggravated by the
new edition of the ËËEncyclopoedia Britannica,ËË which says (vide
article on Meshed) : I Eastwick was the only European before
OËËDonovan who penetrated as far as the parallelogram.ËË Both of
these claims are quite without justification. Before the time of
Eastwick, Fraser in 1822 went into the shrine and into the tomb
chamber itself, and after more than once repeating the Moslem
confession of faith and giving the mullahs to understand that be
I Journal of a Dil)loniate, vol. ii, p. 229.

|PPage_
160 PERSIN XESIIED 161~
was a convert to Islam -(a most questionable proceeding on his looked through into the great 
quadranole.1 This is an achievement part), was allowed to sit for two days in one of the alcoves 
of the which might, I think; be effected without risk at the present time. Sahn, in order to make 
a drawing of its interior.ËË Conolly in 1830 A European who found his way into the Bast, 
particularly by some visited. all the chambers of the mosque but that containing tli6 other than 
one of the two main entries, might without much tomb itself, and walked daily in the Sahn, 
where, thou gli recognised, difficulty succeed in reaching the gates of the Sahn. He might be lie 
was free from insult.2 Burnes in 1832) on his return journey stared at or followed or mobbed, 
but lie would probably not be from Bokliara, went into the Sahn, but did not think it prudent to 
attacked. It would be a different thing were he to enter the
13 go beyond, his -ËËJudgment conquering his curiosity. Ferrier in sacred precincts 
themselves;. though I am one of those who 1845 did exactly the same .4 Fraser, returning to 
Meshed in 1884, incline to the opinion that in these respects the fanaticism of after the 
occupation of the city by the army of Abbas Mirza, with Orientals is apt to be exaggerated. In the 
interests, however, not which were several English officers, found ËË the Sabn open to all 
merely of personal safety, but of the reputation of his nationality, Europeans,ËË but in a state 
of grievous dilapidation that was after- which might suffer from detection, it would be 
foolhardy in a wards repaired.,ËË All these were before the date of Eastwick's foreigner to 
make the attempt. I was myself conducted over the visit. But when we come to Eastwick himself, 
we are surprised to roofs of the bazaars to a spot, I believe, within thei Bast, where I could find 
not only that he did not o into the mosque, in the true sense see the sacred buildings very well, 
and was from eighty to a hundred
9 0 of the term, at all, but that he did not even go so far as the more yards distant from,the 
mosque of Gowher Shad, which adjoins cautious of his predecessors in crossing the Sahn. He was 
intro- that of Imam Reza, and to which I next turn. If I must claim duced by the Muta-vvali 
Bashi, or Chief Guardian of the. shrine, by for myself any special distinction, it is the modest 
one of being a door from the back into one of the recessed alcoves that surround the first English 
Member of Parliament who has entered the walls the Sahn, where he sat and gazed at -what was 
passing below. He of Meshed, so far as my know- ledge extends. went no further, and lie even 
went there unawares.6 The second mosque is behind that of Imam Reza, but is situated
Continuing the narrative since his day and down to that of obliquely to it. Like the othe , it has a 
large court, with two
r OËËDonovan, we find that in the year following (1863) Vamb6ry, on storeys of recessed 
compartments all round, with soaring
4. Mosque

|PPage_
the return from his heroic voyage as a mendicant dervish to of Gowher tile-COVered aiwans, and 
with two great ungilt but tile
Shad Bokhai a and Samarkand, entered the mosque and visited the tomb encircled minarets. On 
the main fagade is aii inscription chamber in the character which he had go long and 
successfully saying that it was erected in the reign of Sha Rukh in A.H. 821.
h worn. About the same time Colonel Dolmage, an English officer A similar panel on the southern 
aiwan records its reconstruction by in the service of the Shah,ËË who superintended a powder 
factory Sultan Husein in A.H. 1087. Fraser, who visited it, thought
Shah near Meshed, penetrated into the interior under the auspices of the 4- this mosque ËËby 
far the most beautiful and magnificent that be had
I Hissam-es-Sultaneb, then Governor-General of Khorasan. Finally, 1: seen in Persia;ËË and 
Vamb6ry, speaking of its main archway, said: when we come to OËËDonovan in 1880, we find 
that he did not
rl~ It was long before I could determine whether I should award the even enter the Sahn, but 
claims from a doorway outside to have palm to this gate or to those two in Samarkand and Herat 
which are
Journey into K7iorasan, pp. 472, 511. il of the same style ; for it is certain that they all date 
from the reign of
Overland Journey to India, vol. i. p. 288. e work of the same architect. It
Travels into Bokhara, vol. iii. p. 70. Cararan Journeys, p. 126.Shah Rukh, if indeed they were 
not th
A. Winter's Journey, vol. ii. p. 211. is possible that the Madrasseh Khanym in Samarkand, 
as also the
Jour?zal of a Diploniate, vol. ii. pp. 224-229. Musallah in Herat, were more luxurious and 
magnificent, but I can 7 Colonel, originally Doctor, Dolmage was an Englishman who, after 
servinhardly believe that they were ever more beautiful.
9 as a veterinary surgeon in the Crimean War, came out to Persia and entered the service of the 
Shah. ËË He subsequently died at Teheran. It was his plan of Meshed Gowher Shad's mosque 
hardly, at the present day, sustains s that appeared in MacGregor's book, having been 
purchased by the latter officer, this reputation from the outside, though evidently its kashi is 
for a few krans. 217w3ferv Oasis, vol, i, cap. xxix.

|PPage_
162 
superb. The dome, which is larger and loftier -than that of Imam Reza, is covered with tiles of 
blue, green, and orange patterns, which have peeled off in places.
Entrance is found by one of the archways in the principal Sabn to a mazlresseh, or religious 
college, which was erected by Other the munificence of one Mirza Jafir, a wealthy Persian 
buildings merchant who had made a fortune in India; and it is the in the Bast third finest 
building in Meshed, resembling the mosques in structural features and decoration. It was 
further endowed by its founder with large revenues, which supported fifty or sixty mullahs. 
Also included in the parallelogram are other madresschs, courts, lodging-bouses, and baths, as 
well as a great refectory, where the pilgrims are fed at the expense of His Highness (each new-
comer being entitled to three daysËË gratuitous board), at the rate of 30 mans or 195 lbs. of 
rice a day. Here it is said that 500 or 600 meals are served daily to the hungry guests of the 
Imam.
We are indebted to Khanikoff, who was a most scholarly and accurate inquirer, for the following 
information about the library Library of of the Iinam. He says that the date of its foundation the 
Imam cannot be placed earlier than the time of Shah RLikh, the oldest volume being a Koran 
that.was deposited in his reign. The next donations occurred in the reigns of Shah Abbas and Shah 
Sultan Husein. A catalogue had been drawn up shortly before KbanikoffËËs visit in 1858, from 
which he learnt that the library contained 2,997 works in 3,654 volumes, of which 1,041 
were Korans (189 printed, and 852 manuscripts, some of the latter of great dimensions and 
rare beauty), 299 prayer-books and guides to pilgrims, 246 works on general ecclesiastical 
law, and 221 on that of the Shiah persuasion alone. It is curious to learn that the greatest 
benefactor of the library was the unlettered Nadir Shah, who presented it with as many as 400 
manuscripts.
The revenues of tlie shrine in money and -in kind are very large.. Fraser says that Linder Shah 
Sultan Husein, the last of the Sefavi Revenues dynasty, at the beginning or the eighteenth 
century, they of the were, 15,000 tomavs; but in 1821 lie gives the figures as Shrine 2,000 
to 2,500 tomans (can this be a.misprint for 20,000 to 255000 ?). Bassett, in 1878, gave the 
total as 40,000 tomans, which were then equivalent to 16,0001. According to the information 
supplied to me, they now stand at 60,000 tomans (equivalent at
MESHED
163
the present rate of exchange to 17,0001.) and 10,000 kharvars I of grain. The landed property 
of the Imam is scattered all over Persia, and there is a good deal of estate besides in the shape of 
houses, caravanserais, shops, and bazaars. There are 600 paid

|PPage_
servants of the mosque, 100 for each day of the week * The total retinue connected with the holy 
buildings, and consisting of mvjtaheds, mullahs, mutawalis, attendants, menials, and hangers-
on, has been estimated at 2,000.
The entire fixed population of Meshed stands at about the same (45,000) as it did in the days of 
Conolly. But how large a part in Population its life. is played by the religious element is shown 
by the of Meshed Computation that within the year as many as 100,000 pilgrims enter its 
walls, and that the average number at any time to be found in the city is from 5,000 to 8,000. 
From these figures, and from what has been said above, some idea may be formed of the vast and 
potent machinery which is in the hands of the ecclesiastical power, and of the part that it must 
play in the politics of Meshed. The capital is, indeed, a great collection of peoples, occupations, 
interests, and intrigues, revolving round the central pivot of the shrine. Just as its middle 
portion is occupied by the sacred quadrilateral, so the life of the place throbs from the same 
hidden heart, moving in dark channels of superstition, miracle-_ mongering, and imposture. 
Conolly was well within the mark when he wrote of the mullahs of Meshed that ËËthe greater 
number of these are rogues who only take-thought how to make the most of the pilgrims that 
visit the shrine. From the high priest to the seller of bread, all have the same end; and, not 
content with the stranger's money, those in office a-bout the saint appropriate to 
themselves the very dues for keeping his temple in order.ËË
Fromancient times the government of the shrine has been vested in the hands of an individual, 
not necessarily an ecclesiastic, Govern and commonly a laymau, know as the Mutawali Bashi, or 
mentof-the Chief Guardian. He has ordinarily become, by virtue of shrine his office, the 
principal personage in Meshed, equalling and often surpassing the Governor-General in 
influence. It was no mean proof of the strength of the present Shah, that here, as elsewhere, he 
had secured the due subordination of the ËËecclesiastical to the civil element by appointing his 
own brother the Rukn-edDowleh, who was Governor-General of Khorasan at the time of my
I Uarvar = 649 lbs.; 31 khari-ars = (approxiniately) 1 ton.
2

|PPage_
164 
MESHED
165
visit, to the post of Mutawali Bashi as well. It was the first time sojourn inËËthe city. There 
is a large permanent population of in history that the offices had been united in the same 
individual, wives suitable for the purpose.ËË A mullah is found, under whose
sanction a contract is drawn up and formally sealed by both
and in proportion as the occurrence detracted from. the ecclesiastical...................parties, a fee 
is paid, and the uni is le ly accomplished After predominance of the clergy, so did it aggrandise 
the temporal on gal
nth, or whatever be the specifi ascendency of the sovereign. Below the Mutawali Bashi in de- the 
lapse of a fortnight or a mo e d. scending grades of authority and repute, extends a hierarchy of 
period, the contract terminates ; the temporary husband returns inferior gmthavalis, some of 
whom are hereditary office-bearers, to his own lares et penates in some distant clime, and the 
lady,
after an enforced celibacy of fourteen daysËË duration, resumes.her while others receive 
their appointments from the Shah; of mujlaheds, career of persevering_ matrimony. In other 
words, a gigantic or doctors of the law, who expound the canonical jurisprudence, and a
system. of prostitution, -ihËË occupy positions of great distinction and influei ice, receiving 
in some i in~e r e sanction of the Church, prev ils in
who preach, Meshed. . There is probably not a more immoral citv in Asia, and I cases fixed 
allowances from the Shah; and of mullahs) and conduct the services, and live by what they can 
extract fromshould be sorry to say how many of the unmurmuring pilgrims who the pilgrims. 
The more emin2LE~Las very traverse seas and lands to kiss the grating of the Imam's holy 
characters. When they_emnt__exr_~ _torav,crowdsnot also encouraged and consoled upon their 
march bythe Xg2a~th~erbeh,ind tl~iemt ~ci ~ate in ~theijLyrayers, and they spendof an 
agreeable holiday and what might be described in th
vernacular as I a good spree! much of their spare time in indiscriminate shouting and weepinLy. 
Here, in the city which he patronised and adorned, was originAt th of my visit Meshed was in one 
of its chronic spasmsally laid the body of the, great conqueror, Nadir Shah. In his own of 
religious excitement. The anniversaries of the martyrdom both
raised both for him
lifetime he caused the buildings to be of Ilasan and of the holy Imam were 
_112e~in_cornmemorated. Tombof ,Taziehs, or religious play~, were being acted; the holy 
places were Nadir self and for his son, Roza Kuli Mirza. They were situ
Shah about halfw - between the mosque of the Imam and crowded to suffocation; and beaten 
tomtoms and clanioured invo- ated ay
the Bala Khiaban gate. Not a trace now remains of their existence. cations made the night 
hideous. Judging from the noise that heThe brutal eunuch Agha Mohammed Khan Kajar, mindful 
of the made, there must have been some particularly holy personage livingsource to which he 
owed his calamity, as soon as he became Shah near my quarters in the British Consulate; and 
freely did I anathematise this insufferable saint as I lay awake at ngratified the instincts of a 
long-nurtured rev,6nge by razing the,
ight listen- atruc ing to his long-drawn lamentations and plaintive howls.turesto the ground; 
while the bones of Nadir were removed
From gate to gate of the Bast on either side, the parallelogramat his orders to Teheran, and 
deposited (along with those of his

|PPage_
thus enclosed must be at least a square quarter of a mile. Theother rival ËË Kerim Khan Zend) 
beneath the threshold of the palace,
western gate is used as,a . nakkara-khaneh, or band-so that whenever be went abroad be might 
trample upon the dust of Extent of the great persecutor of himself and his familv, In 
Fraser's day the the quad- tower), and from here, as in other Persian seats of royal 0 
rilateral residence, is sounded at sunset a discordant fanfaronade desecrated buildings at Meshed 
were heaps of rubbish. Ten years of cymbals, drums, and horns. later Burnes found a crop of 
turnips springing from the soil which
Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of Meshed life, beforehad sheltered the body of the 
conqueror of Hindustan. I leave the subject of the shrine and the pilgrims, is the provisionThere 
still exist a considerable number of Jewish families in
Meshed, although the practice of their own worship is strictly forProstitu- that is made for the 
material solace of the latter. during
0
tom.b a e
ó
 ioD,to :_ off!T.,up Ismail- 0 muup, not Ishak (Isaac). The aDiinals sacrificed 
on this occasion are supposed also to act as a propitiatory offering, which will stand the believer 
in good stead when be comes to the razorlike bridge of Sirat, that spans the gulf to Paradise. I 
AUntoire sur 1a.Partie Afiridionale de IËËAsic CentraZe, p. 107.
MESHED
167

|PPage_
daggers) there is not the same demand for new blades. Silk and cotton and velvet stuffs are made 
here, but of a quality greatly inferior to those of Bokhara. There are in the town 650 silk looms 
and 320 shawl looms. On the other hand, good carpets are procurable, particularly those of 
genuinely Oriental pattern, close texture, and imperishable vegetable dyes, that hail from Kain 
and BirJand. The Kurdish carpets are also original, but less artistic. In Meshed itself are forty 
carpet-looms. Turkoman carpets, jewellery, and weapons were formerly a common object in 
the bazaars, but are now almost entirely bought up by the Russians in Transcaspia or exported 
to Europe. Astrabad, near the camps of the Goklan Turkomans, is probably, next to Teheran 
(whither everything converges), the best place in Persia for procuring Turkoman articles. Old 
Tartar and even Bactrian coins are frequently to be met with at Meshed. I naturally anticipated 
that, being in such close proximity to the famous turquoise mines of Nishapur, the bazaars 
would be well stocked with specimens of that stone. I saw little but rubbish. All the best stones 
are bought at the mouth of the mines and are exported to foreign countries. Meshed seems to 
receive tiie residue, of a price and quality likely to attract the itinerant pilgrim. Nor was I any 
better pleased with the carved objects, cups, bowls, basins, ewers, which are hollowed with the 
aid of a very primitive lathe and tools out of a soft slate or steatite that is found in the 
neighbourhood. There are two varieties of this stone, a dull reddish brown, and a blue-grey. But 
though previous travellers have spoken in terms of great admiration of these works of art, I 
failed to appreciate either the material, the shape, or the workmanship. At the time of my visit, 
the scale of artisansËË wages was as follows: Carpenters, 3 krans, or 1 s. 9d., per diem ; 
masons, 2 krans, or ls. 2d.; blacksmiths, 1J kran, or I ld.; common labourers, 1 kran, Wages 
and or 7d. The price of bread was about Id. per lb., of price4 mutton 21d. Fowls, which had cost 
J kran, or 3Jd.
., in the mountains, cost 1 kran, or 7d., in the capital. The price of wheat was a little less than 
6d. a stone, of barley a little less than 4d. There were reported to be 144 private bankers or 
usurers in the city, with a united capital of 931,000 tomans, or 266,0001. Two only of these 
had a capital of 100,000 tomans (28,5701.); three a capital of 50,000 tomans (14,2851.) 
each; and two a capital of

|PPage_
168 PERSLk
30,000 tomans (8,5701.) each. The rest were petty money dealers. The New Oriental Bank in 
Teheran kept an agent at Meshed; Banks and but, as they have since parted with their business to 
Money- the new Imperial Bank of Persia, the latter have taken lending their place in Khorasan, 
where there is considerable scope for their transactions. A great many Russian rouble notes (it 
is said 200,000). were in circulation in Meshed. An English sovereign was worth 3 tomans and 
31 krans, or, at the normal rate of exchange, 19s. 6d. Indian rupees fetched their full Indian 
value of 1s. 5d.1
While at Meshed I enioved an interview with the GovernorGeneral of -khorasan. As I have 
already indicated, this ~1ËËgh
official is one of the two survivina brothers of the Shah. ViBit to the Governor- His naine- is 
Mohammed Taki Mirza. his tijID-111o RuknGeneral
ed-Dowleli (i.e. Pillar of the Ë

Ëtate
), and he was then Governor-General for the third time, having filled the post at intervals 
during the past fifteen years, and occasionally been superseded or shelved, as some other 
aspirant had gained the ear of the sovereign or been able to offer a higher bribe .2 He had the 
reputation of being a mild but timid individual, who shared the family taste for Baving, but 
temporises in politics. His chief minister however, or Wuzir (Vizier
), was reported to be a stauR~h ~artisan of Russia, with~were notorious. The Ark, or Citadel, 
in which the Governor resides, stands in the south-west portion of the city, from which it is 
separated by a
lar e-varade-Lyround or meidan. It is defended by a TheArk 2MË"Ë
circuit of low walls and towers. Entering a gateway between two towers, above which was a 
ludicrous daub or fresco of the Lion and the Sun, we rode down a long vaulted corridor into a 
large court. Here we dismounted, and, passing through an untidy
ó
 ended beyond Kandahar.ËË 
Later, as limb after limb was torn away,-and independent sovereignties were created out of the 
fragments, its boundaries became more and more contracted, until the kings of Persia would 
sometimes have found it difficult to say how much they really held of Khorasan. In the early part 
of this century, desolated by border warfare oil the north, inhabited by turbulent chieftains and 
conflicting tribes, and commonly dependent upon the fluctuating politics and fortunes of Herat, 
it was the vulnerable spot of the KajarsËË dominions, a sort of Ireland to an otherwise fairly 
united kingdom. Long after it had been forcibly conquered and subdued to the Shah's 
authority-, disorder trembled below the surface, and events might at any moment precipitate an 
explosion. As late as 1862 Mr. Eastwick wrote:
The normal state of Khorasan is war. Petty plunderings, murders, brigandage, small 
insurrections, executions of five, ten, or twenty robbers take place weekly ; and cavalry, 
engagements, sieges of fortresses or towns, annually, with a considerable war every five or ten 
years.2
It is not indeed till the last ten or fifteen years that Khorasan may be said to have become 
thoroughly fused, in sentiment as well as in title, with the rest of the Shah's dominions. The 
present King, who, whatever his failings, has undeniably consolidated his
I Of Malek Shah, the son of Alp A rslan, it was even said that I prayers were every day offered up 
for his health in Jerusalem, Mecca, Medina, Baghdad, Isfahan, Rhe, Bokhara, Samarcand, 
Ourgunje, and Kasbgar.ËË-Malcolm, History, Vol. i. p. 217. 2 Journal of a Dil4omate, Vol. ii. 
p. 216.
POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KHORASAN 181
reduced but still compact territories, can boast of a firmer hold upon

|PPage_
the province than any previous member of his dynasty, and is as unquestionably sovereign at 
Meshed as he is at Teheran. In the reign of Fath Ali Shah, about fifty years ago, the revenue of 
Khorasan was 200,000 tomans, and 50,000 kharvars . Revenue grain.ËË In 1875 it was 
340,000 tomans, and 45,000
kharvars of grain. In 1889 it stood at 539,000 tomans (154,0001.) and 43,000 kharvars of 
grain (two-thirds wheat and one-third barley), and 13,600 kharvars of kah-i.e. chopped 
straw:2 figures which, in spite of the depreciation of the toman, show that the productive 
capacity of the province is on the increase, and also that the extortionary capacity of the 
Government is better organised and more keen.
Of this total, according to a subdivision which is highly interesting, and will afterwards come up 
for explanation, the Shah received Division 87,200 tom=8 (24,9141.) in cash, and 9,200 
tomans of th (2,6291.) as the cash equivalent of his proportion of the spoil grain; a total of 
27,5431. from the province. The remainder was absorbed in,~pay of troops and civil officials, 
pensions, &c. Like every other post or office in Persia, the governorship is as a rule sold to the 
highest bidder, the price given by the successful Govem- purchaser being a fair criterion of the 
estimated increase ment or diminution in productiveness and consequent value. The Governor-
General, who resides at Meshed, is usually a member of the royal family or some official of high 
standing and distinction. Subject to his orders are a number of district governors or chieftains, 
of differing power and influence, ruling over territories that vary in size from hundreds to 
shires, and from shires to provinces. These as a rule owe their appointments to the Shah, even 
where the succession is hereditary in a single family, but are responsible in the first place to 
his deputyËËat Meshed. Beneath them again is a hierarchy of petty governors, headmen, and 
mayors, -nominated by and responsible to. their superiors. It is in the multiplicity of rival 
claims and interests among these chieftains, in the variety of races Leneath their rule, and 1 1 
kharvar = 649 lbs.; 3-1 kharvar8 = (approxi . mately) 1 ton. 2 These figures correspond 
very fairly with those in the table, procured from an independent source, which will be printed 
further on. There the revenue of Khorasan is given as 508,268 toman8 in cash, 60,123 
kharvars in wheat and barley, and 12,424 k&rvars in straw and rice.
I

|PPage_
182 
above all in the juxtaposition of their extended borders with those of two foreign Powers, 
neither of whom can be considered Origin as other than hostile-naniely, Russia and 
Afgbanistanof the that the Khorasan Question finds its birth; and it is upon Khorasan Question a 
consideration of these manifold elements that any attempt either to comprehend or to solve it 
must primarily be based. The greater part of the western and southern limits of Khorasan, not 
being border districts, but abutting upon other Persian proAstrabad Vinces~ and being either 
inhabited by Persians or not province inhabited at all, play no part in the problem of frontier 
policy. This may be said to commence with the Astrabad province, occupying the neck of land 
between the, Astrabad Bay, in the south-east corner of the Caspian, and the. district of Sbabrud, 
and also a stretch of fertile roil between the Gurgaii and Atrek rivers as far east as the 
56ÌÌth€€ parallel of longitude.ËË Its capital and only city is Astrabad, with a population of 
8,000, which is the residence of the Governor. Its port is Bunder-i-Gez, thirty miles distant, 
on the bay before named. The Governor was till recently Amir Khan Serdar, the Saif-el-Mulk, a 
young man.. who is the brother of one of the Shah's wives. Ile was said to possess every 
quality that should disqualify him for the discharge of such -in office, and to have been merely 
sent to Astrabad in order to get rid of him at Teheran. He has since either been superseded or 
lias resigned. The forces of the Astrabad province are nominally 3,800, of whom a garrison of 
300 is stationed at the fortified post of Ak Kaleh (White Fortress), eight miles from the capital, 
on the Gurgan; 2,900 were lately in camp at the same place; and the rest are scattered in 
different directions, or are not under arms at all; one-fourth of the total nominal strength being 
a very moderate deduction for absentees. Theprovince of Astrabad, though distinct from 
Khorasan and not responsible to the Governor-General, cannot be omitted from any discussion of 
the politics of the larger area, for the reason that it commands the western approaches thereto 
from the rest of Persia and Teheran, and that it is directly concerned in the solution of three 
distinct questions, each affecting Khorasan in the closest degree, though only touching it from 
without. These are the questions of the
I Something more will be said of the Astrabad province, its character, resoUrces, climate, and 
capital, in a chapter on the Northern Provinces of Persia, to which I refer my readers. Here it 
is only treated in its bearing upon the political or frontier problem.
POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KHORASAN 183
Russian naval station at Ashurada, the control of the road from the sea to Shahrud, and the 
allegiance of the Yomut Turkomans between the Gurgan and the Atrek. A glance at the map will 
reveal the peculiar physical conforma
|PPage_
tion of Astrabad Bay, and supplies another illustration of the The Rus- phenomenon that has 
already been described at Enzeli, sians at where the prevalent westerly gales in the Caspian pile 
up A,hu,d, long bars of sand on the seaward side of shallow murdabs or lagoons. Astrabad Bay is a 
large sheet of water forty miles in length by eight miles in width, protected from the open sea 
on the north by just such a long promontory or spit of land, projecting for thirty miles from 
the western coast line and terminating in three small islands, the furthest of which is only 
separated by a narrow channel from the eastern or Turkoman coast of the Caspian. The bay, 
therefore, resembles a lake, with the additional advantage of connection with the open sea; and 
although it has nowhere more than twenty feet of water, and in most parts much less, yet on the 
shores of the Caspian, which posse-ss so few harbours, it may claim a quite peculiar 
distinction. In the hands of Persia it is doubtful, judging from analogy, whether it would ever 
have been seriously utilised for commercial or other purposes. Russia, however, took very good 
care that not even the opportunity should be afforded to her timid neighbour. Already by the 
Treaty of Gulistan in 1813, confirmed by that of Turkomanchai in 1828, she had stipulated that 
no armed vessel flying the Persian flag should be allowed upon the Caspian -; while to make 
assurance doubly sure, she herself appeared in force upon the scene about the year 1840 and 
occupied the island of Ashurada, lying off the extremity of the- Iong peninsula of Mian Kaleh, 
hereafter described.ËË The plea under I The dates are given as follows by Sir H. Rawlinson, 
-England and Bunia inthe East, p. 137 - 1837-1838. Russians first set foot on Ashurada. 
1842. Their presence first reported to the Foreign Office by Sir J. McNeill. 1846. Buildings 
erected on the island, and negotiation opened with the Turko mans. Persia applies to England to 
aid in obtaining the withdrawal of
Russia. 1849. England makes the attempt, but without success. 1854. Persia demands officially 
evacuation by Russia, but receives the answer
that it is impossible, although Russia admits that Ashurada is Persian
territory. 1856. Russian position on the island strengthened, and naval force augmented. 1866. 
The Shah visits Ashurada, and confirms the police powers of Russia against
the Turkomans.

|PPage_
184 
which she defended her intrusion wits the necessity of putting down the Turkoman pirates who 
infested the southern and eastern shores of the Caspian, and, after their fashion, robbed, 
pillaged, and carried off their captives into slavery. The Russians do not appear either then or 
since to have formally disputed the Persian ownership of the island, which is unquestionable; 
but to have justified their stay as the consignees of police powers which the Persians were 
incapable of exercising themselves, and which after a time were tacitly recognised by the latter. 
For this purpose a small naval armament was collected, four or five vessels belonging to which 
and one gunboat, under the command of a Russian commodore, still lie off the Russian naval 
station.ËË It is needless to say that the piratical escapades of the Turkomans have long ago been 
completely quelled * The Russians, notwithstanding, have never thought of giving back their 
trust, and would now be very much insulted at any suggestion that Ashurada was not their 
freehold property. The island, however, is low, swampy, and most unwholesome. For the last 
fifty years it has been reported as being slowly eaten Nature of away by the sea; and the 
surrounding conditions have the in fact changed so much as to render the descriptions of island 
only half that period ago quite obsolete. Eastwick left a most *minute and accurate account of the 
locality as he found it in 1862 .2 At that date there were two islands, Great and Little Ashurada. 
The first of these was severed by a channel about half a mile in width from the end of the long 
promontory of Mian Kaleh (called by the Russians Potemkin), and was about one and one-third 
mile long by three-quarters of a mile broad. This was the Russian naval and military station. 
Then came shoal water for half a mile,
1866. Russia prepares to garrison Gcz, but is forestalled by Persia. 1869. Russian occupation 
of Krasnovodsk. 1870. Russia claims the coast down to the Atrek. 1871. Russian occupation of 
Chikisbliar. For an interesting incident that occurred in 1851, but is not mentioned by 
Rawlinson, vide Lady Sheil's Gliinp8eg ol Life in Persia, pp. 215-242. The Turkomans 
descended upon the island one night, and, catching the Russians drunk or napping, slew some of 
their number. The Russian Government insisted on the recall of the Prince Governor of 
Mazanderan, the Shah's own brother, although be could not be credited with the most remote 
responsibility in the matter. Otherwise, the Czar threatened to withdraw the Russian Legation. 
ËË These were reported by a visitor in 1890 to have shrunk into two despatch boats and two 
or three hulks. ËË olm-nal of a Diplomate, vol. ii. pp. 26-43.
JT
POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KHORUSAN 185
followed by the low sand spit known as Little Ashurada, two miles in length. Then came more 
shoals, with a narrow passage between

|PPage_
them, extending to the Turkoman coast. Since then a third island, which the Russians call Middle 
Ashurada, has been formed between the other two, while to strike New island a balance the 
erosive process has been going on at Great
Ashurada to such an extent that the island is now reported to be less than a mile long by only 
one-third of a mile wide. Upon this space of ground are built the quarters of the commodore, 
barracks for soldiers, a church, club-house, and the usual appurtenances of a military station. 
In view of the facts here narrated it is not surprising that the Russians, who since the complete 
subjugation of the Turkomans Change of have next to nothing to do at Ashurada, and have really 
quarters no defensible raison dËË6tre in the place, should have for desirable long turned 
covetous eyes upon some more secure and salubrious post on the inner line of the bay. Afore than 
twenty years ago they are said to have contemplated the seizure of the Persian landing-place of 
Gez, on the mainland, by offering to garrison it; but in this they were forestalled by the Persian 
Government. Unable to possess themselves of Gez, which, though a wretched place in itself, I the 
Shah would be in the last degree reluctant to yield, and the occupation of which would signify the 
beginning of the end, they are rumoured now to be desirous of obtaining a fortified position on 
the Kara Su (or Black Water), a small river rising about thirty miles cast of Astrabad, and 
flowing into the Caspian about six miles south of the embouchure of the Gurgan. Such a position 
would be equivalent to the occupation. of Gez, and would place Astrabad, literally at their mercy. 
Before I pass to the question of the reasons for which the Russians cling so closely to their 
foothold in this unlovely spot, let History me call attention to the fact that in their presence 
there repeats history is merely repeating itself. It is a strange and interitself esting 
coincidence, although it is one which I have never seen noticed, that over 200 years ago the 
island of Ashurada was simi
I Bunder-i-Gez, sometimes also called Kinara, is a miserable collection of huts and sheds on the 
shore, with a large caravanserai, a Persian Custom House, a few shops kept by Russian 
Armenians, and the residences of a Russian Consular Agent and a representative of the Caucasus 
and Mercury Steamship Company. It is about three miles from the village of Gez, which is an 
ordinary Persian forest. village with over 1,000 inhabitants.

|PPage_
186 
larly occupied, without permission, by abody of Cossacks, and for some time held by them in 
force. It was in 1668, we learn from the omniscient Chardin,l that the Cossacks of South 
Russia, being instigated by the Grand Duke of Muscovy to attack Persia in revenge for a slight 
which bad been put upon his embassy by Shah Abbas the Great, invaded Mazanderan and sacked 
his capital, Ferababad. Thereupon, intending to winter in Persia, they entrenched themselves on 
the I peninsula of Mionne Kelle, or Middle-sized Horn, a tongue of land that runs forward into 
the Caspian Sea about ten or eleven leagues, and abounds in harts, wild boars, wild goats, and 
other sorts of wild venison.ËË The Persians promptly attacked them, and, bolder or more 
fortunate than their nineteenth-century descendants, succeeded in ousting the intruders, who, 
however, took refuge in Ashurada, and remained there for a time. Nor is this the only occasion 
upon which Russian forerunners have appeared upon the scene, or have been within measurable 
Peterthe distance of seizing Astrabad. Fifty years later, in 1722-3, Great Peter the Great, who 
had a very shrewd notion of the proper strategical positions to be occupied, and who, although 
his alleged will be apocryphal, entertained very clearly defined ideas of a Central Asian 
dominion, taking advantage of the disordered condition of Persia consequent upon the Afghan 
invasion in 1-722, and utilising as his plea the robbery and slaughter of a number of his 
subjects in Persian towns near the border, prepared to invade the country from the north. This 
project was never carried out in its entirety; although the Russian army, led by himself, 
advanced in 17 2 2 as far as Derbend. The submission of G ilan and surrender of Baku in -the 
following year were, however, sufficient to extort from the young Shah, Tahmasp II., who was 
endeavouring to make headway against the Afghan usurpers, a treaty, ceding to Russia Derbend 
and Baku with their dependencies, and the entire provinces of Gilan, M azanderan, and Astrabad ; 
in return for whieb magnificent donation-which by the way the young Shah was hardly in a 
position at the time to make-the Russian army was to drive the Afghans out of the country.2 The 
Russians occupied Gilan for a I Coronation of King Solyman _tlI. (printed as a supplement to his 
Travel$) pp. 152-154, 2 The treaty was dated September 3, 1723. Its terms are given by 
Hanway, Historical Account (!f British Trade over the Caqfian, vol. iii. p. 181. For a more 
minute accourt of the Russian occupation, ride a later chapter of this volume, pp. 373-5.
POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KHORASAN 187
while, but were too busy elsewhere to trouble themselves with Astrabad ; and thus a second time 
it slipped out of their possession. Sixty years later the attempt was again renewed. Forster, the 
first English traveller who made the overland journey fi,om India Agha to Europe in 1784, and 
who passed this way, relates

|PPage_
Moliam- an interesting tale of a Russian squadron, whose commed Khan manding officer in 
1781 commenced the erection of a large fortified building on the shore at Ashraf, the site of the 
famous palace of Shah Abbas near the coast, about twenty-five miles west of Gez. They had 
reckoned, however, without their host; for Aglia Mohammed Khan Kajar, afterwards Shah of 
Persia, and at that time engaged in establishing his authority in Mazanderan, soon appeared upon 
the scene. Expressing great pleasure at what he saw, he invited the Russian officers to dinner, 
made them prisoners, and only released them on condition of the guns being removed and the fort 
razed to the ground. He even appealed to the Russian Government for formal amends.ËË Thus 
ended the third Russian attempt to gain a foothold upon the mainland of Persia in the south-
eastern angle of the Caspian. The fourth attempt, which I have sketched,- is being pursued with 
less abruptness and with greater patience. Its solution may perhaps be visible in the time of 
many now living. Next I come to the reasons which have actuated the Russians in their long-
sustained desire to obtain an entrance into this corner of Reasons of the Persian mainland. It is 
not that Astrabad of itself Russian provides either the most convenient or a very easy avenue 
activity of invasion. In the first half of this century different and more exaggerated opinions 
prevailed as to its strategical value. If a line be drawn from Baku to India it will be found to pass 
through Astrabad; and accordingly this was the line of advance that was contemplated both by the 
Emperors Paul and Napoleon, when they together discussed and planned an overland expedition 
against India in 1800 ; and again by General Khruleff when, in the course of the Crimean war, 
he submitted a similar programme of invasion to the Emperor Nicholas. ËËThe immediate 
objectives were in either case Meshed and Herat; and in those times the best
.I The most complete account of this incident is to be f ound in Sir J. MINcill's Progregs,and 
Present _11asifion of Russia in the East, pp. 33-4. He says that the Russian officers were 
thrown into chains and subsequently whipped down to their r,hips. Compare B. Dorn's 
Casj),ia (Russian).

|PPage_
188 
route for a European army marching to Meshed or Herat was undoubtedly by Astrabad. But since 
then the Transcaspian situation has been revolutionised. Russia sits securely where the 
Turkoman terror formerly reigned. Meshed can be smitten from Ashkabad, and Herat from Merv 
and Penjdeb, without any necessity for the lengthy land march from the Caspian. Astrabad, 
therefore, as a point of debarkation, has not the value for Russia that it formerly had. Nor are 
its own resources sufficient, so far as can be ascertained, to support a very large army in the 
field, although it is said that, in 1863, a Persian army of 30,000 men remained encamped for 
eight months in the neighbourhood. Its value is now not so much offensive as defensive. Its eye 
may be said to look not eastwards, but westwards ; and its strategical importance is involved in 
the second of the questions which I named above, viz. the control of the Shahrud road and the 
position which it consequently enablesËËits occupant to take up against the rest of Persia and 
the capital. Astrabad is separated from Shahrud by the Shah Kuh, or main range of the Elburz 
mountains, which here retain a distinct physical The individuality before they are broken up 
into the manifold Astrabad- ridges of northern Khorasan. The highest peak of this Shahrud 
position section, fifteen miles south of Astrabad, attains an altitude of 13,000 feet, Across the 
range there are two passes to Shahrud, a distance by the mule track of sixty-five miles, one of 
which at least, in spite of the elevation and of the nature of the country, might be converted into 
an excellent military road.ËË An army marching by either of these and seizing Shahrud, which 
is absolutely defenceless, would find itself in this position. It would, in the first place, be 
surrounded by a district of considerable fertility and abundant water supply, capable even in 
summer of sustaining a large army.2 Secondly, it would hold the point of j unction of the I The 
two roads between Sbabrud and Astrabad (one by the Kuzluk Pass, the other by Ziarat) are 
described by Lieut. A. Conolly (1830), Overland Journey to India, vol. i. pp. 182-184*; 
Captain Claude Clerk (1872), Proceedings of the R.G.S., vol, xvii. pp. 193-194 ; Colonel B. 
Lovett (1881), Ditto (New Series), vol. v. pp. 75-84 (1883). The road from Astrabad to Gez 
(27 nules) is described by E. B. Eastwick (1862), Journal of a Diploviate, vol. ii. pp. 45-49; 
Captain Hon. G. Napier (1874), Journal o the R.G.S., vol. xlvi. pp. 114, 115; (Sir) C. 
MacGregor (1875), Journey through Khorasan, vol. ii. pp. 163-166. 2 Colonel Val. Baker 
(Clouds in the EËËt, p. 142) said that the plain of Bostam (which is the district surrounding 
Shahrud, Bostam, three miles distant, being the residence of the Governor) could maintain an 
army of 60,000 men.
POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KHORASAN 189
roads from Mazanderan and the sea coast, and from the capital, Teheran. And, thirdly, it would 
command the sole entry from the west into Khorasan, into the heart of which run two easy 
roads, the

|PPage_
one by JaJarm, Bujnurd, and Kuchan more to the north, the other by Sebzewar and Nishapur 
due east to Meshed. In other words, the Astrabad-Shahrud position is the key of Northern 
Persia. Stationed there, an army severs Khorasan from the rest of the world, and can effectually 
prevent any reinforcement from the capital. North Persia may be likened in shape to a wasp of 
which the head is atËËTeheran and the tail at Meshed. The narrow belt between Gez and 
Shahrud is the wasp's waist. Cut it and the head becomes powerless; while the utmost that 
the tail can do (and that-not if it is a Persian tail) is to implant a dying sting. It is in the light 
of the physical configuration of this portion of the Shah's dominions that the presence and 
the intentions of the Russians at Ashurada have always been invested with,such importance. 
Their interests in this neighbourhood are sufficiently guarded by a Consul at Astrabad, and by 
Consular agents or representatives at Bunder-iGez and Shahrud. I pass now to the third or 
Yomut Turkoman Question, in which Russia again plays a significant part. By the Boundary 
Treaty of
Persian and Russian Turko- the junction of the Sumbar at Chat, although it appears mans that 
one of their boundary pillars, for some unexplained reason, is still placed south of the Atrek. 
Moreover, Russian officers have been heard of who'since the treaty have crossed the Atrek 
River with soldiers, and have endeavoured forcibly to collect tribute from the Persian Yomuts 
on the Gurgan. However, for such an act there can be no excuse in international law, and 
practically, as well as diplomatically, the Atrek may be taken as the line of division. North of 
that river are settled the Yomut Turkomans under -Russian rule ; south of the river are the 
Yomuts under Persian rule, though nomad camps of the latter are in the habit of crossing the 
river at certain seasons of the year, and are allowed by treaty to do so in order to change their 
pasturages. The Russian Yomuts are thoroughly subdued, and, whether satisfied or not with 
Russian sovereignty, are powerless to revolt. The Persian Yomuts, however, who are subdivided 
into the Ata Bai and Jafir Bai clans, are far from submitting tamely to the pretensions of
1881, the Russo-Persian frontier in this quarter was definitely fixed at the Atrek River, from 
its mouth as far as

|PPage_
190
ó
  Kuchan and Bujnurd; although from its position on the 
extreme boundary, and the relations into which its chief was consequently brought with the 
Turkomans, the authority of the imperial Government was somewhat delicately and 
precariouslyËË enforced from Meshed. The Khan of Deregez belongs to a ruling family who 
have inherited the chieftainship from the days of Nadir Shah. Neither he nor Deregez are now of 
much importance, and his military contribution has been reduced to one hundred .2
I For descriptions of Bujnurd and its district, vide Colonel Val. Baker (1873), Clouds in the 
-East, p. 284, et seq.; (Sir) C. MacGregor (1875), Journey througA XAorasan., vol. ii. pp. 93-
107; General Grodekoff (1880), The War in Turkoviania, vol. iv. cap. xvii. 2 The first 
Englishman to visit and describe Deregez was J. B. Fraser, in 1831 (A Winter's Journey, 
vol. ii. letters ix., x., xi.). For later descriptions, vide Colonel Val. Baker (1873), Clouds in 
the East, pp. 229-274; (Sir) C. MacGregor (1875), Journey t7trough Khorasan, vol. ii. pp. 
70-76; E. OËËDonovan (1880), The Nerv Oa8is, vol. ii. pp. 30-65.
POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KHORASAN 193
In none of these three border districts is there the material for any resistance to aggression 
from the North. The two Ilkbanis, Attitude one of whom I have described in an earlier chapter, 
and towards

|PPage_
Russia
both of whom are important chieftains, may talk very big about opposing Russia, and cannot, in 
the bottom of their hearts, be animated by other than hostile feelings towards a Power whose 
propinquity has already shorn them of so much of their ancient prestige. But it is more than 
doubtful whether either of them would lift a little finger if invasion actually occurred, while a 
steady influx of Russian presents for a series of years beforehand might be found to have 
sensibly alleviated the, pangs of surrender. Already Russia may be said to have obtained a 
definite foothold in each. I have described the new military road from Ashkabad to Kucban, and 
have shown its strategical importance. An alternative Russian road runs from Geok Tepe over a 
pa8s in the mountains further to the west by Germab and Firuzeh to Shirwan, and is continued 
to Kuchan from that direction. A third road leads up the Atrek to Bujnurd vid Chat from the 
Russian military station of Chikishliar, on the Caspian. Russia keeps Consular agents (Russian 
Mohammedans) at Bujnurd, Kuchan, and Mohammedabad. They are supposed to be there in the 
interests of trade; but, in the intervals snatched from commercial applica-_ tion, are not 
discouraged from promoting the interests of. their country in whatever way a discreet 
intelligence may suggest.
Continuing eastwards, we next come to the astonishing natural phendmenon known since the time 
of Nadir Shah, who made Kelat-i- it his stronghold, as Kelat-i-Nadiri. The physical and Nadiri 
strategical attributes of this remarkable place have previously been discussed. I have also 
mentioned that the Persian Government keep here a detachment (nominally) of 500 infantry, 
scattered at the different vulnerable points, and two guns. The inhabitants are chiefly Turks, 
and the Governor, sent from Meshed, Haji Abul Fath Khan, lives in a village inËËthe interior, 
and supplies 150 mounted levies to the Persian border horse. For some time past Russia has 
turned a particularly affectionate eye upon Kelat, and rumours ofËËits cession by the Persian 
]Russian Government have been designedly circulated in order to aspirations familiarise the 
public mind with such a transfer, of ownership. To those who deny such intentions on the part of 
Russia, it will bel sufficient to reply that a few years ago she

|PPage_
194
ó
 ng noticed the majority of the items.The calcula- I now turn to 
the commercial part played by Great Britain militArytion does not of course include the local 
levies, Sham- and Russia in Khorasan. For many years past Russia, though a strength of 
Khorasan Hialchis (matchlock - men, &c.), who- might be _ raised in Commerce nation with no 
special commercial aptitudes, has contime of war, but the effective troops who, within a few 
daysËË time, in Khora- ceived the ambition of controlling the markets of Central could be 
called out and placed in the field. san Asia. Inherited from Peter the Great, this idea has
been prosecuted with a vigour instriking contrast with the listlessINFANTRY (Serhaz or 
Regulars). ness elsewhere exhibited by the same people. It is now a cardinal i. Territorial 
Reyii-nent8. axiom of Russian politics in the East that commercial must pre2 Regiments of 
Karai Turks levied at Turshiz; and Turbat-i- cede political control ; and the institution of 
mercantile agents and
Haideri, 800 each 1,600 A s of communication, and. the 2 Regiments levied at Birjand, 800 
each . . . . 1,600 mi ddlemen, the opening up of mean
(Of these 4 regiments only one wing of each is mobilised granting of special exemptions and 
preferences to goods on their at a time, or half of the whole, the other half being dis- way to or 
from Oriental markets are invariable features of their banded.)

|PPage_
ó
 en at the risk, nay, with the certainty, of war with Great 
Britain, How much simpler to slip round the corner and so to turn the enemy's flank! From 
the Zulfikar Pass to the southern extremity of Seistan, Persia is coterminous with Afghanistan; 
and a Power established upon the Persian side of that border would command Herat (there is a 
carriage road of 230 miles fro *in Meshed to Herat), threaten the road by Farrah and Girishk to 
Kandahar, and be brought to the very banks of the. Helmund. Russia settled in Khorasan, and 
especially in that fringe of border territory which I have been at such pains to describe, has no 
need to infringe any Anglo-Afghan boundary. The entire western frontier of Afghanistan lies 
exposed to her influence or assault: Furthermore, in Seistan she comes into close contact with.a 
part of Beluchistan of disputed ownership and unsettled tenure, and is separated by only a short 
distance from the advanced British frontier in Pishin.

|PPage_
218
ó
 ght is right. Taking advantage of this 
permission, Persia, in 1865-66, marched a force into the country, occupied it, and gradually 
brought all the Persian inhabitants of the province under her sway, besides tampering with the 
Afghan allegiance of the Beluchis. The Afghans bebaved very quietly for a time; but Shir Ali, who 
had now established himself firmly upon the throne, and required to be treated with some 
respect, began
I Both clauses occur in Article VI. of the Treaty. The first was as follows:His Majesty the Shah of 
Persia engages to abstain hereafter from all interference with the internal affairs of 
Afghanistan. Ilis Majesty promises to recognise the independence of Herat and of the whole of 
Afghanistan, and never to attempt to interfere with the independence of those States.ËË The 
second clause ran thus:In ca~e of differences arising between the Government of Persia and the 
countries of Herat and Afghanistan, the Persian Government engages to refer them for 
adjustment to the friendly offices of the British Government, and not to take up arms unless 
those friendly offices fail of effect!
THE SEISTA~N QUESTION
231
seriously to push his claims. It was at this juncture that, fearing the war to which Lord Russell 
had lent the imprimatur of his

|PPage_
suggestion, Lord Clarendon proposed arbitration. The offer was accepted without much 
enthusiasm on either side, and in 1870 Sir F. Goldsmid, having received the appointment of 
Chief British Commissioner, left England to carry out the undertaking. Difficulties and delays 
having supervened, the next * year was occupied in surveying and fixing a boundary between 
Persia and Beluchistan from the sea to Jalk ; and it was not till 18 7 2 that the Commission 
preceeded to Seistan to examine the rival claims upon the spot. TheËË story of the Commission 
and its labours has been told, partly by General Goldsmid himself and his personal assistant, Sir 
F. Major (now Colonel) Euan Smith,ËË partly by Dr. Bellew, Goldsmid's the well-known 
Oriental scholar and authority,2 who Commission in accompanied General (afterwards Sir R.) 
Pollock, the 1872 latter being sent from India, for no very well ascertained reason, as 
representative of the Viceroy (Lbrd Mayo). The case was a difficult one by reason of its 
extraordinary simplicity. The Afghan claim to Seistan was very clear and intelligible; it was 
based upon ancient dominion, dating from the time of Ahmed Shah, the founder of the Afghan 
empire. The Persian claim was equally clear and intelligible; it was based upon more ancient 
dominion still, reinforced by the very cogent argument of recent reconquest and actual 
occupation. Here were all the materials both for hard reasoning and fine casuistry. The 
difficulty was enhanced by the behaviour of the two Oriental Commissioners. The Persian, Mirza 
Maasum. Khan, was undisguisedly hostile from the start, and threw every possible -obstacle in 
the way. The Afghan was not much more practicable. Finally, having conducted such local 
surveys and inquiries as were possible, Sir F. Goldsmid, finding it hopeless to do any business 
on the spot, was obliged to retire to Teheran, where his arbitral decision, after a good deal of 
hesitation and cavilling, was ratified by the Shah. Broadly speaking, General Goldsmid found it 
advisable to distinguish between two Seistans, which he called respectively Seistan Proper and 
Outer Seistan .3 1 The former he defined as
Eastern Persia, Introduction and pp. 225-295.
Record of the Seistan Mission, 1872 (Official Publication), and Fr&v& the Indus to the Tilris.
Vide his own account in a paper, entitled I Journey from Bunder-Abbas to

|PPage_
232 THE SEISTAN QUESTION 233
the region between the Naizar on the north and the main lateral canal,taken from the Helmund, 
in order to irrigate Sekuha and Partition the neighbouring villages on the south, and extending 
of Seistan from the old and true bed of the Ilelmund on the east, to the fringe of the Hamun and 
the Kuh-i-Khwajah on the west. ËËThis area he estimated at 950 square miles, and its 
population at 4510007 20,000 of whom were Seistanis,l 15,000 Persian-speaking settlers, 
and 10,000 Beluchi nomads. Outer Seistan was the country on the right bank of the Helmund 
from its lake-mouth on the north to Rudbar on its upper waters on the south. His decision may 
be summarised thus. He gave Seistan Proper to Persia, and Outer Seistan to Afghanistan. The 
boundary between the two was drawn as follows: From the Siah Kuh (Black Mountain), which is 
the eastern boundary of the Persian district of Nehbandan, along the southern fringe of the 
Naizar to the left bank of the Helmund; thence up the river to a point about a mile above the 
great bund or dam at Kohak; I after which it consists of a line drawn from this point in a soutli-
westerly direction to the range Kuh-Malek-i-Siah, which is the northerly continuation of a 
line of mountains that bound the Zirreh desert upon the west. Here the district of Seistan 
terminated, and the award was concluded. South of this point is the indeterminate and 
unobserved line to Jalk which I have previously mentioned. Hampered as he was by instructions 
almost incapable of execution, impeded by systematic obstruction, and owing a definite Indepen- 
issue only to the foresight which induced him to complete dent his local surveys before the 
Indian members of the opinion mission appeared upon the scene, General Goldsmid may be 
congratulated upon having been able to formulate a decision at all. To the independent observer it 
undoubtedly appears that the Persians were the gainers by his award; for they Meshed by 
Seistau,ËË published in the JournaZ of the -R. G.S., vol. x1iii. pp. 65-83 (1873). . I Sir H. 
Rawlinson says: I The true Seistanis are Persians of the purest Arian type. In fact, the only true 
representatives of the old Arian race to be found ill Persia are the Seistanis and the Jamsbidis of 
Herat ; the language, physical appearance, and general characteristics of the Persians of the 
Acbmmenian period being better preserved in this outlying corner of the Empire than in any 
other locality.ËË 2 This dam, known indifferently as the Amir's, the Seistan, and the 
KobakBund, is a great dyke built across the river with tamarisk branches, stakes, and rammed 
clay, in order to divert its priDcipal volume into the Sekuba Canal.
retained the only really valuable and lucrative portion of the country-a portion to which they 
could establish the double claim of ancient possession and actual occupation. Had the demarkation 
taken place ten years earlier, when first they pressed

|PPage_
for it ËË there can be no doubt that in the absence of the second of these claims the award 
would not have been so favourable to them as it ultimately proved to be. Notwithstanding which 
facts, they professed themselves extremely dissatisfied with the result, and looked upon the 
partition as an attempt to enrich an English vassal state, Afghanistan, at th eir expense. The 
Afghans, on their side, were annoyed at losing the revenue-paying part of the province, and Shir 
Ali is said never to have forgiven the British Government in consequence.- The award has not 
been adhered to with absolute precision on the spot; but, even if we concede to it a fair amount of 
success, it still remains somewhat doubtful whether it is wise policy for the Indian Government 
to undertake these chivalrous but thankless Commissions) which are apt to be misinterpreted 
by both parties, and usually leave a legacy of odium behind them.
The -chief town of Persian Seistan is Sekuha (the- Three- Hills), so called from three clay 
hills around and in part upon which the Present town is built. At the time of the Commission in 
1872, it adminis- consisted of about 1,200 mud huts, not more than half of tration which were 
then or are now inhabited. The population is entirely engaged in agricultural pursuits, the town 
being situated in the most productive part of the province. As I have before said, however, the 
administrative and military head-quarters are at Nasratabad (called Nasirabad by Goldsmid), 
where lives the Deputy Governor of the Amir of Kairt, and where is stationed one of the two 
infantry regiments, nominally 1,000, but actually less than 800 strong, which are raised in 
the entire province; as well as a small force of cavalry and a few guns. Service is for life, and is 
hereditary in the families supplying the soldiers. They are armed with muzzleloading rifles of 
Persian manufacture, and are supposed to get a new uniform every second year. Their pay is 
reported to be 20 krans (12s.) and 71 mans of wheat yearly, and when on service in Seistan
2 rations also.ËË The capital of Afghan Seistan is Chakhansur or
I These figures, which date from 1886, do notËËCorrespond with the general pay of the 
Persian infantry. Vide a later oha~ter on the Persian Army. But payment Is no doubt as 
haphazard as the system.

|PPage_
234 THE SEISTAN QUESTION 235
Chaghansur (called by Conolly Chuknasoor, and by Ferrier Sheikh Nasoor), situated on the 
Kbash or Khusbk Rud, the eastern confluent of the Helmund lagoon. Before the despatch of the 
English Commission, the number of European travellers who had penetrated to Seistan and had 
left European any record of their explorations was exceedingly small. travellers In 1809 
Captains Grant (who was afterwards murdered by robbers on the road between Baghdad and 
Kermanshah) and Christie (who was killed while gallantly fighting with the Persian army 
against the, Russians at Aslanduz in 1812) and Lieutenant (afterwards Sir Henry) Pottinger 
were deputed by Sir J. Malcolm, then contemplating his third mission to the Persian Court, to 
explore Mekran, Beluchistan, and &istan. The journal of Captain Grant was published twenty 
years later. Christie's and Pottinger's travels into Beluchistan left the reading public 
the richer by the. admirable book of the elder writer.ËË Leaving Pottinger at Nushki, Christie 
marched northwards through Seistan te Herat; and an abstract of his journal (which was never 
separately published) iE incorporated as an appendix in Pottinger's work.2 In 1839 a young 
English officer, Captain Edward Conolly, accompanied for surveying purposes by Sergeant 
Cameron, made a tour through the country, and added immensely tothe existing store of 
knowledge.3 He was followed a few years later by Lieutenant R. Leech, whose less exhaustive but 
complementary information was published in the same journal.4 In 1841 Seistan claimed its 
first European martyr. Dr. F. Forbes, already well known for successful explorations on the 
north-western frontier of Persia, marched to Meshed, and from there by Turbat-iHaideri, Biri 
and, and Tabbas to Seistan, where he was murdered by one Ibrahim Khan, chief of Lash Juwain. 
A somewhat incoherent account of the incident was given by his personal attendant, and appeared 
in the ËËJournal of the R.G.S.ËË for 1844:1 Thirty years later the members of the 
Boundary Commission, when travelling in Seistan, came across the very murderer, who was 
then chief of
Travels in. Baloochistan and 8inde. By (Sir) H. Pottinger. 1816. Appendix, pp. 406-411,
He published two papers in the JournaZ of the Asiatic Society of Bengalthe first entitled I Sketch 
of the Physical Geography of Seistan,ËËwith a map, in vol. ix. (1840), pp. 710-726 ; the 
second, entitled I Journal kept while Travelling in Seistan,ËË in vol. x. (1841), pp. 319-
340.
4 A Descril)tion of the Ccuntq%y qf Selsthan, vol. xiii. (1844), pp. 115-121. 5 Vol. Xiv.
Chakbansur, and heard a true account of the tragedy. Ibrabiin Khan was, it appeared, a savage, 
serni-lunatic kind of barbarian, much given to charras and Mang (intoxicating drinks), and he 
had shot Dr. Forbes while hunting wild fowl on the lake, in a freak of sportive inebriation.ËË 
About the same time another young officer, Lieutenant Pattinson, approaching the Helmund from 
the Afghan

|PPage_
side, explored its course from Zaminda:wer to the Seistan Lake. He too was killed a year or two 
later in an outhreak at Kandahar, following upon the Kabul tragedy. A few years later-viz. in 
1845the French officer Ferrier was in Seistan, of which he has left a description in his 
interesting book .2 Khanikoff, the Russian, whose services to science are not enhanced by his 
jealous depreciation of the labours of any English predecessor in the same field, was here in 
1859,3 and crossed the Desert of Lut to Kerman. This was the sum total of European travellers 
who had left any record of Seistan prior to the despatch of General Goldsmid and his colleagueS.4 
I now approach the subject to which I have hitherto been leading up, and whose existence I have 
indicated by the title Politic I which I have given to this chapter. The Seistan Question, value af 
however, is not the old question of the boundary, or of
0 Seistan the rival claims of Persia and Afghanistan. It is the future question of the part, if any, 
that Seistan is likely to play or is capable of playing in the politics of Central Asia, and in the 
diplomatic or military strategy of Russia and Great Britain.5 Inspection of the map with the aid 
of a pair of compasses wil I show that the province, of Seistan lies about midway between 
Meshed and the sea. Its situation, therefore, constitutes it a sort of advanced outpost of 
Khorasan, as well as a terra media through which any power desirous of moving southwards 
from Meshed, particularly any power that is covetous of an outlet upon the Indian Ocean, must 
pass; and through which must eqplly pass any power desirous of reaching Khorasan and Meshed 
from a south
I 1~,om the Indus to the Tigris, pp. 217-219. Compare Bastern, Persia, p. 317.
2 Caravan Journeys, caps. xxvii., xxviii.
3 316nwire de la Partie 9n;ridionale de IËËAsie Centrale, pp. 153-164.
1 For a modern account of Seistan, other than that contained in the Reports
of the Goldsmid Commission, vide Globus, vol. xxxii. pp. 170, 186,200 (1877) ; and
Poternman's -Mittheilungen (1873), pp. 149-150; (1874), pp. 59-63 ; (1877), pp. 
661
72 (1878), pp. 25-29.
1 have already published a brief but very condensed statement of the case
in Russia in Central Asia, pp, 379-381.

|PPage_
236 THE SEISTAN QUESTION 237
easterly direction. The former aspect of the case indicates its value to Russia - the latter to 
Great Britain. ËË
Seistan presents to Russia a positive and a negative value, of which it is difficult to say which is 
the. more important. Should Value to she at any time find it politic or necessary to absorb 
lx,UsBia Khorasan, the possession of Seistan would give her the whole and not the northern 
portion only of that province. It would further establish her in a position of close and almost 
immediate proximity to the advanced Indian frontier in Beluchistan. At present there intervene 
between her own and the Indian border 500 miles of Afghan territory, which, though presenting 
not the slightest physical obstacle to advance, are tenanted by wild tribes much attached to their 
own independence, even if uninspired by any loyalty to their sovereign. Ili other words, advance 
througii Afghanistan means hard fighting with Afghans by whomever it is undertaken. Solemn 
engagements would have to be broken, great forces collected, and daily risk incurred, while such 
an adventure was in course of execution. On the other ]land, should a Russian force, desirous-I 
will not say of invadino, , Hindustan, because we are not at present called upon to discuss any 
such remote possibility, but of acquiring a position menacing and contiguous to Hindustan, take 
up its quarters in Seistan, the above-mentioned perils are thereby one and all avoided, no 
Anglo-Russian compact is violated, no savage Afghans require to be fought. The forward frontier 
of Russia would be brought over 300 miles nearer to the advanced frontier of India; and the 
change in position would involve a proportionately greater aiixiety, outlay, and peril to the 
latter. Russia would be unlikely to march even from Seistan against Quetta; but she would have 
unlimited opportunities from this base of intriguing with trans-frontier tribes, and of nibbling 
at Beluchistan. How far her position against Afgbaiiistan would be strengthened is also self-
evident. Russia in Khorasan means Russia at Herat; and Russia in Seistan would mean Russia at 
Sebzewar and Farrah as well, the two most important strategical points on the march from 
Herat to Kandahar.
I do not for the moment lay stress upon the other aspect of the positive value to Russia of 
Seistan-viz. as facilitating her approach to the southern seas-because I assume that a Russian 
port upon the Persian Gulf or the Indian Ocean would no more be tolerated by any English 
minister. or government than would an
English port on the Caspian by any Czar. It is true that Russia turns longing eyes towards a 
maritime outlet on the south, and that of the two methods by which she can possibly attain 
thereto, encroachment in a southerly direction from Meshed vid Seistan is one. This fact is of 
course an addition to the prospective value of Seistan in Russian eyes, but it postulates a 
condition of affairs so remote, and I would fain hope so inconceivable, that I will not expend 
words upon its further examination.

|PPage_
The negative value of Seistan to Russia is the inverse aspect of its positive value to Great 
Britain. Ili other words, Russia would
Value to like to -get hold of Seistan herself, in order to prevent Great Seistan from being got 
hold of by Great Britain; and Britain because, in the latter event, not only would the ambitious
and far-reaching schemes that I have sketched be frustrated, but England would be in a position 
very seriously to menace the Asiatic status of her rival. Let me explain. I have already in the 
previous chapter indicated the acute commercial warfare that is now being waged between 
Russian and Anglo-Indian merchandise in Khorasan. I have shown that the advantage which she 
derives, and will continue to derive in increasing degree, from -the Transcaspian Railway 
enables Russia. to flood the markets of North-eastern Persia with her manufactures, and to 
undersell her sole competitor, viz. British India, in the bazaars of Meshed. I have shown that a 
critical epoch has been reached, and that without some help, in the shape of increased facilities 
of transport or shorter and cheaper trade routes, Anglo-Indian cornmerce must in the long run 
be vanquished. The one means by which the latter could compete on nearly even terms with her 
rival would be by adopting her rival's tactics-by pushing forward a railway on the south to 
match the Transcaspian Railway on the north, by conveying the manufactures of Bombay as are 
conveyed the manufactures of Moscow, not solely on muleback and camel-back over vast 
distances at crushing expense, but by the potent auxiliary agency of steam. Such a railway 
starting from India must point, as its first objective, to Seistan. The commercial importance of 
such a line will not, I think, be denied, as bringing India into closer connection with the bazaars 
9trategical of Khorasan. Not less obvious, however, would be the impor- strategical advantage, 
as enabling England to occupy a tance flanking position in defence of that Afghan territory which 
she has undertaken to safeguard, and as preventing those

|PPage_
238 PERSLV I THE SEISTAN QUESTION 239
developments of the Muscovite earth-hunger which I have sketched, and which might be fraught 
with peril to the harmonious relations between the two empires. Here I will pause ; and will not 
go on to suggest that, if a commanding necessity ever arose, such a position might very 
effectively be utilised by an Indian army for offence, because I am loth to imagine a situation in 
which British or Indian soldiers will ever again be required to march in fighting order through 
Persia, or be forced into a policy of aggressive retaliation. The map, however, will assist the 
reader to form his own judgment, There remain, however, two questions of practical 
importance -viz. the engineering possibility of constructing such a line, and the Engineer- 
probable returns that might be expected from the, country ing opened up. If the map be 
inspected, the physical confacilities tour of the region will suggest that; the most natural, 
though by no means the shortest, method of reaching Seistan is by the valley of the Helmund 
from Girishk or Kandahar. The greater part of this distance-namely, that from Hazarjuft below 
the confluence of the Argandab to Rudbar, a distance of 160 miles-is locally known as the 
Garmsel, or Hot Region, identical with the Garmsir of Southern Persia. No part of this unhappy 
neighbourhood has suffered more from the passions of man than the Garmsel. In olden times it 
was the scene of active cultivation, and the site of busy and populous cities. Brigands, outlaws, 
and the stormy I
Arail of armies have converted it into a sandy and untenanted desert. But the testimony of those 
who have explored it, notably of Dr. Bellow, who marched this way from India with General 
Pollock, is enthusiastic as to the possibilities of recuperation. This is what he says :
The valley everywhere bears the marks of former prosperity and population. Its soil is 
extremely fertile, and the command of water is unlimited. It only requires a strong and just 
Government to quickly recover its lost prosperity, and to render it a fruitful garden, crowded 
with towns and villages in unbroken succession all the way from Sistan to Kandahar. Under a 
civilised Government there is not a doubt that Garmsel would soon recover its pristine 
prosperity, and then this part of the Helmund valley would rival in the salubrity of its climate 
that of the Tigris at Baghdad. When the curse of anarchy and lawlessness is replaced in this 
region by the blessings of peace and order, then GarTnsel will once more becoinethe seat of 
plenty. Theadvancing civilisation of the West must some day penetrate to this neglected corner,
I
and the children's children of its present inhabitants may live to hear the railway whistle 
echoing over their now desert wastes.ËË
On the other hand, the children's children, who are probably by now beginning to be born, 
may live and die too without hearing it

|PPage_
at all; and for this reason. A railwaydown the Helmu*nd meansa railway in Afghanistan; and as 
the Amir of that country has not yet been persuaded to allow a yard of rails to be laid in his 
dominions, and as, were such permission forthcoming, other and more important schemes would 
probably befirst undertaken, the grandchildren in the Garmsel may perhaps after all not hear 
the whistle i n their time.
But there remains-another line of advance, shorter because more direct, and free from the 
above impediment, because it need not Nushki-run through Afghanistan at all. It must be 
remembered Seistanthat the Pishin Railway system of Great Britain has now line been pushed 
forward to a point on the northern face of the KhwaJ ah Amran ra ËË nge, that that range has 
been pierced by a tunnel, and that the present terminus, Chaman, is on the open plain, less than 
seventy miles distant from Kandahax. Now a line drawn from this frontier rail w-* ay, whether 
at its term inatiou or at some point short of Chaman, to Seistan, ËËwill be found to pass 
through Beluchi-i.e. allied territory solely, and according to the spot at which it strikes the 
Helmund valley, so would its transit of the desert be extended or abridged. The point of deviation 
usually suggested is that of Nushki, from which to the Sind-Pishin Railwav at Chaman is less 
than one hundred miles, at Quetta less than ninety, and at Darwaza less than eighty. Across t6 
desert from Nushki to the Helmund no physical obstacles are encountered. From the 
engineer's point of view the difficulties to be confronted would not be comparable with those 
so easily overcome by General Annenkoff. We can conceive, without anticipating, a condition of 
affairs under which there need be no rivalry between the Afghan and the Future Beluchi routes, 
but which would admit of the best line ,f Afghan- being followed, through whichever territory it 
ran; and istan that would be the free acceptance by Afghanistan of a British protectorate. By 
some this step has been recommended as the only logical corollary, as assuredly it would be the 
most
Fr(mi the Indus to the Tiyri8, pp. 205-206.

|PPage_
240 THE SEISTAN QUESTION 241
practical conclusion, of the previous phases of ADglo-Afghan relationship. Given such a 
protectorate, and England would not only before long be free to run her iron rails where and 
whither she pleased in Afghanistan-a line to the Persian frontier being obviously one of the 
first that in such a case would demand consideration-but, with the Afghans acting in concert 
with the British, and with Russia and Great Britain (as ex hypothesi they would be) 
coterminous powers, the objections which I have elsewhere so strenuously urged against a 
junction of the Indian and Russian railway systems in Afghanistan, and which I continue to hold, 
would be minimised, if they did not disappear. For in such a case, the buffer having vanished, 
the two empires would stand cheek by jowl i-a Asia, as do Russia and Germany in Europe; 
England would be as much committed to defend Balkh or Herat as she is now compelled to defend 
Portsmouth or Bombay; and the respective railways of the two powers would have a tendency 
sooner or later to be united. Such a consummation, however, even if realisable, is as yet far 
distant. It can only arise in the event of an independent Afghanistan-which is & justification and 
outcome of our present policy-proving to be impossible; and in our inability to venture any 
prophecy upon data so precarious, our plans must be constructed so as to harmonise with a more 
immediate future.
When we approach the question of the quality of the country opened up by a Beluchi-Persian 
railway, presuming it to be constructed under existing political conditions, we advance 
criticism into a region in which the most conflicting evidence is forthcoming from our 
authorities. From the strategical point of view there are some who say that such a line would be 
vulnerable both from the north and west. There are others who find in the deserts on either side 
of the Helmund, and in the Helmund itself, an ample protection. I am not here concerned to 
engage in the strategical controversy, because there has probably never been. a strategical 
railway since locomotion by steam was discovered about which the professors have not held 
diametrically opposite and contradictory opinions. It was so with the Transcaspian Railway, and 
it would be so with a Nusliki-Seistan railway. Nor am I even concerned to discuss the strategical 
aspect of such a railway at all, because I am not a soldier, and shall probably be told that I am 
talking of what I know nothing about; although I may, in passing,
confess that to my uninstructed vision the military advantages of such a line would appear to be 
considerable. I prefer, however, to treat it as a commercial scheme, a-ad to assume that a 
subscribing public, as well as generals and colonels, wish to be able to form an opinion. We will 
suppose, therefore, that our railway has reached Seistan. What will it find, and what will it do 
when it gets there? Hostile There are som e, who protest that the features of the

|PPage_
opinion country are hopelessly unfavourable to commerce or colonisation. They paint 
lamentable pictures of the physical amenities of Seistan. There is a famous wind called the Bad-
i-sado-bist-ruz (Or wind of 120 days), which - blows steadily there from a north-westerly 
direction in the months between March and August, beginning soon after sunrise, abating at 
midday, and attaining its maximum strength after sunset. There is also a particularly horrible 
kind of fly thai bites and even kills horses by its bite. At times of the year the climate, owing to 
the extent of marsh water stagnating under the sun, breeds fevers and ague. The face of the 
country is apt to be flooded; and communication is only kept up by the precarious method of 
tutins, a kind of -raft made of reeds lashed together and strengthened by tamarisk stakes.ËË 
These critics even go so far as to include the whole country in the scope of their truculent 
denunciation, and to ask wherein lies the beauty or the money value of reed-beds, and sandhills, 
and swamps. Less sweeping, because better informed, and worthy of careful examination (by 
reason of the unequalled position of its author), Sir H. although -unfavourable in character, is 
-the opinion that Rawlinson has been expressed by Sir H. Rawlinson. He has written as follows: 
Though possessing great natural advantages, the province of Seistan is, in its present aspect, a 
wretchedly unhealthy country, only habitable for a few months in the year, and hardly worth 
the expense of government ; while in regard to its strategical value, which is the point of view 
that has been chiefly regarded in India, great misapprehension prevails. So far from Seistan 
being, as has been so often stated, a convenient base for aggression upon, India from the 
westward, it is in every respect inferior to Herat for that purpose.ËË To the south and I For a 
description and illustration, vide Bellew's From the Indu8 to the T~gris, p. 227.
This is true; but supposing it is thought desirable by an invader for political

|PPage_
242 
TIIE SEISTAN QUESTION
243
south-east it is bounded by an impassable desert ; while to the east it itches and dykes,
but also very frequently to runto waste in superfluous swamps and possesses one single line of 
communication along the Relmund, con as large as rivers, and a network of smaller d tracted and 
ill-supplied, and exposed to a flank attack from the
lagoons. Let us, however, quote the 
opinion of eye-witnesses northward throughout its whole extent from Seistan to Kandahar.
0 upon the actual capacities of the soil.This is what Ferrier said Supposing, indeed, the Afghans 
to be in strength at Herat, Farmh, in 1845 or Zamin Dawer, it would be quite impossible for a 
Persian army to march along the Helmund from Seistan to Girishk. The only military Seistan is 
a flat country, with here and there some low hills. Onevalue of Seistan consists in its abundant 
supply of camels for carriage ; third of the surface of the soil is composed of moving sands, and 
the and these animals are for the most part in the hands of the Beluchis, other two-thirds of a 
compact sand mixed with a little clay, but very who are Afghan, and not Persian dependents, and 
who might thus rich in vegetable matter, and covered with woods of the tamarisk, be available 
for our own purposes, though hardly for those of our saghes, and tag, and reeds, in the midst of 
which there is abundant enemies. I
pasture. The detritus and slimy soil which is deposited on the land
It is permissible to point out that, although the author of the after the annual inundation of the 
Helmund fertilises it in a reabove paragraph is fortunately still living, it was written at 
markable manner, and this has probably been the case from time
a
immemorial ; at any rate, the number of ruins on the banks would time (1875) long anterior to 
more recent developments, and with a lead one to suppose so. view to conditions which no longer 
exist., The question discussed by Rawlinson in dealing with the strategical controversy is the To 
this let me add the opinion of Sir F. Goldsmid chance afforded to Persia of invading Afghanistan 
from the base The soil is of proved fertility. Wheat or barley is, perhaps, the of Seistan; and 
this has no relation whatever to the new problem staple cultivation ; but peas, beans, oil-seeds, 
and cotton are also created by the appearance of Russia within striking distance of grown. 
Melons and water melons,- especially the latter, are abundant; Herat. A Persian army is now 
about as likely to invade Afghanistan grazing and fodder are not wanting. By means of the canals 
in their as it is to March against St. Petersburg. But what Persians or ordinary course, and by 
occasional inundations, a, systeni of profuse Afghans would not, or could not do, European 
armies operating from irrigation is put in force, which, with an industrious and a contented

|PPage_
railway bases may, and siiice 1885 alone it may be said that population, should be productive of 
most extensive grain cultivation.2 any previous military criticism upon Seistan has already 
become Finally, to both may be added the testimony of those who have obsolete. visited Seistan 
since the Boundary Commission, ËËand who report
To the jeremiads of those critics who represent Seistan that its resources have already been 
wonderfully augmented, and (Parodying the phrase in which Persia as a whole was once that its 
capacities of production under a more scientific system of
described 2) as c - irrigation are enormous. The future of Seistan depends indeed Favour- Z - 
Onsisting of two parts, a desert under 4 able water and a desert above water, must be opposed 
the upon the application of hydraulical skill to the course and overflow opinions of natural 
evidence both of history and of existing facts. If their of the Helmund. The river now runs 
northward, and spends itfertility
verdict be, true, how comes it that this province was self in superfluous swamps. There is 
nothing in the lie or in the once so famous for its magnificent fertility, its dense 
population,levels of the land to prevent it from being turned southward, and and its splendid 
cities ? What must be said of the square miles of entirely devoted to cultivation. ruins still 
encumbering the ground ? Fertility in Persia is almost Nor should a concluding but most 
important consideration be solely dependent upon water supply; and here, alone amol~g 
forgotten. Though railways will not come in Persia with the headPersian provinces, is enough 
water not merely to fill great canalsA link in a long rapidity that some imagine, and though it is 
Dot
b larger desirable in many parts that they should, yet most of us reasons to leave Herat alone, 
or supposing Seistan be added as a base to t e chain already acquired base of Herat, what then? s 
look forward to a time when there will be some more
England and Russia in the East, p. 116. rapid means of communication between the great cities 
and trade
ËË Persia consists of two parts: a desert with salt, and a desert without salt.I Caravan 
Jlourney8, p. 426. 2 Journal of the R. 
G.S., vol. xl1ii. pp. 71, 73.

|PPage_
244
ó
  of travellers, of 
whom I select only the most eminent or learned :-El Istakhri (900-1000 A.D.), Oriental 
Geography, p. 181 ; Ruy di ~ Clavijo (1404), Narrative of 1,7,nibassy; Von Mierop (1744), 
J. Hanway's Historical Account of British Trade, vol. L pp. 357-359; Captain Truilhier 
(1807), Daussy's Mbnloire -Descriptif; J. B. Fraser (1821-1822), Journey into 
Khorasan, cap. xiii-xvii.; Captain A. Conolly (1830), Overland Journey, vol. L pp. 194-220; 
E. L. Mitford (1840), Land Ararah, vol. ii. pp. 13-34; Dr. J. Wolff (1831, 1844), Travels, 
and -Narrative of Mission; J. P. Ferrier (1845), Caravan Journeys, pp. 54-115 ; Captain C. 
Clerk (1857), Journal of tAc R. GJ?., vol. xxxi, pp. 37-45; N. de Khanikoff (1858), 
jIfentoire, 4-c., pp. 72-97; E. B. EaBtwick (1862), Journal of a _Diploniate, vol. ii. pp. 
134-1.91, 271-295; A. Vamb6ry (1863), Zife and Adventicres, cap. xxviii.; H.M. the Shah of 
Persia (1867 and 1883),.Diaries (in Persian); H. W. Bellew (1872), leËËrom. the Indits to 
the T~qris, pp. 368-411 ; Colonel Enan Smith (1872), -Ceastern Persia, vol. L pp. 366-
388; ColonelVal. Baker (1873), Clouds in the Eavt pp. 142-176; B. OËËDonovan (1880), 
The Aferr Oasis, vol. il. cap. xxii.-xxviii.
or southern route, this, which is a more northerly line, cannot, be taken by chapar riders. It 
is, however, frequently adopted by Alternative caravans (other than camels), particularly in 
the summer; line as though the road is much worse, and in parts excessively steep, it runs over 
higher ground (10,720 feet), and through scenery of quite exceptional verdure and beauty. It is 
a positive surprise to the traveller, within a few miles of the naked rocks and dusty plains of 
Meshed, to alight upon ru. . nning water and a wealth of trees. The stages are as follows:-ËË
Name of station
Meshed Jaglierk Dehrud Nishapur
Total
Distance infarsakhs
5
6
6
17

|PPage_
ó
 nvaders in the eighteenth century. The modern city is not a

|PPage_
century old, having been rebuilt and fortified by Ali Yar Khan, of Mazinan, one of the rebellious 
governors in Khorasan in the reign of Fath Ali Shah. A good deal of trade has latterly sprung up 
in Sebzewar, for it is a considerable centre of cotton cultivation, as well as the local entrep6t 
for the export of wool: and there is an Armenian commercial establishment in the town whose 
occupants trade with Russia vid Astrabad and Gez,l exporting cotton and wool and importing 
sugar and chintzes. A coarse cotton cloth is Manufactured in the bazaars, and rude copper pots 
are also fashioned from the produce of three mines in the neighbourbood, which are reputed to 
be the richest in North Persia and the proper exploitation of which is not unlikely to be 
undertaken by the Persian Mining Rights Corporation. Sebzewar is also said to be one of the 
strongholds of the Babis in North Persia. Almost the only object of interest in Sebzewar to a 
stranger lies) if a bull may be permitted, outside it. This is an isolated Minaret Minaret called 
by the Persians (in their legendary vein) of Khosrugird,1 which stands about four miles beyond 
the. IChosrugird walls of the present town on the west, but -was no doubt within the limits of 
the ancient city destroyed by Mohammed Shah of Kharizm. That any one should ever have been 
mystified by this tower, which has everyËËfeature of Arabic architecture about it, simply 
because it has lost the mosque which it once adorned, is difficult to believe. Riding out to inspect 
it in the early dawn, I found the mountain crests both to the north and the south of the town 
white with freshly fallen snow, the -first of the winter. Glorious they looked as the rising -sun 
. shone on their glistening caps, and flushed the purples and reds of their lower skirts. 
OËËDonovan, rather irreverently, but with some justice, compared the minaret at a distance 
to a factory chimney; but this illusion ËËis
This route is now being superseded by the new Ashkabad-Ruchan line of entry into Khorasan, 
which I have previously described, and which is brought into easy connection with Sebzewar. 2 
It is astonishing that so intelligent an observer as Colonel Val. Baker should have been seduced 
thereby to speak of this I curious old minaret of burnt brick of the time of KhosroËË(Cl&uds 
in the Ea8t, p. 166.).ËË He might just as reasonably have attributed it to Edward the 
Confessor or to Confucius. OËËDonovan, too, regards this tall shaft as an unusual feature in 
Persian architecture, where the call to prayer is commonly given from a balcony; quite 
ignoring the fact that it was raised in Snnui, and not in Shiah, times. Khosrugird was the chief 
place of the district.of Beihak, identical with the modern Sebzewar.

|PPage_
270 FROM MESHED TO TEHERAN 271
dispelled as we approach. Then we see. it to be a single lofty tower, 100 feet high, of brickwork 
arranged so as to form an exterior pattern on the surface, converging towards the summit, and 
adorned with two bands of Kufic inscriptions also in brickwork. The capital at the top is broken, 
and the shaft has, therefore, an unfinished appearance. It springs from a square plinth of mixed 
concrete and gravel, the whole of which to a depth of about six feet is exposed, and which stands 
upon a further terrace about eight feet high, in the corners of which are doors, and which is 
surrounded by low pillars and a
p
MINARET OF KHOSRUGIRD
low mud wall encircling the whole enclosure. Fraser ascended the tower in 1822 by an interior 
flight of spiral steps, and OËËDonovan followed his example in 1880. The stairway is now in 
ruins. No traveller who could read the Kufic character need ever have been in doubt as to the 
history of this interesting relic; for Its history the inscription states that it was raised in the 
year 505 of the Hejira-i.e.inI 10 A.D.-when Sultan Sanjar ruled in Khorasan, in the reign of 
Sultan Mohainined, the son of Malek
Shah the Seljuk. It suffered severe injury in the Afghan invasion in 1722, but was subsequently 
restored by Nadir Shah, and now stands the sole surviving reminder of a city and a splendour 
that have utterly perished. Near Sebzewar the country was richly cultivated, especially with 
cotton. In less than an hour, however, the arable ceased, and Mihr and in front and around 
stretched a desolate gravelly plain, ËËKazinan in the middle of which in the distance a 
mountain with double cone stood up and expanded, as we drew near, into a small
ICE-HOUSE AT MAZINAN
isolated ridge. Leaving this on the left, we turned towards the base of the snowy range on the 
north, and after a five hoursËË ride reached the village of Milix, the first inhabited place that 
we. had seen for over thirty miles. The post-house is in the very Centre of the village, down 
whose main street runs a rapid and brickcoloured stream. Between Mihr and Mazinan I caught 
my first glimpse of a kavir, or salt desert, one of those strange and weird expanses, sometimes 
hard plain, sometimes treacherous swamp,

|PPage_
272
PERSU
which cover so large a portion of the centre of Persia, and about which I shall require to 
particularise later on. The white patches of sand glittered under a thin saline efflorescence, and 
at a little distance might have been mistaken for shallow pools. Mazinan was once a place of 
considerable size, and was itself the centre of a cluster of fortified villages and towns, but was 
destroyed by Abbas Mirza in 1831, in punishment of a rebel chief. It is now a most miserable 
spot, full of tumble-down or abandoned houses. A relic of bygone days exists in the shape of a big 
caravanserai on the outskirts of the village, built by Shah Abbas. A once far finer structure, the 
work of Mamun, the son of Haruner-Rashid and murderer of the Imam Reza, is now in partial 
ruin. All around are the remains of other towns or villages not less dismal or deserted. As I rode 
out of Mazinan at 5.30 A.M. on an icy morning, the caravans of pilgrims in the two big 
caravanserais were already astir; and some loud-lunged seyid or haji would be heard to chant 
the note of invocation to Allah, which the whole body would forthwith take up in a responsive 
volume of sound that rang far through the crisp chill air. From the other side of the village came 
a chorus of similar cries; and with plentiful shouting and discord, another day for the holy 
wanderers began. The mention of the pilgrims, or zawars, of whom I saw so much on each 
day's journey, and who all but monopolise the Pilgrim Meshed road, tempts me to vary the 
dull recital of my kaftlahs progress by a slight description of the human surroundings in which 
it was framed... The stream of progress appeared in the main to be in the oppogite direction to 
that which I was pursuing. Sometimes for miles in the distance could be seen the kafilah, or 
caravan, slowly crawling at a foot-pace across the vast expanse. Then, as it came nearer, would 
be heard the melancholy monotone of some devout or musical member of the band, droning out in 
quavering tones a verse from the Koran; sometimes, in less solemn companies, a more jovial 
wayfarer trolling some distich from the Persian classics. As the long cavalcade approached, it 
would be seen to consist of every kind of animal and of every species of man. Horses would carry 
the more affluent, who would be smoking their kalians as they paced along; some would affect 
camels - mules were very common, and would frequently support kajavehs,l a sort of
I The kqjamh, which is very small and rocks disagreeably, is a most uncomfortable and alinost 
impossible vehicle for Europeans, whose nether limbs are not

|PPage_
FROM MESHED TO TEHERAN
273
wooden pannier, with an arched framework for a hood, in whichËËmen as often as women were 
curled up beneath mountains of quilts. The donkey, however, was the favourite beast of burden. 
Tiny animals would bear the most stupendous loads, with pots and pans, guns, and water-bottles 
hanging on either side, and withËË the entire furniture of a household on their backs; the 
poultry of the owner perched with ludicrous gravity upon the top of all. It is a common thing for 
the poorer pligrims to take shares in a donkey and to vary riding with walking. In the early 
morning the equestrians would often be seen fast asleep upon their asses, lying forward -upon 
their neeks, and occasionally falling with a thump on to the ground. Each kafilah would. have a 
caravan-bashi, or leader, who not infrequently bore a red pennon fluttering from a lance. It was 
often difficult to discern the men's faces as they rode by shrouded in huge woollen blanket-
coats, pulled up over their heads, while the stiff, empty arm-holes stood out on either side like 
monstrous ears. But, if it was not easy to discern the males, still less could be distinguished of 
the shapeless bundles of blue cotton that were huddled upon the donkeysËË backs, and which 
chivalry almost forbade me to accept for the fairer sex. I confess to having once or twice, with 
intentional malice, spurred my horse to a gallop, as -1 was overtaking some party of wayfarers 
thus accompanied: for, to see the sober asses kick up their heels and bolt from the track as thev 
heard the clatter of horse-hoofs behind, to observe the ir amorphous bundles upon their backs 
shake and totter in th6 seats, till shrieks were raised, veils fell, and there was imminent 
danger of a total collapse, was to crack one's sides with sorely-needed and well-earned 
laughter. There would usually be an assortment of beggars in every band, who would beg of me 
in one breath and curse me for an infidel in the next, or of tattered dervishes) who in 
Mussulman countri6s are beggars in their most offensive
guise. Not that every company we met or passed were pilgrims on pious mission bent. Far from 
it. Sometimes we would encounter
inured to the telescopic contractions common in the East. Adam Olearius, the Secretary of the 
Embassy from the Duke of 
in 1637, graphically described his woes as follows: ËËThe Physician and myself were set in 
kdza?veha upon the same camel, whereby we were put to great inconveniences-one proceeding 
from the violent motion causod by the going of that great Beast, which at every step gave us a 
furious jolt; and the other from the insupportable stink of the camels, the infectious smell of 
whom came full into our noses.ËË

|PPage_
274 PERSLk FROM MESHED TO TEHERAN 275
merchants, absorbed and ,edate ; sometimes mullalis oil sleek asses or mules; sometimes 
officials and soldiers; and sometimes whole Others families migrating. All classes and all ages 
were on the
road: horsemen and footmen ; rich men and poor men ; seyids and scoundrels-a microcosm of the 
stately, commonplace, repulsive, fascinating Oriental world. At night these varied and polyglot 
elements (for there will be pilgrims fromË"Ëplany lands) seek shelter and sleep in the cara 
Caravan-vanserais erected at intervals of ten or fifteen miles along serais the entire route.I 
have so often spoken of these struc tures that I ma here, in passing, describe what they are. The 
y zn caravanserai is the Eastern inn. But with the name the parallelism ends: for no proud 
signboard, no cheerful parlour or burnished bar, no obsequious ostler or rubicund landlord 
welcoines your approach. The caravanserai, perhaps, contains a single custodian, and that is all. 
The wayfarer must do everything for himself. He stables his own beasts, piles together and 
watches his own baggage, lights his own fire, and cooks his own repast. As a rule, the building is 
a vast square or rectangular structure of brick or stone, built in the form of a parallelogram 
round an open court. The
ack wa p two exterior sides and the b, Us are lain, and give the building from a distance the 
appearance of an immense fort-an idea which is frequently, and with full illtention, sustained 
in the shape of projecting towers at the angles and a parapet above. In the front outer wall, or 
faVade, is a series of large recessed arches, with a seat, or platform, about two feet from the 
ground. These are frequently used as sleeping-places in the warm weather. A huge gateway opens 
in the centre, with sometimes a tower and balakhaneh overhead, and leads into the inner 
quadrangle, which is
7 perhaps fifty yards square, and whose sides are divided into recessed compartments, open to 
the air, similar to those on the outside wall. In the superior caravauserais a doorway at the back 
of each of these arches leads into all inner cell, which is occupied on cold nights. Behind these, 
and reaching to the exterior wall, are long rows of hot, unlit stables, wbere the animals are 
lodged, and access to which is gained from the four corners. Such, is the ordinary Persian 
caravanserai. In a few of. improved style or recent construction, such as that at BorasJUll, near 
the Persian Gulf-by far the finest that I saw in the whole country-there, is a series of 
-upstairs apartments for visitors of higher rank or means ; but, as a
rule, democracy is the prevailing law in the economy of the serai of Persia.
Perhaps the weirdest and most impressive of the many unwonted memories that the traveller 
carries away with him from such-like Camels by travel in the East is the recollection of ~ the 
camel

|PPage_
night caravans which he has encountered at night. Out of the black darkness is heard the distant 
boom -of a heavy bell. Mournfully, and with perfect regularity of iteration, it sounds, gradually 
swelling nearer and louder, and perhaps mingling with the tones of smaller bells, signalling the 
rearguard of the same caravan. The big bell is the insignia and alarum of the leading camel alone. 
But nearer and louder as the sound becomes, not~ another sound, and not a visible object, appear 
to accompany it. Suddenly, and without the slightest warning, there looms out of the darkness, 
like the apparition of a phantom ship, the form of the captain of the caravan. His spongy tread 
sounds softly oil the smooth sand, and, like a great string of linked ghouls, the silent procession 
stalks by and is swallowed up in the night.
And how wonderful and ever-present is the contrastin Eastern travel to all life and movement at 
-home! No heavy cartsËËand The lumbering wagons jolt to and fro between the farmyard 
poetry of and the fields. No light vehicles and swift equipages contrast dqsh past upon 
maeadamised roads. Alas! there are no roads; and, if no roads, how much less any vehicles or 
wagons! Thatched roofs and tiled cottages, lanes and hedgerows and trim fields, rivers coursing 
between fall banks, beyond all the roar and sudden, smoky rush of the train-these might not 
exist in the world at all, and do not exist in the world of the Persian, straitened and stunted) but 
inexpressibly tranquil -in his existence. Here, all is movement and bustle, flux and speed; 
there, everything is imperturbable, immemorial,. immutable, slow.
Between Mazinan and Shahrud, a distance of approximately one hundred miles, intervene four 
stages, which were formerly knowd Turkoman as the ËËStages of Terror.ËË Here the 
western extremities forays of the Khorasan mountains, pushed out in long spurs of diminishing 
height from the knotted mountain chister that surrounds the head-watersËË of the Atrek, 
descend on to the plain, and the road pursues a winding course through their lower folds and 
undulations. This entire mountain region was once desolated by Turkoman bandits) and through 
these valleys and ravines they,

|PPage_
dashed down in headlong foray upon tile helpless bands of travellers making their way to or 
from Aleshed. Sweeping up whatever they could get, driving off the animals, and chaining a few 
score of captives to their saddle-bows, they galloped off into their mountain-fastnesses with as 
much precipitation as that with which they had come. Already, along the route which I have 
described from Aleshed to Mazinan, I had seen frequent proofs of their dreaded presence, in the 
shape of those small circular towers, dotted all over the plain like chessmen on a chessboard, 
which, from Ashkabad to Meshed, from Sarakhs to Farrah, and from Slialirud almost to Kum, 
marked the chosen hunting-grounds of these terrible moss-troopers of the border. In parts 
almost every field had one of these structures, into -which, as soon as a rolling cloud of dust 
revealed the apparition of the enemy, the husbandman crept by a small hole at the bottom, and, 
rolling two big stones against the aperture, waited till the scourge had swept past.ËË Similar 
evidence of the terror they inspired, and of the state of siege which self-preservation imposed 
upon their possible victims, is forthcoming along the entire belt of country above named, in the, 
rude forts erected in -every village as a refuge for the inhabitants. Once behind a mud wall the 
miserable peasants were safe; but woe betide them if caught in the open country-death or the 
slave-markets of Khiva and Bokhara were then the certain issue. What the luckless peasant 
faced every day the timid pilgrim looked to encounter on this fateful stretch of road which I am 
Military about to describe. The most elaborate precautions were escort taken against the danger. 
An escort used to leave Shahrud and Mazinan twice a month, consisting of a number of so-called 
foot-soldiers armed with matchlocks, and a mounted detachment accompanying an old gun. At 
Miandasht the two escorts met and relieved each other. The support of the Mazinan detachment, 
consisting of 150 matchlock men and twelve artillerymen with their horses, was imposed, in 
lieu of the ordinary taxes, upon the villagers of that place; and even so late as 1872, when the 
Seistan Boundary Commissioners passed this. way on theËËir return to Teheran, they had to 
travel with an escort of eighty matchlocks, a 41-pounder dragged by six horses, and 150 to 
200 mounted
2 sowars, between Mazinan and Sliahrud.
Conolly, Fraser, Eastwick,. OËËDonovan, and other writers who journeyed with the pilgrim 
caravans have left inimitable accounts
276 PERSUV FROM MESHED TO TEHERAN 277.
of tile perils and tile panics of their pious companions. A Persian is a coward at the best of 
times: but a Persian pilgrim is a degree Perilsand worse than his fellows; and a Persian pilgrim 
in the pan c of t1he vicinity of a Turkonian almost ceases to be a human being. pilgrims There 
would be long delays and anxious rumours at the beginning; several false starts would be made 
and abandoned in

|PPage_
consequence of some vague report; finally the caravan would venture forth, moving frequently 
at night, when the darkness added to, rather than diminished, the terror. First would come the 
mateblock men blowing their matches, and either marching on foot or mounted on donkevs. then 
the genuine cavalry, with flintlocks and hayfork-rests; next tile great body of the pilgrims, 
huddling as close as possible round the artillerymen and tile gun, which was looked upon as a 
veritable palladium, but of which it is not on record that it was ever fired. Soldiers again 
brought up the rear, and, wrapped up in dust, confusion, arid panic, the procession -rolled on. 
The noise they made, shOUtiDg, singing, cursing, praying, and quarrelling, signalled their 
approach for miles, and, if they escaped, it was tile positive worthlessness of the spoil (for a 
Mussulman pilgrim leaves all his valuables behind him), rather than the hazard of capture or 
the a-we inspired by tile bodyguard, that was responsible for their safety. To their fearful 
imaginations ever bush was a vedette of the enemy, every - ff
Y . PU of wind that raised the dust betrayed a charge, every hillock concealed a squadron. Loud 
were the shout's and clamorous the invocations to Allah, and Ali, and Husein, and all the 
watchful saints of the calendar, when the end of the march was reached and God had protected his 
own. It is only just to add that, if the panic of a multitude was despicable, the terrors of 
individuals were not unfairly aroused. Tales of Many are the tales that are still told of the 
capture of capture isolated travellers or of small bands; and there was scarcely a single peasant 
in the villages in this strip of country that had not, at some time or other, been pounced down 
upon in the fields or at the water-springs, and who, if happily he,were ransomed after years of 
slavery, did not bear upon his person the lifelong imprint of cruelty and fetters. Colonel Euan 
Smith is in error in stating that it was upon this piece of road that M. de Blocqueville, the 
French amateur photographer who had accompanied the disastrous expedition against Aferv in 
1860, in order

|PPage_
278
ó
 ian and Russo-Arinenian traders.ËË The 
Russian Caucasus and Mercury Company also keep an agent in the town. Its population is said V) 
be 5,000. There is a Persian Telegraph-station here, and a wire t6 Astrabad, whence there is 
further telegraphic connection by Chikislillar with Kizil Arvat and Transcaspia-a line which is 
much used by the Russian Legation in Teheran in communicating with Ashkabad.
I The opening-up of the new trade-route from Ashkabad, vid Knolian, to Sebzewar is reported to 
have already caused -a considerable falling-off, or, perhaps, I should rather say, transference, 
in the. Russian trade with Shahrud.
Having arrived at Shahrud early in the afternoon, I spent some time in inspecting the town. It 
contains a large covered Bazaars bazaar, not thatched, but properly roofed, and with
spacious and well-appointed shops. My observations and inquiries tallied exactly with what I 
had heard at _Xesbed. All the sugar was Russian, all the tea was Indian, brought from Builder 
Abbas vid Yezd. The greater part of the coloured

|PPage_
cottons and chintzes were Russian, but the white sheeting bore the name of a Bombay firm, and I 
saw, not merely a large pile of Manchester glazed calicoes with a Bombay label, but also a 
number of unbleached cottons direct from Manchester itself. This was a gratifying fact, 
considering that Shahrud lies within four marches of what is practically a Russian port on the 
Caspian. I bought some delicious white grapes for a few pence. A wine is made from them in 
Shahrud.
Though Shahrud is the capital of the district of BostamSliahrud, it is not the residence of the 
Governor or the seat of Bostam government. The latter is at the town of Bostam, three
and a half miles in a north-easterly direction from Sliahrud (from which it is concealed by a 
rocky bill), and -higher up the course of the same river. Bostam, a Mazanderani proper name, 
is a place of superior fertility and luxury to Shahru d. It is, further, a site of great sanctity 
among Mohammedan pilgrims, for here was buried the famous Sheikh, or Sultan, Bayazid, the 
leader of a dervish sect, who died, and was interred in the court of a beautiful mosque, now much 
ruined, in the year A.D. 874. Attached to the same mosque, whose cupola was erected by a Mongol 
prince in A.D. 1313, is a shaking minaret, similar to those which I shall afterwards describe at 
Isfahan, and which can be made to vibrate by rocking it at the summit. Colonel Lovett has 
attributed this phenomenon to the elasticity of the bricks and cement employed, the latter 
becoming more elastic with age, and has compared it with the kindred phenomenon of slabs of 
elastic sandstone.ËË There is, further, at Bostam a curious brick tower, whose outer 
circumference is, so to speak, dog-toothed by a number of salient angles, similar to the tower of 
which I shall speak later at Rhey.2 I Proceedings of the -R. G.S. (new series), vol. v. p. 79 
(1883). The best account of the buildings at Bostain. is that of Khanikoff, Mi7noire, &c. p. 79. 
2 Fraser (Journey into Mwrasan, pp. 612-614) describes a very similar tower, with 
polygonal surface, near Jorjan, on tiie banks of the Gurgan River, This tower was 150 feet 
high, 10 yards interior diameter, 52 yards exterior circum
|PPage_
284
FROM MESHED TO TEHERAN 285
Already, upon arriving at the posthouse of Shahrud-which is Accordingly, they announced that 
the hour for repose had arrived, unique in the possession of a threefold 1,(da-khaneh-l had 
observed and bowed themselves out. For my part, I slew the sheep and had Deputa- unfamiliar 
symptoms of refinement, in the shape of a a capital leg of mutton for dinner. tion from druggeted 
floor and curtained doorways. On my return Sliahrud is rather more than the halfway stage 
between Meshed the Governor from the bazaars I was proceeding to make my toilet, and Teheran, 
but it serves to divide the journey into two portions, and was already in a state of semi-
d6shaUlle, when, without the of which it is difficult to determine which is the less
Second slightest warning, I became aware of a further act of official atten
section of attractive.There is a curious identity between their
journey tion. Two Armenians first entered unannounced, both of whom respective features: for, 
just as the Meshed-Shahrud seecould speak a little French. One was the agent of Messrs. Ziegler 
tion presents two cities of ancient fame, Nishapur and Sebzewar in Shahrud, the other of a firm 
named Tumanianz. I presumed so the Shahrud-Teheran section displays Damghan and Semnan 
that they had come out of curiosity, as they offered no explana- and, just as the only structures 
worthy of observation in the first tion. But in the East such amenities cannot be resented, 
requiring section are the minarets and towers of Sebzewar and Bostam, so, rather to be 
interpreted as tokens of civility. Wherefore I con- in the second, we must be content with the 
analogous monuments tinued my toilet while discussing the trade and commerce of of Damghan 
and Semnan. Finally, to complete the parallelism, Shahrud. Presently, however, the doorway of 
the bala-khaneh was just as the first section terminates after threading the famous again 
darkened, and a trio of Persian officials marched in, while Turkoman passes, so does the second 
conduct us, on the penultia posse of attendants stood outside. They were succeeded by mate 
day's journey, through the even more famous Caspian Gates some menials carrying a tray, 
on which were two packets of tea that lead into the Plain of Veramin. Stones, sand, kavir, and and 
four sugar-loaves wrapped up in blue paper; following whom execrable horses are the common 
prerogatives of both. appeared two other individuals holding by the legs a kicking sheep, Tt was 
on one of the worst of these brutes that over a track while a third balanced a couple of cane-
bottorned chairs behind. scarcely less atrocious, I pursued my way to Deh Mullah (ËËthe 
Village I really think that I am ËËustified in presenting this to my readers rted of the 
PriestËË). The chapar-khaneh is on the outskirts of
J I Dese as a spectacle of no mean dramatic effect. cities the village, which lies a little farther in 
the plain, and is
Scene.-A mud room in a Persian posthouse. remarkable only for a huge mound of clay, once 
crowned by a
Dranzatis Personm. -Englishman in flannel shirt, breeches, and citadel, whose riven and 
crumbling walls stand up in melancholy stockings only; Armenian traders; Persian 
chamberlains; struggling ruin. The ride from Deb. Mullah to Damghan is over rather better 
sheep. ground, but is unutterably tedious. On my right hand was the
Dramatic Accessories.-Sugar-loaves and cane-bottomed chairs. scarped red rampart of the 
Elburz, rising sheer from the plain, and,
I now realised that I was the recipient of a formal deputation like a wall of brass, shutting off 
the defiles and gorges of that from the Prince-Governor of Shabrud, who had sent to welcome and 
mighty range; and behind them, again, the steamy lowlands of

|PPage_
to invite me to become his guest at Bostam, and that the Armenians Mazanderan, sloping to the 
Caspian. On the left, or south, whereas had been despatched as a sort of advanced guard to 
reconnoitre on most maps I see marked a salt desert, or kavir, my own notes and interpret. By 
their aid I was enabled to acknowledge the record that, throughout the entire day's journey, 
the horizon was
0 at an -average distance of about ten miles, by hospitality of the Governor and to accept his 
gifts -a process which bounded on that side, naturally involved the return of an equivalent 
present to the depu- a range of bills of quite sufficient elevation to appear upon most ties. 
Having pocketed a few tomans with much satisfaction, these maps, although I cannot find any 
trace of them upon the majorworthies forthwith realised that no more business was to be done. 
ity of those that I have studied.ËË The road to Damghan passed
several villages, one of which, Mehmandost, was evidently a favourite ference, and terminated 
in a lofty pointed cone, in which was a single window.
balting-place for travellers, as there were crowds of wayfarers and Two belts of Arabic 
inscriptioDs demonstrated a kindred origin to the tower of Bostam. horsemen in the single 
street.About three miles from Damghan

|PPage_
286 
FRO-11 _21IESHED TO TEHERAN
287
we rode through the ruins of a deserted city, Bostajan. A more in the present century, is now in 
a pitiable state of decay. ËË The sorrowful spectacle than an abandoned town of mud cannot be 
deserted ruins of a huge square citadel-a room in which used to conceived. The buildings, and 
roofs, and walls gradually waste be preserved and shown as the apartment wherein Fath Ali Shah 
away into indistinguishable heaps of clay; but, so compact and solid first saw the light-rise 
above the cubical domes of the bazaar, but do these become in the process, that they last for 
scores, and some- are fast crumbling to pieces. I rode through the bazaar, which times for 
hundreds, of years. Nor is it fair to assume that, along consists of a long covered street, far less 
cleanly and decorous than with each deserted city or site, its inhabitants, as an item in the that 
of Shahrud. Through the town runs a stream, flowing down population, have been wiped off the 
face of the earth. Were such from a spring in the mountains called Chashmeh-i-Ali, where is 
the case, one might be led to infer that Persia, which is now as both a summer residence of the 
Shah, and also a place of pilgrimsparsely peopled as Palestine, was once as densely crowded as 
China. age, as one of the spots where Ali's charger appears to have I believe that this would 
be a false inference. Just as each great stamped so fiercely with his hoof as to leave a permanent 
indentaPersian monarch or founder of a dynasty, from Cyrus downwards, tion in the rock. On a 
hill-top near this miraculous site a further has shifted the capital and seat of government, so as 
to associate miracle exists in the shape of a spring, called Chashmeh-i-Bad (or a fresh glory 
with his name, so has each petty governor or chief- Fountain of the Wind), which, if stirred at 
certain times, is said to tain striven to emulate his sovereign by a new urban plantation; 
produce a hurricane that blows -everything to destruction.ËË and, in a yet lower grade, each 
father of a family has thought to
Damghan has a twofold historical interqst-legendary and better himself and to transcend his 
forerunners by erecting a new modern. It is always supposed to mark the site of the ancient 
abode. It is to this universal instinct, permeating every rank of History Hekatompylos (or City 
of a Hundred Gates), the name life, not less than to the ravages of famine, disease, and war, that 
given by the Greeks to the capital of the Arsacid dynasty must- be attributed the countless 
wasting skeletons of tenements of Parthian kings , although, with the exception of a number of 
and cities that litter the soil of Persia. mounds and of several underground conduits, built of 
large-slabs
From a distance of some miles the two minarets of Damgban, the of stone, there does not exist, 
and is not on record as having counterparts of that of Sebzewar, rise in view. They stand some 
existed, at Damghan a single remain that could be identified

|PPage_
way apart, in different quarters of the town. The better with so illustrious a past. Ferrier, I 
think erroneously, enDamghau
preserved of the two, which is mountable and has a deavours to combat this theory by the 
argument that the City of small turret of later date at the top, with a door for the muezzin, a 
Hundred Gates must mean a city in which many roads met, is situated jvist off the main street or 
the town, and is in close Whereas at Damghan there are only two. He, therefore, prefers 
:proximity to a mosque-not, indeed, that to which it was originally the Shahrud-Bostam site for 
that of Hekatompylos.2 Apart, howattached, but a comparatively modern structure. Like the 
minar ever, from the fact that more roads meet at Damghan than two, at Sebzewar, it is faced 
with bricks, so laid as to form geometrical it is by no means certain that the Greeks, when they 
used this patterns on the circumference, and has, further, a band of Kufic descriptive 
ËËepithet, referred to city gates at all. The title was letters in high relief. The two minarets 
belong to the ijnamzadehs, equally applied by them to Egyptian Thebes, where it has been or 
tombs of two saints, named respectively Jafir and Kasim. ; and, conjectured to refer to the 
pylons, or gateways, of the many splendid for an account of their shrines, as well of a third 
tomb raised over temples by which the capitid of the Rameses was adorned; and it may a saint 
named Mohammed, the son of Ibralilin, and called Pir-i
have had some Ë

Ëimilar application in the case of the Parthian city. Alamdar, I cannot do better than refer my 
readers to the erudite
Persia for large and fine buildings, and would apply to the mosque, not to the pages of 
Khanikoff.1 Dauighan, though a considerable place, even minaret. Similarly, Maschide Jam is, 
of course, the Musjld-i-Jama (or I Town
MosqueËË), like the I University ChurchËË at Oxford or Cambridge.
_M~nioire, .5-c., pp. 74-75. Bassett (Land of the Inimns, p, 197) commits the I J. B. Fraser, 
A IV-InterËË8 Journey, vol. ii. p. 400; E. B. Eastwick, vol. ii. absurd mistake of saying that 
the minars are called Cheliil Sutune and Maschide p. 157; Colonel Val. Baker, p. 138Jam. The 
former name-i.e. , forty pillarsËË-is a common descript~ve epithet in 2 Caravan Journeys, 
pp. 69-74.

|PPage_
288
ó
 d, consequently, 
not within a day's march even for Alexander. the real Caspize Pylaa are not the Sirdara 
Pass, but a defile in the Accordingly, he suggested, and Fraser, Ferrier, and Eastwick have same 
range a few miles to the north, known asthe Teng-i-Suluk, supported with much wealth of 
argument, the choice of the pass to which he saw and examined in 1835,

|PPage_
and whose physical characwhich my journey has now brought me, between the plains of Khar 
teristics, although little known, correspond with the accounts of the and Veramin. classical 
authorities, besides containing a shorter route between
This pass is known as the Sirdara, or Ser Dereb, or Sardari, Rhages and the Plain of Khar 
probably Ser-i-dareh (i.e. Head of the Valle ). It is entered by a 1 cannot help thinking, indeed 
that some such solution must
y The Sir- narrow passage or gateway on the south-east, and winds be accepted, or at least 
anticipated, by those who attach a becoming darm Pass tortuously through a projecting spur of 
the Elburz range, The real value to the statements of the Greek and Roman writers. that here 
runs forward in a south-westerly direction into the great gates Nor can the very important fact 
be left out of sight, that central desert. MY notes represent it as being nearly six miles in 
European travellers, passing northwards from Isfahan to Mazanlength.3 A salt stream flows 
down the valley bottom, and encrusts deran, to the Court of Abbas, the Great at Ferahabad or 
Ashraf, on its banks with a white efflorescence. At times the pass opens into
the Caspian, less than 300 years ago, have left descriptions of the a little plain, and then again 
contracts. In the centre is an old
defile or defiles by which they penetrated the Elburz in this veryTravels into Bokkara, vol. iii. 
p. 111. 2 Morier's Second .7ourney, p. 365.
The extent to which miscalculation of distance is possible when the writerThis difficulty may, 
perhaps, be met by supposing that 
the pass, like the has ridden on horseback, and has perhaps composed his description from 
memoryCaspian Sea itself, took its name from the tribe of the Caspii, of whom Strabo. 
afterwards, may be judged from the varyffig estimates of the length of this pass.constantly 
speaks, and who resided in the neigbbourhood. Their name is conFerrier says 21 miles, 
Eastwick 4, and OËËDonovan 12.ceivably preserved in the district of Jasp, west of Kashan.

|PPage_
296
PE, RSIA
part, that correspond with sufficient exactitude with the words of Pliny. Starting from 
Afahalleh Bagh, which a Persian geographer identifies with the Plain of Khar, both Pietro della 
Valle, in 1618, and Sir Thomas Herbert, accompanying Sir Robert Sherley and Sir Dodmore 
Cotton, in 1627, proceeded through a defile, which they describe in very similar terms, to 
Hablah Rud and Firuzkuh, whence they continued their march to the Caspian. Of this defile 
Pietro della Valle says that, after leaving Mahalleh Bagh, he entered a deep and very narrow 
valley (una profonda c angustisshaa valle), with lofty mountains on either side (i monti son 
sevqpve altissivii delle bande), and in some turnings so narrow that to conduct a litter through 
it was a critical undertaking (che ci diede fastidio per far passar la lettiga), and that through 
this valley flowed a rivulet of salt water. Herbert, in his inimitable phraseology, says: ËË-
The greater part of this night's journey was through the bottoms of transected Taurus, 
whose stApendibus forehead wets itself in the ayery middle region; the fretum, or lane, is about 
forty yards broad even below, and bestrewed with pibbles; either side is walled with an amazing 
hill, higher than to reach up at twice shooting; and for eight miles so continues, agreeing with 
the relation Pliny and Solinus make of it; a prodigious passage, whether by art or nature 
questionable; I allude it unto nature, God's handmaid.ËË The description of these writers 
does not essentially differ from that left by A. Chodzko, formerly Russian Consul at Resht, of the 
pass which he visited in company with Sir H. Rawlinson, in 1835. He calls it Gardan-i-Sialek, 
and describes it as a tremendous defile, 2,500 yards long, with bare precipitous rock walls, 
from 650 to 1,000 feet in height, the passage between them being only thirty feet wide in its 
broadest and five feet in its narrowest part.ËË On the other hand, it is quite credible that the 
passes of Pliny, Della Valle, Herbert, and Rawlinson, may not be the same Caspian Gates through 
which Darius fled and Alexander marched; and that there may be more than one claimant to the 
title. This is, on the whole, the most probable solution, the Sirdara pass, in the opinion of the 
most learned critics, corresponding more accurately to the account of Arrian (cf. also Quintus 
Curtius and Amm. Marcellinus), than does any other pass to the north or east.2 It cannot, 
however, to my
I Anna7es des Voyages, 1850, Part Ill. 2 This view is sustained by the German writers Spiegel, 
Feranische Alterthumsk?,vnde, vol. ii. p. 532; Droysen, Geschichte Alexanders, p. 257; 
Tomaschek, Zur hist.
FROM MESHED TO TEHERAN
297
mind, conceivably be identified with that of Pliny, nor is it likely

|PPage_
to have been the Caspioe Pylae to which so much geographical importance was attached by 
Strabo. It was soon after emerging upon the plateau beyond the pass that an isosceles cone of 
perfect shape and dazzling whiteness rose in view above the browns and greys of the nearer 
ranges, Demavend .
and disclosed to my enchanted vision the mighty Dema, vend. From that day, for over a month, I 
never, except in z the mist of early morning, lost sight of the lordly spectacle, which always 
overhangs Teheran, and which attended me on my southward ride to a distance of 160 miles. 
What Fujiyama is to the Japanese, Demavend is to the Persian landscape. Both are everpresent, 
aerial, and superb. Both have left an enduring mark upon the legends of their country; I and if 
the peerless Fuji has played a far greater part in the -art of Nippon than has Demavend in that 
of Iran, it is because the Japanese, while not inferior in ingenuity, are a vastly more 
imaginative people. Traversing a level, uncultivated plain, we reached the village and posthouse 
of Aiwan-i-Kaif,2 fording a rapid but muddy stream Aiwan-i- which flows over a broad bed 
outside. The name indicates Kaif Portal, or Hall, of Delight, although other derivations have been 
suggested-viz. Aiwan-i-Kai (i.e. Hall of the Kaianians tradition interpreting a ruin in the 
neighbourhood 3 as a palace of
Tolwgraphie von Persion, p. 79 ; and by Schindler, in the publication mentioned at the end of 
this chapter. The last-named authority has supplied me with the following conjectural 
identification of Alexander's march: first day, from Rhages to the, present Aiwan-i-Kaif, 
383 stadia or 44 miles; second day, through the Caspian Gates (Sirdara Pass) and Choara 
(Khar) to the present Aradan, 297 stadia or 34 miles; third day to Lasgird, 331 stadia or 38 
miles; fourth day to Alab, or Germab, 370 stadia or 42 miles; fifth day to Frat, near 
Hekatompylos or Damghan, 417 stadia or 48 miles; sixth day, 400 stadia or 46 miles to 
Shahrud, where he found the corpse of Darius.I According to the local legends, Demavend, or 
Divband, i.e. 11 Dwelling of the Divs or Genii,ËË has been the scene of all the events veiled 
under the form of myths. Here, say the Persian Mohammedans, Noah's Ark was stranded; 
here dwelt Jemshid and Rustem, heroes of the national epics; here was kindled the bonfire of 
Feridun, vanquisher of the giant Zohak; here the monster himself is entombed, and the smoke of 
the. mountain is. the breath of his nostrils; here, also, is chained down the Persian Prometheus, 
Yasid ben Jigad, whose liver is eternally devoured by a gigantic bird. The caverns of the 
volcanoes axe full of treasures guarded by snakes!-Elis6e Reclus, Universal Geography (English 
edition), vol. ix. p. 84. 2 Ferrier calls it Haivanak or Eiwanee-Keij. ËË Described by 
Eastwick, vol. ii. pp. 137,138.

|PPage_
298 FROA1 MESHED TO TEHERAN 299
Cambyses), and Aiwan-i-Key (or Royal Drinking-liall). Whichever organ-pipes, and, upon 
nearer approach, like sham Corinthian it be, the place appeared to me to have no attractions for 
the moderii columns; one or two detached towers, and a domed structure votaries of Epicurus. A 
great many of the houses had no occupants ËËI whose roof consisted only of skeleton ribs of 
iron, like the frameand seemed to have been abandoned; and ill-advised would the work in which 
a schoolroom globe is hung. The latter turned out monarch be who sought refuge in so squalid a 
retreat. Between subsequently to be the Takieh, or Theatre of the Passion Plays) Aiwan-i-Kaif 
and Kabud Gumbaz (Blue Dome) the River Jajrud within the precincts of the palace. Outside the 
walls on the descends from the mountains, and was divided at this season of the southern side are 
a large number of brick-kilns, a monopoly of which year into at least twenty-five different 
channels, straggling over a industry is possessed by the Grand Vizier.ËË Here, too, are 
thepebbly bed-in all, quite a quarter of a -mile in width. I forded
slaughter-houses, the lease of which brings in an income of 2,2301. all these, and at Kabud 
Gumbaz encountered the first returning per annum. Entering the fortifications by a gaudily 
decorated symptoms of proximity to that civilisation to which I had now been gate at some 
distance from the populated quarter, I rode quite a stranger for nine days, in the shape of a vast 
pile of letters (the two miles through the streets before reaching the British Legation, first I 
had received since leaving England) and a good hack sent which is situated on the northern 
outskirts of the city. out for my use by a friend in Teheran. Right gladly did I speed over the 
Plain of Veramin, whose ruins, presenting in the distance SUPPLEMENTARY RoUTES BETWEEN 
MESHED AND TEHERAN. the appearance of four solitary columns, rose from a mound far 
TEHERAN TO SHAHRUD (the summer.or mountain route, vid Demavend,
Firuzkuh, and Chasmeh Ali, 237 miles). J. B. Morier (1814), Second Tournvj, away in the, 
hollow of the plain. From a distance of quite ten cap. xxiii. Captain Hon. G. Napier (1874), 
Journal of tAe.R. G.S., vol. xlvi. p. 62 miles the flash, as of a beacon fire, on the horizon showed 
where the seg. (1876). sun's rays splintered on the golden dome of Sliali Abdul Azim. 
Routes between Teheran and Meshed taken by General A. H. Schindler in Formerly the caravan 
route lay past this sanctuary and round the 1876, and described, with a map, in the Zeit. d. 
Gesell. f. Erd. zu Berlin, 1877,
1 - pp. 215-229. 1. Semnan, southern route, vid Frat, to Damghan; 2. Maiomai, base of the 
range which separates the plains of Veramin and i
northern route, vid Sherifabad, to Miandasht; 3. Miandasht, southern route, vid Teheran. Still 
is that line followed by the pilgrims, upon whom,
Khan-i-Khodi and Dashtgird, to Abbasabad; 4. Abbasabad, northern route, vid whether starting 
for or returning from Meshed, it is incumbent to Ferumed and Jagatai, to Plain of Juwain, and 
thence south-east, rid Tabbas, to call and do reverence at the prophet's shrine; but pack 
animals Sebzewar; 5. Nishapur, north-west route, to Madan (Turquoise Mines), and thence
south-west, vid Shurab, to Zafarani.

|PPage_
and the postal road now both cut off an angle by striking in a due northerly direction over the 
ridge itself. Mounting to the summit
I He pays the sum of 12,000 tonians (or 3,4301.) a year for the monopoly, and of the pass, the 
new road winds up and down through dusty folds regulates the price of bricks to suit his own 
pocket. In 1887 there were made
7 r until, the northern crest being reached, far down upon the plain two qualities of bricks, 
good and bad-the good -costing, according to season, from that expands below is seen spread out 
the belt of verdure, topped 35 to 40 krans, the bad 25 to 30 krans, per 1,000. There has now 
been added a
third, and worse, quality, and the prices for the three qualities are 45 to 52 kraus, only by a 
few edifices, that marks the capital of Persia. Beyond, 35 to 42 krans, and 20 to 25 krans, per 
1,000. again, at a distance of about seven miles from the city, rises the abrupt ferrugineous 
face of the Elburz range, like a prodigious rampart of rusty corrugated iron.
The first appearance of Teheran is agreeable after a long journey, but in no sense imposing. As I 
descended the slope and drew Teheran nearer, it, was difficult to believe that that green band
could shroud a great city with a population of nearly 200,000 souls. The only buildings that 
rose to any height above the level of the tree-tops appeared to be a large mosque, with four tile-
covered minarets, that looked from a distance like painted.

|PPage_
300 
TEHERAN
301
Whatever its origin, Teheran must have been for long a small and
insignificant place, for neither of those indefatigable geographers,
El Istakhri and Masudi, whose travels illumine. the tenth century,
allude thereto, although they have much to say of the adjacent
Rhey. The earliest irrefragable mention is in the pages of Abu
CHAPTER XI Abdullah Yakut in A.D. 1179-80.- His account, which is borne
out by several native historians,ËË represents the primitive Teheranis
TEHERANËË as troglodytes, living underground in a semi-savage state, at war
Over the utmost hill at length I sped, with their neighbours, and in revolt against the sovereign. 
How
A snowy steep-the moon was hanging low ever this may be, the locality soon became quite 
famous for its
Over the Asian mountain-and outspread rivulets and gardens, and a more normal and respectable 
city
The plain, the city, and the camp below.
SHELLEY, The -Revolt of Isla-in, Canto V.sprang into existence. Haindallah, in the fourteenth 
century, de
scribed it as a town of some magnitude and importance, and as TEHERAN, the modern capital of 
Persia, has frequently been preferable, both for climate and water-supply, to Rhey. Don Ruy di 
spoken of by travellers, with some suspicion of contempt, as a new Clavijo-, the. Spanish 
ambassador to Timur, halting here on July G, An old and City- In the sense in which they use the 
word-i.e. in 1404, delivered himself of a somewhat balancing opinion.__2 a new CËËy the 
historical sense -it is by no means a new, but, on the The city of Teheran was very large, but it 
had no walls; and it contrary, an ancient city. In another sense-viz. structurally-it -was a very 
delightful place, well supplied with everything ; but it was was made a new city by Agha 
Mohammed Shah, a century ago, an unhealthy place, according to the natives, and fevers were 
very and still more by his nephew and successor, Fath Ali Shah; and prevalent. Z5 has become a 
yet newer city-so new that the visitors in the first Shah Tahinasp, the second of the Sefavi 
dynasty, seems to half of this century would barely recognise it-during the last twenty years. 
Before I trace the incidents ËËof this twofold have been the first to favour it with a royal 
patronage; but Shah renaissance, I propose to say something of the antique, forgotten, Abbas the. 
Great, having fallen ill there ËË from a surfeit of fruit, but withal not uninteresting Teheran 
of the past. Research can vowed he would never enter the place again. Byhim.the province
and city were placed under the government of a Khan. never be quite wasted upon the origin and 
youth of a gTeat
At this time Teheran was visited by more than one European; capital.
and the. descriptions of the Italian, Pietro della Valle (1618), and of
It has been conjectured that the name Teheran is identical oma -Herbert- (1G27), are so
Teheran the English-man, Sir Th i s with the Tazora that appears in the Theodosian tables as 
near to under curious as to be worthy of reproduction. I quote from a Ang,ient Rhages (Rhey). In 
the tables, however, it is not the Shah
Abbastranslation of the former that appears in ËË Pinkerton's

|PPage_
testimony Median Rliages, but a place of the same name near Yezd, TravelsËË:that is 
spokenËË of; and the identity cannot therefore be sustained.
I shall not attempt to give, as I have done in the case of previous chapters, Teheran is a large 
city, more spacious than Cashan, but not well
peopled, nor containing many houses, the gardens being extremely any bibliography of Teheran, 
for the reason that very nearly every foreign visitor
large,and producing abundance of fruit of various descriptions, of to Persia has stayed in the 
capital and has described his stay. Any reader, therefore, desirous of moreËËample 
instruction may be referred to the large bibliography such excellent quality. that it is sought 
for by all the circtunjacent, which I propose to publish. Teheran, however, has been much less 
rich in historians than any other Persian capital; and the information contained in this I For a 
list of them, vide a note by M. Langl~s, in vol. viii. p. 164 of his edition chapter will, in the 
main, not be found elsewhere. I may add that the popular of Chardin. etymology which explains 
Teheran or Tihran as I the pureËË is false. It is an old Narrative of F-mbassy (Hakluyt 
Society), p. 98. Watson (History of Perea, Persian word which was formerly written with the 
two-dotted t, and sometimes p. 62) must have been unaware of Clavijo when he wrote that Della 
Valle was the
first European to visit Teheran. also Tirun and Tiran.

|PPage_
302 .
country. The Khan ordinarily resides here. All the streets are watered by a number of 
considerable streamlets, which, serpentining in the gardens, contribute not a little to their 
fertility. The streets, moreover, are shaded by beautiful, lofty plane-trees, called in Persia 
chinar; some of them are so extremely thick that it would take from two to three men to clasp 
them round. Excepting these, Teheran possesses nothing, not even a single building, worthy of 
notice,
iMore humorously the English traveller, whose tender susceptibilities appear to have been 
inflamed by the Teheran ladies:
Seated is Tyroan in the midst of a large level or plain. The Houses are of white bricks hardened 
by the Sun. The City has about 3,000 Houses, of which the Duke's and the Buzzar are the 
fairest ; yet neither to be admired. The Market is divided into two ; some part thereof is open 
and other part arched. A Rivolet in two branches streams through the Town, serving withal both 
Grove and Gardens, who for such a favour, return a thankful tribute to the Gardiner. The 
inhabitants are pretty stately, the Women lovely, and both curious in novelties ; but the 
jealousies of the men conflne the temper of the weaker sex ; yet by that little they adventured 
at, one might see vetitis rebus gliscit voluntas.1
Under the later Seffivi kings Teheran sometimes became theËË temporary residence of the 
Court - a palace was built here by Sliah Suleiman; and here Shah Sultan Husein received the 
Turkish Ambassador. Tavernier incidentally notices, but did not apparently see, the town; 
Chardin calls it apetite ville du p(tys. It was taken and pillaged in the Afghan invasion, but is 
mentioned by Hanway (as Tcehiran) in the catalogue of Von Mierop's stages to Meshed in 
1744 .2 It was here that Nadir, on his return from India, convoked a meeting of all the priests 
of religion, with a view to promulgating a new- national faith. Here he blinded his son, Reza 
Kuli Khan, and here that helpless individual was afterwards murdered.3 Kerim Khan Zend added 
to and altered the existing Ark or citadel, but did not often Occupy it. Ali Murad Khan stayed 
there while marching against Mazanderan. With the rise of the Kajar dynasty, at the close
I Sovie YearesËË Travel, 4e. (3ÌÌrd€€ edit.), p. 206. 2 Histarical Account, 4-c., vol. i. pp. 
357-359. ËË Toebirm is a city enclosed -%vith a wall of earth, which bas many round 
turrets, But the whole is much decayed. llere we found provisions in plenty, and the bread 
exceedingly good.ËË J G. A. Olivier, Iroyage, 4,e., vol. v. p. 418 ; vol. vi. p. 47.
TEHERAN
303

|PPage_
of the same century, the first epoch of the citY's political ascendency began. The seat and 
cradle of the Kajar family was at Astrabad; but this was too remote and too far situated to the 
East to suit the Made his expanding ambitions of the eunuch candidate for the capital by throne. 
For some time, while his fortunes were yet inAgha
Moham-secure, and while his sovereignty was practically limited med Shah to Mazanderan, 
Agha Mohammed fixed his residence at Sari ; but, as he turned his eyes and aspirations 
southwards, and the dream of a Pan-Iranian kingdoin became capable of realisation, a more 
accessible capital was required. Accordingly, lie selected Teheran,and its elevation to 
metropolitan rank is cominonlY dated from 1788* It was not till seyen years later that his 
rivals were all removed, and that he found himself firmly seated upon the throne ; but what had 
been perhaps in the first place a choice of necessity remained the selection of prudence. 
Rebellionbad been -effectively stamped out of life in the south. The Afghan-, bad ceased for 
awhile to be hostile or formidable. On the other hand, at Teheran, the successful usurper was 
within easy reach of his own patrimony and tribesmen ;- and he was in a better -position to 
watch the only enemy of whom he had real apprebension-Russia. The same considerations, 
aggravated rather than diminished by the events of the present century, have compelled his 
successors to endorse his judgment; and, whatever may be said against the site, there is very 
small likelihood, as long as Persia escapes dismemberment, of Teheran being dethroned from its 
position.
Agha Mohammed, though lie elevated Teheran to the rank of his capital, either had riot the taste 
or did not reign long Its then enough to confer upon it any of the external distinction extent with 
which his predecessors on the throne had always striven to adorn their seats of governuient. 
Olivier, who was there, in 1797, the year of the king's death, reported the city as being 
little more than two miles in circuit, and as containing a population of only 105,000, 3,000 of 
whom belonged to the court, or army of the Sliah. Fath Ali Shah, however, had more regal ideas. 
Under his rule the city increased in size, importance, and display. In 1807 General Gardanne, 
the French Envoy, found it containing a population of over 50,000 in winter, though all but 
deserted in summer, when the Court was away, and the inhabitants had retired to their yedaks, 
or summer quarters, on the mountains. A very

|PPage_
304
ó
 e length of this fine meidan, which is cobble-paved, is 270 yards, its width 
120. On the longest, i.e. the northern and southern, sidesËË. it is surrounded by low one-
storeyed buildings, where the guns are housed and the men quartered; on the western side is the 
Arsenal, in front of which some twenty-five venerable smooth-bores, 24-pounders, and wholly 
useless, rest upon their ancient carriages. The eastern face is entirely occupied by a fine 
building with an ornamental plaster fagade, which is now tenanted by the Iniperial Bank of 
Persia. In the middle of the square is a great tank, fenced round by an iron railing, with some 
cast-iron statuettes, and with four big guns. planted at the corners and covered with tarpaulins. 
Its most distinctive features, however, are the gateways by which it is entered or left, and 
which are regarded by the Persians as triumphs of modern architectural skill. They -are 
certainly, as the accompanying illustration will show, very imposing and original structures, 
and, with their light arcades and fantastic fronts, present a handsome appearance from a 
distance, though a closer scrutiny of the coarse tile-work with which they are faced is apt to 
destroy the illusion. Of these gates the two principal and most striking are those which lead 
from the two southern angles of the square, opening on to streets which skirt the outer wall of 
the Ark, or citadel, on either side, the entire intervening

|PPage_
308 TEHERAN 309
space being occupied by its courts and buildings. From the southeast corner the Nasirieh Gate 
leads down to the eastern entrance to the palace and to the bazaars. From the south-west corner 
the Dowlet Gate conducts to the Khiaban-i-Almasieh (or Avenue of Diamonds), fro ËË in which 
the western or public entrance to the Ark and palace is gained. Upon this gate, when the Shah is 
in Teheran, floats the royal standard. Two other 9neidans are worthy of notice. One is the 
Meidan-iMashk, a vast open space, over a quarter of a mile in length, which Other is used as a 
Charnp de Mars, or parade-ground, fo~ the rueidans garrison, and where I witnessed a military 
display which I shall afterwards describe. This meidan is a little to the northwest of the Tup 
Meidan, and is reached by a gateway opening out uf the so-called Street of Ambassadors, which 
leads from the northwest angle of the Gun Square. The remaining square, called the Meidan-i-
Shah, is outside the gardens of the Ministry of War, and the more southerly portion of the palace 
enclosure. It contains a large tank in the centre, and a colossal brass gun, known as the Tup-i-
Murvarid, or Cannon of Pearls, which has always been in especially sacred bast, or sanctuary, 
for the fugit ive criminal, a veritable ËËhorns of the altar,ËË in Teheran. Successive 
chroniclers of the capital have given different and inconsistent accounts of this monster cannon, 
some alleging that it was brought by Nadir Shah from Delhi, where it was originally decorated 
with a string of pearls near the muzzle, others that it was cast by him in Persia. Sir R. K. 
Porter says thatËËit was the same gun that Chardin saw in the meidan at Isfahan ; but, as I 
cannot find that Chardin saw or described any particularly big gun there, I am loth to accept this 
explanation. Elsewhere I have read that the gun was cast by Kerim Khan Zend at Shiraz, and that, 
having been kept for some time under cover in an imamzadeh there, it acquired a sacred 
character, which it has retained since its removal to the Kajar capital. Jebangir Khan, the late 
Mij)ister of Fine Arts, informed me, however, that, according to Persian historians, this 
cannon is one of the Portuguese ordnance captured by the allied Persians and British at Ormuz 
in 1622.1 Whatever be the truth, its
I This version has already been given by Mme. Serena (Hommes et Choseg en Perse, p. 54), 
although she proceeds, quite gratuitously, to make Ormuz I a port in the island of Muscat in the 
Persian GulfËË; Muscat being neither in the Persian Gulf, nor an island, nor the site of 
Ormuz.
~ f
semi-sacred character is unimpeachable. An artillery guard is Adtioned hard by, and barren 
women make a pilgrimage hither, and pass beneath the gun, in order to promote the object of 
their ËË- ~sire. The most distinctive feature, however, of this smaller oteidan is the great 
arched gateway leading from it, and used as the

|PPage_
Nakkara- Nakkara-Khaneh (or Drum Tower), whence, every evening, Khaneh at sundown, is 
discoursed ., from prodigious horns, kettledrums, cornets, and fifes, the appalling music which 
is an inalienable
DRUM TOWER AND CANNON OF PEARLS
appurtenance of royalty in Persia, and is always sounded at sunset from some elevated gallery 
or tower in any city blessed with a royal or princely governor. Over two hundred years ago it 
used to disturb the slumbers of Tavernier and Chardin at Isfahan, where it was sounded at sunset 
and at midnight; the truth being, as the former writer sagaciously observed, that I the musick 
would never Charm a curious ear. It is commonly supposed that thiË

Ë practice is a relic of the old fire or sun worship, that luminary being saluted both at its 
rising and setting by respectful strains. Whether this be so or not I cannot say. What is certain 
is that it has for long

|PPage_
310 
TEHERAN 311
been an Oriental attribute of royalty ; and, in a letter from the runnels of water. This delightful 
grove, which, as the result of French traveller, Bernier, written in 1663 from the Court of the 
only twenty yearsËË growth, shows of what the Persian soil under Great Mogul at Delhi, 
where there neither was, nor, so far as we irrigation is capable, conceals the main building of 
the Legation, know, ever had been, fire-worship, I have come across the following as well as 
four other substantial detached houses, accommodating the passage, describing the practice as it 
prevailed there and then, in various secretaries. The principal structure is a low building 
terms which exactly fit the sonorous and portentous discord which occupying three sides of a 
court, and terminating at one end in a is evoked every evening by the band of brazen-lunged 
youths to campanile, or clock-tower, of Byzantine design, in which a large whom I used to listen 
with a sort of horrified fascination at clock tells the time after the English fashion and according 
to the Teheran:- hours of the English day. On one side is the Chancellery; in the
Over the great gate there is a large raised place which is called centre are the reception-rooms 
and Minister's quarters; on the Nagar Kanay, because that is the place where the Trumpets 
are, or other side are the spare rooms. The building opens by a verandah rather the Hoboys and 
Timbals that play together in consort at certain at the back on to a lovely garden, where swans 
float on brimming hours of the day and night. But this is a very odd consort in the ears tanks of 
water and peacocks flash amid the flower-beds. The of an European that is a new comer, not yet 
accustomed to it ; for design was the work of Major Pierson, R.E., of the Indo-European 
sometimes there are ten or twelve of these Hoboys, and as many Timbals Telegraph Department, 
who may be credited with a very successful that sound all at once together; and there is a Hoboy 
which is called result. The coolness and seclusion of the entire enclosure is one Karna, a fathom 
and a half long, and of half a foot aperture below; I as there are Timbals of brass or iron that 
have no less than a fathom of the most agreeable and uncommon features in Teheran. The in 
diameter, whence it is casie to judge what a noise they must needs Turkish Embassy and the 
Legations of several others of the make. Great Powers are in the same street, or near at hand. 
Russia,
Bernier goes on to say that at first he found this royal music liowever, is elsewhere 
accommodated ;_ the residence of her Minister quite insufferable; but that afterwards it was 
very pleasing in the being, as I have pointed out, in the older portion of the town, near night 
time, when it seemed ËËto carry with it something that is the bazaars. In the same quarter as 
the British Legation are grave, majestical, and very melodious.ËË Verily de gustibus non est 
situated tiie establishment and chapel of the American missionaries. dis The Armenian church, 
where British subjects used to be interred,

|PPage_
putandum. The same practice is still kept up by some of the native princes in India. A and which 
contains the tomb of a son of Sir Walter Scott, was near
From the Tup Meidan, as I have indicated, two streets run in the former British Mission in the 
old city.
To a stranger, possibly also to a native, the most interesting a northerly direction towards the 
outer walls. These streets or British avenues- for they are planted with poplars- are regarded 
portion of Teheran is the great quadrilateral, containing the Ark Legation Citadel. and occupying 
a space of probably nearly a
as the crowning glory of modern, being, in fact, the The Ark or nucleus of European, Teheran. 
The more westerly of the two, quarter of a ËËmile square on the southern side of the known to 
the Persians as Khiaban-i-Dowlet, has been sometimes Tup Meidan. Since the demolition of the 
old town there is described as the Boulevard des Ambassadeurs, from the fact nothing in the 
appearance of this enclosure to identify it with that the representatives of several foreign 
Powers have acquired a citadel in the ordinary acceptation of the term ; for, although it 
residences Upon it. Of these, by far the most spacious and is surrounded by mud walls, it is in no 
sense fortified, and is now
merely a vast collection of courts gardens, and buildings, the imposing is the Legation which 
shelters the representative of .Her Britannic Majesty. At the distance of nearly half a mile 
greater part of which appertain to the Doyal Palace. Let me, from the greSt square, a fine 
gateway, upon which Her Majesty's therefore, attempt to give some description of the latter, 
so far as initials are carved in stone, conducts on the left hand into a its somewhat haphazard and 
unmethodical interior arrangements
he building remain in exactly the same large wooded enclosure, where nothing at first is visible 
but a will admit. Parts of t dense growth of trees, interspersed with winding pathways and state 
as they were, when viewed in the opening years of the century

|PPage_
312 
by the successive envoys of the British and Indian Governments. But the major part of the 
enclosure does not now answer to their description and has been so much altered by the reigning 
Shah in the reconstruction of the past twenty years, as to need a fresh historian.
Upon entering by a modest and wholly undistinguished gateway from the Khiaba-n-i-Almasich, 
the visitor finds himself in a small irregular courtyard, planted with trees. From this he The 
Palace is conducted into dnother and larger paved court, in the centre of which is a long raised 
hau7 or tank, the water lapping noiselessly, in the Persian style, over the level brim. On either 
side of this is a paved causeway, beyond which are flower-beds and rows of poplars, planes, and 
piues. The entire upper end of this court is occupied by a handsome building, the centre of 
which, when the heavy curtains that shield it are raised, is open to the public gaze, disclosing 
the Talar or throne room, and the, famous white marble throne, standing upon a dais in the 
centre. Upon this throne on certain public occasions, and particularly at, the festival of No Ruz 
or New Year (March 21), the Shah displays, himself to the people in a fashion not essentially- 
different from that in which Darius and Xerxes appeared in royal state before. their subjects in 
the talars of Persepolis 2,300 years ago.ËË
On either side of the throne room, and opening into it, are~ apartments sumptuously decorated 
in the Persian style with mural Takht-i- ornamentation and oil paintings. In these the 
ministers Marmor and bonoured guests are entertained with coffee and kalians before and during 
the royal lev6es. The Talar itself is a spacious chamber, whose flat ceiling is set with mirror 
panels, and whose walls are embellished with the aineh4wri or mirror work small facets 
ingeniously and artistically fixed in plaster, so as to produce a thousand angles and coruseations, 
in which the Persians are so undeniably clever; and with oil paintings of the various princes of 
the Kajar family. Round the lower part is a dado or wainscoting of alabaster carved in relief,.aud 
adorned with painted flowers and birds. In the centre of the room stands the Takbt-i-.
These open throne-rooms are, however, far older than either Darius or Xerxes, and are one of 
the most ancient accompaniments of Eastern royalty. We read of Solomon in I Kings, Vii. 6, 7, 
that I He made a porch of pillars, and the porch was before them ; and the other pillars and the 
thick beam were before them. Then he made a porch for the throne where be might judge, even 
the porch of judgment!
t
TEHERAN
313
Marmor, or white marble throne of Kerim. Khan Zend, wrought of

|PPage_
marble of Yezd, and brought from Shiraz.ËË This great structure, which does not in the least 
degree resemble a throne according to Western ideas, but might rather be compared to an 
elevated platform surrounded by a pierced marble balustrade, rests upon low twisted pillars 
and upon the shoulders of grotesque figures representing J . ins or divs. Two steps supported by 
recumbent lions lead up to it, and the throne itself consists of a two-fold terrace, upon the back 
part of which, supported by a pearl-embroidered cushion, sits, or rather kneels (this being 
the. Persian substitute for sitting), upon State occasions the King of Kings. In front of the 
throne is a place for a fountain, running water being another of the appurtenances of Eastern 
royalty.2 The roof of the front part of the throne room, where it is open to the garden, is 
sustained by two immense columns with deep spiral flutings, also of Yezd marble, and 
constructed by order of Kerim. Khan for his palace at Shiraz. A passage from the court of the 
Talar leads into another and larger court, where is the main and State entrance into the palace. 
The It was under a threshold, opening out of the arcade Museum between the - two, that -were 
deposited - -by Agha Mohammed Shah the bones of Nadir Shah and Kerim. Khan,3 that lie might 
have the exquisite luxury, as he passed in and out, of trampling upon the dust of his hereditary 
foes. Here are a large doorway, and a broad flight of carpeted steps, leading up between great 
bronzes and porcelain vases to the State apartments. As I mounted them three times during my 
stay at Teheran, and became familiar with the rooms to which they conduct, I -may here 
describe the latter. At the top of the staircase is the Shah's library, a small - room which 
has been neatly fitted, after the
I There is an illustration of it, from a photograph, in Benjamin*s Persia and the Persians, p. 
222, and a superb engraving of the whole Talar in P. Coste's Monuments Modernes de la 
Perse. Some writers have supposed this also to be an Indian throne, and to have belonged to 
Nadir's spoil. Others have declared that it was wrought of Maragha marble. In Kerim 
Khan's day it stood in the tal-aËËr of the palace, that is now the office o ËË f the Indo-
European Telegraph in Shiraz, from whence, along with the fluted columns, it was removed by 
Agba Mohammed Shah to Teheran. 2 The symbolism of this custom is variously interpreted 
either as signifying light, and being, therefore, of good omen, or as typifying the main source of 
wealth in a thirsty land, and being consequently a mark of luxury. ËË Those of Kerim, Khan 
were said to have been after-wards restored to their original resting-place.

|PPage_
314 Pl~,RSIA
European manner, with bookcases behind glass doors, and in which I saw several well-bound 
European books. It is reported to contain many Arabic MSS. of inestimable value. Upon the left 
hand at the top is the entrance to the new Museum, a great hall or gallery, constructed after the. 
return of the Shah from his first visit to Europe in 1873, to contain not only the Royal Regalia, 
but also the vast collection of objets dËËart and curiosities, which the generosity qf foreign 
crowned heads, or his own whims, have enabled him to amass during a reign of over forty years. 
This extraordinary chamber, which with its contents alternately resembles an Aladdin's 
palace, all old curiosity shop, a prince's wardrobe, and a municipal inuseum, consists of a 
long parallelogram, crowned by a series of low domes, with plaster decorations in white, blue, 
and gold, there being a number of deep recesses, terminating in windows along one side; while 
the partition between these recesses, and the remaining walls of the room, are fitted with glass 
cases, in which are displayed, side by side, treasures of priceless value and the most 
unutterable rubbish. The central part of the chamber, which is, in part, tile-paved, contains -a 
number of immense porcelain vases, mostly from Europe, candelabra, lustres, armchairs 
covered with a thin plating of real gold, etc., whilst ~pon tables or under glass cases are 
disposed with some slight effort at arrangement, but in ludicrous juxtaposition, Swiss musical 
boxes, Persian antiquities and specimens, meteorolites, European purchases or presents, and 
heads of game shot by His Majesty.
Perhaps the objects in this bizarre collection that most attract the stranger are the infinity of 
gems, cut, uncut, or set in every Crown variety of fashion, that are seen behind the glass panels. 
jewelB Here are the enamelled and beJewelled arms of the great Sefavi kings, here the swords of 
Timur, Shah Ismail and Agha Mohammed Shah, here the magnificent AbbasËË coat of mail. A 
square~ glass case contains a vast beap of pearls, four or five inches deep, into which one can 
plunge the hand and spill them in caScades and handfuls. Upon a separate stand appears the globe 
of jewels which was constructed out of his loose stones by the reigning Shah, at a cost (exclusive 
of the gems, provided by himself) of 320,0001., and which is looked upon as the artistic chef 
dËËceuvre of his reign, Its alleged valtie, with the stones (75 lbs of pure gold, and 51,366 
gems, weighing 3656-4 grammes) is 947,0001.
TEHERAN
315
It is a little difficult to determinethe respective countries amid the flash of the various stones ; 
nor does the artist appear to have been as good a cartographer as he was a craftsman. However, 
as well as I could discern, the sea is composed of emeralds, England and France

|PPage_
of diamonds, Africa of rubies, India of amethysts, and Persia herself of the national stone-
turquoises.ËË I can imagine the day when some future and less economical sovereign, or 
possibly even some conqueror from the north, shall handle this glittering plaything in a more 
practical spirit, and shall perhaps desire to ascertain by personal experience the worth of the 
constituent elements into which his curiosity may suggest that it should be again resolved. At the 
upper end of the room, beneath glass cases, are a number of royal crowns, dating from the 
Sefavean days to modern times, prominent an-long them being the mighty head piece, pearl-
bedecked, and with flashing jika or aigrette of diamonds in front, which is worn by the King at 
No Ruz, and was so familiar an object upon the bead of Fath Ali Shah, as depicted in the 
illustrations, English and Persian, of the early part of the century. Here, too, is a superb tiara, 
manufactured by order of the present Shah, in Paris. The number of jewelled swords, 
scabbards, epaulettes, and cups, vases, boxes and kalians, is enormous, while in separate 
glasses repose huge, solitary, uncut gem s. At the upper end of the chamber stands a throne of 
modern shape, if not of modern construction, viz., a lofty chair exq-alisitely enamelled and 
completely covered with rubies and emeralds. I shall have something to say presently about the 
history of this beautiful work of art. I was informed that the Shah, when he uses this ball, as he 
not infrequently does, as an audience chamber to the Ministers and Foreign Representatives at 
No Ruz, prefers to stand near the lower end of the hall to occupying the throne itself. Upon the 
walls on the right hand side of the room are displayed a heterogeneous collection of the treasures 
or trifles which the august traveller has brought back from Europe. Here are suspended the 
ribbons and stars of a multitude of orders, including the Garter, and an imposing array of 
ItËËassian decorations. Elsewhere are arrayed gorgeous sets of silver-gilt plate, enamelled 
snuff-boxes, gold and silver I Of the remaining gems, M. Orsolle (Le Cavease et la Perse) says 
that the ruby which marks Demavend was tile last jewel torn from the miserable Shall Rukh by 
the myrmidons of Agha Mohammed Khan; and that the diamond which marks Teheran was found 
upon the body of Ashraf, the last Afghan king, by a Beluchi, who presented it to Shah Tahmasp 
11.

|PPage_
316 .
vases, a case containing photographs of the English Royal Family, dating from the Shah's 
first visit in 1873, specimens of filagree work, and a number of objects in ivory and bone, 
ranging from the most delicate Chinese workmanship to a collection of sixpenny toothbrushes 
(classification, with a vengeance!). From the walls depend a number of mediocre or execrable 
oil paintings, and large panels of glazed tile-work, representing different scenes in the life of 
the present sovereign. The three finest jewels possessed by the Shah are said to be a huge uncut 
ruby, once the property of Aurungzebe, which shimmers at the top of what is called the Kaianian 
crown; a large diamond, set in a ring, which was sent by George IV. as a present to Fath Ali Shah, 
and was said by the gossips to have opened at once the gates of the capital and the heart of the 
monarch; and beyond all the Daria-i-Nur, or Sea of Light, the sister diamond to the Kuh-i-Nur 
(Kohinoor), or Mountain of Light, which is the property of the British Crown. Both jewels are 
said to have descended from Timur to Mohammed Shah, the puppet whom Nadir spared at Delhi, 
but whom he considerately relieved of all his chief valuables, including these diamonds and the 
Peacock Throne. Upon Nadir's death, the Kuh-i-Nur went with Ahmed Shah Durani into 
Afghanistan, and descended to Shah ShIlia, from whom it was taken by Runjit Singh, the Lion of 
the Punjab, whence it passed by conquest into the possession of the English Crown. The Daria-i-
Nur remained in Persia, and has been worn by its successive sovereigns. Fath Ali Shah 
immortalised his own vanity at the same time that he considerably lowered the value of the 
stone, by causing to be scratched upon it his own name.ËË He was in the habit of wearing it in 
one of the 7)azubands or armlets which he bore upon State occasions, between the shoulder and 
elbow; but it is also sometimes worn in a belt, and in other settings. I asked to see this jewel, 
but it was shut up in an iron box that lay upon the seat of the elevated throne : and it appeared 
that in the absence either of the key or of the Grand Vizier, I think the latter, it could not be 
shown.
Such, as well as I can remember them with the assistance of
I I have read in different works that the stone was valued at 200,0001., and also that its value 
was depreciated to the extent of 1,000,0001. by the act of Fath Ali Shah ; statements from 
which it is difficult to strike out a mean of truth. It weighs 186 carats.
TEHERAN
317
my notes, were the chief contents of the Royal Museum.1 In a country that is always bewailing 
its lack of money, and which

|PPage_
cries aloud for the regeneration that might so easily spring from the construction or repair of 
roads, bridges, caravanserais, and other elementary public works, it can excite but one feeling. 
to see all this impotent wealth piled up, secreting beneath a glass case that which should serve to 
populate entire districts and to enrich great communities. How much worse is it when we know 
that the treasures here displayed do not stand alone, but are supplemented by hoards of specie 
and bullion stored iii the vaults below, which the lowest estimate values at three millions 
sterling and the highest I will not say at what figure. Patriotism need not be so very difficult an 
attribute in royalty, when it is able to stop short of the treasure-house and the money-bags.
Below the, Museum are a number of vaults, known as the Chillee Khaneh, or Porcelain Room, 
where vast quantities of Sovi-es, Dresden, old Worcester, and other porcelain are stored, the 
gifts of European sovereigns to the present and preceding kings. There is also an Aslaheh-
Khaneli, or Armoury, containing curious arms, and the Shah's rifles and fowling-pieces ; 
and a gallery wherein is hung a large collection of the paintings of the late esteemed artist,-
Abu] Hasan Khan Ghaffari, styled the Sani-el-Mulk. These last-named apartments I did not see.
On the other side- of the top of the staircase is a room, sometimes called the Council Chamber, 
in which I was admitted to a The private audience by the Shah. It was empty on all the alleged 
Peacock occasions when I saw it, save for an object standing iii Throne the corner by the 
window. This was the Takht-i-Taous or celebrated so-called Peacock Throne, said to have, been 
brought, by Nadir Shah from India in 1739-40, and identified by a long consensus of writers (I 
know of no divergent opinion) with the famous Peacock Throne that stood ËËin the Diwan-i-
Khas at Delhi (where its site is still shown) and that was the main ornament of the glittering 
court of the Great Mogul. From a study ofËË all the extant authorities bearing upon the 
question, I had come to the conclusion that this claim could not be substantiated, and that the 
throne at Teheran, exquisite work of art though it be,
I Sir 11. Jones, in 1810, estimated the value of the Persian Crown Jewels at 15,000,0001. 
(Mission to Per8ia, vol. i. p. 384) ; Lord Pollington, in 1865, at 40,000,0001-
50,000,0001. ! (HaY.Round the World, pp. 229-232).

|PPage_
i
318 TEHERAN 319
Was a fraudulent pretender to the honour of having supported the majesty of the Great Mogul. 
Let me deploy the chain of reasoning by which I had arrived at this conclusion. The standard 
reference to the original Peacock Throne at Delhi is contained in the wellknown description of 
the French jeweller Tavernier, who visited that capital in the year 1665 in the splendid reign 
of Aurungzebe. He wrote as follows:
The largest throne, which is set up in the hall of the first court, is in form like one of our field 
beds, six feet long and four broad. The cushion at the base is round like a bolster; the cushions 
on the sides are flat. The under part of the canopy is all embroidered with pearls and diamonds, 
with a fringe of pearls round about. Upon the top of the canopy, which is made like an arch with 
four panes, stands a peacock with his tail spread, consisting all of saphirs and other proper 
coloured stones. The body is of beaten gold enchasËËd with several jewels, and a great ruby 
upon his breast, at which hangs a pearl that weighs fifty carats. On each side of the peacock stand 
two nosegays as high as the bird, consisting of several sorts of flowers, all of beaten gold 
enamelled. When the king seats himself upon the throne there is a transparent jewel with a 
diamond appendant -of eighty or ninety carats, encompassËËd with rubies and emeralds, so 
bung that it is always in his eye. The twelve pillars also that uphold the canopy are set with 
rows of fair pearl, round, and of an excellent water, that weigh from six to ten carats apiece. 
This is the famous throne which Tamerlane began and Cbm Jeban finishËËd, which is really 
reported to have cost 160 million and 500,000 livres of our money.ËË
ó
 racy. He said, ËË On each side of the back are two square pillars, on which are 
perched birds-probably intended for peacocksstudded with precious stories of every 
description, and holding each a ruby in their beaksËË (First Journey, p. 1.9 1). Now, no one 
who really inspected them could possibly mistake the birds for peacocks; nor are there (now at 
any rate) rubies in their beaks. 2 ~Yistory of Persia, vol. ii. p. 37.
TEHERAN

|PPage_
321
jewels. This left two Peacock- Thrones to be demolished between his death and the end of the, 
last Celltury, a catastrophe which in the anarchy and violence of those times would have. been in 
itself no unlikely occurrence; but it left the Taklit-i-Taous unexplained, as under no 
circumstances could the latter be described as a duplicate of Tavernier's original. Now, 
however, I came across a passage in Fraser's I KhorasanËË in which lie mentions that an 
old Kurd told him in 1822, that ËËwhen Nadir Shah was murdered and his camp plundered, 
the Peacock Throne and the Tent of Pearls fell into our hands, hud were torn in pieces and 
divided on the spot.ËË Any 1\-urd might certainly have been trusted to handle such an object 
as the Peacock Throne in the unceremonious manner here described, and, assuming the veracit 
of this par
0 y ticular Kurd, I witnessed with some delight the disappearance of the real Peacock Throne, or 
one of the two, from the scene.
A phrase in -Morier's account had now set me thinking that the Takht-i-Taous at Teheran 
must be a modern structure after Deposition all. In the saine passage which I have quoted in a of 
the footnote, he adds:It (i.e. the throne) is said to have usurper _ cost 100,000 to7nansËË 
(equivalent at the beginning of the century to about 100,0001.); 1 herein clearly implying 
that an account or a tradition of its cost prevailed at Teheran, which was far more likely to be 
the case with a new than with an old fabric, and which was extremely unlikely to have been the 
case with an object carried off in plunder from a remote country seventy years before. At this 
stage, accordingly, I referred my doubts for solution to Teheran itself, and after an interval of 
some weeks was interested and (I may confess) rejoiced to hear, on the authority of the Grand 
Vizier and the former Minister for Foreign Affairs,2 that, as I suspected, the Takht-i-Taous is 
not an Indian throne at all. It was constructed by Mohammed Husein Khan, Sadr (or High Priest) 
of Isfahan, for Fath Ali Shah when the latter married an Isfahani young lady, whose popular 
sobriquet, for some unexplained reason, was Taous Khanum or the Peacock Lady. The King is 
further said to have been so much delighted with the throne, that it was made a remarkably 
prominent feature in the
I understand, however, that it is now valued at nearly 200,0001.
When I was in Teheran I had in vain asked the same questions of tile custodian of the treasury, 
and of every Persian official whomËËI met, but without eliciting any satisfactory response.

|PPage_
322
ó
 by J. P. Morier (&eond Journey, p. 
387), representing the entry of the Shah into Teheran in 1815. Dr. Fryer, in 1676, described 
their costume thus: ËË The Shotters are the only men who wear Plumes of Feathers in their 
Turbats, small Bells about their Wastes, ËËTruncheons in their Hands, Horse-Cloaths over 
their Shoulders, richly Embroidered on Scarlet, Packthread Shoes on their Feet, and close 
Jerkins with Breeches below their KneesËË (Travels in Persia, p. 232). In the Sefavean 
days, however, the shatirg were much more than ornamental royal lacqueys. They were 
members of a guild in which no one could graduate as a master skatir
TEHERAN
333

|PPage_
ó
 rag and desolation, with here and there a village lost
0 r3 on the bare mountain-side.
I now pass to the environs of Teheran. on the south, and shall conclude this chapter with some 
brief notes about the sole localities Southern that there invite attention-viz. the shrine of Shah 
Abdul environs Azim, the remains of Rhey, or Rhages, and the ruins of Veram.in. A Persian 
city-much more a Persian capital-is ill off that c annot boast of some -noted iinamzadeh, or 
saint's tomb (literally, descendant of an Imam), to serve as an object of. pilgrimage and 
magnet of attraction. . Teheran is thus endowed in respect of the mausoleum and sanctuary of 
Shah Abdul Azim. Reposing beneath a golden-plated dome, whose scintillations I had seen from 
afar while riding towards the city, the remains of this holy individual are said to attract an 
annual visitatioia of 300,000 persons. I find that most writers discreetly veil their ignorance 
of the identity of the saint by describing him as I a holy Mussulman, whose shkine is much 
frequented by the pious Teheranis.ËË It appears, however, that long before the advent of Islani 
this bad been a sacred spot, as the sepulchre of a lady of great sanctity, in which connection it 
may be noted that the shrine is still largely patronised by women. Here, after the Mussulman 
Journal of the R.G.S. vol. viii. p. 109; by R. T. Tbomson and Lord S. Kerr, in 1858, in 
Proveedbigi of the R. G.S. vol. iii. p. 2: by R. G. Watson, in ibid. vol. vi. p. 103; and by E. Stack, 
Six JfoatAs in Persia, vol. ii. cap. vii. For further information, vide a learned lecture by Dr. 
Tietzo, , Vulcan Demavend,ËË in the Verhandlungea der Gesellsehat fiar Brdkunde zu Berlin, 
1878 ; and Frh. v. Carl Rosenburg, , The Lar Valley and DemavendËË in.31itthell. der K. Und 
K. 6eogr. Gesell. Men, 1876, pp. 113-112. Compare Sir W. Ouseley, Travels, vol. iii. pp. 
328-334; wid De Filippi, Vietygia bt Persia, p. 267.

|PPage_
346 
conquest, was interred Imamzadeh Harnza, the son of the seventh Imam, Musa el Kazim; and 
here, flying from the Khalif Mutawakkel. came a holv personage named Abul Kassem Abdul Azim 
who
ENTRANCE TO MOSQUE OF SHAIT ABDUL AZIM
lived in concealment at Rhey till his death in about 861. A.D.ËË Subsequently his fame 
obscured that of his more illustrious pre
I This is the account given by the Persian Kitab-i-Majlisi, quoting Sheikh Najasbi, quoting 
Barki.
TEHERAN
347
decessor. Successive sovereigns, particularly those of-the reigning dynasty, have extended and 
beautified the cluster of buildings raised above his grave, the ever-swelling popularity of 
which has caused a considerable village to spring up around the hallowed site. The mosque is 
situated in the plain, about six miles to the soutli-south-east of the capital, just beyond the 
ruins of Rhey., and at the extremity of the mountain-spur that encloses the Teheran plain on the 
south-east. A narrow-gauge line of rails-the only railroad in working order in Persia-runs 
from a station near the southern gate of the city to the sbrine, which is also approached by a 
tolerable cart-road. Of the railway I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. At a short distance 
from the terminus-for the line goes no farther-we come to the portal of a covered and crowded 
bazaar, leading down to the main gateway of the mosque. But the warning of a chain stretched 
across the entrance teaches us that this bazaar is I)ast, or sanctuary; and, where the 
AlohamDiedan criminal of the deepest dye can enter and abide with impunity, the Christian 
visitor must pass aside. By skirting the bazaar it is possible, however, to arrive at a side court 
of the mosque, adjoining the main quadrangle with the minarets and the golden dome, and into 
this no one seemed to object.to our entering. To any but a Mussulman visitor there is nothing to 
be seen except the crowd. Far more interesting than the sanctuary or the worshippers of the 
saint are the famous, but fast-disappearing, ruins to whicE it ]Ruins of stands in such close 
pro-~_imity. I shall not here discuss ]RIley the question whether the remains still visible at 
Rhey are those of the famous Rhages or -not. That they are those of the Arabian Rhey there can 
be very little doubt, but whether the latter occupied preciselyËËthe same site as the Parthian 
and the Achoemenian Rhages is perhaps more open to question. Sir H. Rawlinson is, I believe, 
inclined to identify the latter with certain of the ruins in the neighbourbood of Veramin ; -nor 
is it out of

|PPage_
keeping with the traditions of most Oriental cities of any great size that they should at different 
epochs of their lifetime have occupied different sites. Leaving the vexed question, however, to 
the savants, I shall here, in narrating the history of Rhages, or Rhey, assume, the identity of 
the two names. First comes the mythical period, starting from a legendary foundation by the 
patriarch Seth, and illuinined. by other great

|PPage_
0 348 
TE H Ell AN
349
traditional names. This we may dismiss. III the Vendidad, how- Beg, and one of the capitals of Alp 
Arslan, the Great Lion.ËË In the ever, occur the names of Raulia and Varena among the stations 
in
n i tenth centurv El Tstakhri had declared it to be the most flourishing Ancient the. wanderings 
of the Aryans, which have an undeniable city in the iast after Baghdad, and had eulogised the 
hospitality and 1,11ages, 2 but in his discriminating praise we may
resemblance to Rbages and Veraiiiiii. Next comes what politeness of its people.; may be termed 
the nebulous period, of which little definite is find a sufficient corrective of the arrooant 
boastin-s to which I known, but echoes of which, loud though uncertain, have echoed have 
previously referred. Now fell the twofold catastrophe which, down the galleries of time. The 
Rhaves of this period was con- throughout the East, wherever of population, of pride, or of 
opulence temporary with Babylon and Nineveh, and was reported to be great examples were to 
be found, is associated with the names of a great city containinc, over a million souls. This was 
the Rages Jenghiz Khan and Timur. The troops of the former took the
7 to which the Tobias of the Apocrypha set forth from Nineveh, city by storm in A.D. 1221, on 
which awful day, says a local hisguided by an angel in disguise, to recover the ten talents 
deposited torian, ( 700,000 respectable personsËË were slain. In the next with Gabael by his 
father.ËË This, too, is supposed to have been century the Great Tartar completed the work of 
destruction - and the Raoan of Judith,2 where Niab-Lichodonosor smote Arphaxad in Don Ruy di 
Clavijo, passing in 1404, found it ËË a great city, all in the, mountains. It is mentioned in the 
Behistun inscription as the ruins; but there appeared towers and mosques; and the name of place 
where the troops of Darius son of Ilystaspes captured the rebel the place was Xaliarihrey (i.e. 
Shalir-i-Rhey).3 The, town, however, Alede Phraortes. Hither too came Alexander, in pursuit 
of Darius, revived sufficiently to become one of the seats of government of on the eleventh day of 
his inarch from Eebataiia (Hamadan). The Timur's younger son Shah Rukh - and here his 
grandson, the city is said to have been rebuilt by Seleucus Nicator, and in the nerveless Khalil 
Sultan, who bartered an empire for the love ot succeedin g century to have been inade his capital 
by Aslik, or the fascinating Shad-el-Mulk (Delight of the Kingdom), lived a Arsaces, the 
founder of the Parthian empire, about B.C. 250. Finally fitful career-of romance, and died. 
From the death of Shah Rukh comes the third, or historical, period, dating from the. Arab 
conquest, the final decline of Rhey may be traced; and succeeding centuries when, if we are to 
believe one tithe of what Arab and Persian Ihave witnessed the steady decay and obliteration of 
its remains, histories have related, it was a most phenomenal place. One such until they have 
reached the sorrowful condition in which they may chronicler, a native of Rhey himself, fired 
by a patriotism which il now be observed. exulted in the lordly manipulation of figures, has left 
on record The fullest and most accurate account of the existing ruins of that the city contained 
96 quarters, each with 46 wards, each with Rhey is to be found in the pages of Ker Porter,4 
accompanied by a 40,000 dwelling-liouses and 1,000 mosques, and in each mosque careful 
plan. Some of the. walls and towers traced by 1,000 lamps of gold and silver, the total 
population amounting to Its ruins him cannot now be so

|PPage_
clearly defined, the lapse of time, 8,000,396 persons. BY other writers it was termed the First 
of ~he advent of the railway, and the unexhausted inclination of the Cities, the Spouse of the 
World, the Market of the Universe. Of Teheranis, when they are in want of bricks to build a 
house, to get more certain knowledge are the facts that it was the birthplace and them from Rhey 
for nothing, having combined to still further reduce one of the favourite residences of the 
renowned Harun-er-Rashid; the great heaps of d6bris which mark the site. Porter traced the 
that it was captured by Malimud of (1hazin from the Buyah remainsof a strong citadel on a 
projecting rocky ridge above the dynasty III A.D. 1027; thatit became one of thetwo great cities
I Rhey was one of the places whose surrender was coolly demanded of Alp of the Seljuk 
sovereigns, the residence and the sepulchre of Togrul
Arslan by the Roman Emperor Romanus Diogenes before he would consent to
T)bit, i. 14, ix. 5. parley with the Seljuk sovereign. The latter's reply was the vigorous 
campaign
Judith, i. 5, ËËKing Nabuebodonosor made way with KiDg Arphaxad in the which resulted in 
the capture of the vainglorious Coesar. great plain, which is the plain in the borders of Ragan; 
ËË and ibid. v. 15, ËËIle 2 Oriental GeogralMy, p. 176. took also Arpbaxad in the mountains 
of Ragan.ËË It has been conjectured, if the Narrative of Finbassy (HakluyL Soc.), p. 99. book 
of Judith is to be regarded as historical, that this refers to the campaign of Travels, vol. L pp. 
358-364. Compare also Sir W. Ouseley, Travels, vol. iii. Darius against Pbraortes.
pp. 174-199.

|PPage_
360
plain. This was, no doubt, the arx, or acropolis, and its outline can still be satisfactorily 
determined. Below this was a lower fortified enceinte, or citadel; and encircling this, upon the 
plain, was a vast space surrounded by fortified walls, with its entrances masked by three great 
square towers, the whole forming a triangle with the arx as its apex. Such, briefly stated, 
appears to have been the form of the fortified part of ancient Rhey. At present the line of walls 
has resolved itself into prodigious mounds of broken brick and clay, from which coins have, 
constantly been recovered, and to which visitors to Teheran are in the habit, of going out with a 
spade or shovel for an afternoon's private excavation. They seldom return without some 
fragment of exquisite tile-work, still gleaming with that flame-like iridescence which is a 
perished secret of the past, but which is indescribably beautiful even upon the minute chips and 
splinters that are, as a rule, the sole reward of the spade. I am not aware that any scientific or 
systematic excavation has ever taken place in the mounds of Rhey, and it is one of the tasks 
which I should consequently recommend to the labours of arebmologists. There are, however, 
other and more substantial relies of the ancient city. The most conspicuous of these is a great 
circular Tower of tower, locally known as the Nakkara-Klianeh (or DrumYezid tower) of Yezid, 
which too ardent writers, with no apparent justification, have identified with the sepulchre of 
Togrul Beg, and with the mausoleum of the lovers Khalil Sultan and Shad-el-Alulk. It is a great 
fabric, built of brick, entirely hollow inside, and roofless, from sixty to seventy feet in height 
and one hundred and twenty feet in exterior circumference, the outer surface being broken into 
a scries of projecting angles, similar to the towers which I have previously noticed at Jo *an 
and Bostam. Around
ri the summit is, or, rather, was, a cornice decorated with a Kufic inscription. This structure 
has unfortunately been subjected in the last few years to a restoration so complete that it now 
presents the appearance of a brand-new fabric. The surrounding ground has been converted into 
a garden, with tanks and trees, and a stairway, constructed in the wall, leads to the summit. 
From this point some idea may be gained of the outline of the ancient city. At a little distance to 
the east, and at the foot of the mountain, stands a second ruined tower with Kufic cincture, of 
which, as it has not been restored, I present a photograph. Above this are the remains of a stone 
citadel, on the rock.
ó
  
from Meshed, and willow charcoal locally procured. A certain amount of felt carpets are also 
made, compounded of a mixture of camel's hair, goat's hair, and sheep's wool, beaten 
together into a solid mass. I The abatement of Turkoman ravages has resulted in the bringing 
under cultivation of a much larger area than heretofore Peasant in the province of Astrabad. The 
soil is so extraordinarily life productive that emigrants from a great distance, even from 
Afghanistan, come and settle here. The climate is gentle; fuel is abundant; there is no lack of 
water; and the land has merely to be scratched in order to ËËproduce a manifold return. 
Wheat, barley, and rice are the chief crops; and the rent of land under grain cultivation is only 
about 8s. an acre. Partition of property in equal moieties between the male and female members 
of the family is here the law of I anded inheritance; and accordingly, the several properties, not 
large at the commencement, have shrunk into narrow plots, some fields of six acres having not 
less than nine partner landlords. I This state of things,ËË as Colonel Lovett said in his 
Consular Report, I tends not only to impoverish the country, but is a fruitful source of the 
indolence and apathy that characterise the inhabitants of this province, and also accounts for the 
rarity of handicraftsmen.ËË Many of the villages encountered in the forest or in the open 
clearings are curious places, surrounded by impenetrable bramble hedges - and the homesteads 
of the peasants, I constructed of split poles, wattle, and mud dabbing,ËË thatched or tiled, and 
elevated above the ground, suggest

|PPage_
360
__1
9 
reminiscences of countries very far removed from Persia. Rice is the staple of every-day 
consumption, and an adult male is said to consume ten ounces at breakfast, twenty-two ounces at 
lunch, and twenty-two ounces at supper; which, on the whole, is not a bad performance. From 
the Astrabad province and city, which have merited a somewhat minute particularisation, I turn 
to the adjoining Maritime provinces of Alazanderan and Gilan. And here I sliall provinces first 
give an account of those natural features and products which they share in common, before 
turning to individual cities or sites. I have already pointed out that these provinces consist of a 
strip of country rising from the sfiores of the Caspian, itself eighty-five feet below the sea 
level, to the summits of the Elburz, possessing a mean elevation of 12,000 to 13,000 feet. It 
may readily, therefore, be conjectured that a region, however narrow, that embraces so many 
zones of climatic influence, will not admit of a single classification. It should rather be divided 
into four belts or sections, which may be thus distinguished and described. First comes the 
maritime edge of these provinces, where they are lapped by the waves of the Caspian. And here 
we are at once 1. Sea-coast confronted with a phenomenon of remarkable but uniform
occurrence, allusion to which has been made in an earlier chapter. The wash of the surf and the 
violence of the prevalent north and north-western winds oil the Caspian have combined to pile 
up along this stretch of sbore a long chain of sandhills, sometimes from twenty to thirty fact in 
height, and from 200 yards to a quarter of a mile in width. On the inner side of these sandhills 
the rivers descending from the mountains, surcharged with alluvial deposit, have, in their 
inability to force a way to the sea, outspread themselves in low morasses and lagoons, where the 
waters chafe idly to and fro, or lie stagnant, a nursery of humid and poisonous exhalations. In 
cases where the current has with difficulty cleared a way for itself to the sea, the incoming 
resistance of the surf creates an outer bar, which renders the lake useless for purposes of 
navigation. These murdabs, or dead waters, succeed each other along this entire fringe of coast, 
the most notable ex amples being the lagoons of Enzeli at the western, and of Astrabad at the 
eastern extremity, between which occur the cognate murdabs of Lengarud and Meshed-i-Ser, 
The inner banks of these
THE NORTHERN PROVINCES
361

|PPage_
backwaters are overgrown with a dense jungle of alders, ashes, planes, poplars, willows, and 
such timber as loves a saturated soil. nirough this jungle the rivers and strearns come down 
from the mountains, furrowing a bed that is alternately a swamp, a torrent, or a quicksand, and 
in the rainy season spreading themselves out into sluggish morasses. Pestilential vapours rise 
from the rotting vegetable matter; every manner of reptile infests the swamps, and a cloud of 
mosquitoes and insects spins in the air. From the very brink of these maritime lagoons the 
jungle stretches inland to the mountain base, which is sometimes at
a distance only of two miles, at others of twenty. 2 , Jungle and Through the dense undergrowth 
the stranger picks his arable ay with the aid of a guide, by intricate pathways
W, known to the villagers only. And yet in the heart of this malarial forest clusters of cottages 
are bidden away beneath the trees; and every now and then occur considerable clearings devoted 
to the cultivation of sugar, cotton, or rice. No European could live for long in these damp low 
levels, where there is no elasticity in the air, and an ever-present sense of suffocation; but 
their native population is sedentary, and though liable to rheumatism, ague, dropsy, 
ophthalmia, and other eye diseases, does not appear to be liereditarily stunted or weak. What the 
acclimatised Mazanderaiii or Gilani, however, can stand, is perilous even to other Persians. 
There used to be a proverb which, parodying a wellknown Italian saying, might be translated: 
Vedi Gilan e Mori; and over two hundred years ago we find Tavernier and Cbardin recording that 
ËËThe air is so unwholsom. that the People cry of him that is sent to Command here, Has he 
robbËËd, stolen, or murderËËd, that the King s6nds him to Guilan ?ËË Fraser, after 
penetrating for a second time, in 1834, from end to end of this maritime belt, could pass no 
more lenient verdict upon it than this:
Bengal in the rains, Demerara in the wet season, Bombay in the monsoon-these were the 
recollections that suggested themselves to my mind; and yet -1 think Mazanderan far more 
unpleasant than either.ËË
From the marshes and jungles of th,e plain, however, we pass to a region of surpassing beauty 
and splendour. The skirts of the Elburz descend in greht wooded slopes and buttresses towards 
the sea; and between their spurs lie the most romantic glens and ravines. It is difficult to 
count,.much less to classify, the
I A Winter's Journey, vol. ii. p. 464.

|PPage_
362 THE NORTHERN PROVINCES 363
immense variety of forest timber that clothes these spurs and valleysthe silk spun, that first 
brought Persia within the range of Eurowith its shaggy mantle. The trees are mostly deciduous; 
and therepean commerce, and that made Gilan the most famous to foreigners 3. Forest have been 
reported by different travellers, the oak, among Persian provinces. Well might Sir Anthony 
Sherley, the belt elm, plane, maple, ash, lime, box, walnut, beech, juniper,adventurous 
English knight-errant who entered the service of yew. Wild vines wreathe the tree-stems and 
clamber among the Shah Abbas in 1600, write of it as follows:branches. Wild hops, wild figs, 
plums, pears, and apples abound. Gheylan is a country cut off from Persia with great 
mountaynes Wild strawberries are met with everywhere; and while honeysuckle, hard to passe, 
full of woods (which Persia wanteth, being here and wild briar, and roses deck the 
undergrowth, in which are seen there onely sprinkled with hils, and very penurious of fuell, 
onely laurels, hawthorn, and box, the forest floor is carpeted in spring their gardens give them 
wood to burne, and those hils, where are time with primroses, violets, and other sylvan 
flowers. It will be some faggots of Pistachios, of which they are well replenished) ; beobserved 
that this flora is in no sense tropical, but is such as tweene those hils there are certaine 
breaches rather than valleyes, might be encountered in any southerly temperate zone. The 
which, in the spring when the snow dissolveth, and the great abuncomparison, therefore, with 
the East or West Indies, which is dance of raine falleth, are full of torrents. The Caspian Sea 
includeth naturally suggested by the climate, is in reality a faulty one. The this countrey on the 
east, betweene which and the hils is a continuing
valley, so abounding in silke, in rice, and in corne, and so infinitely vegetation is rather that of 
Southern Europe, to which special peopled that Nature seemeth to contend with the people's 
industry, atmospheric conditions, presently to be explained, have superadded I
the one in sowing of men, the other in cultivating the ]and ; in which a humidity rarely met with 
out of the tropics. Wild animals you shall see no piece of ground which is not fitted to one use or 
abound in this region, just as they do in the low-lying jungle other; these hils also are so 
fruitfull of herbage, shadowed by the trees, as and on the.greater altitudes. Tigers of great size 
are common, they show, turned towards the sea, that they are ever full of cattell, which and 
play havoc with the cattle, though they rarely attack a human yieldeth commoditie to the 
countrey by furnishing divers other parts.ËË being. Leopards, wolves, bears, wild boar, 
jackals, lynxes, different Finally, above the wooded zone, rise the naked heights of the varieties 
of deer, wild sheep and wild goats, are among the larger mountains, covered with a scanty 
pasture, frequently veiled in mist, game, and in the Turkoman desert wild donkeys and gazelles; 
4. Bare and with snow-streaks rarely absent, from their summits. pheasan ts and woodcock 
among the smal ler ; whilst in the morasses mountains Thus from the steaming vapour bath by 
the, sea's edge to and on the lagoons, as 1 have previously indicated in speaking of the eternal 
frost and ice of Demavend, every gradation of climate Resht, are to be found swarms of wild 
fowl, duck, and suipe. and atmosphere may be encountered,

|PPage_
alternately enervating the
It is in this third belt, and principally on its lower slopes, that system and filling it with brisk 
vitality. In the upper ranges, occur the towns and largest centres of population. Hidden, one 
tremendous kotals or rock-passes are met with, as stiff and neckTowns and may literally say 
buried, amid the trees, they are entered breaking as any in Persia. In the open places of the 
forest zone cultiva- by the traveller almost before he is aware that he has and on the slopes of 
the mountains above are the yeilaks, or summer tion - left the forest. It is difficult for him to 
say whether he quarters, to which all the richer folk retire from the plains and lowis in a 
village or in a great town, so overtopped and submerged lands in the heat, and to which the nom 
ad villagers who are depenis everything with the foliage, not merely of natural plantation,dent 
upon herds and flocks, drive their cattle for summer pasture. but of orchards and gardens rich 
in every variety of fruit. I haveA very large proportion of the population is, therefore, 
migratory already mentioned the wild fruits that grow unasked in the woodedin character; and 
with them are mingled other wandering tribes, depths. In cultivated ground may be produced 
oranges, lemons,Populmtion who have become village-settlers, but whom the summer citrons, 
pomegranates, peaches, melons, medlars, quinces, andheats tempt to wander again; whilst in 
Gilan. bands of olives. In fact, it would be difficult in temperate regions to name gipsies are not 
rare. Of the two provinces, Gilan is said to be a tract more favoured by Nature for purposes of 
production. It isthe damper, and its people less vigorous and brave ; but I cannot in country of 
this character that, the silkworm was cultivated, andI PurebasËËPilgrivig, vol. ii. lib. ix. 
cap. 2.

|PPage_
364
ó
  it is impossible to determine. Shut off by the 
mountains from the rest of Persia, and differing therefrom in climate, character, and interests, 
the Caspian proHistory vinces have necessarily played a somewhat independent
part in history. The imagination that find's both its stimulus and satisfaction in the 
legendary period of a nation's life, not unnaturally located the heroes of Persian myth in the 
sublime uplands. There they fought their battles and triumphed, the very beasts of the forest 
taking their side in the conflict ; there Rustam vanquished the Div Sefid, or White Demon; an 
inferior order of men, predestined to a just servitude, inhabited the maleficent regions below. 
The part played by the;se provinces in classical

|PPage_
372 THE NORTHERN PROVINCES 373
history, and in the campaigns of Alexander, -may be traced by reference to the title 
HyrËËcania in a Classical dictionary. In the Christian Era they appear only at fitful epochs 
upon the public stage. During the Sassanian period and the first centuries of Islam, Mazanderan 
f6rmed part of Tapuristan ., the modern Taberistan. About the year 900 A.D. Alazanderan was 
given by the Khalif TATutadhid (or iMutazzid) to Ismail Samani, the founder of the Samanid 
dynasty of North Persia and Bokhara, as a reward for his services in conquering the rebellious 
Amr bin Leith, the brother and successor of Yakub bin Leith, already mentioned in the chapter 
on Seistan. In the fourteenth century we find an independent k9eyid dynasty ruling In 
Alazanderan. When Anthony Jenkinson and his fellow pioneers opened the British Caspian trade 
with Persia in the middle of the. sixteenth century, they speak of a king of Gilan, who was only 
in nominal dependence -upon the Sefavi Shahs. This state of balting siË"Ëthjection developed 
into actual rebellion in the reign of Shah Abbas, who, in 1593, ordered a general massacre in 
Gilan. Mazanderaii, however, as his mother's birthplace, was a special favourite with 
Abbas, Here he built a series of magnificent palaces, whose wasting ruins I shall presently 
describe;.here, in sight of the Caspian and in a retreat where no enemy could either follow or 
disturb him, he loved, when not at Isfahan, to reside.- So anxious was he to raise the maritime 
border to a higher level of prosperity and cultivation, that here, as elsewhere, he pursued his 
favourite policy of colonisation on a gigantic scale; transplanting 30,000 families of Christians 
from the Turkish border in order at one and the same tirne to depopulate the regions which were 
yearly ravaged by the Ottomans, and to apply a fresh and vigorous industry to the most neglected 
part of his dominions. Chardin gives the following quaint description of the aptitudes of the 
country for the novel immigrants:
It is sayd to be a perfect right country for the Christians ; it abounds with wine and hog's 
flesh, two things which they mightily like ; they love to go to sea, and they will traffick with 
their brothers, the Muscovites, by the Caspian Sea.ËË
Abbas, however, bad failed to reckon with the Mazanderani climate, which quarrelled as fatally 
with the new comers as it did with the worthy English ambassador, Sir Dodmore Cotton; for, as
I Travels (edit. Lloyd), vol. ii. pp. 8-11.
Chardin goes on to relate, ËËThe malignity of the air was so cross to his designs and 
projectsËË, that, about 1630, the 30,000 Christian families were reduced to 400.ËË The 
Italian Pietro della Valle, who visited the Court of Shah Abbas in Mazanderan, was very much 
smitten with the ladies of that province. ËËThe women,ËË be wrote, 4 were in my eyes 
perfectly beautiful; and I had full opportunity

|PPage_
of judging, as, unlike other Mohammedans, they never cover the face, but converse freely with 
man. In addition, they are affable and exceedingly obliging.ËË I have previously spoken of the 
Cossack descent upon kazanderan that occurred in the year 1668. Fifty years later the Russian 
Russians made their first determined attempt, in the in-vasion closing years of Peter the 
Great's reign, to occupy the southern shores of the Caspian. Such conflicting versions of this 
episode have found their way into books about Persia, ËËthat I will briefly relate, so far as 
can be ascertained, what actually occurred. The best authorities are Jonas Hanway, who was in 
the country within a few year-s of the event; G. Forster, the first overland traveller from India 
to England, sixty years later; Captain P.- H. Bruce, an Englishman serving in Peter the 
Great's-army during the first Persian Campaign; Dorn's ËËCaspiaËË (in Russian) 
and a work by AT. Fonton entitled I La Russie dans IËËAsio Mineure.ËË From a collation of 
these several sources we may reconstruct the narrative of events as follows. In 1722, Peter 
sent an ambassador to the Persian Court at Isfahan to demand redress for seriousËË damage 
done to the property of Russian merchants by the Lesghians, then in constant revolt against 
Persia, in the town of Shemakhi. The envoyËË arriving at the capital, found that Shah Sultan 
Husein had been deposed, and that Mahmud, the Afghan usurper, was on the throne. The latter 
replied that he could not accept the responsibility, and that the Czar had better safeguard his 
own trade. Peter, who was never slow at accepting a hint, at once assembled an army of 30,000 
veterans at Astrakhan, embarked in July 1722, and sailed against Derbend, which yielded to his 
arms. He was proceeding to advanceËËupon Baku and Shemakhi, when he was met by the 
Ottoman ambassador with the threat that, unless be withdrew (the Turks also laying claim to the 
entire Caucasus), he would find a Turkish as well as a Persian war upon his hands. He then 
retired for the winter to Astrakhan, leaving a garrison at Derbend and a fort on a river further 
south, which was presently attacked by the Afghans

|PPage_
374 
and destroyed. In the. course of the winter, the, Persian chief of Gilan sent an agent to Astrakhan 
offering to surrender Reslit, which -was then besieged by the Afghans, tc Russia. Ovejoyed at 
this windfall, Peter despatched anotlier ariny early in 1723. Resht opened her gates to tile 
new-coniers, and tile greater part of the province of Gilan passed into Russian hands. In July of 
the saine year, Baku, after suffering a bonibardment from the sea, also capitulated. The young 
Shah Taliniasp, who meanwhile was striving to make headway against the Afghans in the north, 
now thought it tinie to enter a claini of ilonlinal ownership over his fast-shrinking dominions. 
What weakness, however, rendered him unable to dispute, policy suggested that lie should 
amicably concede. Accordingly, an ambassador was sent to Peter, and the terin& of a bargain, 
which in all probabil ity neither party had any idea of keeping, were embodied in a treaty of 
alliance that was signed on September 3, 1723. It contained four principal articles. The Czar 
was to drive out the Afghans from Persia, and to reinstate Tahiiiasp on tile throne. In return the 
Shah was to cede to Russia in perpetuity the towns and dependencies of Derbend and Baku, as 
well as the provinces of Gilan, Mazanderan, and Astrabad. He further undertook to furnish 
camels and provisions for the Russian army of invasion. Finally, full liberty of commerce was 
guaranteed between Russia and Persia.ËË The Russians, as has been shown, bad occupied Gilan 
even before the treaty was signed, and the agreement in that respect was little more than a 
ratification of tile status quo. They do not appear ever to have set foot in Alazanderan or 
Astrabad, having their hands full elsewhere, or realising the doubtful policy of such a 
proceeding. In 1725 Peter the Great died, and his schemes of Oriental aggrandisement were 
temporarily shelved. In the same year the Russian forces took Lahijan, the second town to Resht 
in the province; but they advanced no further to the east. Basil Batatzes, the Greek merchant, 
whose travels I have, cited when speaking of Kelat, was in Gilan during tile period of the Russian 
occupation and had an interview at Resht with General Levasoff, the Russian commander.ËË 
Finally, about the year 1734, ËËthe Russians, then involved in domestic commotion and 
intrigue, were compelled to evacuate their Caspian dominions, with only a permission to hold
Hanway, Historical Account, vol. iii. p. 181. Xouveaux JlPlanym Orientaux (Paris, 1886), 
lines 933-950.
THE NORTHERN PROVINCES
375
a resident at the seaport of Enzeli for tile management of the silk trade of Gilan.ËË This is 
Forster's version. Hanway, who was in Gilan within ten years of the evacuation, assigns as 
the true

|PPage_
reason the pernicious effect of the climate. ËËThe warmth and dampness of Ghilan, together 
with the unwholesome fruits, rendered that province the grave of the Russians, for which 
reason the Empress Anne very prudently consented to evacuate the country in 1734, without 
drawing any advantage from it.ËË Watson, quoting from a writer in I Blackwood's 
MagazineËË (vol. xxi.) says that.Astrabad and Mazanderan had already been restored to Persia 
by a treaty concluded at Resht in 1732; and that a further treaty restored Gilan in 1735-
statements which, if correct, would absolutely dispose of any claimËËthat Russia may 
subsequently have felt disposed to make on the ground of the original concession. There is a 
fourth version of the epilogue, which may be supposed to reflect the view that might commend 
itself to a patriotic Persian, whose amour jig-opre could admit neither the voluntary 
occupation, nor the peaceful retreat. According to this version Nadir Shah, having obtained the 
throne, sent an imperious ultimatum to the Russian commander, that unless the Russians 
disappeared from the scene, he (Nadir) would send his ferashes (lit. carpet-spreaders), to 
sweep them into the sea. It is the obvious sequel of this story, which is probably of later 
construction, that the Russians embarked with great precipitation, and were no more seen. In 
1746 the, only relic of their occupation of the coast strip was a factory at Enzeli, and a 
commercial agent at Derbend.
That Shah Tahmasp himself attached v ËË ery little validity to the treaty with Peter the Great, 
had already been shown in 1730, in Later which year he made a grant of _21azanderan, along 
with history Khorasan, Seistan, and Kerman to Nadir, as a reward for the expulsion of the 
Afghans. The- condition of the two maritime provinces during the latter part of Nadir Shah's 
reign, the oppression and misery and ruin that everywhere prevailed, are admirably depicted in 
Hanway's pages, from which we learn how a national hero soon transformed himself into an 
intolerable curse, for whose removal men prayed almost in public. In the anarchy, consequent 
upon Nadir's assassination, a local chief named Hidayet Khan raised himself and the province 
of Gilan to a position of practical independence. When Kerim Khan Zend attained the
. I Hi8torical Aecoimt, vol. i. P. 12.

|PPage_
376 THE NORTHERN PROVINCES 377
throne, lie left Hidayet Khan in charge of Gilan, exacting only an annual tribute. The chief kept a 
large army, and observed great state. It was during his rule that the Russian traveller Gm6lin 
visited Reslit, and travelled in the Caspian provinces. Meanwhile, in Mazanderan and Astrabad, 
the wily Kajar eunuch was organising the strength and the following that were shortly to place 
birn upon the Persian throne. Sheikh Vais, the son of Ali Murad Khan Zend, who held the throne 
for four years, from 1781-85, was despatched by his father to crush these pretensions, and to 
recover Mazanderan. Though at first, successful lie was deserted by his followers and compelled 
to retire. ËËWhen Agha -\foliammed had finally triumphed, Hidayet Khan of Gilan was foolish 
enough to resist the successful usurper, and paid the, penalty with his life. Since then Gilan and 
Mazanderan have remained in secure and undisputed possession of the Kajar reigning family, 
and have commonly provided governing billets for the sons -or relatives of the sovereign.
I have already spoken of the partiality displayed by Shah Abbas for Mazanderan, and have alluded 
to the royal residences Palaces of Which he there constructed. Let me -say a few words Abbas 
the Great. more about them before passing on. The monarch was Ashraf here visited and seen by 
the garrulous Italian Pietro della Valle, and by the ingenious Englishman, Sir Thomas Herbert, 
and their contemporaneous narratives are still extant. A century later, Ilanway described the 
ravages of a hundred yearsËË decay. In the present century, the tale has been carried down to 
modern times. These palaces were several in Jiumber. The principal were located in a 
situation- of great natural beauty at Ashraf, about five miles south of Astrabad Bay, and with an 
exquisite outlook over the sea. Shah AbbasËË causeway, running in a westerly direction from 
Astrabad city, passed the village of Gez, and conducted thence, a distance of twenty-six miles, to 
Ashraf, whose title signified the Most Noble. Here the Great Abbas set about building himself a 
ËËsort of northern Isfahan, whose palaces and gardens should rival those of the southern 
capital. Pietro della Valle was there in 1618, while the king's palace was the only completed 
structure, and the town was still in the bricklayersËË hands. Nine years later, on May 25, 
1627, in the same palace, which Herbert described as ËËpretty large and but newly 
Enisbed,ËË. the KiDg receivedËË in public audience Sir Dodmore
Cotton, ambassador from Charles I., and his own accredited envoy Sir Robert Sherley. This is 
how the ever-amusing Herbert describes the scene:
At the upper end sat the Pot-shaw [i.e. Padisbah], beloved at home, famous abroad, and 
formidable to his enemies. His grandeur was this: Circled with such a world of wealth be clothed 
himself

|PPage_
that day in a plain red callico coat quilted with cotten, as if he should have said His dignity 
consisted rather in his parts and prudence than furtivis coloribus, having no need to steal 
respect by borruwed colours or embroideries. Cross-le,gËËd the Pot-shaw sat ; his sash was 
white and large - his waste was girded with a thong of leather; the bilt of his sword was gold, the 
blade formed like a senii-eircle, and doubtless well tempered ; the scabbard red ; and the 
Courtiers, regis ad exe7nplum, were but meanly attired. I
Originally there were six different royal establishments at Ashraf; five of which were contained 
within one large wall of circunivallation. Of these the most famous was the Bagh-i-Shah, or 
King's Garden, laid out with stone terraces, and canals, and cascades, and adorned with 
aiwans, or open halls, the largest of which, called, like that at Isfahan, Chehel Situn, or Forty 
Pillars, terminated the principal vista. Terraces, and cascades, and hallshave all gone to utter 
ruin, but the garden is still a glory, with its gigantic cypresses and orange trees. The Chehel 
Situn: was accidentally burnt down in the time of Nadir Shah, and was replaced by a flimsy 
structure, itself in equal ruin. Other gardens and palaces were the Bagh-i-Harem, or Garden of 
the Seraglio, the Bagh-i-Tepe, or Garden of the Hill, which con ËË tained the Hummum,. or 
warm baths,ËËthe palace of Sahib Zeman, or Lord of the Age, and the Khelwet, or private 
palace and garden. A.-paved way with streams and waterfalls led from this enclosure to the 
Imareti-Chashmeh, or Pavilion of the Fountains, making. the sixth royal residence at Ashraf. 
The old stone pavements have vanished, the slabs having been broken or stolen for the sake of 
the iron clamps cemented by lead, and the entire precincts are a wilderness of ruin .2 Half a 
mile from Ashraf the grandson and successor of Abbas, Shah Sefi, built a.palace ËË for his 
daughter, upon a lovely wooded eminence, and called it, after himself, Sefiabad. Like its 
predeces-_ sors it has perished; and a hunting lodge; builtËËmany years ago by
Sonie YearesËË TraveIg (3ÌÌrd€€ edit.), p. 185.
For the palaces of Asbraf, vide- Gen, J. von Blaramberg, Efrinnerungen au,8 dem Leben.

|PPage_
378 
THE NORTHERN PROVINCES
379
the present Shah in its place, is within measurable distance of a intheir ar ebitecture, which is 
similar to that already described at similar dissolution. The town of Ashraf was peopled by Shah 
Astrabad, and in their population, which is easily distinguished Abbas with a colony of 7,000 
Armenians, some of whose descen
from the Persian of the centre and south, they are sui generis. dants still inhabit the place along 
with a mixture of Persian and Sari, thirty-five miles from Ashraf, is the old capital of 
MazanTurkish descent. During the last twenty years it has experienced deran, and has been 
identified by DËËAnville and Rennell with the quite a revival, owing to the trade with Russia 
that has sprung up Sari Zadracarta of the ancients, where Alexander halted for from the port, or 
rather roadstead, of 21eshed-i-Ser. fifteen days and offered sacrifice. Be this as it may, it was
Twenty-six miles from Ashraf on the north-west, at a distance the capital and residence of the 
independent sovereigns who ruled of about three miles from. the Caspian and on the banks of the 
this regio in the later Middle Ages. The more modern city was
in n Feraluthad Tejen river, are situated the ruins of another city and also selected is -his 
capital by Agha Mohammed Shah in the days
palace of Abbas, known as F4 eraliabad. Pietro della when he was still fighting for the throne, 
and when his dominions Valle declared that the circuit of the walls was equal to, if not did not 
extend much beyond Astrabad and lilazanderan. He built greater than, that of Roine or 
Constantinople, and that the city the palace, which still exists in a ruined condition, and which 
concontained streets of more than a league in length. In this palace tained pictures of the battles 
of Shah Ismail and Nadir Shah. In died Shah Abbas in Januar 1628, in the forty-third year of 
his
y I the early part of the present century, Sari was reported to contain reign and the seventy-
first of his age. Forty years later the palace, from 30 000 to 40,000 inhabitants; and as late- 
as 1874 Captain which, according to Chardin, was ËËa wonder of art that deserved a Napier 
was told that the total was 16,000. It is not now supposed kind of perpetuity,ËË and ËË 
vi,herein was kept a vast treasure of to contain much over 8,000 persons, business having 
migrated to dishes and basins of porcellane or china, cornaline, agate, coral, Amol and 
Barfurush. The streets are stone-paved and the town amber, cups of crystal of the rock, and 
other varieties without has a picturesque -appearance. When -Hanway was here in 1744, 
numberËË was plundered by the Cossacks and destroyed - and the he left on record that I there 
are yet four temples of the-Gebres, or worthy knight sorrowfully adds, ËË Everytime I think 
of the magni
worshippers of fire, made of the most durable -materials. These ficence and delightfulness of 
that place, I cannot but lament its edifices are rotund, of about 30 feet diameter, raised in

|PPage_
height to hard fate.ËË I Fraser, in 1822, examined and carefully described the a point near 
120 feet.ËË ËËHerein there can be no doubt that the ruins of Ferahabad, which he declared to 
be vastly inferior to those excellent merchant was hoodwinked either by the ignorance or the of 
Ashraf, in extent as well as in ma-nificence, and to indicate deceit of his informants; for these 
four (there were only in reality only a temporary rather than a permanentabode. 
Itiscuriousthat three) towers, so far from being Parsi fire-altars, were merely the king should 
have ventured -upon two such similar designs in gumbaz, or sepulchral towers, erected in the 
Arab -period in such close proximity to each other; but it is also characteristic of memory of 
eminent saints. Fraser in 1822 found all three still the whims of a monarch, who shared to the 
full the capricious irre- standing. The largest was called Gumbaz-i-Selm-wa-Tur, and was 
sponsibility that has always been a feature of despotism in the a hollow, circular, brick tower, 
100 feet high, with two belts of East. Ferahabad is now a miserable village, which no one turns 
Kufic inscription and a conical roof. It was believed to be the aside to visit. tomb of Hasan-ed-
Dowleh) a descendant of the Buyah or Dilemi
From the palaces I turn to the cities of -Mazanderan, few in sovereigns in the fifth century of 
the Hejira. The two other number but distinct in individuality, which I sliall treat in the 
imamzadehs were attributed to Yahia and Ibrahim, the sons of
order in which they are encountered if *ourneying upon the Imam Reza. Since Fraser's day 
all three have been destroyed, Cities of Mazan- Shah AbbasËËcauseway from. Astrabad, 
namely: Sari, Bar- or partially destroyed, by earthquakes. deran furush, Amol. Of all of them it 
may be said that in theirBarfurush, the modern commercial capital of Mazanderan, is situation, 
amid forest or jungle and on moist and luxuriant plains, situated twenty-six miles west of Sari 
and ninety miles north-east
I Coronatioa of King golynzan. Ill., pp. 152-154. 1Bistorical Aecount, vol. L p. 292.

|PPage_
380
ó
 s left its record in 
the pages of many travellers,ËË British, Russian, and French. Consuls or Vice-Consuls were 
here from an early period, to safeguard the commercial interests of their several countries. The 
near vicinity of Russia, and her predominance in the Caspian, have naturally given her a 
commanding position; the more so as she has a large- number of subjects, chiefly Russian-
Armenians, in Reslit and Gilan, and as slie, is understood to own several villages in the 
neighbourhood by right of mortgage. Nevertheless, the best days of Resht have passed. Early in 
the century, while the silk trade was at its zenith, its bazaars exhibited a curious congeries of 
different nationalities: Armenians, Jews, Europeans, Buniahs from India, and even Povindahs 
from Afghanistan. Frhser, who, at the close of his first journey in 1822, experienced an 
unprovoked and vexatious imprisonment here, escaping on foot only to be recaptured and 
brought back under circumstances of great indignity-estimated its population at that date as 
from 60,000 to 80,000. It was almost annihilated by the plague in 1830-31, which swept like 
a tornado, carrying everything before it, over the natural fever-beds of the maritime border; 
and in 1834 was only ËË the ghost of its I For Resht in 1717 vide John Bell's Travels, 
vol. L pp. 134-136; in 1744, Hanway's Nistorical Account, vol. L pp. 279-281; in 1771, 
Gm6lin, Lristaire deg Dicouvertes, vol. ii. p. 426, etc.; in 1822, Fraser's Travels K%UtA 
of the Caspian, pp, 148-155; in 1843, Holmes's Sk-etches on the Casl,~ian Shores, cap. 
vi. ; in 1861, Eastwick's Journal o a DiliZomate, vol. ii. p. I ; in 1881, E. 
OËËDonovan's Xerv .Oa8is, vol. L p. 317.
former self.ËË The silk trade, however, which continued to flourish till the last twenty-five 
years, enabled Resht to raise its head more quickly than any of its neighbours. It was a 
flourishing town in the middle part ofËË this century, and manv English travellers have 
occasion to recollect the hospitality of the firm of Ralli, who kept a large establishment here, 
and maintained a country house in

|PPage_
almost European style. With the collapse of the silk trade they disappeared, and the fortunes of 
Resht experienced a sensible decline. The counterbalancing increase, however, in the cultivation 
and export of rice and cotton have caused it to revive, and the population is now calculated at 
from 25,000 to 30,000. The, situation of Resbt as the chief maritime outlet on the north, must 
always render it an important place, quite apart from the trade of the province whose capital 
city it is. For instance, in 1878, the last year in which published statistics are accessible, the 
exports to Russia fi-om the province of Gilan, vid Reslit, equalled 192,0001.; while the 
exports from the rest, of Persia through the same Customhouse were only 4,0001. less; the 
internal trade between Resht and the Persian interior amounting to 143,0001. in the same 
period. Anyone who has followed me so far, willby thistime be expecting the statement, that 
considerable as is the trade of Resht, Possible it might be increased and, in all probability, 
doubled, did improve- the Persians take the most elementary steps to expedite ments or 
facilitate its transit. It is safe to say that in no other country in the world would the main 
avenue of mercantile entrance and exit be left in so miserable and chaotic a condition. The bar at 
Enzeli, the entrance to the _Murdab, or Laooon, the anchorage therein, the ascent by creek to 
Pir-i-Bazaar, the road to Resht, are so many successive and undisputed obstacles to freedom of 
intercourse. In any other country the bar would have been dredged, steamers would have been 
admitted into the lagoon, jetties would have been built for lading and unlading therein, the creek 
would have been deepened and widened, or a canal constructed to Resht itself. Above all, the 
marsh and forest roads would have been kept in good repair. The question of railway 
communication with the interior is one that has frequently been mooted, and was once on the 
verge of being put into execution, the embankments being built, and even the rails being laid for 
the distance of a few miles from Resht; but this is a subject which I must reserve for a later 
chapter. The only

|PPage_
386 THE NORT11ERN PROVINCES 387
plausible excuse wbich Persia can offer, apart from her congenital
ó
 ich is spoken in Azerbaijan; but he soon learnt 
both to speak and to write.Persian well, and has since acquired a tolerable familiarity with 
French and Arabic. lie is well versed in the Persian poets and in Oriental works of history, 
philosophy, and art. Nor is the Shah by any means destitute of artistic accomplishments. He can 
draw well, and is reputed to write passable verses, or, toadopt the Persian hyperbole, I be can 
make the nightingale of the pen flutter about the fullblown roses of the harein.ËË He is assured 
by his courtierT, as was his great-grandfather Fath Ali Shah., that his poetical effusions are 
superior to those of Hafiz.1 But lie is probably too sensible a man to believe that whatever 
immortality be may attain to, it will be among the lords of song. Well informed, and thoroughly 
au conrant with passing events, be is full of inquisitiveness, and has a thirst for new 
information, which he acquires by closely questiol~ing those with whom lie comes in contact His 
published journals, if they can with justice be at ËË tributed to his own pen, show decided 
originality, and a vein of native. shrewdness.2 A private Wcretary translates to him the French 
newspapers; the ËËTimesËË lie regards
I Yet on one occasion, according to a well-known story, Fath Ali Shah found an honest critic in 
his own Poet Laureate. I What do you think of my verqes?ËË said the king. IË"ËIlay I be your 
sacrifice, I think they axe great rubbish,ËË Nvas the frank rejoinder. I Take the donkey to the 
stables,ËË shouted the indignant Shah ; and the order was obeyed. A little while lAter the King 
sent for the poet again, and read out to him some more of his own compositions. The poet, 
without a word, began to walk away. I Where are you going?ËË cried the Sbab. I Back i o the 
stables,ËË answered the fearless Laureate. It is to the credit of the King that lie -was so 
pleased -,vith the repartee that be released the poet, and ordered his niout li to. be st uffed with 
sugar-candy as a mark of his extreme approbation. 2 In addition to the diaries of his tours in 
Europe, which have been translated into English and French, the Shah has published diarics in 
the Persian tongue, with illustrations, of his two journeys to Meshed, and of his pilgrimage to 
Kerbela. The bulk of their contents, no doubt, emanate from the royal pen. When in England, His 
-.Majesty was in the babit of dictating his diary to the Head Chamberlain before retiring to rest.

|PPage_
398 PE R S LA THE SHATI-ROYA-L FAMILY-MINISTERS 399
with great respect; lie is well posted in European politics, and the brilliant schemes, and the 
lumber-rooms of the palace are not personal criticism of the Continental journals is generally 
reported
ZD more full of broken mechanism and discarded bric-a-brac than are to his ears.That the 
freedom of speech which he there encounters, the pigeon-l;oles of the government bureaux of 
abortive reforms and of which lie has occasionally found himself the victim, does and dead 
fiascoes. not quite harnionise with his own ideas of the licence that should More curious, and, in 
a sense, more, childlike still, is the Shah's be accorded to a press, will be evident when I 
come to an account well-known partiality for a pun, or still more for a practical joke. of the 
newspapers of Teheran. Sense ofHis sense- of humour is easily operated upon, and does Tilat the 
Shah is not without artistic tastes is shown by his burnour not err on the side of refinement. It 
is recorded that he fondness for music.In the Royal Museum is quite a collection was immensely 
tickled upon one occasion, when he asked the Tastes void Of musical boxes ; and the sound of 
ËËMilitary airs is reason for the removal of some lamps which had lighted the caprice,; 
peculiarly agreeable to his ears.To gratify this pro
approach to one of the palaces, and received the reply that it was p-ensity, lie keeps both a 
French and an Austrian bandmaster. C parce que le chat (Shah) voit toujours mieux dans la 
nuit.ËË He Another respect in which he and his predecessors have so far is even more pleased, 
however, when he can victimise his ministers conquered native prejudice as to rely upon 
foreign assistance, is or courtiers by some successful ruse. Having procured a number in the 
employment of medical science.Abbas Mirza was the first of skates and bicycles, he compelled 
the luckless grandees to to set theexample by appointing Dr. Cormick, an Englishman, to 
perform upon these strange instruments in the palace g~rden, to be Physician of his 
Household.Mohammed Shah followed, with his own intense amusement. Well known, too, is the 
story of the Dr. Labat, a Frenchman, who on one occasion saved his life, and collapsible india-
rubber boat, which was presented to him by an later with Dr. Cloquet.Dr: Dickson, of the 
British Legation, English officer, and in which he sent a dozen A.D.C.'s and acquired a great 
reputation _ during the present reign , but the chamberlains out for -a row, on -the tank in the 
royal garden. personal physician of the Shah has, for many years, been another Meanwhile- he 
had secretly ordered the valve to be opened, and Frenchman, Dr. Tholozan, whose name and 
personality are I
the boat duly collapsed in mid-lake, leaving the richly-dressed familiar to most visitors to 
Teheran.Among the more trivial, courtiers floundering in the water. Nor do the titled members 
of but not uninteresting characteristics of the monarch whom we are
the royal household by any means fill sinecure offices) for the Shah discussing, there are three, 
which in this context are worthy of

|PPage_
will. sometimes, when out in the country, require them to prepare mention.,These are the 
Shah's childlike passion for novelty, his
his-meal with their own elegant hands. incurable love of a joke, and his fondness for animals, 
about all of Strongest of all these proclivities is the extreme fondness. of which niaDV good 
stories are current in the, society of the capital.
the Shah for animals, which is pushed to a point that recalls the Just as, in the course of his 
European travels, he picked up a vast number of what appeared, to the Eastern mind, to be 
wonderful F.,y for story of Caligula and his horse. Cats have been the curiosities, but which 
have since been stacked in the v . arious apart- animals especial object of this strange 
attachment. For one of ments of the palace, or put away and forgotten ; so in the larger these 
creatures was kept a baggage horse, which carried a specially
constructed cage with velvet-padded wires. On another occasion, one sphere of public policy and 
administration he is continually taking up and pushing some new scheme or invention which 7 of 
the royal cats fell asleep on the coat-tails of a courtier, who, with when the caprice has been 
gratified, is neglected or allowed to true diplomacy, cut off the offending skirt rather than 
disturb the expire. One week it is gas ; another it is electric light.Now slumbers of the 
favourite. Another cat had a pension of 4001. a. it is a staff college; anon, a military 
hospital.To-day it is a j- year settled upon it in old age. One of the Shah's wives is said 
Russian uniform; yesterday it was a German man-of-war for the ir to have originally 
commended herself to his fancy by her devotion
favourite of the hour. Quite the funniest, however, to the feline Persian Gulf. A new army 
warrant is issued this year; a new code of the anecdotes illustrating -this innocent, if 
uncommon taste, is of law is promised for the next. Nothing comes of any of these that of the 
lioness who gave birth to cubs in the royal menagerie

|PPage_
400 at Doshan Tepe. The Shah was so consumed with anxiety for the welfare of the mother that, 
being detained by the ceremonies of the Tazieli in Teheran. lie had the telegrapn wires in the 
capital connected with an improvised bureau opposite the cage of the animal, so as to be. in 
possession of the latest news and finally cashiered an unsympathetic clerk who telegraphed, 
ËËThe beasts are doing well,ËË on the ground that the true beast was not the lion, but the 
man who could call the lion by such a name.
Almost the same in kind, if superior in degree, is the intense fondness which the Shah has 
developed in receut Wal's for the little bov, known as the Aziz-es-Stiltai), whoin lie 
~)rouglit with him to England, and whoin he seldoin allows out of his Sight 8t Teheran. This 
child, whose name is Gliolam All Khan, is a nephew of the Amin-i-Akdas (Trusted or the Sovei-
eign), one of the Shah's favourite wives. She, was on)), a Kurdish slave, and ber brother, 
the father of the. child, was a peasant. as his appearance and maDuer sufficiently indicated. when 
lie came over to EDgland in the retinue of the Shah. There seems to have been no trutli in the 
stories circulated throughout Europe of a superstitious origin of the Shah's attachment to 
this boy, which would appear to be no more than one of the peculiar caprices of the royal nature. 
The child, who is eleven or twelve years of age, is a Field-_Marslial, and wears a huge portrait 
of the Shah, set in diamonds, round his neck. While in Teheran, I saw him driving about in a 
state and style second only to that adopted by the sovereign ; and lie was deputed by the latter as 
a special compliment to make a call upon the British Minister. If the lad is not well. the Shah is 
at once in a bad humour, and is incapable of attending to affairs of S~ate. From these anecdotes of 
personal idiosyncrasies which I have related, not so much because of tl;e interest attached in 
popular The Sh,h estimation to the deeds and fancies of sovereigns, as as ruler because they 
illustrate the bent of a character which Could bardly have been moulded in any other 
surroundings than those of an Asiatic throne, I turn to a contemplation of Nasr-edDin Shah in 
his more important capacity as a monarch and a statesman. Here lie possesses many excellent 
business qualities, and betrays a voracious appetite for any and every affair of State. Rising 
early in the morning, lie devotes the forenoon to audience with his ministers and to inatters of 
State. The smallest detail is
THE SHAH-ROYAL FAMILY-MINISTERS 401
submitted to him, and is not decided except upon his authority. His ministers disavow all 
initiative, and tremble at any executive responsibility. Imperious, diligent, and fairly just, the 
Shah is in his own person the sole arbiter of Persia's fortunes. All policy

|PPage_
emanates from him. He supervises every department with a curiosity that requires to be 
constantly appeased ; and his attention both to foreign and doinestic politics is constant and 
unremitting. There is a consensus of opinion in Persia that he is the most competent man in the 
country, and the best ruler that it can produce. N or will anyone, deny him the possession of 
patriotism and of a genuine interest in the welfare of the nation. He is, however, placed in a 
most unfortunate situation by the rivalry of Great Britain and Russia-a question which I shall. 
discuss in a later cliapter-while be is further impeded by the intrigues that swarm about the.. 
Court and person of the monarch, by a tendency natural to humanity, and particularly to a man 
who has passed the middle of life, to let things abide in his time, and by a sense of powerlessness 
against the petrified ideas and prejudices of an Oriental people. Perhaps a special sympathy is 
due to a sovereign, the exigencies of whose rank and position render it almost impossible for 
him to receive the assistance which tried and indeAtino- sphere of pendent counsellors can 
afford even to the wearer of a flattery crown. Such is the divinity that doth hedge a throne in 
Persia, that not merely does the Shah never attend at state dinners or eat with his subjects at 
table, with the exception of a single banquet to his principal niale relatives at No Ruz, but the 
attitude and-language employed towards him even by his confidential ministers are those of 
servile obeisance and adulation. ËËMay I be your sacrifice, Asylum of the Universe,ËË is the 
common mode of address adopted even by subjects of the highest rank. In his own surrounding 
there is no one to tell him the truth or to give him dispassionate counsel. The foreign Ministers 
are probably almost the only source from which he learns facts as they are, or receives 
unvarnished, even if interested. advice. With the best intentions in the world for the 
undertaking of great plans and for the amelioration of his country, he has little or no control 
over the execution of an enterprise which has once passed out of his hands and has become the 
sport of corrupt and self-seeking officials, Half the ruoney voted with his consent never

|PPage_
402 
reaches its destination, but sticks to every intervening pocket with which a professional 
ingenuity call bring it into transient contact; liqlf* the. schemes authorised bv him are never 
brought any nearer to realisation. the. minister or functionary in charge trusting to the 
oblivious caprices of the sovereign to overlook his dereliction of duty. Nevertheless, whilst 
admitting the difficulties with which Nasred-Din Shah is surrounded, let Lis not fail to do full 
justice both to Cruelty or his character and to his reign. He is unquestionably the 
1111111ftnËËty best sovereign fliat, has sat, upon the throne of I;ersia since Kerini Khali 
Zend in the last century. He is the first king of his race, and one of the, few kings in ~ersian 
history, against whom the charge of cruelty and arbitrary indifference to injustice or suffering 
cannot fairly be. brought. It is true that his reign has been disfigured by one or two acts of 
regrettable violence; worst aniong which was, the murder of his first Prime Minister ËË 
Alirza Taki Khan) the Amir-i-Nizam-a man who, although of humble origin, was endowed with 
lofty sentiments, and who, in the short space of three years (1849-18.5 1), established a 
reputation for statesmanship that constitutes him. one of,the most remarkable. figures of the 
century. The brother-in-law of the Shah, and the first subject in the kingdom, lie owed to the 
vindictiveness of court intrigue and to the maliciously excited jealousy of his youthful 
sovereign, a disgrace which his eneluies were not satisfied until they had fulfilled by the death 
of their fallen, but still formidable victim.ËË It should be said, however, that the Shall was 
only twenty years of age at the time; that it was.inevitable, under the circumstances, that a 
young ruler without experience should be the instrument of unscrupulous advisers; and that he 
is believed ever since to have repented of the act. The terrible acts of cruelty that followed the 
suppression of the Babi conspiracy against the life of the Shah in 1852, and of the Babi sedition 
in general throughout the country, come under a different category.2 For not
I For the administration and murder of the Wdr-i-Nizani I juay refer my, readers to the pages 
of Markham, Watson, Lady Sheil, and Binning. 2 It was on this occasion that Mirza Agba Khan, 
the (3rand Viiier, in order to distribute the responsibility of punishment and to lesson the 
chances of bloodrevenge, conceived the extraordinary idea of assigning the several criminals for 
execution to the principal ministers, generals, and officers of the court, as well as to 
representatives of the priestly and merchant classes. The Foreign Secretary killed one, the 
Home Secretary another, the Master of the Horse a third, and so on.
THE SHAH-PLOYAL FAMILY-31INISTERS 403
only had the life of the sovereign been attempted, but the existence of the dynasty was believed to 
be,at stake; and it must be remembered that studied refinements of torture are an immemorial 
tradition of the East.

|PPage_
There was less excuse for the execution of the soldiers suspected of having conspired against the 
life of the Shah, just before his second European journey, in 1878. The story is a tragic one, 
illustrating both the abuses of the Persian administrative systern and the perils attaching to the 
irresponsibility of an Oriental sovereign.ËË Some soldiers of an Isfahan regiment, who, 
according to the Persian custom, had received no pay for three years, and had yet been ordered 
to remain under arms, seized the opportunity of a pilgrimage of the Shah to the shrine of Shah 
Abdul Azim. to approach his carriage and present a petition. The Shah was in a bad humour, and 
ordered his ferashes to drive back the supplicants. An gmeute ensued, in which stones were 
thrown, some of which struck the royal equipage. The apprehensions of the Shah were further 
excited by the wicked assurance of one of his suite that it was a Babi conspiracy against his life. 
He ordered the arrest of the soldiers,- a-rid, on his return to the palace, ten of their number 
were strangled without further inquiry-, and their bodies dragged through the streets. The 
remainder were sentenced to have their ears cut off, and to be bastinadoed. A few days later, 
when starting for Europe, the Shah read the petition of the suspected soldiers, and ascertained 
his fatal mistake. He at once took steps to redress the injustice that had been done; but the 
d&ouement is even more Persian in its characteristicP, than the earlier incidents of the story. 
The culprits were released, and their arrears paid, with a small indemnity of five tomans to 
each man for his unmerited sufferings. But the offending chamberlain, who bad started the false 
cry of a Babi rebellion, was mulcted in a sum of 18,000 tomans, so that the whole transaction 
resulted in a gain to the Royal Exchequer of 7,0001. 1 do not think it would be possible in the 
space of a short paragraph to narrate a more profoundly illustrative tale.It is related amontT 
otliers by Mme. Carla Serena, Hom7nes et Umses en Perse, p. 319, and by S. G. Benjamin, 
Persia and the Persians, pp. 178-180. With it may be compared the incident of the execution of 
the Kalantar or Mayor of Teheran, on the ocassion of a riot arising out of a corner in grain 
which had been effected by some rich speculator in 1861, It is related by Ussher, Journey from 
London to Persepolis, p. 625.

|PPage_
404: ~/
PERSTA
Notwithstanding these cases of cruelty and iujustice, for which ~some palliation may in each 
case be found, the Shah is admittedly a man of humane disposition. Since his visits to Europe, the 
instances ofËË such unlicensed exercise of power have been rare, if they have not altogether 
ceased to exist. We have only to contrast his reign with that of his predecessors, to say that on 
the whole it has embraced the most bloodless forty years in modern Persianhistory. Only a 
century ago the abominable system prevailed of blinding possible aspirants to the throne, of 
savage mutilations and life-long captivities, of wanton slaughter and systematic bloodshed. 
Disgrace was not less sudden than promotion, and death was a frequent concomitant of disgrace. 
The old fashion which made the kings of Persia the executioners of their subjects, the ,deed of 
blood being enacted before. their very eyes, has been abandoned. The bastinado has lost somewhat 
of its consecrated ubiquity of infliction. Provincial governors are no longer allowed the 
immunity of savage punishments which ma~de the rule of some ,of the king's uncles and 
great-uncles so dreaded although so superficially successful. Under the Sefavi kings, when the 
ladies of the royal harem desired all outing in the country, a latruk was ordered, which meant 
that every man was to absent himself from the neighbourbood of the prescribed route; and we 
read of poor wretches, straying by accident on to the road, or caught sleeping in its vicinity, 
being hewn to death by the guards or eumichs. In the present reign males are expected to turn to 
the wall when the royal cort6ge passes, but the old horrors of the kuruii; have disappeared. 
Similarly, a labourer, who, pursuing an -underground kanat found himself in the anderun of 
the royal palace, was spared by the Shah, although his life would certainly have been forfeited 
in any previous reign. We may attribute this fortunate amelioration of manners both to the 
chaxacter of the sovereign and to the immense, though perhaps grudgingly acknowledged, 
influence of foreign opinion, and of the representa fives of foreign Powers at the Persian Court. 
It is no mean criterion of the. strength and also of the general popularity of the Shah, that lie is 
the first Persian moDarch who His has ventured to leave his dorninions and to journey in E0 - a 
conqueror at the head ur pean foreign and infidel land., not as , journeysof an army, but as a 
friendly visitor, if riot as a volunteer tourist.During the last three centuries for certain no 
Persian
I
THE SHAH-ROYAL FAMILY-MINISTERS __405
sovereign could have hazarded such a step. Nadir Shah, before. he

|PPage_
started out for India, had removed every possible competitor for the throne. Moreover, he took 
his army with him, and the prospect of the great Afshar returning at the head of a victorious 
host was enough to makeËË the blood of any would-be upstart run cold. Nasr-ed-Din Shah had 
to contend with many obstacles in arranging the first of his European journeys, of which there 
have now been three, in 1873, 1878, and 1889. The project was obstinately resisted by the 
clergy; great difficulty was experienced in settling the problem of the serao-lio, the solitary 
wife who accompanied His Majesty in 1873 being ultimately sent back from Moscow; and the 
putting of the government into commission in his absence was also not unattended with hazard. It 
is to the credit of the Sliah that then, and indeed throughout his reign, he has shown a 
commendable independence of the fanatical element among the mullahs and inujiahe(Is of Islam. 
Though a careful observant of the forms and rites of the Mussulman creed, and though reposing a 
superstitions credulity in astrology and divination, he has uniformly asserted the superiority of 
the temporal over the spiritual power, and there was probably never a moment in the history of 
Persia when the ecclesiastical asceridelicy, that is of the essence of Islani, was so much in 
abeyance as at present. The immense amount of money spent by the Shall in the purchase of 
furniture and curiosities in Europe also excited a feeling of discontent; and his second tour was 
unquestionably unpopular among his subjects. That lie was able to venture upon a third is a 
proof of the absolute security of his position, but it is also due to the sentiment which he has 
taken care to diffuse among his subjects, that the princes of Christendom vie with each other in 
anxiety to entertain so great a potentate and squabble for the honour of his alliance. Finally, I 
will apply the double test of a comparison, firstly. of the general state of the country during the 
Shah's reign with its state Coinpari- under his preAecessors; and, secondly, of its condition 
now9011 ~rith with its condition at his accession forty-three years ago. previous reigns The 
record of previous reigns is one of internal warfare, yearly renewed against insurgent tribes or 
recalcitrant chieftains, of tribute refused, of brigandage rampant and unpunished, of ambitious 
nobles struggling with each other for the ascendency, of the royal authority frequently insulted 
and sometimes wholly ignored. Such is not the picture which is presented by the Persia of to-
day.

|PPage_
406 
lts condition is bad enough viewed fron) the standpoint of public works, education, or internal 
development. But life and property are fairly secure, brigandage is scarcely known, robbery 
and violence (at any rate upon Europeans) are rarely attempted ; revenue is exacted even from 
the nomad and mountainous tribes; the provincial Governors are thoroughly under control and 
quake at the vibrations of the telegraph wire from Teheran ; the Shah is supreme from the. 
Caspian to the Gulf, and from the Kurdish mountains to Seistan; and there is not a single man in 
the kingdom who dare venture either his voice or his position against the sovereign. Hitherto, 
again ËË the death of the inonarch has almost invariably been the signal for a general outhreak 
; rival candidates for the throne have appeared in arms; and there has been a horrid interval of 
anarchy and turbulence until the superior geni Lis or resources of one competitorhave enabled 
him to win the day. When Fath Ali Shah died in 1834, there were two claimants (if the thronein 
the field in addition to the rightful heir, Mohammed Shah; and it was only owingto the 
inexhaustible energy and influence of Sir John Campbell,theii British M inister, and to the 
assistance of the British officers in command of the Persian troops, that he was able so soon to 
establish his legitimate claim. Similarly, when Mohammed Shah died in -1848 rebellions 
broke out in Khorasan, Kerman, Yezd, and Isfahan, and it was mainly to the joint co-operation of 
the British and Russian Ministers that Nasred-Din was indebted for his speedy recognition. 
Such has been the experience of the last two accessions to the crown. If the present Shah were to 
die to-morrow there might be isolated acts of lawlessness or violence, but I do not credit the 
likelihood of any general insurrection; -1 foresee no warring competition for the throne; and I 
believe that the Heir Apparent would succeed without firing a musket or shedding a, drop of 
blood. Secondly, if we take the period covered by the present reign and contrast the state of 
Persia at the beginning and end of this Compari-epoch, we shall note a marked advance in many 
of the ,son resources of civilisation, culture, comfort, and security. between ,1848 ftidIn the 
year after Nasr-ed-Din Shah ascended the throne 1891 the following sentences were penned by 
the greatest living authority on the Persian question:
In every quarter there is abundant cause for anxiety, and few, very few, faint glinimerings of 
hope. The treasury has beon drained of its last ducat, and we see little chance of its being 
replenished. The
THE SHAH-ROYAL FA-MILY-MINISTER.S 407
sustaining or motive power of the Government no longer exists, nor can it be renewed. The 
general condition of the provinces is hardly less unfavourable to the consolidation of the young 
monarch's power than an empty treasury and impotent and divided councils. In no

|PPage_
quarter is there any feeling of confidence in the stability of the Government. A domestic crisis 
may be imminent, and cannot be very far
Nevertheless, the subsequent period has not ratified these gloomy vaticinations. There is a 
balance in the Royal Ex.cbequer, regrettable though it, be that it should swell by idle increment 
instead of being devoted to the service of the people. The Government is secure, strong, and 
respected. The provinces, as I have shown, are in thorough subordination. No member of the 
Royal Family has ventured to dispute the supremacy of the Shah. Simultaneously there has been 
a considerable, even if inadequate, expansion of commerce. The telegraph wire has been 
stretched between all the principal towns ; regular posts have been. inaugurated ; newspapers of 
an official character are published in the capital; a miniature railway, which may perhaps 
become the nucleus of a great undertaking, has. been built; gas is manufactured at Teheran. 
Thecritic of the present finds plenty that is backward and a good deal that is deplorable in the 
condition of the country. Of these abuses I shall presently speak. But the historian, contrasting 
the Persia of the two periods, will record all advance, small as measured by European ideas, but 
by no means contemptible according to the standards of the East. Before I quit the subject of the 
Shah and his personality, I may briefly recapitulate the incidents of an interview with which I 
was honoured in the Palace at Teheran. The Shah, to whom I had been previously intioduced in 
England, received me in the room in which stands the so-called Peacock Throne. Audience .with 
the There was no other article of furniture in the chamber, Shall and the King was standing 
alone in the middle. He wore black trousers and a black coat, edged with astrakhan, thick with 
gold cording in front, and equipped with voluminous skirts. Upon the face of his kolah, or 
sheepskin hat, was a small Lion and Sun in diamonds, a recent commission from a Parisian 
jeweller. Whereas in England he had employed French, which however he is shy in using in 
conversation, he now spoke in Persian, through an inter I Sir H. Rtnvlinson, LËËqkqland and 
Riissia in the Fast, p. 75,

|PPage_
408
ó
 named Vali-Ahd. But mother and child both died. Among the sighehs, all of whom bear high-
sounding titles of very similar import, I need only mention the Iffat-ed-Dowleh (Chastity of the 
Kingdom), who is the mother of the Zil-es-Sultan , eldest surviving son, but not the heir, of the 
Shah. I owe an apology to His Royal Highness for having described his inother in a letter to the 
ËË Times, which the prince saw, and at which he was very furious, as ËËa poor village girl-
a carpenter's daughter, who accidentally attracted the notice and won the affections of the 
Shah.ËË Of this parentage I had been informed on high authority, and it was, moreover, 
confirmed by Dr. Wills, who lived fourteen years in Persia, and was on intimate terms with the 
Zil-es-Sultan, and who, in his books, described the prince's mother, no doubt confusing her 
with the Anis-ed-Dowleh,- as ËËa poor Kurdish girl-the daughter of a miller, who caught the 
Shah's eye while washing clothes at the brookside.ËË I hasten to make the reparation that is 
due-even at this distance of time-by informing English readers that the mother of the prince 
was the daughter, neither of a carpenter nor a miller, but of Musi Reza Beg, who was yholam, 
i.e. mounted attendant or outrider, of Bahman Mirza, son of Abbas Mirza, and uncle of the Shah. 
Next among the I Vide Land of the lion and the Sun, p. 18; and Persia as it is, p. 65.

|PPage_
410
ó
  none of these Brothers 
possesses any special importance beyond that which of the results from his rank. The eldest of 
them is Abbas Shah Mirza, Mulk Ara. Regarded forty years ago as a possible pretender to I lie 
throne, be fled, on his elder brother's accession, to Baghdad, where lie resided for thirty 
years, until reconciled to the Shah, who invited him back to Teheran. Here he became Minister 
of Commerce and Honorary President of the Council. He has also been Governor of Kazvin and 
other places. Soured, however, by his long exile, lie is destitute of at-ribition, and has
Ostensibly, in the creation of this governing hierarchy, the sovereign is absolute 
and supreme. Here. again, however, in practice, very considerable checks are. found to exist 
tions of ËËupon his prerogative. As I showed in my chapter upon royal power Khorasan, in the 
case of the Ilkhanis of Kucllan and Bujilurd, and of the Amir of Kain, and, as I shall subsequently 
show in a chapter dealing with the Eeili and Bakhtiari Lurs, the Shah is practically compelled to 
choose a governor from the ruling family; nor is it easy for him to interfere with the custom of 
direct hereditary succession. Similarly, in the cases of local magistrates or head men, such as 
the k(dantars in cities, and the kedkhodas in wards or villages, although nominally he has a free 
choice, yet in reality he must make a selection that is agreeable to the inhabitants. Otherwise 
the authority of government falls into abeyance; and, what is regarded as much more serious in 
Persia, the revenue fails to come in. Hence, the popular choice as a rule marking out some 
individual for the exercise of these offices, and the Shah for expediency's sake accepting it as 
his guide, some writers have seen in this fact an introduction of the elective or representative 
principle into Persian administration. In many cases it happens that the office is practically 
hereditary in a single
s entered the bazaars, established a temporary partnership with a 
shopkeeper, and sold off his wares

|PPage_
448 
THE GOVERNMENT
449
at suitable prices to his courtiers, dividing with the delighted to say that they can be counted on 
the fing6rs of the two hands. tradesman the proceeds of the sale. Enough has perhaps been The 
same applies to the mosques, which, with a few exceptions in said to give some idea of the 
system. Truly the maxim ËËRender the great cities, are dilapidated and crumbling to ruin; to 
the an~s in no need of being unto Caesar the things that are Caesar'sËË st, madresschs, or 
religious colleges, whose exterior of itself would pressed in a country where Caesar takes such 
very good care of invite no students; to the abandoned palaces and deserted gardens, himself. in 
whose unsightly decay the dignity of the reigning monarch It is all obvious result of the 
administrative systein which I appears to find a vengeful solace at the expense of his 
predecessors. have described, and of the proud predominance of pWA-esh, that If anywhere a 
fine modern caravanserai, or a road which shows Corrupt there is iio guarantee, beyond the 
wisdom or the apprehen- signs of labour, or a new bridge be encountered, it is almost certain 
adminis_ sions of the sovereign, for the best men filling the right to have been the work of some 
private individual, who, whether tration places. So long as the gift of office. is largely 
determined minister or merchant, defrayed the cost out of his own pocket, by tile length of 
purse, corrupt administration must prevail, and and thought thereby to gain the grateful 
prayers of pilgrims honest illen will go to the wall. Even if a good mail gains an or to enhance 
his personal reputation. The productions of thi n 8 appointment, the intrigues or the, bribes of 
a rival behind his back somewhat spurious public spirit are the only structures that modern 
May oust him at any moinent, and he falls because at Rome he Persia can show, to compare with 
the superb and almost indestrucfailed to do what the Romans do. Of the effect upon the governed, 
tible relies of the Sefavean rule. About the neglect Of roads and who are the ultimate source from 
which the successive mudakhils railroads I shall speak hereafter. But of all illustrations of the 
and the stipulated 19ishkeshes are drawil, I have. already spoken. dearth of administrative 
energy, resulting from a system where But the - country does not suffler only from the greed of 
officials in every man is squeezing his neighbour *and being squeezed by somerespect of what 
they extort, but also in respect of what they with- body else, perhaps the most significant is the 
indifference that has hold. Sums of money are assigned from the Royal Treasury for a hitherto 
been displayed to the mineral resources of Persia, which definite public object-e.g., the 
payment of an army, the construe- three centuries of travellers have pronounced to be 
exceptionally tion of public works, the building of a bridoffe, the repair of a road. rich, but 
which, until the formation

|PPage_
of anEnglish company a year These sums either never reach their destination at all, or only 
reach ago, no systematic or scientific effort has been made to explore or it in sadly diminished 
volume, having been arrested on the way in to utilise. the pocket of some. official responsible 
for the distribution. The Among the features of public life in Persia that most quickly Shah, 
meanwhile, is quite unaware of, or is powerless to detect, the strike the strancrer's eye, 
and that indirectly arise from the same embezzlement practised by his subordinates, upon 
whom, in the Hosts of conditions) is the enormous number of attendants and absence of 
responsible supervision from above or free criticism from retainers retainers that swarm 
round a minister, or official of any below, it ~ i S almost iTnpossibl e to keep a watch. The 
rapacity of th 6 description. In the case of a functionary of rank or position, these entire official 
world being thus enlisted in the maintenance of the vary in number from 50 to 500. Benjamin 
says that the Prime existing system, it will easily be understood how stubborn a barrier 
Minister in his time kept 3,000. Now, the theory of social and is opposed to any administrative 
reform, and how faint is the hope ceremonhl etiquette that prevails in Persia, and indeed 
throughout that Persia will ever, unaided, work out hei, own salvation. the East, is to some 
extent responsible for this phenomenon, It is also to the peculation engendered by this ~~ystem 
that personal importance being, to a large extent, estimated by the must be attributed the 
neglect, _v the staff of or the total absence, of public works -m-aVe, and _pjbj~ which it can 
_;7hom Neglect of whic . h so constantly arrests the traveller's attention in on occasions it 
ja~:~_pa But it is the institution of mudakhil public Persia. When I think over my long 
journeys, and recall and of illicit pickings and stealings that is the root of the evil. If works how 
many caravanserais, or bridges, or post-houses in thethe governor or minister were bound to 
pay salaries to the whole of entire country I saw in at all an efficient state of repair, I am bound 
this servile crew their ranks would speedily dwindle. The bulk of

|PPage_
460 
THE GOVERNI)IENT
451
them are unpaid; they attach themselves to their master because Saveh during his year of office, 
were cancelled upon his resignation,ËË of the opportunities for extortion with which that 
coniiection and that at the same time the improved state of the province was presents them, and 
they thrive and batten on plunder. It mayI made a ground for screwing a higher pishkesk out of 
his sucreadily lie conceived how great a drain is this swarm of blood- cessor. suckers upon the 
resources of the country. T~He -true, ~Y~ps I have already pointed out that the bulk of this 
bureaucratic of unproductive labourers, absorbing but never creating wealth; horde are not 
paid by the State, but are expected to remunerate and I ~ i 2i i ~ b il~ ~ ltence is little i l~. rt 
of ill, i! ~ i:~! Salaries themselves, and that for the same reason the salaries of -----------
The same feat private household of an andtitles the higher officials are fixed at a notoriously 
inadequate important functionary is carried into the official departments and figure. A further 
characteristic results from the combined dislocaBureau- into the service of the State. Every 
minister, every tion and parsimony of the system, viz. that even the fixed and official erËËy 
governor, every petty official, is surrounded by asalaries are frequently in arrears, or are not 
paid at all.Europe n immense ans staff of munshis, 22i~, and mustoyis, i.e. clerks, secretaries, 
and in the service o t e tati ar(TV~ttW P id or more regularly paid accountants. Tbere is no 
proper division of labour -;confusion than Persians, because, if they do not get their salaries, 
they are and lack of system prevail everywhere. This enormous staff of apt to send in their 
resignations. But even they have often been civil servants justifies itself by no reports, and 
produces no statistics; put off with barats, or orders, payable some weeks or months from 
official returns, tables schedules, or calculations either do not date, on some merchant in the 
bazaar; whilst the native official is exist at all or, if they do, exist in a deceptive shape. There 
frequently without even this compensation, and in the absence of is no means of arriving even. at 
in approximate estimate of-so any sign of an impending settlement of his little account with the 
. The figures State, makes up the deficit from other quarters. How fatally this which I elsewhere 
print of revenue and taxation have been derived condition of affairs operates -in the case of- the 
army will be seen from official sources; but though probably correct in themselves, I lateron. 
In somewhat ludicrous contrast with this sordid and decal tell what omissions they may contain, 
or how far it is legiti- spic le system are the brave and sonorous titles that aELMLrn by mate to 
make thein a basis of induction. Baron Teufeiastein) the theojffi~cia ~- ~wb~oml ~haye b~eens 
~eakinc~r. As will hava

|PPage_
Austrian Governor of Saveh, whom I have before quoted, thus been gathered from my narrative, 
ministers, or functionaries of any position, ar described the routine of official life:- e seldom 
called by their proper names2 t are known conf rred upon them by by the ornamental tit A 
Ministry in Persia consists of the minister and some scribes, without any determinate place of 
office, or any of the apparatus that the TSha ~.Th~ese itles are much sought smuch as they ity, 
and the opportunity of lucre. They appears indispensable to Europeans. The bureau is set up at 
what- confer distinction, secur ever spot the minister happens to be, whether in his house, or 
in an are divided into three classes: those with the suffix Sultaneh, i.e. ante-room, or a court of 
the Royal Palace, or perchance in the street of the Government which are ra or in a coffee-
bouse. A swarm of scribes buzzes after the chief on all members of the Royal Fam2ily; those 
with the suffix Dowleh, of the his marches, each bearing with him in his pocket the necessary 
writing Empire or State; and those with the suHix Mulk of the Kingdom. apparatus and 
documents. Accordingly, an office can be rigged up It is to be feared that the majority of their 
owners think of little any or everywhere in a trice. In the pockets of such a mirza are often r 
lundering the government, state, or kingdom of which i else but p to be found the documents of a 
series of years past, consisting of little i theyare grandiloquently described as the Ornament, 
Support, scraps of paper which be has come to regard as private, and in no sense i Defence, 
Pillar, or Strength. official, property.
My readers will not be surprised to learn that the reforms which Baron Teufenstein laboriously 
introduced into the administration of
I Petermann's Afittkoilungen (Andreas and SLolze), 1885.
I M. Orsolle (Le Ga?wase et la Perse, p. 314) says he was dismissed because be refused to pay to 
the Naib-es-Sultaneh a 1)ishkesA of 4,0001. as sadir, or extra revenue, in addition to the 
greatly increased mallat, or ordinary revenue, which he bad already paid in. But this does 
noCappear to be true.

|PPage_
454
ó
 ment is not likely to exist, that there is no personal sense of duty 
or pride of bonour, no mutual trust or co-operation (except in -the service of ill-doing), no 
disgrace in exposure, no credit in virtue, above all no national spirit or patriotism. Those 
philosophers are right who argue that moral must precede material, and internal exterior, 
reform in Persia. It
THE GOVERNMENT

|PPage_
1\
468
s useless to graft new shoots on to a stem whose own sap is exha , usted or poisoned. We may give 
Persia roads and railroads; we may work her mines and exploit her resources; we may drill her 
army and clothe her artisans; but we shall not have brought her within the pale of civilised 
nations until we have got at the core of the people, and given. a new and a radical twist to the 
national character and institutions. I have drawn this picture of Persian administration, which I 
believe to. be true, in order that English readers may understand the system with which 
reformers, whether foreigners or natives, have to contend, and the iron wall of resistance, 
built up by all the most selfish instincts in human nature, that is opposed to progressive ideas. 
The Shah himself, however genuine his desire for innovation, is to,some extent enlisted on the 
side of this pernicious system, seeing that be owes to it his private fortune; while those who 
most loudly condemn it in private are not behind their fellows in outwaraly bowing their heads 
in the temple of Rimmon. In every rank below the sovereign, the initiative is utterly wanting to 
start a rebellion against the tyranny of immemorial custom ; and if a strong man like -the 
present king can only tentatively undertake it, where is be who shall preach the crusade ?

|PPage_
464 
CHAPTER XV
INSTITUTIONS AND REFORMS
And the nations far away Are watching with eager eyes; They talk together and say To-morrow, 
perhaps to-day, Enceladus will arise. LONGFELLOW, Enceladus.
DEPRESSING as is the picture which I have been compelled in the
Ambiguous the need for a fundamental change in the principles upon interests of truth to draw of 
Persian administration, and sore as is
panorama which it is conducted, the present reign has yet witnessed the introduction of a series 
of reforms into the country which honourably differentiate it from any immediately preceding 
epoch. An examination of these reforms and f th i It- i - ta 0 eir istory, is a sk of alternate 
congratulation and dismay. On the one hand we see the imperious and irresistible influence of 
the West, and of what we term civilisation, successfully beating down the barriers of ancient 
Oriental prejudice. On the other hand, and side by side with this welcome spectacle, we observe 
superstition resurgent, reformatory zeal baffled, and the vis inerti(v supreme. We know not 
whether to give the rein to our hopes or to our despair. Is Persia about to enter nay, has she 
alread entered, the comity of civilised natj2Rg.,Av does she still sit a contented outcast without 
the g,!,te ? From the ivi-de-nc-e-w-hi-ch-w-lU-Fe-ro-rtYe-om-l-ng-ËË-n-tNËË~s-
Th-a-~ier, added to that which has already been adduced, the reader must shape his own 
judgment. For my own part, I would solicit, in the interests of my subject, a friendly and even a 
lenient consideration; knowing well, as I do, that the ways of the East and West are wide asunder 
as the poles; that what we call civilisation and sometimes rashly confuse with progress, is 
viewed by Oriental peoples in a wholly different perspective; and that different nations have 
their own peculiar way of finding salvation. Moreover, wbatËËmay seem but a foot-pace. to 
ourselves, may resemble the rush of a locomotive
INsTrrunONS AND REFORMS
465
engine to others, to whom speed has hitherto been unknown. Nor must the sower expect an 
immediate harvest ftom all his seed. Among the reforms successfully introduced by the present 
Shah, I have already noticed in other contexts, the institution of a city

|PPage_
Petition- police in Teheran, and the reconstruction and embellishboxes ment of the capital 
itself. Among those unsuccessfully attempted, I have drawn attention to administrative 
reorgani.sation, the institution of judicial tribunals, and the codification of the law. To the 
latter class also belongs an amiable but ephemeral device that was one of the results of the first 
European journey of the Shah. Aware that much injustice existed which never reached his ears, 
and acting in unconscious imitation of the. old Venetian practice, when petitions to the Council of 
Ten were placed in the mouth of a stone lion, he ordered petition-boxes to be exposed once a 
month in the public place of the larger towns. The keys were kept in his custody, and the boxes 
were to be opened in his presence. But the Persian provincial governor was not to be got the 
better of by so transparent a machinery. He promptly ordered a watch to be kept on the boxes; 
and the bastinado was freely administered to any indiscreet person dropping in a petitionËË 
Wherefore the petition-boxes remained permanently empty, and the Shah felicitated himself 
upon the singular contentment of his subjects. The reforms to which I now turn belong to a class 
that is not associated in the Western imagination with any very advanced Scheme of degree of 
national progress, but that marks a considerable chapter forward move in a country such as the 
Persia of Malcolm, of Morier, and of Ouseley. They will include the institution of a letter-post, 
of the electric telegraph, of newspapers, of a government mint and a new currency, of European 
banks, of commercial and other concessions, of manufactured roads, and of higher education. The 
opportunity will also present itself of saying something about the state of religious feeling in 
the country. Railroads will be reserved for a separate chapter. Down to the year the li,~n_dsof 
the chaparchi-bashis, or masters of the post-houses who
I For information upon this subject, vide articles by J. E. Polak in Oesterreichische 
~Vonatsschriftfiir den 0,rient, 1876, pp. 186-8; by G. Riederer in ibid. 1878,pp. 17-22; 
byHerr vonGiAel Lannoyin ibid. 1881, pp. 176-9; andbyAndreas and Stolze in Peterinann's 
Mittheilungen, 1885, pp. 30-2.

|PPage_
ó
 f the bank at four millions sterling, of which the 
first series, in shares to bearer, was to amount to one million, in 100,000 shares of 101. each. 
. Article 3 related to bank-notes, to which I must devote a separate paragraph. In Article 7 
appeared the quid, pro quo (apart from the price paid for the concession itself) exacted by the 
Persian Government, viz. 6 per cent. of the net profits of the bank in each year, such suni never 
to be less than 4,0001. Articles 11, 12, and 13 were among the most important of the whole 
series, inasmuch as they conceded to the bank, with certain stipulated exceptions, the right to 
work the mineral resources of Persia, currently believed to be very con
|PPage_
476
ó
 , Mirza Ifusein Khan, receiving the 
proud title of Sipah Salar, or Commander-in-Chief, in honour of the occasion. In the succeeding 
year, with a similar flourish of trumpets, was opened the scarcely longer road that conducts 
from the Southern Gate to the shrine and village of Shah Abdul Azim. The third suburban road is 
that leading to Gulahek, which is monotonously familiar to the members of the British Legation. 
Among minor routes, to construct or repair which some effort has at one time or another been 
made, must be inentioned the roads frorn Resht to Pir-i-Bazaar, and - from Tabriz to JulFa.
I The caravanserais, five upon the road and one at Kum, are rented by the Amin- es- S ultan for 
the sum of 600 tontans or 1701. a year.

|PPage_
488 INSTITUTIONS ANThese are accessible to vehicles, but are unworth of any more y lavish 
praise. I have in my previous volume so fully (Leseribed the features of the postal or chtrp(tr 
service that I need not here recapitulate ChaVar its characteristics. The ch(Tar roads are in no 
sense of routes the term made roads; they are superior caravan tracks; and although on the flat, 
gravelly plains they are often as level as Pall Mall,ËË yet they are C011111110Dly strewn 
with stones and boulders, and in the mountain passes are little more than furrows or ruts. The 
ch(fpar routes in Persia are as follows: Teheran to Khaiiikin Teheran to Aleshed Teheran to Sari 
Tcheran to Tabriz Khoi to Suffian Julfa to Tabriz
Kazviti to Reslit Hainadan to Sinna Hamadan to Khorreniabad Teberan to Shiraz Kasban to Yezd 
and Kerman
The remaining highways of Persia may be divided into two classes : caravan or inule tracks, 
upon which some, however slight, Pftck roads labour has at one tirne or other been spent, and 
those to which no labour has ever been devoted at all. Samples of the former are the mountain 
road leading-from Teheran through -miles Mazanderan to -Atfeshed-i-Ser on the Caspian, and 
the execrable Teheran to Kum 100 ladder-road from Bushire to Shiraz. To the second class 
belongs Kum to Sultanabad 80 every other track in Persia that has been more or less worn by 
the Sultanabad to Burujird 60 Burujird to Kborremabad 63 feet of beasts of burden passing 
from town to town or village to village. The distinguishing features of all these pack-roads are a 
superabundance of loose, jagged stones, the most impossible gradients in steep places, al-I utter 
disregard of improvements so elementary that they might be effected for a few pounds, and the 
universal decay of bridges, caravanserais, and public works. So much for the existing routes. 
Under the auspices of the Imperial Bank of Persia, an attempt is now being inade. to supply 
Ne%v Persia, not inerely with a carriageable road and. transTeheran- port service. by carts, 
but with a new highway of entry road into the country, penetrating as fiar as the capital, from 
the Southern sea. This is the long-pro . jected and now finally I Hence, in the dry season, it is 
possible for wheeled vehicles to travel upon them in many parts, thougli, as soon as a mountain 
pass is readied, the situation becomes critical. The Sbal) jourmyffl al11109t- all the way to 
Baghdad, on bis way to Kerbela in 1870, in a carri~ige; bitt the, road was in the bands of 
workmen for

|PPage_
montlis beforeliatid. In the -wliole of jay chaliar rides I did not encounter lialf a dozen vebicles.
commenced road between Teheran and Shushter, or Abwaz, on the Karun, vii Kum, Sultanabad, 
Burujird, and Khorremabad. A concession for this road for sixty years was granted by the Shah 
in 1889 to the Mushir-ed-Dowleh, and was acquired from him by the Imperial Bank, whose 
engineers have since prospected the line, and whose workmen are now engaged upon its 
construction. It is not improbable that a syndicate may be formed for the complete execution of 
this scheme. Its advantages have long been realised, and consist in the great reduction of distance 
effected between the Persian Gulf and the principal cities of Western Persia; in the corn-
growing districts of immense but neglected capacity opened up ; in the increased facilities that 
will be provided for the importation of British or Anglo-Indian merchandise into the interior ; 
and in the use that is likely to be made of the road by the human stream of pilgrims who, by the 
hundred thousand, annually trudge along the Persian highways in movement towards the sacred 
goals of Kum, or Meshed in the east, and of Kerbela, Nejef, Kazimein, Saniara, and, ultimately, 
Mecca in the southwest. The distances upon this road may roughly be calculated as follows:
Miles Khorreinaabad to Dizful 1156 Dizful to Shusbter. 36 Shushter to Ahwaz 52
Upon this line, or at least upon the more level sections of it, a wagon service will be organised; 
the rivers, where necessary, will be bridged; caravanserais and guardhouses will be built; and 
from Burujird a branch road is to be constructed to Isfahan, a distance of 210 miles, thus 
bringing the southern capital into new connection both with the western centres of trade and 
population and with a fresh outlet on the Persian Gulf. Thi's road, as will have been seen, is 
linked on the south to the waterway of the Karun river; and I must postpone to my chapter upon 
that subject any further discussion of its features, which I have here regarded only, in their 
bearing upon the system of Persian communications in general.ËË It is calculated that Teheran 
I For a more elaborate discussion of the advantages claimed by the new road, I may be permitted 
to refer my readers to Colonel Bell's article in Black?V00d's _01ËËttgazine, April 
1889, and to a paper by myself on I The Karun River and Commercial Geography of South-West 
Persia,ËËin the Proceedings of Me -R. G. S., Sept. 1890.

|PPage_
490 
will thereby be brought within twelve days by caravan of the Persian. Gulf,ËËinstead of the 
forty to fifty days that are the minimum now occupied by beasts of burden following the familiar 
mule-track vi6 Shiraz from Bushire. Lastly comes the -heading of projected, discussed, or 
contemplated roads, a class which, whatever the ingredient commodity, is Projected always 
well-stocked in Persia. In my chapter upon roads Azerbaijan, I have mentioned the long-talked-
of, but as yet uncommenced, roads from Tabriz vid Ardebil to Astara on the Caspian, and from 
the Turkish frontier at Bayazid vid, Khoi to Tabriz. The Sliall is also willing to grant, or has 
already granted, concessions for wagon-roads from Teheran to Tabriz, from Tabriz to Julfa, and 
from Zinjan vid, Hamadan to Burujird. It goes without saying that all these roads, if 
constructed, would be of great advantage to the undeveloped resources of the country; although, 
in the present backward condition both of agriculture and population, some of them might not 
produce an immediate return, and others would be remunerative in different ratios. Political 
considerations will render some of these roads more favourable to British, others to Russian, 
ambition. Broadly speaking, roads fro *in the north and north-west will beDefit Russian 
commerce, and, if it ever arise, Russian aggression; roads from the south and south-west will 
benefit British influence. I prefer, however, not to regard this question from the outside-nation 
point of view, conceiving that the true interests to be regarded are those of Persia, and that to 
whatever schemes can be devised for the amelioration of that country, both Russia and England 
should lend a helping hand ËË opposing no obstacles of a purely selfish character, but 
extracting in friendly competition whatever of commercial advantage they can from that which 
is primarily beneficial to Iran. It is, indeed, to the extension of roads, and at; a future date of 
railroads (for the latter vide Chapter XVIII.), that the energies of Road- all friends of Persia 
should be directed. They will be n1ahilig inclined to favour the one or the other iaethod, 
according policy as their conception of the due rate of progress is slow or rapid, The more 
cautious spirit, whose motto is Fleslina 169de, tl~e eternal Yavash of the. Persian vocabulary, 
declares that lie will be content for the time being with the repair or construction of good cart 
roads between the various trading centres and from the sea INST1TUTIONS AND REFORMS
491
ports, with the removal of arbitrary restrictions upon commerce, and with the assurance of 
security to life and property upon the caravan routes. Later on he hopes for the gradual 
introduction of

|PPage_
railways, commencing experimentally in the regions most likely to give a mercantile return, 
and extending by slow degrees throughout the country. The more impetuous nature would like to 
carry Persia by storm, to throw down her walls by trumpet-blast, and to open her doorways to 
the world by a network of railways, connecting with those of India, Turkey, and Russia, and 
transporting her at a bound into the van of civilised nations. A mean may very practically be 
discovered between the two ideas. The Persian Government may reasonably be pressed, or, if it 
be found unwilling, foreign capital May be enlisted, to undertake the proper opening up of the 
natural channels of communication. Di(I the Shah's Government show the least genuine 
earnestness in the matter, there is quite sufficient money in the country, without appealing to 
Europe for a sixpence, to initiate and to carry through these by no means costly undertakings. 
Persians possessed of means would be willing enough to invest in their own country, did they not 
feel that it was like throwing money down a kanat. The absence, however, of any State guarantee, 
and the general insecurity of property, prevent, and will probably continue to prevent, any 
such employment of native capital on a large scale. Until a better r6gime is inaugurated in the 
country, the necessity of foreign assistance will continue to be felt. lt is noteworthy that 
Messrs. Andreas and Stolze, after their seven yearsËË official or semi-official experience of 
Persia, concluded Messrs. their r6sumg of the industrial condition of that country Andreasz by 
the strongest possible recommendation of such road and Stol e works as I have indicated or 
described. They said:
The caravan tracks are designed only for beasts of burden, and are only passable by them with 
difficulty. Yet there is no doubt that it would be possible to d ËË iscover roads upon which, 
with comparatively little improvement, large two-wheeled carts might pass from the coast to 
the mountain terraces and to the plateau proper. It would be of great advantage to have the goods 
remaining in the cart until they reach their destination, in place of the reckless daily unlading 
of the mules. In the second place, bales of over 75 kilos. have now to be transported on litters, 
and accordingly pay double carriage, while packages of more than 250 kilos. have to be hauled 
along by

|PPage_
492
ó
  dfrom conversations with perso!-S ~eli lualified tthat the total is nearer one, 
~MRO-n.,--They are _Co-~O__fbund in every walk of life, from the ~JËËnisfjrs and nobles 
of the Court to the scavenger or the groom, not the least arena of their activity being the 
Mussulman priest hood itself.It will have been noticed that the movement was initiated by 
seyids, kajis, and mullahs-i.e. persons who, either by descent, from pious inclination, or by 
profession, were intim ately concerned with the Mohammedan creed; and it is among even the 
professed votaries of the faith that they continue to make their converts.Many Babis are well 
known to be such, but, as long as they walk circumspectly, are free from intrusion or 
persecution. In the poorer walks of life the fact is, as a rule, concealed for fear

|PPage_
600
ó
 d,ËË and, amongst other applications, was used to mean ten thousand 
dinars. The dinar was a gold coin of 52 grains, equivalent, therefore, to a fraction more than 
half a sovereign ; consequently a tovio= was worth about 5,0001. With the Sefavi dynasty, 
during the sixteenth century, the tontan ceased to be equivalent to 10,000 gold dinam, and under 
Abbas the Great a tonian of money was equivalent to 50 abbassis-a silver coin weighing about 
130 grains-and the value of the toman was about 31. 7s. The abbassi was divided into four 
sAahig, weighing each 18 grains of silver, and worth about 4d. The tonean, as it does to-day, 
still figured in accounts as 10,000 dinars, but the dinars became a mere money of account, 
without any coin to represent it. The weights of the silver coinage were soon reduced, and in 
1678 one toman (or 50 abbassis) was worth 21. 6s. 8d. At the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, under Shah Sultan Husein, the abbassi weighed only 84 grains, and the toman was 
worth about 21. 4s., and under Nadir Shah, some years later, the abbassi was reduced to 72 
grains, and the toman was worth 11. 18s. In Sir John Malcolm's History o Persia, published 
in 1815, the toman is put down at 11. Under Fath Ali Shah, who died in 1835, krans, each 
weighing 142 grains, were first coined, and a kran was eAual to 5 abbassis or 20 shahis, and 
was the tenth part of a tontan, which was worth 15s. The shahis ceased to be silver coins, and 
with a further reduction in the weight of the Iran, silver abbassis were also abolished. The kran 
experienced several reductions in weight; already in 1839, ten of them, or one toman, were 
worth only 10s. 91d.; and now, in 1891, the tontan is worth about 5s. 9d. 2 The abbassi, or 
one-fifth of a kraa, is worth less than Il.d., and the shaki is a copper coin weighing 77 grains, 
and worth a quarter of that amount. It is tolerably certain that the people had to bear the 
weighty burden of these tamperings with the standard, and, as in other countries, the decrease 
in weight or fineness of coin was no more than an indirect and very severe tax. Of the copper 
coinage, we are told, for instance, that it was considerable, that each town had its own coinage, 
and that it was re-minted every year at a reduction, and that the old coin was forcibly bought tip 
at par with the new coin of lesser weight. In the seventeenth century one pound of copper was 
coined into 46 kagbeks, worth Is. 4d., giving a profit of 15 per cent. The Shah in 1672 received 
a royalty of 2 per cent. on the mintage, Three. inferences may, I think, be drawn from the 
fragmentary notices we have of currency matters, viz.: that the riches of the country have 
greatly decreased; that the circulating medium has for ages been below the wants of the country; 
and that one of the causes of this lack of coin is the boardings of the Government and, doubtless, 
also of the people. Any one who has examined a handful of old Persian coin-i.e. coin minted 
before 1877-will understand the difficulty there is in counting (for weighing is out of the 
question) and examining any considerable sum. A thorough and well thought-out reform is, 
therefore, of great urgency, as a first step to the economic regeneration of the country. 
Unfortunately, to bring about such a reform, the Persian Government must give up all its old 
ideas of administration, and its profits obtained by farming out the mint; in fact, it must submit 
to be absolutely guided

|PPage_
by European theory and practice, Attempts have been made of late years to attain this object, 
but, they have failed, on account of the public weal having frequently given way to temporary 
profit. In 1863 Monsieur Davoust was invited to Teheran to take charge of the
__1
INSTITUTIONS AND REFORMS
513
mint, but the resistance, active and passive, be encountered was so great that seven years later 
be left the country without having been able to accomplish anything. In 1875 Herr Pechau, an 
Austrian mint official, was entrusted with a reform of the currency, and initiated one which 
would have been effiCieDt bad he been allowed full powers and the requisite means for carrying 
out his ideas. He no sooner had begun his work, however, than he was ordered to coin large 
quantities of copper, and to leave silver minting for a future occasion. When he attempted to coin 
a standard silver kran, and asked for the funds necessary for raising the quality of the piece, be 
was met by a refusal, and by a suggestion as to alloy which it was impossible for him, as an 
Austrian official, to accept. Herr Pechan furnished the following table, showing the result of his 
assays of coin in circulation in 1877. It must be stated that at that time the governors of 
provinces had each a local mint, for working which they paid a yearly royalty.
Provinces
Hamadan Tauris Kashan Isfahan Kerman Mazanderan Meshed Kermanshah Resht.. Teheran Shiraz 
Yezd Herat.
Years
A.H. A.D. 1293 1877 1290 1874 1282 1865 1293 1877 1293 1877 1292 1876 1293 
1877

|PPage_
1282 1866 1280 1864 1292 1876 1291 1875 1278 1862 1277 1861
Weight
grammes 4-95 4-90 5-03 5-02 4-90 4-97 4-90 4-97 4-80 5-02 4-90 4-97 4-90
These figures give some idea of the irregularity of the Persian currency. Between krans of 
Hamadan and those of Teheran there is a difference in value of no less than 17 per cent.; between 
those of other towns and of the capital the difference is very considerable from a monetary point 
of view, although less than in the extreme ewes quoted. Since 1877 the currency has certainly 
not improved, for the old heavy krans have been re-minted, and the debased ones remain in 
circulation in obedience to Gresham's law. It is evident that a reform of the currency can 
only be carried out in one oft wo ways :-Firstly : The Government should abandon the policy of 
farming out the mint f or a yearly sum, and should take over the direct management of the 
currency. A new coinage should be struck, and the old coinage called in and re-minted at its leaal 
standard and weight, at the expense of the State. This would be the best 0 and soundest solution of 
the difficulty, but to carry it out the ideas of the Government must undergo a complete 
revolution. Secondly: The mint might be handed over to European control for a definite period, to 
be worked f or the benefit of the State. As the Governmeut would probably refuse to make any 
sacrifices for the reform, there remains only the creation of a new system, based upon a kran, 
corresponding to the value of the coin actually in circulation, less the cost of recoinage. This 
would enable the old coinage to be called in, and, with the dearth of the circulating medium, it is 
probable that the modification would affect the exchange very slightly, if at all. On the other 
hand, a uniform type of kran, well executed and circulating in sufficient quantities, would 
undoubtedly be a great boon to trade and to the country generally.
Fineness

|PPage_
per 1,000 760 820 820 840 840 840 840 880 890 900 900 900 900
Value
francs 0-836 0-8926 0-91658 0-937 0-9146 0-9277 0.91 0-9719 0-9493 1-004 0-
98 0-994 0-98

|PPage_
514 
CHAPTER XVI
THE NORTH-WEST AND WESTERN PROVINCES
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear.
Ille etiam cwcos instare tumultus Smpe monet, fraudesque et operta tumescere bella.
SHAKSPEARE, Macbeth, act iii. se. 4.
VIRGIL, Georg. 1. 46-5.
IN passing to the North-Western Provinces of Persia, I am approaching a part of my-subject 
which, like the Caspian Provinces Peculiar -but for different and less purely physical reasons-
has political special characteristics and a marked individuality of its interest of Azer- own. 
These reasons are in the main political, or allied baijan thereto. Azerbaijan is the province 
which, excepting only Khorasan, has more often been violated by foreign invasion than any other 
part of Persia. Not seventy years a-go it was the theatre of the last Russo-Persian war. Should 
that conflict ever again be renewed, it is all but certain to be the scene of the initial operations. 
Its northern borders march with those of the Russian Trans-Caucasian dominions, and its 
capital is less than 100 miles from the Russian frontier. On the west it is coterminous with the 
territories of another Power with whom Persia is on worse terms than with Russia-viz. 
Turkey-and the borderland with whom is to this day a matter of dispute and an arena of 
intermittent conflict. Nor is the political problem of Azerbaijan created by actual contact or 
possible collision with Russia and Turkeyalone. The province contains within itself human 
elements that differentiate it from all other parts of the kingdom. Here, and in the adjacent 
regions, are located the famous and formidable Kurds, whose name has achieved a world-wide 
reputation as synonymous with a state of anarchy and deeds of blood. Here, side by side with 
these desperate tribesmen, are settled a large population belonging to an ancient Christian 
persuasion, who have attracted to themselves the attention of Europe, and have fired the 
missionary enterprise alike of America, France, and Great
THE NORTH-WEST AND WESTERN PROVINCES 515
Britain. Here, too) are to be found the ubiquitous Armenians and their inseparable and 
irrepressible concomita nt, the Armenian Question. Surely in these jarring elements, which 
would appear to have as much in common as the contents of the several vessels that compose a 
cruet-stand, there is material enough and to spare for

|PPage_
the I questionsËË of diplomatists or the crises of politicians. If we add that the vast majority 
of the inhabitants of this part of the Shah's dominions are not Iranian but Turkish in 
descent, and that the language of Azerbaijan is not Persian but Turki, we augment rather than 
diminish the interest already excited; whilst the facts that from this province are drawn the 
most resolute and warlike elements of the entire population of Persia, that it contains the 
commercial capital, Tabriz, and that its fertility of resources entitles it to be called the granary 
of Northern Iran, justify the claim that it should be examined and regarded with no careless or 
superficial eye.ËË My readers will long ago have gathered that Persia is a land of mountains 
and plains, in which the former are rarely out of Mountain sight, and the latter play the part of 
thresholds to the system successive ranges. - Azerbaijan does not differ from the rest of the 
country in this respect. But-whereas we have hitherto remained in close proximity to the main 
or lateral branches of a single great system, running from the south-west of the Caspian to the 
confines of Meshed, we here encounter a separate and detached mountain group, not directly 
connected with the Elburz. The orographic system of North-Western Persia is part of the lofty 
highlands of Russian and Turkish Armenia on the north and northwest, and of Kurdistan on the 
-south, which have been called by Ritter the Medic Isthmus, connecting the Iranian with the
I For information relating specially to Azerbaijan, vide John Bell (1716), Travels from St. 
Petersburg, vol. L; P. Tancoigne (1807-1808), Lettr6s 8ur la Per8e, vol. L; A. Dupr6 
(1807-1809), Voyage en Perge, vol. L; Sir J. M. Kinn eir (circ. 1810), Geographical 
Memoir; J. P. Morier (1809), First Journey, caps. Xiv., xv.; J. P. Morier (1812), Second 
Journey, caps. Xv., Xvi., Xviii., XiX., XX., Xxii. ; St. Martin (1818), ff6moires ssa- 
IËËArmlnie, 2 vols.; Colonel W. Monteith (1826), Journal of the R. G.S., vol. iii. p. 1 ; 
General F. R. Chesney (1835-1837), EX.Pedition for the Survey of the Euphrates, vol. ii. cap. 
x.; Colonel W. K. Stuart (1835), Journal of a Residence in Northern Perq4; Ch. Texier 
(1839), LËËArminie, la Perse, et la M68opotamie; M. von Thielmann (1872), Journey in 
the Caucasus, vol. ii.; Dr. G. Radde (1879-80), Petermann's Mittheil. 1881, pp. 47-55, 
169-176, 261-270; M. Orsolle (1882), Le Caucase et la Perse; Mme. Dieulafoy (1881); La 
Perse, caps. ii.-v.

|PPage_
.516
PERSU
Anatolian ranges. The northern part of this region is broken into fertile valleys and rolling 
plateaux; the ravines sometimes contain extensive, but not lofty, forests; on the hill slopes are 
pasture-lands which feed the flocks of the nomad tribes; whilst in the hollows of the plains, 
where water is abundant, villages are buried in the rich foliage of orchards and gardens. A 
considerable river, the Aras or Araxes, is the boundary of the province on the north, the Kizil 
Uzun (Red Long River), skirts it on the south, and afterwards, under the name of the Sefid Rud 
(White River), flows into the Caspian to the east of Resht. Rich in water, with a soil excellently 
adapted to the growth of cereals, possessing mineral resources, certain though undeveloped, 
Azerbaijan is indeed a favoured portion of the Shah's dominions. Further south, when we 
come to the Kurdistan mountains, a name somewbat vaguely applied to the frontier highlands 
inhabited by the Kurds, the more open valleys and undulations of the north are succeeded by 
narrow defiles between the several ridges, whose uniform inclination is, with an astonishing 
regularity, from north-west to south-east, and passage between which is effected by means of 
deep tengs or transverse gorges, due, like those which I have previously described in 
NorthEastern Khorasan, not to the erosive action of water, but to primordial fracture in the 
crust of the earth. These mountains unite on the south with the range known to classical writers 
as the Zagros. The great elevation and the more northern latitude of this mountainous region are 
responsible for extremes of climate more Climate severe than are felt in any other part of 
Persia. The beat of the Persian Gulf in summer is matched by the cold of Azerbaijan in winter; 
but whereas the Gulf is never cold in winter, Azerbaijan is apt to be excessively hot in summer 
as well. The spring and autumn are delightful seasons. In the intervening months the sun's 
rays are very piercing. The winter begins early, lasts late, and is dreaded for its rigours. Heavy 
falls of snow block the roads; men are frequently frozen to death in the passes; at Tabriz, a 
thermometer exposed to the air at night seldom rises above zero (Fahrenheit), and weyead of 
ink freezing in the inkstand and water in the tumblers in a room where a fire is kept burning. 
Colonel Stewart, in a report, compares the summer climate to India (with the advantage, 
however, of cool nights) and the winter climate to Canada. General Chesney gave the area of 
Azerbaijan as 25,280 square
THE NORTH-WEST AND WESTERN PROVINCES 517
miles. Colonel Stewart, now Consul-Geueral at Tabriz, returns it as 43,500, General Schindler 
as 35,000. The total population Population is estimated at not far short of 2 000,000,1 of 
which the Kurds are reckoned at 450,000, and the Christians at

|PPage_
72,900 (Nestorians, 44,000; Armenians, 28,900). Owing in part to the missionary 
establishments of the foreign churches, in part to the staffs of the various consulates at Tabriz, 
and in part to the mercantile importance of the latter city, there are now as many as 120 
Europeans and Americans in the province. The name Azerbaijan is said to be derived from Azer, 
fire, and baijan, keeper, and to testify to the ancient predominance of the fire-worshippers in 
this part of Persia. It is identical with the Atropatia or Atropatene of the classical writers. In 
the ta~les which I publish elsewhere of the Persian Re, venue for 1888 to 1889, the 
contribution of Azerbaijan appears Revenue at 786,142 tomans, plus 60,062 kharvaxs of 
grain, or a and ex- total money value of 966,666 tomans, equivalent to penditure 276,1901. 
On the other hand, the revenue for 1889 to 1.890 appears in the Consular Report 2 as 
385,6741. Notwotables of Persian accounts -svere ever found to agree - and there is 
frequently sufficient ground for divergence in the differeDt bases upon which the conflicting 
calculations have been framed. In this case the figures in the earlier and smaller estimate are 
those of revenue from taxes and customs only, and are calculated at the rate of 35 krans to 11. 
The -figures in the Consular Report contain other items, as the following table shows ; and the 
recent remarkable rise in silver having lowered the rate of exchange to 30 krans tothe 11., 
they are counted at that rate: MaliatËË (including land tax in money, rent of Crown lands, tax 
X s. J. on cattle, and tax on trades), 750,000 tontans . . = 275,000 0 0 Tax in kind, 15,200 
kharvars (kharrar = 1,000 lbs.) of grain = 6,7851 tons. Value, at 15s. a kkarvar of 1,000 
lbs 11,400 0 0 7,000 k7tarvars of straw = 3,125 tons, at 6s. 6d. a k7tarrar of 1,000 lbs. 
Customs and oetroi, 271,000 tomans Passports, 20,000 to)nans
2,275 0 0 90,333 60 6,66G 13 0
Total 385,671 190
This total is not in itself by any means too severe a burden for
If this be correct, Azerbaijan must be by far the most thickly populated province of Persia. 
ËË Diploviatie and Consitlar _Rej)orts, No. 789, 1890.

|PPage_
618
ó
  dynasty of Turkish extraction. There is far too keen a hatred between Shialis 
and Sunnis, between the Turkish subjects of the Shah and the Turkish subjects of the Sultan 
across the border, to
I A WitzterËË,v Iouriiey, p. 401.

|PPage_
524 
afford much scope for political discontent among the former; and A~erbaij an if; probably at 
this moment the most loyal of the frontier provinces. ËË Its inhabitants (with the exception of 
the Kurds, who will be dealt with separately, and of whom it would be unsafe to predicate loyalty 
to anybody), being of the Turkish stock, are more stubborn and self-reliant than the docile and 
supple Iranian ; and it may be asserted that, were resistance to a foreign invader ventured upon, 
it would be far more effectively displayed by the Azerbaijanis, in spite of their proximity to 
Russian territory and Russian arms, tha;n by the lethargic peoples of Khorasan. Russia has 
been, not unnaturally, credited with designs upon Azerbaijan second only in seriousness and 
intensity to her Russianyearning for Khorasan. Just as, after the war of 1857, views England, 
in the opinion of many persons ËË well qualified to judge, acted foolishly in the surrender of 
certain posts in the south, such as MohammerahËËand Busbire, which were then in her 
possession, so Russia is believed many times to have regretted that she did -not retain a little 
more in the settlement of Turkomanchai.That that settlement was as negatively favourable, or as 
little unfavourable, to the Persians as it now appears to-have beenj was mainly due to the wise 
counsel of Sir John McNeill, who persuaded Fath Ali Shah to yield before more. Was demanded. 
Sir Justin Sheil, speaking with the authority of a British Minister in Persia, said :
Had Russia known then as well as she now (eirc. 1850) does the value of Azerbaijan, 
commercial, political and material-its richness in corn, mineral productions, and soldiers-
there can be little doubt that that province too would have been absorbed by the Holy 
Empire.ËË
Trade between Europe and Persia in this quarter has commonly entered or left Azerbaijan by 
one of two routes-either through Trade of Turkish territory from Trebizond in the south-
eastern Azerbaijan corner of the Black Sea, or through Russian territory from the Caucasus. 
The former route was inaugurated by Abbas Mirza over sixty years a o, with the double desire of 
encouraging ~9 British trade with Persia, to which he was very friendly, and of injuring the 
Russian trade route, to which he was naturally hostile. This prince deputed an agent to London 
and established correspon ËË Note D to Lady Sbeil's Glbnpses of -Life and Maniters in 
Persia.
THE NORTII-WE ST AND WESTERN PROVINCES 525
dence with a large commercial house in the City, who opened direct communication by steamer 
with Trebizond. The first experiment failed; but a second attempt, in which the English

|PPage_
goods were brought in transit through Constantinople, succeeded, and this transit trade is said 
before long to have, amounted to 1,000,0001. At the same time cloth manufacture was 
introduced into Persia by Mr. Armstrong, an Englishman, at the request and cost of Abbas Mirza. 
Fulling mills were established at Khoi, and spinning, carding, and weaving machines near 
Tabriz. After the rupture between England and Persia consequent upon Mohammed Shah's 
expedition against Herat in 1838, this Anglo-Persian trade collapsed abruptly; and in the year 
1839 an English traveller wrote:,ËËOf the British residents in Tabriz only three remain; of 
the British commerce I am not aware that there are any remains.ËË The squabbles of 
diplomatists and the humours of Courts do not, however, permanently interfere with a trade 
well founded and convenient to both parties; and within a few yearsËË time British imports 
were again to be seen in the ascendant in the bazaars of Tabriz. There was the less necessity to 
adopt the long and arduous overland route from Trebizond, because Russia for some -time 
encouraged international trade by allowing free transit through the Caucasus, Poti being the 
port of debarkation usually resorted to on the Black Sea. Under these conditions the value of 
imports and exports for the province of Azerbaijan rose in theyears 1868, 1869, and 1870 to 
the following high figures :
1868 1869 1870 Imports Z1,351,000 ~Cl,575,776 tl,094,717 Exports 683,885 901,218 
422,6321
In explanation of these remarkably high figures of imports, it must be remembered that- the 
bulk of trade with Northern Persia) both Russian and English, at that time entered the country 
byway of Azerbaijan, the Russians not having as yet developed the BakuEnzeli route, and the 
English not having approached Teheran on any large scale from the Persian Gulf. The absolute 
command of the market in cotton fabrics, possessed by Great Britain, is shown by the following 
proportions of the totals above quoted: 1868 1869 1870 :CI,017,885 Z1,123,211 L864,000
I The great fall in the exports for 1870 was due to the lamentable famine of that year. The 
growth and export of cotton all but collapsed.

|PPage_
526 
In 1877, however, Russia embarked upon a policy ofËË strict protection, and adopted almost 
prohibitive measures against the Russian Caucasian transit trade by demanding the deposit with 
protection Russian officials of a sum equal to the entire value of the goods transported through 
her territory, which was only returned after it had been certified by official report that the 
goods had crossed the frontier intact. This edict had the effect of driving back the European trade 
with Persia to the Trebizond route. It was to some extent modified a little later, but reappeared 
in a yet more savage form in 1883, to which year we may attribute the almost total cessation of 
the Caucasian route for European goods bound for Persia, which have ever since continued to 
enter the country from Trebizond. Of this route and the value of the trade that passes along it, I 
shall say something in a later chapter upon the Commerce of Persia. I am here restricting 
myself to the figures of Azerbaijan, of which, however, it must be borne in mind that a large 
proportion only passes through the Custom-house in transit to other parts of the country, and 
therefore must not be mistaken for local consumption. Taking the returns for the last three 
years, or a period twentyLatest years posterior to that previously selected, we find that. 
statistics the totals are as follows:
1887 1888 1889 Imports Z910,108~M64,196 L853,891 Exports 575,035413,694 
389,466 Total volume of trade1,485,143 1,077,8TO 1,243,347
England still retains a scarcely disputed command of the market in cotton goods (grey and white, 
coloured, and prints), the value of her imports in these commodities (nearly all from 
Manchester) having been 393,2201. in 1888 and 501,8301. in 1889. During the same years 
Russia only imported 170 bales of cotton goods in 1888, and 196 bales, valued at 4,0001., in 
1889. The collapse in Russian competition, which raged rather merrily a few years ago, is to 
some extent due to temporary circumstances, of which the main is the extraordinary rise of 
fifty per cent. in the value of the Russian paper rouble in the course of the last two years, 
rendering importation from that country an unremunerative proceeding. Russia, however, 
assisted by a large direct bounty to her exporters, has handsomely beaten French sugar in the 
Tabriz market, although the rise in the rouble may detrimentally affect her here
THE NORTH-WEST AND WESTERN PROVINCES 627
also. Woollen goods to the value of from 30,0001. to 40,0001. come from Bradford; but a 
rather larger proportion (40,0001. to 50,0001.) hails from Austria and Germany, the bulk of 
these being woollen cloths of stiff texture and lustrous surface, which are

|PPage_
manufactured in the former country. Tea to the value of 107,0001. comes from London and 
Amsterdam, chiefly the former. Russia sends half the glassware and crockery; Austria and 
Germany the other half. The two ËË last-named countries share with France the 
haberdashery, and with France and Italy the velvets and silks. Bavaria supplies the gold lace and 
thread. Of the total of imports above quoted for 1889, the proportions claimed by Russia and 
other European countries are respectively as follows:
From Europe L792,310
ËËFrom Russia :e61,551
Roughly speaking, England may be said to take about 80 per cent. of the import and 10 to 12 per 
cent. of the export trade. The above figures represent the European import trade from 
Trebizond, and the Russian import trade by the two routes of Tiflis and Julfa, and, on a rather 
larger scale, vid Ardebil, from the little port of Astara, on the Caspian. European goods in small 
quantities enter Azerbaijan from other quarters, viz. vid Aleppo and Mosulfrom Alexandretta, 
and vid Suleimanieh from Baghdad, but the returns of this traffic are not forthcoming. ËËIf we 
turn to the component items of the export table, it is not surprising to find that Russia, by 
virtue of her neighbourhood E xport and the handy market thereby supplied to local produce, 
trade claims a large preponderance-266,4391., as compared. with the 123,0171. of other 
countries.ËË Of the former total, by far the largest item consists of dried fruits, raisins, 
apricots, and almonds, which to the united value of nearly 200,0001. in 1890 (and in 1888 of 
222,0001.) were exported from the plains of Urumiah and Maragha by Russian Armenians 
through Ardebil and Astara, for shipment to Baku. Of the latter, or European total, the largest 
items are carpets, which to the value of 42,2601. were exported, principally to England and 
America, and tumbaku, or Shiraz tobacco, to the value of 36,2901., which goes to fill the 
hubble-bubbles ËËin
The figures here quoted of Russian imports and exports are taken from the British Consular 
Reports, and do not exactly tally with those given in the official Reports published at St. 
Petersburg, where the total of Russian imports is returned as 74,6241., and of Persian 
exports to Russia as 318 7511.

|PPage_
4528
ó
 court of which contains a dozen ancient smootl)--bore six-pounders and a single 
brass howitzer. Until recently, and while the Kurdish terror arising out of the rebellion of 
Sheikh Obeidullah in 1880 prevailed, a garrison of three regiments of regulars, armed with 
Werndl rifles, was quartered here. To Christian visitors the chiefËË interest of the place, 
will consist in the fact that it is the headquarters of the American, French, and- English 
Missions to the Nestorian populations of the neighbourhood, to which interesting but somewhat 
intricate subject I now turn.ËË The Nestorian Christians of the Turco-Persian highlands 
have, been variously estimated at figures between 100,000 and 200,000 ËË Origin the 
higher being in all probability the more correct calof the culation. Of these by far the greater 
number are Turkish Nestorians subjects, the Nestorian population of Azerbaijan being,. 
according to the latest report (which nearly doubles all previous.
es at an average of six persons, which will give a total of 
28,890; or, together with the Nestorians, a grand total of 72,890 for the Christian population 
of Azerbaijan. The Persian Armenians are a less attractive and an even less reliable people than 
the mendacious, but peaceable Nestorians. They travel a great

|PPage_
deal, and pick up revolutionary ideas, and are disposed to deceit and turbulence. The local head of 
their church is an archbishop at Tabriz, who throws what obstaclesËË he can in the way of the 
Christian missions; whilst the Catholicos of the entire Armenian church is located not far from 
the frontier, in Russian territory, at Ecbmiadzin. The Armenian question is, however, so much 
a Turkish and so little a Persian one, that I do not feel called upon to say- anything more about it 
here. I shall have occasion to speak of the people again, when dealing with Julfa, From the 
Nestorians and Armenians it is an easy and natural transition to turn to their hereditary foes, 
the Kurds. It is a
Kurdistan strange caprice of fortune that should have located in this quarter of the globe, in 
immediate neighbourhood, two, nay, three communities of men, alien to each other in character, 
race, and religion, whose juxtaposition is fraught with endless and irremediable strife, 
whereas, had they been separated,
and less
THE NORTH-WEST AND WESTERN PROVINCES 649
each has qualities and merits fitting it for some nobler part than that of combatants in an 
international brawl. Kurdistan, which is a name in very common use upon the titlepage of 
travellersËË books, is no more than a convenient geographical expression- for the entire 
country, estimated at over 50,000 square miles, that is inhabited by the Kurds. This region has 
Do natural or political boundaries; it includes both Turkish and Persian territory, and it 
contains many other elements, Turkish, Persian, Cbaldoean, and Armenian, in the population as 
well. It may be said to extend from Turkish Armenia on the north, to the plains of the middle 
Tigris and the Luristan mountains on the south, and througli the greater part of this length to 
overlap the Persian border.ËË The origin and ancestry of the Kurds is too large, and, I may 
add, too uncertain a question to be debated at length here. Origin Whether they are of Iranian or 
of Turanian origin, whether and his- they are the descendants of Aledes, or of Parthians, or tory 
of th Kurds whether they are the Gardu or Gurdu, or Gutu, who, in the, remote times when 
Hittites and Accadians were great in the land-, held the mountains north of Assyria, and after 
the fall of Nineveh became Aryanised by the overwhelming Aryan migrations of the- period-are 
questions which no one has hitherto
I I have compiled the following list of authorities for Kurdistan, and more especially the Persian 
Kurds: Sir J. M. Kinneir (1813), do-urney t7wough Eurdistan; J. S. Buckingham (1816), 
Trarels in Assyria, ete., caps. vi.-ix.; C. J. Rich (1820), Xarrative of a -Residence in 
Eoordistan, vol. i. caps. ii.-xi.; I-Ion. G. Keppel (1824), Personal zl-arratire, (~f a Jovrney, 
etc., caps. Xii., xiv.; Sir H. Willock (1829), Asgassination of Projessor &-hultz in Kurdistan, 
(Journal of the

|PPage_
R. As. Soc., vol. i.); G. Fowler (1831, 1836), Diree YearsËË-Ilesidence in Persia, vol. i. p. 
134, vol. ii. cqp. ii.; Capt. 11. Mignan (1830), Winter Journey througA 11ussia to 
Koordistaun, 2 vols.; (Sir) J. Sheil (1836), Jovrnal qf the R. G. S., vol. viii. p. 54 ; J. B. 
Fraser (1834), Trovels in Koordistan, etc., vol. i. letters iii., iv., v.; vol. ii. letters viii., ix., 
x. ; (Sir) H. Rawlinson (1838), Journal (!f ilie R. G. S., vol. x. p. 1 ; J. Brant (1838), 
Jovrnal of the R. 6. 8., vol. x. p. 341; Corn. J. F. Jones (1844), Xarrative of a .,Tourney 
through part qf Xurdistan (No. 43 of Bombay Records, 1857); M. Wagner (1843), Travels in . 
. . Koordistan; Scheref Nameb, Prince de Bitlis, Histoire des -Kourdes, 2 vols, 1860-1862; 
1). W. Marsh (1864), The Tennesseean, in Persian Xurdistan; J. G. Taylor (1864), Journal of 
Me R. G. S., vol. xxxv. p, 21 ; F. Millingen (1868), Wild Life aviong t7te Koords; J. C. McUoan 
(1879), Our -A-ew Protectorate, Turkey in Asia, 2 vols. ; Colonel R. E. Carr (1.879), 
ËËThe Kurdistan Mountain RangesËË (Journal qf t7ie -R. U. S. L, vol. xxii. pp. 135-184); 
J. Crea-b, Arvieniang, Xoords, and Ttirks, 2 vols., 1880; -Major 1-1, Trotter (1881), 1 
Report on the KurdsËË (No. 134 of Parliamentary Palmrs, Turkey, No. 6, 1881); 1-1. 
Binder (1986), Au Kurdistan, cap. v.; Mrs. Bishop (1890), Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, 
vol. ii.

|PPage_
550
ó
 Dowleh. The monuments consist of two deep and lofty arches or grottoes, excavated with great 
labour and skill in the face of the mountain; Sculptures within which are several bas-rellefs, 
executed with of the remarkable spirit and exeellence; while a little beyond, Sassaman KingFi 
where the mountain recedes, a flight of several hundred steps is cut on the edge of the nearly 
precipitous cliffs, finishing abruptly with an extensive ledge or platform. On the edge of the 
river, Sir R. K. Porter noticed the remains of a statue of colossal size, which he thought must 
have fallen from the heights above ; as on the upper ledge was a row ofËË sculptured feet 
broken off at the ankles. I The largest arch measures in height over I Mounsey in 1867 
(Journey, p. 297) said : I Near lies a torso, so mutilated as hardly to be recognisable.ËË On 
the other band, Kiach in 1878 (Ancient Per8ian 3-ulptures) gives an illustration of the statue, 
which be describes as that of I a man wearin,v a turban and a rich garment, and grasping with 
both bands a long stick,ËË and which be says was (In- up and placed in its present position.
ó
 his question I have been astonished to find the most conflicting opinions 
expressed by European writers. Some have seen in the Persian army a possible auxiliary of the 
greatest value, or an enemy too dangerous to be ignored. Others have scarcely found language 
strong enough in which to denounce the administration and deride the material. As the question of 
the actual capabilities of Persia in both respects is one that is likely to play some part in future 
political developments, it is desirable that the truth should, as far as possible, be known, in 
order that no
nons.ËË The Khamseh Lancers, -however, were soon 
voted too expensive a luxury by the king, who found that their keep cost 41. daily; and, 
accordingly, they were disbanded, and Colonel Farrant was told off to instruct the Royal 
Bodyguard, or gholams. This second English experiment was even less successful than the first. 
Persia was not at the time face to face with an overFailure whelming national danger; and the 
new sovereign, and with- Mohammed Shah, was-inflamed with preposterous ideas drawal of the 
English of personal military renown. The British officers were contingent not well received 
from the start, and were subjected to constant liumiliation from the spite and jealousy of their 
Persian colleagues. They were not, even informed beforehand when reviews were going to take 
place. Among the regiments whom they were expected to lick into shapel they found -it difficult 
to contend with the turbulence and rascality, the thieving and drunken propensities, of the 
recruits. After three monthsËË hard work, Sheil wrote,I begin to think it hopeless to 
endeavour to establish a nizam (regular army).ËË And again: With no power except that of the 
lash and such authority as from personal character they could acquire for themselves-no 
control over the pay or rations, which were always embezzled, or over promotion, which was 
always bestowed from corrupt motives-IL-it is not surprising that the English officers did not 
effect more than was done. If they could not enable the Persian troops to conterid successfully 
with the regular troops of other nations, they at all events gave the Persian artillery and 
infantry the means of beating an unlimited number of Afghans, Koords, and Toorkomans, or 
irregular Persian troops.ËË
, but sleep on the floor or on carpets.
ó
 236.

|PPage_
610
ó
 nal pawn-shop on a large scale in 
their pockets. This institution has since opened its doors at Teheran, and besides lending, 
undertakes banking business also; being evidently designed as a sort of Russian counterblast to 
the British Imperial Ban]<. The narrative which I have here compiled of the history of railway 
concessions in Persia will have given some idea of Summary the obstacles with which such 
undertakings have to of impedi- contend. The reactionary party in Persia, with whom mentB the 
mullahs usually side, are opposed to any innovation which may tighten the grip of Europe upon 
their country, and basten the end of their lengthy but inglorious reign. Even if
will briefly marshal the arguments that have led me to that conclusion. The grounds 
upon which such a railway should be advocated, and by which the policy of constructing it must, 
in the last resort, Physical be determined, are fourfold-physical, political, military, and 
economic. I believe that in each of these respects the scheme of a Euphrates Valley railway, if 
tried, will be found wanting. The physical obstacles consist in, the character of the country and 
in the climate. Dismissing the preliminary difficulty that would be encountered in piercing the 
Syrian coast range as one that engineers might reasonably be expected to overcome, there 
remains the fact that, upon the more northerly of the lines suggested, there are no places of the 
faintest importance before reaching Baghdad except Antioch and Aleppo, and that the railway, for 
the most part, would pass over bare and uncultivated plains, whilst upon the more southerly or 
Palmyrene route it would traverse what cannot be otherwise described than as a waterless 
desert. The temperature on these sandy wastes is excessively torrid and trying during the 
summer months, and I decline to belie ve that duriug half the year any general in the world 
would consent to pack his soldiers into third-class carriages for conveyance, across -these 
terrible thousand miles, at least if he anticipated using them in any other capacity than as 
hospital inmates at the end. Still less would he do so if, as contemplated by an extension of the 
scheme, to which I shall presently refer, this section of a thousand miles were only the 
forerunner to another and longer continuation, through a tract of country even less 
prepossessing. I have been astonished in wading through the literature on the subject to note the 
almost absolute unanimity with which the wishes Political or attitude of Turkey in the matter 
have been ignored. The country traversed is from end to end under Turkish dominion; not a rail 
could be laid, or a bridge constructed, or a ticket taken, or a dividend paid-or, as is more likely, 
not paid

|PPage_
634 PERSU RAILWAYS 635

without Turkish consent. And yet the line suggested is one that does not profess for one moment 
to consult Turkish interests or views; it neither opens up her resources nor connects her 
populous centres; it does not save her from Russian aggression on the north nor add to her own 
defensive strength in the south; it has, in fact, been discussed and decided solely in its bearing 
upon British interests and upon the safety of the Indian Empire. But are we entitled to assume 
that Turkey is so very warmly interested in either? My own experience of the Turkish 
Government in Asia is that no axiom is dearer to its heart than that charity not only begins but 
stays at home; and that, if there is a people or a government at whose expense the Ottoman 
officials love to assert their independence in a vexatious spirit, it is the British. Before, 
therefore, we calmly discuss the question of making a thousand-mile railway in our own 
interests through Turkish territory, would it not be as well to ascertain what the Porte thinks 
on the matter ? I have very little doubt myself as to, what would be the nature of the reply. 
Considering that the project is advocated almost solely on military grounds, it should at least be 
invulnerable in those Military respects. I doubt exceedingly whether this could be said of a 
Euphrates Valley railway. Not only, in the impetuous desire to take a bee-line to India, without 
considering the intervening country, does it, as I have pointed out, ignore the true strategical 
line for the defence of Asia Minor, which lies greatly to the north (within the radius of Urfa, 
Diarbekr, Mardin, and Mosul); but, laid as it would be across a lengthy and utterly unprotected 
stretch of country, this railway would be peculiarly exposed to attack, and would consequently 
provide a most unsafe line of communication in time of war. But strongest of all are the fiscal 
and commercial objections. I do not see how such a line, running through s ËË uch a region, 
Economic could possibly be expected to pay; and I should indeed be loth to incur the 
responsibility of advising any Government to saddle itself with even a limited guarantee. I fail to 
see bow it could pay, for three reasons : (1) because of the tremendous initial outlay; (2) 
because the line would not pass through either an agricultural or a mining district, and local 
traffic would be practically nil; (3) because through traffic, either Of passengers or of 
merchandise, would be small-fax smaller

than has ever been anticipated; and the receipts at the two ocean termini would not avail to 
compensate for the utter lack of intervening receipts. I hazard the statement that the returns 
from merchandise would be small, because I do not see how it could pay any trader to incur the 
heavy additional expense of railroad carriage, as well as the risks and delays of one, and 
possibly of two, transhipments en route, in order to save four or, at