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Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. TO RENEW CALL TELEPHONE CENTER, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN py 34 1994 JUN 0 6 1995 MAR O 9 2a} When renewing by phone, write new due date below previous due date. THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS UI Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. University of Illinois Library Set . oe \ i Big 5 ee Be Bais ’ i \ " i Da WA me Vid as Digitized by the Internet Archive - in 2022 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates httos://archive.org/details/persiaitsoeopleOOsyke_0 _ PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE 4 ve Line. ee LN | a * \° ' 4 i” ; 44 4 a is 1 ay 1. oy a a J id THE YOUNG SHAH OF PERSIA PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE BY ELLA C. SYKES AUTHOR OF “ THROUGH PERSIA ON A SIDE-SADDLE” WITH TWENTY ILLUSTRATIONS NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY > 1910 PREFACE HIS book is the result of two visits to Persia, extending over a period of about three years, during which I had considerable opportunities of travel and of mixing with the inhabitants. It was written with the idea of giving a popular description of Iran, but at the same time I have striven to be accurate, and where I could not rely on my personal knowledge I gratefully own my obligation to the works of Mr. Benjamin, Professor E. G. Browne, Lord Curzon, Sir C. Markham, Sir W. Muir, Professor W. Jackson, Sir L. Pelly, and Major Sykes among others. I have been particularly fortunate in having had the benefit of the criticism of Sir Mortimer Durand, formerly H.B.M.’s Minister at Tehran, his advice having been most valuable. Besides this, Major Sykes, Miss Bird, and two Persian gentlemen have supplied useful information ; Mr. H. R. Sykes has kindly allowed me to avail myself of his large collection of photographs, and other illus- trations are by Mr. Bourke and M. Sevraguine, of Tehran. vii 199751 é 3. V“°r4- ( Vill PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE I have tried to give a truthful picture of Persia as it is, dwelling chiefly on those aspects which may be of interest to the general reader, and my principal diffi- culty has been to compress all that I wanted to say within the limits of a single volume. If the public finds half as much pleasure in reading my book as I have had in writing it I shall be more than rewarded. ELLA C. SYKES CHAPTER I. II. CONTENTS SOME DESCRIPTION OF PERSIA A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF PERSIA THE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT é THE PERSIAN MAN ‘ ; , : : A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED THE HOLY : THE ENVIRONS OF A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED ; A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA . ° . . ° . MUHARRAM ! : ; : TRAVEL . : : : ; E THE PERSIAN WOMAN COUNTRY LIFE . é . : : THE PERSIAN GULF AND THE KARUN RIVER i FAUNA AND FLORA : k . MARCO POLO IN PERSIA ° . . . ix 106 122 144 157 . 196 210 224 ede 260 x CHAPTER XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE PAGE A GLANCE AT THE ANTIQUITIES OF PERSIA. ..270 SPORT AND AMUSEMENTS : : : Bete: A FOUR PERSIAN POETS . ; ; : . 284 A SLIGHT ACCOUNT OF THE ARTS AND CRAFTS OF PERSIA . . e bd . « 315 PERSIAN SUPERSTITIONS AND THE ART OF MEDICINE . : : 92m INDEX . : ; : . 341 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ‘HE YOUNG SHAH OF PERSIA . - ‘ Frontispiece FACING PAGE . PERSIAN LADY ‘ : : : - AE *ERSIAN SCHOOL, BASTINADOING AN UNRULY PUPIL OG ’RISONERS ° : ; : ‘ ; i Od, INTRANCE TO SHRINE “IMAM REZA” : ‘ we? ‘OURTYARD OF THE SHRINE, “IMAM REZA” 7 «OA SRAVEYARD ROUND THE SHRINE OF MESHED , <2iGG 9OTTER’S STALL AT MESHED . : ; ‘ . 104 AGHERK VALLEY : : ‘ : ‘ . 106 )ASTEH OF IOTH MUHARRAM . ; ‘ A f150 , PERSIAN GENTLEMAN ON THE ROAD : ; 162 TEZD - : ; y ; . : Alyte 29ERSIAN WOMEN IN OUTDOOR DRESS. : : . 200 3ABR WOMAN AND CHILD ; . ‘ ‘ . 208 CHRESHING ; , ‘ : : : . 215 \ PERSIAN GARDEN ‘ ; , ‘ ‘ 2220 RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS, PROPYLZA OF XERXES : ey \ PERSIAN CARPET FACTORY . : ; ; 320 NOMADS WEAVING CARPETS . ; , : . 324 PERSIAN BARBER EXTRACTING TEETH . 336 MAP ~ A P ° A ' - - 340 xi ATER wens iia Hh hy ; Be: ; Ae Sao AE Ry i ay) F mat ih dey) i 4 Tah wt ae ue ah iN rg oy me fi Di AGVT NVISHUd V a ie Fie PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE COAP FER SOME DESCRIPTION OF PERSIA HE Persians call themselves Irani and their land Iran, the word Persia being derived from the province of Fars or Pars, from which the Zoroastrians of Bombay take their name of Parsis. The country is also known as the “Land of the Lion and the Sun,” and though the king of beasts has almost died out, yet the symbol of the Zoroas- trian deity shines glorious as ever, and on the national standard the sun is depicted with the face of a woman peering over the back of a lion. The area of Persia is estimated at 628,000 square miles, that is to say it is more than three times the size of France, and its people number only about nine and a half millions. Therefore it will cause no surprise to hear that Persia has only fifteen inhabitants to a square mile, and that it is possible to travel for days in the country without coming across a village or even ahuman being. In fact the entire population of this great kingdom is considerably under the joint populations of London, Paris, and New York. B 2 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Persia is bounded on the north by the Caspian Sea and Russia in Asia; on the west by the Turkish Empire; on the east by Afghanistan and British Baluchistan, the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea washing its southern shores. Within these boundaries there are enormous diffe- rences in the formation of the country and the climate. Cyrus the Great once commented on this fact by remarking that at one end of his kingdom his sub- jects might be dying of cold, while at the other they were being suffocated by the intense heat. The centre of Persia is a vast plateau, some 2,000 to 6,000 feet in elevation, separated from the low- lying lands on the Caspian and the Persian Gulf by formidable mountain barriers, in which are many splendid peaks, ranging from 13,000 to 15,000 feet in height. | This table-land is crossed diagonally from north- west to south-east by frequent chains of mountains separating wide plains, and it is possible to drive between these ranges for some hundreds of miles. But if any one wishes to visit the capital Tehran or the holy city Meshed from Europe, he must, soon after leaving the Caspian, cross the Elburz mountains. This mighty chain runs over five hundred miles from west to east, and its highest peak, the extinct volcano Demavend, rises to a height of 20,000 feet. Moreover, should the traveller wish to penetrate into the country by way of the Persian Gulf, he must negotiate a formidable mountain barrier, and clamber over lofty passes, the Zotals between Bushire and Shiraz always being mentioned in terms of well- merited obloquy. SOME DESCRIPTION OF PERSIA 3 The late Dr. Blandford? pointed out that, as the edges of this huge plateau are all higher than its interior, hardly any of the rivers or streams find their way to the sea, but lose themselves in marshes, and the writer remembers seeing from the summit of a hill how the Zendeh Rud, the famous river on which Isfahan is built, ended abruptly in a broad, shallow lake on the wide plain below. In such a country both the temperature and the rain- fall vary greatly, and the feverish, moist heat of the regions round the Caspian and Persian Gulf is the exact opposite of the usually fine climate of the Plateau, where the exhilarating air is of such marvellous dryness and purity that objects can be seen at an almost incredible distance. The extremes of heat and cold, however, are very great on these uplands; there are always heavy falls of snow during the winter in the northern provinces, and though the sun may be powerful during the day, yet the thermometer falls to 15° or 20° at night. In the summer the heat is often intense, and all who can do so migrate to the hills to escape it, the hot, dry winds being very trying. Sun apoplexy is not un- common at this season, a “touch of the sun” giving fever to European and native alike, and it is dangerous to indulge in alcohol during the heat of the day. Violent sandstorms are frequent in the spring in the “desert” provinces, and hailstorms in which the stones are large as marbles and deal destruction to fruit- trees and crops occur at the same season in the north. To give an idea of the changes of temperature, a traveller in the course of one day’s march may leave * “Zoology of Eastern Persia,” 4 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE a frost-bound country and descend into a region of feathery palms, where he will find the atmosphere almost stifling. As to the rainfall, it has been com- puted that fifty inches fall annually at Resht on the Caspian, in contrast to the five or six inches in central and south-east Persia. The great bulk of the country is scantily watered, the rivers being few and small, and the lakes all salt; therefore most of the culti- vation has to be carried on by means of irrigation, the mountain-streams being conveyed to the towns in subterranean aqueducts. Some of these are twenty miles in length, and occasionally are tunnelled at a great depth below the surface, needing constant care to prevent the endless passages getting choked up with earth. A Frenchman once said that Persia was nothing but a desert, which was sometimes composed of sand and at others of salt, and the traveller will own that the description is not far wrong when he notices the sterility of the kingdom of the Shah. In passing through the country he will get an impression of great barren plains. sprinkled with the débris from the equally bare, but often brilliantly coloured mountain ranges that divide them. Not a tree, a shrub, or a blade of grass is to be seen, and only camel-thorn and veitch are sparsely dotted about on the arid ground. The monotony is broken at intervals in the spring by the green of the young crops round a town or village, but the sunken fields on which the wheat and barley are sown have no hedges, only low mud banks for the purposes of irrigation. Were it not for the crops, the scenery would be coloured in tones of ochre, burnt sienna, and neutral tint, and it is indescribably dreary and monotonous on SOME DESCRIPTION OF PERSIA 5 the rare days when the sun is hidden. But when the heaven of intense turquoise blue vibrates with sunlight, everything is beautified, and most travellers succumb to the weird fascination of the landscape. From what has gone before, the reader will understand that there must be great differences in the climate and vegetation of the thirty-three provinces into which the kingdom is divided. Those round the Caspian grow rice, and have great forests, an exuberant vegetation, and numberless streams fed by the constant rain. To the north-west and west in Azerbaijan, Luristan and the Bakhtiari country, is a region of mountains which may be called the Highlands of Persia, and which is visited by winters of great severity, and to the south of the latter district is Arabistan, a province where the dry heat in summer reaches over 120° indoors, and where enormous quantities of wheat could be grown with the necessary irrigation. Along the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea the low- lying country has an almost intolerable damp heat during the greater part of the year, but is arid in the extreme, not being visited by the heavy rainfall of the Caspian provinces. Here dates are the staple food and _ chief product of the country, and Laristan, Makran, and Baluchistan are peopled by Arab tribes on the coast and by Baluchis inland. North of this region is the small eastern province of Sistan, interesting to Persians as being the home of their great hero Rustum, and to geographers from its physical conformation. As Lord Curzon writes :! «not only do the lakes alternately swell, recede PY Persia.” 6 . PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE and disappear—the idea of displacement covering an extent, according to Rawlinson, of one hundred miles in length by fifty miles in width—but the rivers also © are constantly shifting their beds, sometimes taking a ~ sudden fancy for what has hitherto been an artificial channel, but which they soon succeed in converting into — a very good imitation of a natural channel, in order to — perplex some geographer of the future. It is not surprising, therefore, that while the country owes to the abundant alluvium thus promiscuously showered upon — it its store of wealth and fertility, it also contains more ~ ruined cities and habitations than are perhaps to be © found within a similar space of ground anywhere in the © world.” The dry heat during the summer reaches 121°, and © the insect pests that breed in the great Hamun, or © Lagoon, into which the river Helmand empties itself, ~ make life a burden. Fortunately, however, Sistan is ~ visited late in May or early in June by the beneficent © bad-t-sud-t-bist ruz (wind of a hundred and twenty | days), that tempers the heat and drives away the q mosquitoes and sand-flies. It has been registered to | blow at the rate of seventy-two miles an hour, making © the climate bearable and not unhealthy, though the — natives suffer a good deal from malaria. A glance at the map will show an enormous space | marked Lut, or Desert, supposed to have been formerly | a dried-up inland sea, occupying the centre of the | country, and severing the north from the south and | the east from the west of Persia, thus doing much to interrupt free communication. Half the large province of Khorasan in the north-east is Sahara, and such big towns as Kum and Kashan lie on the edge of the SOME DESCRIPTION OF PERSIA 7 glittering Kavir, or salt desert, through which runs a river of brine; at Yezd, the sandy hummocks of the waterless Lut are almost up to the walls of the city, reminding the traveller of the prophecy that the town is to be overwhelmed by the sand at some future date, and Kerman, two hundred miles further south-east, is only separated by a small cultivated area from this dreary waste that has to be skirted when proceeding south- wards into Baluchistan. It may easily be grasped what a tremendous obstacle to intercourse is this great desert, and it is partly owing to its presence that the large towns are more or less isolated, and that the inhabitants centre their interests in their particular cities and not in the country as a whole. In fact, so bad are the communications and so costly is the transport, that if there happen to be a famine in one district, the population must starve, though in other parts of the country there might be bumper crops. Perhaps what chiefly strikes the European is the poverty everywhere apparent. He will have read accounts of the splendour in which the Achzmenian and Sasanian monarchs lived, and traditions of the Golden Age of Shah Abbas are still extant, and he will wonder whether Persia could possibly have looked so hopelessly “out at elbows” as it does to-day. It could never have been a rich kingdom, and its monarchs drew a great part of their revenue from far more fertile provinces that owned their sway ; but still, wherever the traveller may go, he will find ruins of villages long deserted, towns surrounded by quarters once inhabited and now falling into decay ; even in the Lut there are remains of cultivation showing that the oases were far more frequent than they are at present, 8 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE and in barren Baluchistan he will observe how the hills are terraced in many parts, the uncivilised inhabitants, | who make no use of these long-ago labours, putting | them down to the work of “infidels.” Many writers consider that the terrible Mongol invasion was a blow from which Persia has never recovered; but. good } government could still do much for a country in which } the desert literally “blossoms like the rose” if it be irrigated, Under the system of the Shahs, in which every one in 4 power “squeezes” to his utmost every one below him, there is no protection for property and no encourage- | ment given to enterprise. Thus the country grows. steadily poorer as the years pass by, though the prices of food are always on the increase, as the following table will show :— Cost OF LIVING AT TEHRAN IN 1880 AND 1900.? 1880 1900 ft Scie: fis od Bread per man (63 lbs.) ... 0 O 3% © 0 QO Mutton ,, + 44 O I 2% 0-2 of Cheese _,, rs OrLarg Oo 2 4 Milk 3 ace 0 Oo 44 0 o oO Eggs per hundred OF TiO On ge The writer who remembered that eggs were ten a penny at Kerman a dozen years ago, found that only three to four were to be purchased for the same sum at Meshed in 1909, and the old days when meat and bread were under a penny a pound and a chicken could be obtained for twopence and a diminutive lamb for four- pence halfpenny, were gone for good. * “Statesman’s Year-Book, 1909.” SOME DESCRIPTION OF PERSIA 9 So barren is Persia at the present day that the uncultivated land surrounding any city looks like a desert, and the ruthless cutting down of the forests through the centuries has done much to decrease the naturally scanty rainfall. Coal being only found near the capital, wood is used everywhere for burning in the form of charcoal, and if no new plantations are laid out Persia’s most thickly wooded districts will, in time, become as denuded of trees as is the central Plateau. In fact so expensive is wood in many parts, that much of the heating and cooking are done by means of the Joussa, or camel-thorn, donkeys bringing it daily into the towns. In this large country, treble the area of France, there are only six miles of railway. Of roads, in the Euro- pean sense of the word, there are only four, their total length, when added together, being about 780 miles ; and these owe their existence to European enterprise. Practically everything is carried on the backs of camels and mules along the rough and often dangerous tracks made by the caravans during many centuries. There iS only one navigable river, the Karun, which flows into the head of the Persian Gulf, and on this latter sea the ports are open roadsteads at which it is impossible to land cargo during stormy weather, only the port of Enzeli on the Caspian being important. Persia has merely single-wire telegraph lines, the rickety poplar poles of which are often seen lying on the ground, in which case the Persian official at the nearest station will calmly remark that the line “does not speak to-day.” In great contrast to this is the British three-wire line, supported on iron posts, which runs from the Persian frontier on the north-west down 10 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE to Bushire on the Persian Gulf, from which point messages to India are carried by cable to Bombay, and this line now has a branch from Kashan to Karachi vd British Baluchistan in order to ensure a direct overland ) connection with our Indian Empire. Owing to the lack of communications very little is © done to tap the resources of the country. For example, Persia possesses: many minerals, but as she has no rail- | ways, roads, or navigable rivers to carry them to the | ports or to markets, this source of wealth is almost untouched. The famous turquoise mines near Nishapur, © which have been known from very early times, produceg the only precious stones which have been found in the” kingdom, and are most inadequately worked, and the> valuable Caspian fisheries are leased to a Russian | company, most of the sturgeon or salmon caught in_ abundance finding their way to Russia. ‘ For many years the imports of Persia have exceeded the exports, and this is partly owing to the slow and expensive methods of carriage, and still more to a | short-sighted Government that puts obstacles in the way of enterprise and is suspicious of any man who. becomes rich and does not conceal the fact. There- is never any question of the Shah subsidising any private undertaking, and merchants and traders con- sider the “ powers that be” as real benefactors if they | will only leave their subjects to pursue their avocations without let or hindrance. Sterile as Iran appears to be, yet an able ruler might do great things for his country, and the Englishman | cannot but long for a man of the type of Lord Cromer to be allowed a free hand in remodelling the adminis- tration of the kingdom. SOME DESCRIPTION OF PERSIA II Like ourselves the Persians are of Aryan stock, and have the same words for father, mother, brother, and daughter (fidar, madar, bradar, and dukhtar); more- over, the construction of their language is like English. A mass of Arabic words is, however, incorporated in it, for when Islam was forced upon Persia, at the point of the sword, the converts had to recite their prayers three times daily in Arabic, and read the Koran in that language, no Persian translation of the sacred book being permitted until of late years, when the innovation met with strenuous opposition from the priesthood. In appearance the true Irani is a handsome, well-built man with regular features and fine, dark eyes, his com- plexion resembling that of an Italian or Spaniard. But it must not be forgotten that Persia has been invaded again and again by the Central Asian tribes, and there- fore the inhabitant of Shiraz, gay and extravagant, nervous and excitable, a lover of poetry and horses, and who claims to be of pure Persian stock, is very different to the semi-Turkish population of the north-west or to the natives of Khorasan. These latter show traces of Mongol and Usbeg blood in their broad, flat faces, high cheek-bones, and in manners that are brusque and boorish in comparison with the refinement and polish of a Shirazi. _ Again the Persian Gulf is bordered by Arab tribes, and throughout the whole country roam a shifting nomad population, the Iliats, who drive their flocks and herds up into the hills during the spring and summer months, and who probably enjoy a pleasanter existence than any one else in Iran. Certainly they have to pay taxes on their, flocks and herds, but they are in nowise 12 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE “sround down” as are the villagers in many parts and their sturdy women are usually adorned witk plenty of jewellery and look the picture of health in pleasant contrast to the often sickly townswomen. CHAPTER II A BIRD’S-EVYE VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF PERSIA mt. beginnings of Persian history are wrapped in legend, but probably about B.C. 700 the Medes, an Iranian race dwelling in what is now North- West Persia, threw off the yoke of Assyria. They left no record of their achievements, but we know from other sources that one of their kings was such a mighty warrior that he led his armies into Europe. Side by side with the Medes lived the Persians, also an Iranian race, and in B.C. 550 Cyrus, the Persian of the Ache- menian line, conquered Astyages, the Median king, and the empire passed from the West Iranian Medes to South Iranian Persians, the two countries being united under the name of Persia. During the rule of the Medes, Zoroaster, a native of Media, started the creed of the Fire Worshippers, his first success being the conversion of the King of Bactria to the new doctrines which spread rapidly, and though probably receiving a check at the time of the Persian conquest, yet they speedily became the established religion of ‘the country under the Achemenian dynasty. Cyrus, when he had strengthened his position at ‘home, led his armies into Asia Minor, conquering and 13 14 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE taking captive Croesus, King of Lydia, a man famou in classic story for his wealth and misfortunes, an annexing all the Greek colonies lying in those regions, But his greatest exploit was the capture of Babylon, a city deemed to be impregnable, of immense wealth, and boasting a civilisation far higher than that possessed by the Persians. With the downfall of this capital, Cyrus became master of Assyria, and his conquest contributed to raise Persia to the chief position in Asia. It is interesting that this monarch is mentioned in Isaiah by the words, “He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure.” According to a legend, Cyrus retired to a fountain in Azerbaijan, where he disappeared for ever from the sight of men, but in reality he died in battle against the Turanians or Tartars, and Cambyses (B.C. 529-522) succeeded him on the throne of Iran. fy Although the new monarch increased the Persian Empire by the conquest of Egypt, yet he was without his father’s ability and was cruel to boot, causing his brother Smerdis to be put to death secretly on suspicion of conspiring against him, and when he himself died by an accident there was no heir to the imperial crown. However, one of the Magi, or priests, strikingly like the murdered Smerdis, impersonated him, and ruled for a whole year before his imposture was discovered, when he was overthrown by the chief nobles of Persia, one of whom, under the title of Darius I., was raised to the vacant throne. And now again Persia had a monarch worthy to stand in the place of Cyrus, for Darius (B.C. 521-485) was a leader of men, a great general and a skilful ruler. He * Tsaiah xliv. 28. i BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA 15 mnlarged the borders of Persia eastward as far as the ndus ; tried to force his way northwards into Russia— ut here the elements obliged him to retreat—and then 1e turned his attention westwards, meeting at the hands f the Greeks the great reverse of his reign. The Persian irmy, mustering some fifty thousand men, all accustomed o war, and having hardly ever tasted defeat, was utterly outed on the plains of Marathon by the patriotism ind enthusiasm of the Greeks, who could only produce t force one-fifth of the size of the Persian host, which was compelled to return ignominiously to Asia. If one of the greatest monarchs that ever ruled Persia were powerless against the Greeks, it may hardly be sxpected that Xerxes (B.C. 485-465), who succeeded Darius, and was a man of ordinary ability, should do setter than his father. However, he determined to under- take the adventure which has made his name notorious, and collected the largest army that had ever been known, to conquer the little people to whose genius the world owes so much. Every schoolboy knows what followed—the heroic defence of the pass of Thermopyle by Leonidas and his immortal Three Hundred; the naval battles off Artemisium; the abandonment of Athens to be burnt by the invaders, and the last stand of the Greeks at Salamis, hazarding their all upon a single battle which resulted in a crush- ing defeat for the Persians, and which, when followed by the Greek victory of Platza, settled for centuries the question as to whether Asia should conquer Europe. On the death of Xerxes the kingdom fell into the hands of incompetent rulers; Egypt was lost after being held by Persia for over a century, and disorder and anarchy were rife. Artaxerxes III. found a hard 16 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE task on his accession, but being a man of exceptional ability he almost succeeded in restoring Iran to her former greatness, and would probably have done s0 had he not been murdered in the full tide of : activities. Up to now the Persian arms had been carried inf Europe, but with Darius III. (B.c. 336-329) enthroned at Persepolis things were reversed, and Alexander the Macedonian, one of the greatest generals the world has ever seen, led his soldiers into Asia. The Persian troops, splendid fighters if well led, being now under a monarch both cowardly and incompetent, were beaten at Issus and routed at Arbela. After this battle the Persian Empire fell into the hands of the conqueror, and with the assassination of the fugitive Darius in B.C. 329, the Acheemenian dynasty, established over two centuries before by Cyrus the Great, came: to an end. | And now Alexander had before him the task of pacifying the empire that he had subdued, this being’ the more necessary as his ardent spirit longed to proceed to the conquest of India, though his knowledge of war taught him the danger of leaving a country at enmity with him in his rear. | He set about his work in two ways—first by mixing Persian soldiers with his own regiments, and secondly by commanding his legionaries to marry the women of the country, he himself wedding Roxana, the daughter of a Bactrian prince, and later on, Statira, grand-daughter of Artaxerxes III. When this was done he marched into India, but to his bitter dis- appointment he was forced by his war-worn veterans to turn back before the Ganges was reached. The great A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA 17 conqueror then retraced his steps to Babylon, which the made his capital, and busied himself with getting his empire into order before his early death, leaving the satrapies, or governments into which Cyrus had divided the realm, much as they were. In B.C. 323 Alexander died, and immediately there arose fierce strife among his generals for the possession of the empire, the emperor’s son being but a child, and from the Indus to the Nile there was civil war with its accompaniments of misery and anarchy. The less civilised Macedonians sought to lord it over the cul- tured Greeks, who had formed no small part of Alexander’s conquering armies, and one result of this struggle for the mastery was the terrible episode of twenty-three thousand Greeks, being surprised and slain by the Macedonians as they were marching back to their native land. Out of all this discord the General Seleucus, seizing upon Babylon and its province, founded the dynasty of the Seleucidz, and the Greeks ‘in Bactria revolted and formed a state in the heart of Asia, this kingdom lasting for a century, and even ‘carrying its arms into India. And now we must enter upon a new period of Persian history. About this time certain nomad tribes inhabiting the steppes north of the river Atrek left ‘their native country and settled in Parthia, or what is now known as Khorasan, a large province of northern Persia, and these intruders founded the ‘Parthian dynasty. _ They were great fighters and wonderful horsemen, the expression “Parthian shot” being derived from their custom of pretending to fly before an enemy in : confusion, and then turning in their saddles and shoot- Cc 18 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE ing arrows at their pursuers, often defeating them by this ruse. In B.c. 250 these nomads had acquired so much territory that their chief ascended the throne of Parthia with the title of Arsaces I., and for more than four centuries he and his descendants ruled in Persia, and again and again put to rout the armies of Imperial Rome, the mistress of the western world. The Parthians, far inferior in civilisation to the Persians, kept few records, the historian of these times depending upon the coins they struck and the accounts | furnished by Greek and Roman writers. : Chief among their monarchs was Mithridates the Great (B.C. 171-138) who broke the power of the Seleucid - dynasty, keeping its king a captive for the rest of his’ days, conquered the kingdom of Armenia and extended his realms from the Indus to the Euphrates. A signifi- cant fact, showing the position to which the Parthians had now attained, was the treaty of peace which they | entered into with Rome, the first of many meetings | between these two great Powers. In B.c. 54 Orodes being King of Parthia, Crassus, who was triumvir in conjunction with Cesar and Pompey, | thought that the time was favourable for an attack on the Parthians, whom he imagined would prove an easy conquest. The Roman legions met their foes at Carrhe on the Euphrates, and the Parthians displayed their usual tactics, on this occasion concealing the main — body of their army. Their cavalry then charged, - made a feint of fleeing, and was hotly pursued by the Romans into the very jaws of the hidden troops that suddenly surrounded and cut them up. Then the Parthians attacked the infantry, forced the main body A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA 19 of the army to surrender, and slew Crassus, thus inflicting the greatest defeat that the Romans had suffered since the time of Hannibal. Orodes throughout the rest of his reign brought his country to a high pitch of power, and was the first Parthian monarch who took the proud Achzmenian title of King of Kings. He was, however, murdered by his son Phraates, who, having mounted the throne, made Ctesiphon on the ‘Tigris his capital. This city was the seat of Govern- ment until the Mohammedan conquest, the Sasanian dynasty building a magnificent palace there in which they dwelt in almost fabulous luxury. In B.C. 33 Mark Antony, being eager to avenge the death of Crassus, and determined to add fresh lustre to his reputation, led a large army to the invasion of Parthia, taking the country altogether by surprise. However, he fared hardly better than his predecessor, and so vigorous was the opposition he encountered that he was obliged to retreat into Armenia, only reaching that country after the loss of thirty thousand of his troops. This experience made Rome leave Parthia in peace for over a century, and it is a remarkable fact that the Parthian and Persian races were the only ones that forced the Romans, masters of more than half the known world, to check their advance. _ But the fear that Parthia inspired brought about her andoing, for with no Roman peril to unite her people and keep her armies in a state of readiness, she fell into civil war, king after king leaving only records of blood- shed and discord behind him. In A.D. 63 we see a ?arthian monarch on friendly terms with the Roman 20 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Emperor Vespasian; later on Trajan attempted to invade the kingdom, but even in its weakness he could make no conquest and was obliged to retire, and though Cassius managed to destroy Seleucia, the capital of Babylonia, yet neither he nor any invader could pene- trate to the heart of the empire. i ; The last of the Parthian line was Artabanus, a man of such ability that he was almost able to restore his empire now fallen asunder through intrigue, corruption, ‘ and civil war. The Roman Emperor Macrinus, probably thinking that Parthia would fall an easy prey to his arms, attempted an invasion, but his armies — suffered two such crushing defeats that he was forced to sue for peace, which he purchased by paying the | huge indemnity for those days of fifty million denarii, or, roughly, about 41,800,000. But even this tremendous victory for Parthia could not save her from her doom, It was nearly six hundred years since Alexander had subdued the last of the Achzmenian monarchs, and during all those centuries Persia proper remained merely as a province of a Greco- Persian or of a Parthian Empire, and it might have been thought that the Persians had become too insepar- ably welded with their conquerors to think again of independence. However, a quick-witted, intellectual race, with a great past behind it of which it is justly proud, and a great capacity for fighting if well led, cannot submit tamely to be under a nation whom it considers - its inferior in civilisation and mental ability. Moreover, there was a cleavage between Parthians and Persians on religious grounds, the former having fallen away from Zoroastrianism and taken to idol-worship, while the latter clung to the teachings of their great Prophet. | A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA 21 The restoration of Persia to her ancient position was the work of Ardeshir, satrap of the province of Persis, and supposed to be descended from the old Achzeme- nian dynasty through his ancestor Sasan. He revolted and proclaimed the independence of Persis, speedily annexed what is now the province of Kerman, and defeated Artabanus in three pitched battles, in the last of which the Parthian monarch was slain, and the Sasanian dynasty (A.D. 226-652) that was to carry Persia to one of the highest positions among the nations, now commenced. Ardeshir was soon involved in a war with the old enemy Rome, but he forced the legions of Alexander Severus to fly, and having subdued Armenia, which still held out for Parthia, he found himself in a position equal in power to the Achemenian or Parthian dynasties at their prime. One of his first acts was the destruction of the Parthian idols and the restoration of the religion taught by Zoroaster. The entire copies of the Avesta and Gathas are believed to have been destroyed when Alexander burnt one of the palaces of Persepolis, but as many fragments as possible were collected, and one of the Magi, chosen by lot, translated the Zoroastrian scriptures from the archaic Median into Pahlavi, the spoken language of the day, and wrote them down. From this time the influence of the Magi became paramount, all other religions were persecuted, and still further to honour the state-religion Ardeshir stamped his coinage with a fire-altar and priests. He was succeeded by his son Shapur I. (240-273), a great soldier and administrator, who is principally remembered for the crushing defeat he inflicted on the Romans. The Emperor Valerian and his entire army 22 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE were forced to surrender to the Persians, who kept — the monarch in captivity until his death, and who ~ commemorated their great victory in two rock-sculp-— tures. To Shapur belongs the honour of commencing the famous irrigation dam at Shuster, which is still perfect — and allows the waters of the Karun river to irrigate the © fertile plain, thus conferring prosperity on thousands. ~ During his reign the Nestorian Christians made many © converts, and the remarkable teacher Mani founded a new religion, which, though hated equally by Christian — and Zoroastrian, had much influence: in spite of the cruel death of its founder, there were actually i Manichzans until the thirteenth century, when the hapless Albigenses, followers of his doctrine, were ex- terminated in France. F After the reign of Shapur I. a series of incapable kings sat on the throne, and Shapur II. succeeded to_ | an empire convulsed with insurrection within its borders and invasion from without, but, mere boy as he was, he had the gift of kingship, and Persia again grew creat. : under his sway. The intermittent war with Rome was renewed in his reign, and, as usual, the Romans were 4 defeated, on this occasion their Emperor Julian being slain and his successor having to patch up a disgraceful peace, to secure the retreat of his army from Persian soil. The Roman legionaries were the finest sie ever known, and were practically invincible in Europey, : A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA 23 turies of warfare, was defeat, the surrender of whole armies, and either the death or captivity of their generals. Shapur II. was succeeded by inefficient monarchs, and the kingdom was rent with intrigue and corruption, though Bahram V., called by Persians Bahram Gor, from his fondness for hunting the fleet wild ass, became a popular hero on account of his success in checking the advance of a great horde of nomads, who were pouring into Persia from the north-east. Bahram, who had been brought up in youth among the Arabs, was a celebrated shot with the bow, and the Persians have a tradition that one day he actually nailed an antelope’s hoof to its ear, as the animal was scratching its head. On turning to his favourite wife for applause, he was so greatly disgusted at her cool observation, “ Practice makes perfect,” that he sent her into banishment. Some years after, when on a hunting expedition, he was amazed at seeing a woman carry a full-grown cow up a flight of twenty steps, and asking her for an explanation of this extraordinary feat of strength, she remarked, “Practice makes perfect,” and raising her veil revealed the features of his exiled wife, whom the monarch promptly restored to favour. Kobad, a later king, is chiefly notable for his victories over the Romans led by Belisarius, one of the most famous of their generals, and during the following reign the Roman Emperor was actually forced to pay tribute to the Sasanian monarch, This king, Khosru I. (531-579), raised Persia to a sreat height of power. He was equally capable as a warrior and as a lawgiver, had a love of knowledge, 24 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE was tolerant to all creeds, founded a school of medicine, — remodelled his army, the system of taxation, and re- paired the roads and bridges throughout the country, completing the famous dyke at Shuster, that Shapur I. had commenced. He also erected a magnificent palace at his capital, Ctesiphon—the remains of which give some idea of its former grandeur—and when he died after a reign of forty-eight years, he was greatly mourned, and has gone down to posterity with the title of the Just. The poet Saadi relates the following anecdote of this monarch: “When some venison was being cooked for Nushirvan the Just during a hunting-party, the royal servants found that they had forgotten the salt, and accordingly sent a lad to get some from the nearest village. The king commanded that the salt should be paid for, lest the village be ruined. His courtiers asked him how such a trivial demand as a handful of salt could possibly bring a village to desola- tion, and Nushirvan answered, ‘When oppression began in the world it was a very small thing, but every one has increased it, so that at the present day it is of vast extent.” And Saadi amplifies the sentence by re- marking: “Tf the king eats a single apple from a subject’s orchard His slaves pull up the tree by its roots. For five eggs that a king permits to be seized His soldiers will snatch a thousand fowls for their spits,” And these remarks are as true of the Persia of this generation as they were in the time of the great Khosru. _ A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA 25 The decline of the Sasanian Empire began after the death of this monarch, although his grandson obtained the proud title of Khosru Parvis (590-628), or the Conqueror, in recognition of his military successes. For a part of his reign he did much for the art of his country, fostered law and order and kept Persia powerful and feared by her neighbours. There are many traditions about his devotion to his favourite wife, the fair Shirin, a Christian, who kept her ascendancy over her husband during her whole lifetime, a remark- able fact in Oriental history. A favourite legend has it that the architect Ferhad fell desperately in love with the beautiful queen, and that Khosru, in jest, promised to yield up his wife if the youth could bore through the huge rock of Besitun and bring a stream by way of the tunnel. This was an apparently im- possible task, but Ferhad, nerved by love, so nearly succeeded, that the monarch in dismay sent a messenger to tell him that Shirin was dead, and the story relates that, on receiving the news, the architect fell headlong from the great rock and was dashed to pieces at its foot. In the early part of his reign Khosru Parvis was deposed by his rebellious general, Bahram Chubin, and he had to seek the aid of the Romans before he could recover his kingdom, which, after this interlude, he ruled for thirty-seven years. During this period he took Jerusalem and carried off | the supposed True Cross, presenting the relic to Shirin, a and in his reign, after the lapse of nine centuries, the Persians were again masters of Egypt. Not con- tent with this they fought unweariedly against the hereditary enemy Rome until the realms in Asia and 26 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Fast Africa, over which the Mistress of the West had held sway for centuries, were entirely wrested from her. No wonder that Khosru gained his title of “Conqueror,” for at no period of her history had Persia ruled over a larger empire and never had she reached a higher pitch of civilisation, the splendour in which her emperor dwelt recalling the fancies of a fairy-tale. During the full tide of his prosperity a message was brought to him one day from Mecca, bidding him acknowledge a certain Mohammed as the Prophet of God. Not un- naturally the king treated the missive with contempt, © little thinking that before many years had passed the followers of the writer of that letter would have swept — away the proud Sasanian line. Sir Clements Mark. ham! points out that Fortune from that day averted _ her face from the man, who was at one time the most powerful monarch in the known world. if In A.D. 617 his soldiers were within a mile of Constantinople, and if the capital of the Roman _ | Empire had been taken, Europe would have lain at_ the feet of the victorious Persians. The Emperor Heraclius had made arrangements for escaping from the apparently doomed city, but his subjects forced him to remain, and his despair awoke in him an unsuspected — military ability. With troops inferior in numbers tdi those of the Persians, he defeated them again and again, wresting from them all the provinces that they had_ conquered, and the Persian king, in spite of every effort, suffered nothing but reverses, and finally was killed by his nobles who were headed by his own son Siroes. ! In the whole annals of history there is perhaps no- * “ History of Persia,” A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA 27 character who rose to such heights of power, brought his country to such a pitch of prosperity, and then perished so miserably, through, it appears, no fault of his own, though some authorities say he became enervated by luxury and excess, At his death eleven rulers succeeded one another to the vacant throne, two queens among the number—the first women who had ever held the sceptre in Persia—but their united reigns only amounted to five years. And all this time the Empire, torn by dissension, bloodshed, and anarchy, was tottering to its fall, and Yazdigird III. succeeded to an inheritance threatened by a foe who would exterminate both the dynasty of Sasan and the ancient religion of Zoroaster. The Arabs had engaged in battle with the Persians in the time of Khosru Parvis, and though the result was indecisive, yet they had learnt the important fact that the warriors of Iran were not invincible. Since then success and fanaticism had made the followers of the Prophet far stronger, and they met the forces of young Yazdigird on the plain of el-Kadinyyah A.D. 636. At this historic battle the Arabs utterly defeated the Persians and gained possession of their national standard, the blacksmith Kavah’s leather apron, which had led the Persians into battle for a thousand years, since the days when the legendary Feridun had delivered his country from the tyranny of King Zohak, typifying, according to some writers, Persia’s revolt from the Assyrian dominion. The Arabs found Persia, even in her decay, no easy conquest, and they met with a stout re- sistance, the gallant Yazdigird keeping up the struggle for some ten years after the fatal battle of 28 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Nehavend, that left the Moslems masters of the country. The last Sasanian monarch was murdered — by a miller near Merv as he fled from his foes, and ~ with his death ended the great dynasty under which Persia had been carried to a height of power and prosperity only equalled under the rule of the first — Darius. The wild Arabs gave their new subjects the choice — between accepting the Koran or death, and it seems an irony of Fate that the followers of the pure religion of Zoroaster should have been forcibly “ converted ” by a race that had only just turned from the erossest idolatry, and that was on a far lower plane of civilisation than the Persians. Zoroastrianism was almost stamped out of the kingdom, a few adherents lingering on in such out-of-the-way towns as Yezd and Kerman, where at the present day they are stigmatised as Gadrs, or infidels, but live practically unmolested. And now followed eight centuries of Persia as a subject kingdom, torn by wars and invasions, ruled by dynasty after dynasty of aliens, and laid desolate by the terrible Mongol hordes of Chinghiz Khan, or the Tartars of Timur. And yet, though her independence was crushed, Persia refined and civilised her rough conquerors, who assimilated her beautiful arts, carrying them into all the countries which they conquered, and where now they go by the name of Saracenic. At the Court of the Khalifs at Baghdad, Persian customs, music, and even dress were the fashion; and the son of the famous Harun al Rasvnid revived the national Persian festival of No Ruz (New Year’s Day). eee ee eee eee ee i ne Se ee ee ee a A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA 29 Firdawsi, the Homer of Persia, composed his great patriotic epic the “Book of Kings” about 1000 A.D. ; Avicenna, the famous philosopher and doctor, was his contemporary; and Omar Khayyam, the astronomer- poet, flourished later—to give but a few names out of a great revival of Persian thought and literature that took place, and which centred in such cities as Tus, Nishapur, Bokhara, Merv, and Herat. During these centuries, as the power of the Khalifate at Baghdad grew weaker, various dynasties rose and fell in Persia. We hear of the Saffari line—the name taken from the occupation of its founder, a brazier of Sistan ; also of the Samanian dynasty whose founder, descended from the old Persian nobility, seized the north of Persia and made Bokhara his capital, and did his utmost to foster Persian literature, reviving the national spirit that had been kept in check during the two centuries since the Arab conquest. lLater on Togrul, the Seljuk, led his hordes of Turks into Persia and founded a dynasty which produced two brilliant kings, Alp Arslan and his son Malik-Shah, who ruled well, and encouraged science and literature, and had for Prime Minister the famous Nizam-ul-Mulk who administered their domains with the utmost wisdom and beneficence. As was usual, these kings were succeeded by monarchs of little capacity, and their empire soon fell a prey to small princes who carved out petty kingdoms for themselves. In the thirteenth century Persia was invaded by the Mongols, and it is believed that she has never recovered from that awful visitation. Chinghiz Khan, the leader of these savage hordes, boasted that he had slain 30 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE thirteen millions of his fellow-creatures, and making © every allowance for exaggeration, it can be understood that such a tiger in human form athirst for blood, — and with the power of gratifying his lust to the full, © could inflict untold misery on the world. His heathen — ee SS ee hordes massacred men, women, and children in cold | blood. They gave no quarter if they took a town, © history relating that they slew thirty thousand of the inhabitants of Bokhara. They razed any fine building to the ground, and did their best to turn fertile lands into a desert. The enfeebled Khalifate at Baghdad fell before their onslaught, and the last Khalif was put © to death by Hulagu Khan, grandson of Chinghiz. Things improved for the Persians when Hulagu Khan became a Mohammedan, and he and his successors - governed wisely, were tolerant to all religions, and encouraged science and literature, these characteristics being very remarkable in princes whose ancestors had led a savage nomad life, remote from all culture. The Mongol rulers were succeeded by Timur the © Lame, who overran Persia with his Tartars towards the latter half of the fourteenth century, and Iran became a province of his vast Asiatic Empire. But atime of deliverance was approaching, and it is © interesting to note that after more than eight centuries © of bondage Persia obtained her freedom through the ~ very religion that overthrew it. In the early days of Islam, the Mohammedans fought hotly as to who should succeed the Prophet, and after awhile were divided into two sects, Shiahs and Sunnis. The Shiahs contended that upon the death of Mohammed, Ali and his family were his lawful successors, and they considered that the three Khalifs who succeeded the NERA) trea A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA 31 Prophet were merely usurpers. After the terrible massacre of nearly all the descendants of Ali by the rival faction, practically the whole Mohammedan world became Sunni; but the inhabitants of Persia were fiercely Shiah, though usually governed by Sunni rulers. _ The deliverer of Persia arose in the person of Ismail, ruler of the town of Ardebil and descended from both Ali and the Sasanian dynasty. The country flocked to his standard, and in 1499 he was proclaimed founder of the Sefavi dynasty, Persia from this date being an independent kingdom, save for one brief interval. At his death he left a powerful empire, which would probably have gone to ruin if his three immediate successors had not been followed by great Shah Abbas, whose rule is always referred to by Persians as a Golden Age. This monarch, the contemporary of our Queen Elizabeth and James I., was not only great as warrior and administrator, but he fostered the Renaissance of art which bloomed alike in Asia as in Europe at this epoch. To this day Persians attribute every fine building, road, or bridge to Shah Abbas, so lasting an impression did this monarch make on his country, and in the words of Chardin,' “ When this prince ceased to live, Persia ceased to prosper.” At his death the Sefavi dynasty produced a series of inefficient monarchs, and in 1722 the Afghans invaded the country and established themselves in the royal city of Isfahan, only to be dislodged by the Persian bandit afterwards Nadir Shah. This great soldier first delivered Persia from her enemies, and then, usurping * “ Voyages en Perse.” 32 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE the crown, conquered Afghanistan and led his armies into India, where he sacked Delhi, the famous capital of the Moguls, and returned laden with almost fabulous treasure. { He was assassinated before he could found a dynasty, and at his death, in 1747, his vast empire fell into anarchy: Khorasan apparently was the only province of Persia left in the possession of Nadir’s descendants, the conqueror’s blind grandson exercising a nominal sovereignty at Meshed. The Bakhtiari tribes, inhabiting the mountain ranges. in the south-west supported a scion of the Sefavi line, who, with the aid of Kerim Khan, his able minister, became master of Persia with the exception of Georgia and Khorasan. Kerim Khan then deposed his puppet sovereign, and became founder of the Zend dynasty, taking Shiraz for his capital and ruling Persia with wisdom and justice for twenty years. He kept in subjection the powerful Kajar tribes that had Astra- bad on the Caspian as their headquarters and were of Turkish origin. At his death, however, Agha Mohammed Khan, the head of the Kajars, who had been detained in an honourable captivity at Shiraz, managed to escape, and put himself at the head of his tribe to do battle for the possession of Persia. The last: of the Zend dynasty was the gallant Lutf Ali Khan, and he had for Vizier the clever Haji Ibrahim, who had administered the realm for the young prince’s father. Lutf Ali Khan was possessed of indomitable courage, and had much capacity for war; but he fell a victim to the Kajar chieftain owing to the base treachery of Haji Ibrahim, who intrigued against his sovereign, and betrayed Shiraz into the hands of his enemies. Lutf A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA at Ali Khan was never greater than in danger and adversity ; and though defeated again and again by his powerful opponent, yet he fought on undauntedly and made his final stand at Kerman. Here again treachery Overcame one of the most gallant rulers of history, secret foes opening the gates of Kerman to Agha Mohammed, who gave the city up to massacre, and it is stated ordered twenty, and some say seventy thousand pairs of human eyes to be given to him as a ransom from the inhabitants. The Zend prince cut his way through the Kajar troops and took refuge at Bam, where again treachery proved his undoing, for the Governor of that town delivered up his guest to the Kajar conqueror who put him to death in his twenty-sixth year. And now Persia was ruled by an alien tribe of Turkish origin, the members of whom are said to have been unable to speak the language of Iran. Agha Mohammed, the founder of the dynasty, took Tehran for his capital in order to be in touch with the Caspian provinces, which had always declared for the Kajars, and he soon established himself firmly throughout the country. Although his military genius is undisputed, he appears to have been almost superhumanly cruel and tyrannical, His nephew Fath Ali Shah succeeded him ; but as he looked upon Persia as a conquered country, and was very avaricious, it may easily be understood that he did little for the improvement of his realm. Haji Ibrahim, who had betrayed the chivalrous Zend Prince, was the Vizier of this second Kajar Shah ; but it is said that old Agha Mohammed had advised his nephew to get rid of a servant who had acted so treacherously to a former master. Therefore, when D 34 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Fath Ali Shah became jealous of his minister’s great influence, he caused him to be cruelly put to death and seized his wealth. During this reign the Russians, who had encroached upon Persia before, made war twice on the country, the result of which was that Persia lost provinces in the Caucasus and on the Caspian, and this sea was converted into a Russian lake, upon which any armed Persian vessel was forbidden. It may be asked how it was that the Persians, who had been so distinguished in the field, were now almost contemptible fighters? This was partly owing to the Kajar policy of breaking the power of the chiefs of the nomad tribes, such as the Bakhtiari, Ilyat, and Lur, who had hitherto led their own clansmen to battle and were great fighting men. Moreover, owing to the misgovern- ment of the Kajar rulers, their soldiers were usually ill- paid, their wages being embezzled by their superior officers, who gave the troops in their charge no proper military training and kept them short of food and clothing. This evil custom is, alas! in force at the present day. When Fath Ali Shah died, after a reign of thirty- seven years, he had lost much Persian territory and had governed his country with the sole idea of getting as much wealth out of her for his own personal advantage - as he could. His successor, Mohammed Shah was not a particularly successful monarch, and the latter’s son, Nasr-ed-Din Shah, known as being the first Shah to visit Europe, though well-meaning, was not a man of commanding ability, and his efforts to introduce - Western civilisation into his country were often a | putting of new wine into old bottles. At the com- | mencement of his reign he had a most able minister, | A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA 35 who did much for the welfare of Persia, but, as is often the case in Oriental countries, the Shah grew jealous of his Vizier’s influence, and put him to death, following in this the example of his father and great-grandfather who thus treated their Prime Ministers. During the early part of his reign, Nasr-ed-Din Shah tried to seize Herat, and in consequence became involved in a war with England, who took Bushire and engaged the Persian army at the mouth of the Karun river, the Shah’s troops flying in a disgraceful confusion. After this Persia signed a treaty in which she yielded to all the demands of Great Britain, and since then the boundaries of her empire have been delimitated. After the Shah’s first visit to Europe in 1874 he instituted a regular postal service with the aid of Austrians, the stamps being printed in Austria. He also gave a concession to the Indo-European Tele- sraph Company, by means of which our direct com- munication with India passes through Persia; and later allowed the Imperial Bank of Persia to be founded under British management. Military colleges at Tabriz and Tehran and a Poly- technic School at the capital were some of the Shah’s schemes ; but the country as a whole was ill-governed. The provinces were put up at a kind of auction at No Ruz to the highest bidder; the peasantry were heavily taxed, and nothing done to improve the internal communications. Nasr-ed-Din’s European journeys and the enormous expenses of his great anderoon (hareem) made serious inroads on the exchequer, and his successor, Muzaffer- ed-Din, still further squandered the royal hoards in Europe, so that when Mohammed Ali Shah succeeded : : » 36 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE : to the throne in 1907 he found a much-exhausted : treasury. Nasr-ed-Din Shah was assassinated in 1896 by a religious fanatic, said to be one of the remarkable sect — of Babis who had attempted his life during the early | part of his reign. The Shah was possessed of some — literary talent, and the diary of his experiences in- Europe was published on his return to Persia, and ~ is interesting to read. He was also a keen sports- man and a good shot and rider, and, according to his lights, did his best for his country. His son, Muzaffer-ed-Din Shah, amiable but much — out of health, began his reign as an absolute monarch. Ideas of progress and liberty were, however, rife in~ Persia, the people having watched the birth of the | Russian Duma with interest; and the sovereign, yield- | ing to the national desire, granted a Constitution to his | subjects in 1906. Upon his death in February, 1907, his son, Moham- | med Ali Shah, ascended the throne of Persia, and at his accession swore to uphold the Constitution. He did not, however, appreciate the curtailing of his powers by the » National Assembly, or Majlis, and friction soon arose, In the December of 1907 he made an unsuccessful attempt to suppress it by force, and early in the next year his life was threatened with a bomb. Sur- rounded as he was by the Court camarilla, he could not realise that the country had awakened to Western ideas of progress, and in June, 1908, he took the extreme step of bombarding the Persian Parliament | out of existence. | Upon this the important commercial city of Tabriz | flung off its allegiance to the Shah, turned out the A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF HISTORY OF PERSIA 37 Royalist troops, and, under the leadership of the bandit Sattar Khan, sustained a long siege. Mohammed Ali’s soldiers, sent to take the city, deserted to the Nationalist party, and the monarch was obliged to have recourse to the wild Kurdish tribes. Tabriz, however, held out until the April of 1909, when the Russian troops raised the siege in order to protect the lives of the Europeans in the town. Throughout the struggle between the Shah and his subjects it was noticeable that the Persians proper did little material service to the Nationalist cause, which was largely supported by revolutionaries from the Caucasus and by the fighting hill-tribes. Chief among these latter were the Bakhtiari, who first took posses- sion of the city of Isfahan and at last marched on Tehran. The Shah, who was strongly urged by both the British and Russian representatives to restore the Constitution, broke his solemn promises again and again, and apparently entirely failed to grasp the situation until it was too late. The Sipahdar (Commander-in-Chief ), who belongs to the Royal Family, cast in his lot with the Nationalist party, and threatened Tehran from the north; while the Sardar-i-Assad (brother of the chief of the Bakhtiaris) led his warlike tribesmen up from the south to invest the capital Mohammed Ali, perhaps warned by the fate of the ex-Sultan of Turkey, did not await the result. He took refuge in the summer quarters of the Russian Legation outside the city, and by this step virtually abdicated. On July 16, 1909, he was formally deposed by the 38 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE { National Council, and his son, a boy of eleven, elected f Shah in his stead. The supreme power rested in the hands of the Sipahdar and the Sardar-i-Assad, both men being imbued with Western ideas. After con- siderable haggling as to the allowance to be made to the ex-Shah, and after much discussion on the question of the Crown jewels, his Majesty finally left the capital on September 1oth, and made his way by leisurely stages to the Caspian. In future he is to be the guest of the Russian Government, either at. Odessa or in the Crimea. It is too soon to judge how the change from an autocratic rule to that of a Constitutional Government © will work; but owing to the agreement of 1907 between England and Russia, Persia has every chance of working out her own salvation. Whatever may be our opinion of the decadence of Persia at the present day, surely an empire which took its rise some five centuries before Christ, and is an independent kingdom in the twentieth century after Christ, must hold within it the elements of renewal? That Persia may succeed in her arduous task of regeneration is the earnest wish. of all Englishmen who take any interest in the country. - , ee he CHAPTER III THE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT URING the twenty-five centuries in which Persia has been a kingdom, her rulers have fixed their capitals at different points within the limits of their empire. Ecbatana (meaning Treasure-house) was one of the capitals of the Medes, and the summer dwelling-place of the Achemenian monarchs. This city, with its wonderful palace, Deioces, is supposed by many writers to have occupied the site of the modern Hamadan, a town in north-west Persia. There are, however, no monuments or ruins in the town, save a battered stone lion; and the small eminence called the Musalla, on which formerly stood the citadel, would not have afforded sufficient space for the great palace. However, Hamadan clings to the idea that it occupies the site of past glories, and it has a large colony of Jews, who show the so-called tombs of Esther and Mordecai to travellers. Cyrus the Great built Pasargadz for his capital, the ruins that still remain testifying to its former grandeur ; but Darius and his successors selected Persepolis as a site for their palaces. Shushan in Arabistan, where Artaxerxes Longimanus, generally identified with the magnificent Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther, held his 39 40 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Court, was inhabited in the winter by the Achzemenian ; monarchs. : Alexander ruled from Babylon, and the Parthians i fixed their seat of government at Ctesiphon on the f Tigris, where the Sasanian potentate Khosru I. built a \ splendid palace, an arch of which still stands. ; Here these monarchs held their Court in almost — unbelievable luxury, calling themselves by such titles as “King of Kings,’ “Lord of Lords,” “Glorious — beyond all compare,” or “ A God among mortals.” The | Shahs of to-day have borrowed many of these proud © epithets, which are now yet more baseless than they were in earlier times. They testify to the belief in i “Divine Right of Kings,” so firmly implanted in — the Persians that even now with ideas of liberty and progress in the air the mass of the people hold — to it. Qi After the Mohammedan conquest, the Khalifs held — their Court at Baghdad, and Persia was a conquered country, a mere appanage of the Khalifate and ruled © by aliens for eight hundred years, until at last the Sefavean dynasty arose. Great Shah Abbas selected © Isfahan for his capital, and he and his successors im- proved and beautified the city, Sir Anthony Sherley and | Chardin giving us accounts of its spendours. In 1722 it was sacked by the Afghans and never regained its prosperity, Nadir Shah, who delivered it, preferring Meshed as his place of residence, and the Zend dynasty making Shiraz into their seat of government, — On the rise of the present Kajar dynasty, its founder, — Agha Mohammed Khan, took Tehran for his capital in order to keep in touch with the Turkish tribe from which he had sprung, and Tabriz in Azerbaijan, the old — THE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT 41 capital of the kings of Armenia, became the home of the Vali Ahd, or Crown Prince, during the lifetime of the Shah, in order to prevent the intrigues that would focus round the heir apparent did he live at the Court. The traveller from Europe going to Tehran can either caravan from Erzeroum vzé Erivan and Tabriz, or take steamer from Marseilles to Batoum on the Black Sea, from which port a line runs through the Caucasus past Tiflis to Baku on the Caspian. Herea Russian packet-boat takes him in about thirty hours to Enzeli, the port for Tehran; but if the weather be rough it will be impossible to land the passengers and cargo in a small launch across the sand-bar that blocks the mouth of the harbour. In such a case the packet will return to Baku, and every one will be obliged to start afresh from the city of petroleum. When the traveller has landed in safety at Enzeli he will be surprised at the appearance of the port of Persia’s capital, the Shah’s pavilion, built like a pagoda, being the only building of any pretensions, and the so-called hotel ‘giving a mild foretaste of the discomforts that will be experienced later if the visitor is new to Oriental travel. _A great lagoon, teeming with fish and waterfowl, must ibe crossed in a rickety native boat, after which the craft will turn into a sluggish river, on the banks of which snakes glide and tortoises crawl, and will deposit the traveller at Pir-i-Bazaar (Bazaar of the Old Woman). From here the Russians have engineered a fairly good road right up to the capital, and it is therefore possible to drive the two hundred odd -miles to Tehran in thirty-six hours, with relays of _ horses. | At a short distance Resht looks strangely like an | 42 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE English village with its red-tiled roofs buried in trees ; for Gilan is one of the wettest parts of Persia, and the J mud-built houses in use elsewhere would not stand. in situ for a week in this district on account of the. ncessant rain. The “English” appearance of the town is still further carried out by the green fields and the hedges bordering the roads. But charming as the whole place looks on a sunny day, the curse of malaria hangs over it, and the experienced traveller doses himself with | quinine, and is not surprised that the inhabitants have a sickly look when he sees the rice-fields in which men and women work knee-deep in water and from which rises a deadly miasma. The first part of his onward | journey lies through a vast forest with long, grassy | “rides” stretching away into the luxuriant vegetation, | this wooded belt being part of the great jungle which | reaches to Astrabad, and is in all some four hundred | miles in length. Here are to be found tigers, panthers, | boar, stags, and game of all kinds. But this is not Persia. proper, and the traveller will soon reach the spurs of the Elburz range, which opposes a barrier between the sea and the Plateau, the second part of hi journey consisting of a series of steep ascents and sharp descents, as the road winds upwards, and below him the river rushes impetuously along its bed. He has now left the trees, the waterfalls, the masses of oi and the hampering mud behind him, and is in a sterile country with mountains rising up on all sides and, barren of vegetation. The splendid colouring of the forest will have given place to a landscape tinted in shades of dun and ochre, but vaulted with a sky of the. intense blue of the turquoise, and laved by an aif THE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT 43 very different to the moist heat of the rainy zone. It is ‘a keen, exhilarating air that courses like wine through his veins and makes him impervious to the jolts and jars of his carriage and his halts in rest-houses often swarming with vermin, and where practically no food is to be purchased. The third part of his journey to the capital is across ‘the great Plateau of Persia, which rises to a height of two thousand to six thousand feet, and stretches ‘some eight hundred miles from north to south, and he will soon arrive at Kasvin, his first Persian town. In spite of its imposing gateway and its, for Persia, up- to-date hotel, the town has an air of desolation and decay, owing to the ruined appearance of its monu- ‘ments. Not far from it is Alamut, the famous strong- hold of Hasan-i-Sabbah, the Chief of the Assassins, ‘who took Kasvin, and whose successors were given the title of “Old Man of the Mountain” by the Crusaders. \There is a legend: that Hasan-i-Sabbah was at -school with the poet Omar Khayyam, and the Nizam- ‘i-Mulk the great Vizier of the Seljuks, and that the three comrades made a compact that the one who suc- ‘ceeded best in life should help the others. Therefore, ‘when the Nizam-ul-Mulk was at the height of his ' power, his former school-fellows reminded him of his promise, Omar receiving from him a yearly pension /and devoting himself to study, but Hasan-i-Sabbah ‘demanding a post at Court which he used to try and compass the downfall of his benefactor. Being found “out he fled, joined the sect of the Ismailis, and some t Professor E. G. Browne (“Literary History of Persia”) shows | from chronological evidence that this picturesque story has no _ foundation in fact. 44 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE | years later the great Vizier fell a victim to the dagger ! of one of Hasan’s emissaries. i! The Ismailis were a secret sect of the Shiahs, its. members on being initiated binding themselves by most solemn oaths to obey every command of their superiors, and professing that they were followers of Ismail, whom they regarded as the Seventh Imam. This © creed found many supporters, and in 1071 young’ Hasan-i-Sabbah joined the faction and henceforth flung himself with all the force of his genius into the work of spreading the tenets of his faith far and wide, and undermining the power of Islam. Devoted followers flocked to him, and some years later he actually seized Alamut, an almost impregnable stronghold near Kasvin, which became henceforth the centre of the Ismaili power; later on he took the city of Kasvin itself. The followers of Hasan were called Assassins, the name said to be derived from their habit of taking the intoxicating drug hashish, or Indian hemp, and they became feared throughout the Mohammedan world, for no prominent man was secure from their daggers; they also killed harmless citizens at random to inspire terror of their order. Marco Polo, who gives an account of the Assassins, says that when a youth was recruited he was intoxicated with Aashzsh and then conveyed to a lovely garden where he was tended by girls of surpassing beauty. When he recovered his senses he would find himself in the room in which he had been initiated, and he would be told by the “Old Man of the Mountain” (the Grand Master) that he had been vouchsafed a glimpse of the glories of the Paradise which was reserved for all true Ismailis after death. This a oe THE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT 45 supposed vision nerved thousands to perform the most dangerous behests of their Master and also the most revolting ; for there is a gruesome legend of how an Ismaili, in the guise of a blind beggar, lured citizens of Isfahan night after night to a certain house where his accomplices, lying in wait, murdered and stripped their unfortunate victims. Up to the time of the Mongols, when Hulagu Khan took the fortress of Alamut, and utterly destroyed the power of the Assassins, these scourges of society pursued their evil work practically without let or hindrance. _ When the traveller leaves Kasvin and drives south- ward the last ninety miles across the wide plain, he will admire the fine outline of the Elburz range, and suddenly, at a turn in the road, he will see Demavend, the mighty extinct volcano, its outline like the apex of a triangle, clearly silhouetted against the intense blue of the sky. ‘The great peak will become almost a part of his life as long as he remains in Tehran, and he will observe it under ‘countless aspects, one of the most beautiful being when ‘its winter snows are flushed rose-red at sunset. The | whole range will throb and palpitate with the unearthly light, until one after another the mountains lose their fairy radiance, and grow grey and cold: Demavend, however, retains a rosy coronet some moments after death, as it were, has overtaken the others. _ At the distance, Tehran, built in great part of the /mud on which it stands, is only distinguished from | the surrounding plain by the green trees of its many ' gardens ; but as the traveller gets nearer he will see the outline of the castellated city wall and the tiled domes and minarets of mosques. He will enter the town by a grandiose gateway adorned with glazed bricks in 46 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE 3) patterns, the prevailing tones being blue and yellow relieved with black and white, the whole giving a touch of splendour to its squalid surroundings. These gate- ways are twelve in number ; some are adorned with the exploits of Rustum, the Hercules and knight-errant of Persia, and others depict the Persian soldier of to-day— | all of them, however, look best at a distance, and do not bear a close examination. | The roads, many of them of considerable width, have frequent holes, and there are waste spaces every here and there on which refuse of all kinds is deposited, Impenetrable high mud walls conceal all the better- class houses ; and the dress of the townsfolk is dingy, the long, much-kilted frock-coat, the baggy-kneed European trousers, and the fashionable elastic-sided boots not making for picturesqueness. The ladies, who | add so much to the attractiveness of European cities, are huddled in Persia in a disguising and shapeless black wrap, by which the prettiest and the plainest | are reduced to the same level. The chief roads are broad with avenues of trees, but have big holes at intervals caused by the remarkable - custom of digging up the public highway to get mud | to make the sun-burnt bricks; men carrying on their | respective trades take up a good deal of the street; and large convoys of donkeys, so laden with brushwood | that only their legs are visible, totter along with an - absolute disregard to the rest of the traffic. Perhaps a riderless horse may canter by on its way to the stable, ° some Persian having left it outside the house at which he was visiting without troubling to tether it. : In November there is usually quite a “rainy season” in Tehran, the climate, so say the natives, having THE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT 47 | secome much moister since the planting of many avenues of trees, and the laying-out of numerous zardens, both in the town and its environs. At this time the roads are almost impassable for pedestrians, who take to wearing galoshes as they splash through mire of the consistency of pea-soup ; and it is pitiable to see the women flip-flapping along in the sea of liquid mud, their heelless slippers being small protection against the wet. At Tehran, as in all Persian towns, it is inadvisable for any European woman to walk about alone and unattended, as she would be liable to insult from the populace; and if she were riding, Persians galloping past might perhaps collide with her in hopes of unhorsing her. _ In the narrow, vaulted passages of the bazaars, many ‘of which have most beautifully tiled and honeycombed stucco roofs, the laden animals jostle one another, and the passers-by have to be on the alert unless they wish ‘to be knocked down. Russian and Austrian goods predominate, and the traveller in search of curios will not find any here. De//als, or dealers, however, are certain to visit him, bringing carpets for his inspection ; and opening knotted cloths they will produce old velvets and ‘embroideries, papier maché pictures, or enamel plaques. ‘If he sees anything he particularly fancies he had better ‘come to terms with the ded/a/, for in all probability itis unique. As time is of no object in Persia, bargain- ing is a lengthy business, and the haggling needs patience and good temper: sometimes weeks of dis- cussion ensue before some valuable odjet dart can pass _into the possession of the would-be purchaser, the price demanded at first being a preposterous one, A curious Persian custom about buying and selling 48 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Y is that the purchaser can return within three days the horse or carpet that he has bought, getting the money | back that he has paid for it. In the same way the | seller can retrieve what he has sold within the same limit of time if he happen to change his mind. Thus, if a European has purchased something much to his— taste, probably having wasted several hours in haggling | over the price, he cannot feel sure of possession until the fourth day. Though Tehran is an ancient city, yet it was never of any importance until Agha Mohammed Khan | selected it in 1788 as his capital, therefore it is deficient in the interesting mosques and other monuments of older towns. Fath Ali Shah did something for his capital; but it owes its present appearance principally | to Nasr-ed-Din Shah, who enclosed the city with a new . wall and moat having a circuit of eleven miles and ' pierced with imposing gateways. The town boasts | some fine squares, chief of which is the Tup Meidan, or | Gun Square, where stands the Arsenal, guarded by most | obsolete cannon. Here are the Artillery barracks, the walls ornamented with rough representations of the “Lion and the Sun” on a red ground, and the Imperial | Bank of Persia, with a charmingly coloured stucco facade. - The Europeans until lately were in the habit of playing polo in the Meidan-i-Mashk, next to this square, — the game always attracting a crowd of onlookers, among which were many soldiers in the shabbiest of. uniforms and with a lounging gait that showed them to be sorely in need of the drill-sergeant. The so-called Boulevard des Ambassadeurs, the pride of the city, is a broad avenue planted with poplars and lit with lamps of the kind that make darkness visible. THE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT 49 Here are several of the Legations, the most imposing of ) which is the British with its campanile-like clock-tower. 'This building, together with four substantial-looking - houses quite English in appearance, is placed in a lovely garden, through which runs perhaps the most delicious _ water in Persia, the traveller in Iran becoming quite a connoisseur in water after he has experienced the countless varieties of good and bad, mostly the latter, of which the country is prolific. ' Not far from the British Legation is the Nigaristan, the favourite palace of Fath Ali Shah, its name meaning Picture Gallery, from the collection of portraits of its ‘builder and his relatives, the handsome Kajar princes all having a strong family resemblance to one another. Every visitor observes a long slide leading to the edge ofa great marble bath, and is amused when he is told | that the many ladies favoured by Fath Ali Shah used to “toboggan” down this descent with roulades of ‘laughter into the embrace of the long-bearded sovereign waiting at the bottom. Next in importance to the Artillery Square is the | Meidan-i-Shah, with its great octagonal tank of water, /near which is a huge brass cannon used as Jdaszé, or sanctuary, for the criminals of Tehran, who are also wont _to resort to the flagstaff or stables of the British Lega- tion, as well as to the mosques. Above the gateway | leading from this square is the Nagara-Khana, or Drum House, where at sunrise and sunset is performed bar- barous music, the custom, which is also in force at ' Meshed, and other large cities, dating from Zoroastrian times. Itis one of the prerogatives of royalty, and as such | it honours the Shah in his capital, and the Holy Imam Reza in his world-famous shrine in the City of Martyrdom. E 50 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE At this point we are close to the large group of palace-buildings, and it may be well to introduce the Shah to our readers. Up to 1906, at which date Muzaffer-ed-Din Shah - gave a Constitution to his subjects, the King of Persia | was an absolute monarch, only subject to the law of Islam. He had the power of life and death over all, and in theory everything was his property, save the land belonging to the Church. | Mohammed Ali Shah succeeded his father to the) proud title of “Shah in Shah” or “ King of Kings,” in January, 1907; but inherited a much-impoverished treasury, his grandfather, and yet more his father, having exhausted the exchequer by their expensive visits to Europe. As every one knows, Mohammed Ali Shah revoked. the Constitution which, on his accession, he swore to support, threw his country into a state of civil war, and was deposed July, 1909. Therefore it will be better to. describe the Shah and his Court as they were a few years ago, rather than what they are actually at the present moment. The King of Persia styles himself by such high- sounding titles as “The Point of Adoration of the Universe,” “The Shadow of Allah,” “The Asylum of the World” and so on; but for all his great position, he. has never been the spiritual head of Islam, which is the prerogative of the Sultan of Turkey, and his rule over his subjects has always had checks in the power of the priesthood. The Achzemenian and Sasanian monarchs lived r | almost fabulous splendour; but at the present day the Shah’s Court is shorn of much of its former glory, and ‘HE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT 51 ' he monarch himself in the long, much-pleated frock- ‘oat and trousers borrowed from the West, is not a varticularly imposing figure, even though large rubies ‘nd diamonds may adorn his breast, and he may carry ' diamond-studded plume in the front of his black ‘ambs’-wool hat. | As can be gathered from the following description, 1e makes a far less impressive appearance than his neestor Fath Ali Shah, of whom Sir John Malcolm: yrote, when on a mission to the Court of Persia in '800,—“ The ground of his robes was white, but he was ‘0 covered with jewels of an extraordinary size, and heir splendour from his being seated where the rays of fhe sun played upon them, was so dazzling that it yas impossible to distinguish the minute parts which ombined to give such amazing brilliancy to his whole gure.” 'Even now Persian courtiers mendaciously assert fat the glorious appearance of their royal master Imost blinds them; but in those days they would ‘ave had more reason for their attitude of abject umility than now. Everything is done to keep alive a feeling of everence for the Shah, the recipient of any royal iissive or gift placing it on his head and to his eyes, nd then kissing it. As an example of this respect, then at Meshed in the spring of 1908, the writer vas one day surprised to hear many salvoes of artillery, nd on inquiry was told that the Shah had sent his ortrait (merely an enlarged photo) to the Governor f the city. This was the method of notifying its Tesence to the populace (not its arrival, as it had t “ Persian Sketches,” 52 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE come some time before, but the Governor had laid it by until the omens were propitious for its display !), The Shah’s courtiers may be called upon to do- round the room in silence. When the sovereign has eaten, and left the apart. | ment, the princes of the blood take their places on the carpets on which the meal is laid, and after they have regaled themselves the courtiers follow, Last of all the servants finish what is left of the ample repast, and drink the remains of the iced sherbets. The Shah’s palace, called the ark, or citadel, is situated in the centre of his capital, and composed of sroups of buildings, courtyards, and gardens, covering a space about a quarter of a square mile and all enclosed within high walls. Mf The royal jewels and precious objects of all kinds are kept in a large hall, and may be inspected by visitors. Here are heaps of pearls, many of great size, diamonds and rubies galore, and the famous 7zka, or diamond aigrette, worn by the Shah on State occasions, A wonderful gold globe is shown with the different countries of the world composed of gems, Persia being inlaid with turquoise, the only precious stone found in the empire; and the whole work of art is said to be worth £947,000. The great diamond, the Darya-i- Nur (Sea of Light), which together with our Kuh-i-Nu (Mountain of Light) was taken by Nadir-Shah at the sack of Delhi, is kept here. The latter diamond al Ree, THE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT 53 Nadir’s death found its way to Afghanistan, and thence to India, falling into the hands of the English in 1850. A splendidly jewelled and enamelled throne stands in this hall, and Lord Curzon?! discovered that it is partly made from the broken remains of the celebrated “Peacock” throne of Aurungzebe. He has also proved that the gem-studded throne which goes by that name (Takht-i-Taous) and which many writers believe to be the original work of art that Nadir Shah brought ‘back with the almost fabulous loot of Delhi, is of no earlier date than the time of Fath Ali Shah, and ‘was made at the command of that monarch, It ts doubtful whether all these jewels still repose in the great gallery, because rumours are rife that Mohammed Ali Shah was obliged to make inroads on his treasures in order to pay his troops. At the great Persian festival of No Ruz (New Year’s Day), when the sun passes into the sign of the Ram on March 2ist, the Shah shows himself to his subjects— who are all clad in new garments—much as did the | Achemenian and Sasanian monarchs. _ He appears in the Throne Room, a hall beautifully }decorated with mirror-work, and seats himself, @ la { Persane, on an elaborately carved platform of white _ marble. The curtains covering an immense window .are drawn back in order that the admiring populace _who fill the great courtyard may gaze on their monarch fer whom they prostrate themselves to the earth, _and from whom they receive largesse in the shape of gold coins. A poet recites an ode in His Majesty's | praise, for which he is given a robe of honour; bands i ( 1. Persia? | 54 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE play different airs at the same time; wrestlers, acrobats, and conjurers perform, and the ill-used Jews are ducked again and again in the tanks amid the merriment of the crowd, 4 The courtiers, who have given New Year’s gifts of money to their sovereign, are clad in sumptuous garments and turbans of Kerman shawls, and with red-stockinged feet stand around in solemn silence, adorned with many orders. The foreign ministers are received in audience by the monarch on this day of universal rejoicing, which was instituted in Zoroastrian times or even earlier, It is a day when gifts are given and received, servants, for example, getting new clothes» and a month’s wages. If, however, No Ruz should chance to fall during a month of mourning, such as_ Muharram or Ramazan, there is practically no gaiety, the bazaars are not decorated, and there will be no joyous crowd issuing from the city gates, no paying of visits ; and feasting. All will be much as usual, the countless sugar-loaves and platters of sweetmeats which the foreigner connects with No Ruz being conspicuous ) by their absence. f The Shah, who must be of the Shiah faith, can, according to Mohammedan law, have only four wives ;_ but as many ségehs, or temporary wives, and slaves as he pleases. The enormous expense of the always large anderoon of a monarch does much to im- poverish the country; for all the favourites inhabit — separate pavilions and have their own servants and carriages. When the royal ladies, who have such high-sounding titles as “The Gaiety of the Empire,” “The Delight of the Realm,” and so on, drive out, it is customary for every Persian to turn his back on the — THE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT 55 -equipages and stand with his face to the wall or, if possible, disappear down a side-street, as otherwise he may be roughly handled by the eunuchs in attendance. The monarch has the right to enter every anderoon in his kingdom, his royal glance being supposed to confer good luck on the women on whom it falls. Should he happen to take a fancy to any man’s wife, the loyal husband will be obliged to divorce the lady in the potentate’s favour, and will also present him with : any beautiful slave whom he may admire. | During the royal progresses, villagers with handsome | | daughters bring the girls to the Shah’s notice as he passes, hoping that the sovereign may order them to be put among the women of the anderoon, where ‘there are chances of rising to high position. For - example, the mother of the present Zil-i-Sultan (the little Shah’s great-uncle) was a Kurdish peasant-girl. ' However, by Persian law, the mother of the Shah must be of the blood-royal, therefore this prince was obliged ‘ to give place to his younger brother in the succession ' to the throne. _ Speaking of these progresses, the country through _which the Shah and his enormous following pass is ' practically denuded of food of every kind, the sovereign’s * servants commandeering Sect ae HS without paying for ' it, just as if they were in an enemy’s land. It frequently happens that the governor of a province will pay the ' monarch a large sum on the understanding that the dis- trict in question should not be included in the royal tour. When the Shah becomes tired of any one of his ' wives, who is probably no longer young enough to , please him, he gets rid of her gracefully by marrying her to some official, whether the gentleman in question — a ) | may desire the honour or not. The lady becomes the head of the household of her new husband, and if she’ pleases may compel him to divorce his wife or wives. in her favour, leaving her to rule alone; and such alliances constitute some of the few exceptions nie the Persian woman asserts herself. The writer had the privilege of being present at a party given by one of the royal favourites, and the richness of the ungraceful costumes and the profusion: of the jewels that adorned the crowds of Court ladies who were invited, were a wonderful sight. All were. interested in their European guests, fingering their furs, eyeing their clothes, and trying to engage them in conversation, during which handsomely clad women-: servants handed round relays of tea and sweetmeats,. Then the Shah came in, and the busy hum of talk ceased entirely, every fair Persian preening herself): and doing her best to catch the monarch’s eye as he strode across the room, However, he paid no attention, to any of his countrywomen, but was eager to inspect. the foreign ladies present, with whom he shook hands and did his best to converse in indifferent French. The Shah has many palaces outside the walls of. Tehran, perhaps the most noticeable being the hunting- box of Doshan Tepé (Palace of a Hare) situated on a rocky spur, a couple of miles from the city. At the: foot of the hill the Persian Zoo is housed. This menagerie is small, and the smell of the animals, which are ill-kept, is disagreeable. But there are Persian lions, tigers, leopards, and bears to be seen, and the captives at the time of the writer’s visit, appeared to be on excellent terms with one of the: keepers, who evidently had a “way” with his charges 56 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE CHE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT 57 _ Another palace is the white, barrack-looking building of Kasr-i-Kajar (Castle of the Kajar), which Nasr-ed- Din Shah, on returning from his first visit to Europe, is reported to have compared to Windsor Castle, to the disadvantage of the latter. It stands on the sravel slope of Shimran, at a great height on the top of a series of terraces, and below is a large lake on vhich the European colony enjoy excellent skating when the winter is severe. In the environs of Tehran there are charming villages ‘0 which the foreign ministers and their staffs retire juring the heat of summer. The British Legation has 4 residence in a delightful garden with running water and a big bathing-tank at Gulahek, some six miles aorth of the capital. Mohammed Shah, besides pre- senting the garden to the minister then at Tehran, zave him the rights of a landlord over the villagers, who pay their taxes to the British, and have other privileges. Russia has the village of Zargandeh on the same terms. ' When the Shah goes out he is attended by runners, picturesque in scarlet and gold, and carrying peacock’s feathers in their curious turreted hats which are sup- posed to be reminiscent of the crowns of the kings and princes who were conquered by the Sasanian ‘monarchs. If the Shah is riding, his charger will have a golden, gem-studded collar and trappings of gold, and his gholams, or bodyguards, have broad silver bands round the necks of their steeds, one of the prerogatives of toyalty being the right to dye the tails of the horses with henna. But Muzaffer-ed-Din Shah usually drove in a large brougham, and the ex-Shah, Mohammed Ali, ——————— 58 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE favoured the motor-car, a vehicle ill-fitted to run on what go by the name of roads in Persia. . The monarch has a huge surrounding of obsequious courtiers, who remain standing when he is seated, answer his questions in low tones, agree with him o every point, and flatter him in a manner outrageous to European ears. The Vizier, or Prime Minister; the Chamberlain ; the Treasurer ; the Master of Horse; th Chief Carpet Spreader, and the Chief Executioner are only a few among a crowd of dignitaries, most of whom rely much upon their wits for a livelihood. Even if thei salaries are paid, they have probably given large sums to the Shah for their posts ; therefore they “squeeze” their underlings, and take bribes from those of the outer world who may want some favour from the sovereign. | Modakhel, or commission, is a word with which the European speedily becomes very familiar. It means that every one, from the highest in the land to the lowest, takes what percentage he can from any money passing through his hands. The Shah, at the head, farms out the provinces of his realm at No Ruz to the highest bidders; and the man who has hired a province, hurries to his miniature kingdom and extorts money on his arrival from all the rich inhabitants under, his rule. Some intrigue at the capital may oust him from his position before the year is out, therefore his great aim is to recoup himself and make a handsome sum over and above his outlay in the shortest possible time. It may easily be understood that no governor would think of repairing bridges, making roads, or improving his province under such a system—in fact, he spends as little as possible. During his tenure of office he has supreme power, his Court being well-nigh = — <> = _— <= — — ere —————— So —-~s95-———— —~ 2A eae THE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT 59 as hedged in with ceremony as is that of the Shah itself, and his suite do their share in extorting money from the townsfolk. These latter probably “ grind the faces” of their apprentices in their turn ; and the lowest - servant in Persia will make his mmodakhel on the smallest article purchased for his employer. It is even said that the Shah, the supreme Fount of Justice in _ the kingdom, extorts a commission from any criminal , whom he may have pardoned! In short, practically - every office is sold in Persia, and practically every official is corrupt. The tomb of a governor of a district in south | Persia is actually treated as a shrine at which the inhabitants worship because the dead man when in power never robbed the poor! It is to be hoped that as time goes on the National Council will call many such saints into being ; but at present they are evidently ) not common. _ In Persia all government is personal,an able monarch, such as great Shah Abbas, raising his country to _a high pitch of prosperity. If, however, a king has an enlightened minister the latter’s tenure of office is always precarious, because there is certain to be a powerful party at Court who will try to influence the Shah against him by stirring up the jealousy of the monarch or playing on his fears, and as a rule, the Vizier will be disgraced or put to death. There is no permanence in the policy of these autocrats: for if a beneficent Shah have an incompetent successor, _ all the good that the former has done will be lost. Of late years the burden of taxation has fallen almost entirely on the tradespeople and the peasantry; the kingdom grows steadily poorer as the years pass; all 60 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE n is bribery and dishonesty, and the eyes of the Shah | are blinded by the Court camarilla that always surround him and endeavour to keep the truth from reaching him. The army, the bulwark of his throne, is disgracefully | paid, clothed and fed, with the exception of the so- called Cossack regiments at Tehran in which Persians — have been drilled by Russians to a pitch of efficiency, | and are the only properly paid troops in the kingdom, As a rule the officers “eat” the pay of the soldiery, and in their turn their salaries are “eaten” by the Commander-in-Chief; and so it goes on. The ordinary Persian serbaz, dirty, ragged, andl slouching, carrying on the trade of a money-changer to enable him to eke out his scanty pay, has nothing — martial about him, and usually distinguishes himself in action by a display of cowardice; but this is not to_ be wondered at, for his officers are tarred with the » same brush. On the march each soldier has a diminus tive donkey, which carries his kit and rifle, and on | which he rides at intervals, turning the animal into the springing crops to feed whenever there is a halt, As there is no commissariat department, the soldiers loot food from the luckless villagers, who have no redress. When the writer accompanied a British and | Persian Frontier Commission in Baluchistan, she noticed that the country people retired at its approach, leaving their houses absolutely bare, in order to escape being forced to supply provisions gratis, Lord Curzon? sums up the subject of the Persian | soldier in the following words: “A more irregular army, in the most literal sense of the word, does ng i = Dersia,” : ie STs eS — : ae Rates : ‘ | k THE SHAH, HIS CAPITAL AND GOVERNMENT 61 exist on the face of the globe. Irregular in its enlist- ‘ment, dress, arms, ammunition, discipline, and service, it would be strange if its conduct were not irregular also.” The petrifying form of education in vogue does not help the nation; for it must stultify, rather than expand the intellect to be forced to read the Koran in Arabic probably without understanding a word of the sacred book. The madressehs, or colleges, endowed by the pious, are to instruct youths wishing to become priests, doctors, or judges. But as these educational centres are in the hands of the priests, no Western knowledge is taught, the whole teaching given being ‘based upon the Koran, ingenious dissertations upon | its many obscure passages being dignified by the name of philosophy. Here arguments take place as little to edification as the well-known discussion of the ‘medieval Schoolmen as to how many angels could - accommodate themselves upon the point of a needle! = —_— Nasr-ed-Din Shah started a Polytechnic School at Tehran where European instructors impart Western teaching ; and there are also military colleges conducted by Austrians at Tehran and Tabriz; but these are merely a gleam of light in the universal darkness. Justice in Persia is administered by the governors : and their representatives and by the priesthood. The urf, or unwritten law, is that administered by the laity; but the priests confine themselves to the shar (the written or divine law—in other words, the Koran). Justice is usually summary ; no witness is asked to take an oath, and false testimony is common. Both sides bribe to the extent of their resources, and he who has the longest purse will usually win his case, unless 62 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE he is so obviously in the wrong that the governor fears public opinion, or the priesthood, usually in opposition, supports the cause of the poorer claimant. The evidence taken is often of the flimsiest character. For example, if a man were accused of stealing, and a bit of rag found near the spot tallied with the supposed culprit’s clothing, this would be considered sufficient evidence to condemn the perhaps innocent prisoner to the loss of a hand for theft. Any one suspected of a crime is frequently tortured to force a confession, and in the towns is imprisoned _ and half-starved by his jailer whom he has to pay for his food. Law is as a rule cheap and speedy; but © where money is in question, the governor will take his ° share when he has adjudicated. Although in theory all have a right of appeal to the Shah, yet few avail them- — selves of the privilege, knowing that in such a case — everything would in all probability be swallowed up by the royal judge and his courtiers. Any small case in the country is settled by the : kedkhoda, or headman of the village, who is assisted — by the greybeards of the hamlet. No women are ever © imprisoned, although if mixed up in a crime they will probably be poisoned, but from the retirement in which © they live such cases are of the rarest. : This is an attempt to depict the Shah and his © methods of government as they were until lately; but — it is to be hoped that both may undergo modification in the near future, and that Persia may have in herself | the seeds of a new and vigorous life. CHAPTER IV THE PERSIAN MAN T>ROM the cradle to the grave—nay, even in the | life beyond the grave—the balance weighs teavily in favour of the Persian man as compared vith the Persian woman. “He that has no son has 10 light in his eyes,” runs the saying, and it is looked pon as a disgrace if a man has not an heir to carry m his name. _ When a baby-boy, born of well-to-do parents, comes nto the world, he is bedded in a silken cradle and strayed in embroidered garments, and the proud nurse vho carries him into the presence of his father will eceive a gift. The position of his mother with her iusband will be greatly improved by his arrival, and \ big feast will be given in his honour, at which friends, oriests, and beggars will be fed, and musicians and lancers will entertain the guests. | The baby will be hung with amulets to preserve him rom the influence of the “evil eye,” one of these charms sonsisting of a turquoise struck into a sheep’s eye wrought from Mecca, at the time of the annual sacri- ice. When his nurse takes him for an airing, the clothes in which he is swaddled so tightly that he can oly move his head and hands, will be of coarse | 63 64 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE material, this ruse being adopted to prevent passers-by from commenting on his beauty. Were their eyes drawn towards him, attracted by fine garments, they might utter some expression of admiration, which, if they forgot to couple it with the saving Washallah (God is great), would almost certainly bring sickness upon the luckless infant. If the child happen to have convulsions during teething, an infallible remedy is to hang from its neck a strip of calico the exact length of the little patient and inscribed by a mul/a with texts from the Koran ; but as this costs a sovereign it is never used for girls. At about eight years old, the boy is more or less separated from his mother and sisters, and put in charge of men-servants, a priest undertaking his education, which consists for the most part in learn- ing to read and write and to recite the Koran, The sacred book of Islam is written in Arabic, and as no attempt is made to explain to the boy the meaning of what he is reading, this method of instruction cannot do much to develop the mind. Xenophon wrote that the youths of Persia were taught justice in their schools together with the arts of hurling the dart and shooting with the bow, and this, coupled with Herodotus’ cayill that all Persians were trained to ride, to shoot, and iy speak the truth, seems a much better type of education than that which is in vogue at the present day. | It is curious to see a group of scholars sitting on their heels round their master, swaying their bodies to fro, and all reciting in a sing-song and at the pitch of their voices what perhaps the teacher himself is unable to translate. Or they are being instructed in the rudi: ments of writing, resting their paper on the right knee | THE PERSIAN MAN 65 vnd beginning at the vzgh¢-hand side with their reed yens, there being no slates in Persia. Caligraphy may be classed as one of the fine arts, so greatly i is it esteemed, even though at the present day t has been more or less superseded by printing. It vesembles drawing rather than writing, and a letter is nscribed on a piece of very shiny paper, cut to the ‘equired size and held in the hand. If the paper prove 00 small, the margin always left on the right will be ised, and if the writer happen to make a mistake he vill lick off the Indian ink letters with his tongue. de does not write his signature, but rubs some ink on to a seal with which he presses the paper. Even un educated Persian will take some time to decipher 1 missive, the reason being that the dots and tiny signs which differentiate the letters of the alphabet, and are ilways printed, are invariably left out in writing. _ Ifa boy prove idle or stupid at his tasks, he will be orced to “eat sticks,” a Persian expression for the yastinado, the national punishment to which the highest n the land as well as the lowest may be subjected, and which is not regarded in any way as a disgrace. In ais hours of recreation the child of rich parents is put n the charge of a /a/a, or pedagogue, usually an old man, who discourages animal spirits of any kind, and mpresses on his young companion that it is undignified 10 run, or jump or frolic. The boy’s dress is a man’s in miniature—the same European trousers, vest of Kerman shawl, frock-coat much kilted at the waist (the tightly fitting short coat of an Englishman being considered indecorous), and the astrachan folah, or hat. And as he is a replica ‘i his father as regards his clothes, he endeavours to ; 66 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE be the same in his manners, copying the courtly tenis of speech and compliments of the “ grown-ups,” and learning the right mode of address to royalties, officials, dignitaries of the Church, merchants, and so on, together with the complicated Persian etiquette. | Later on he will accompany his parent when visiting, speaking of himself as the dandeh, or slave, of any superior, and will deal out compliments such as “ May your nose be fat,’ “May your shadow never grow | less,” in proportion to the rank of the recipient, soon grasping that a man looks upon it as a sarcasm if he receives more than his due. He must also know the proper position to take when asked by his host to seat himself upon the carpet; for there are no chairs in common use, and all kneel and sit back on their heels, to the great detriment of the fit of tha trousers. : The youth, moreover, must note the ceremonial con- nected with the going-round of the falzan, or water- pipe, observing how each guest takes it in order of rank, but makes a gesture of passing it to his neigh- bour, and waits for the latter’s refusal before putting the tube to his own lips. When he takes his leave he must remember to put his right foot first into the slippers which he and all those present left at the door on entering. The Persian youth rides as if he had been born in the saddle, but his idea of equitation is to rush madly at full speed, spurring his horse with the sharp points of his shovel-stirrups, yelling to it, and then pulling it back suddenly on to its haunches with the severe Persian bit. His spurts of fiery energy will probably be succeeded by days of idleness, in which he wil TWdNd ok \ ALLAN EESN uo nN 1 OGVNI L Vd—I00HOS o NviIsaddd afr ay PY er , * — }> > — 4 Le or vA rvs | mat a" > e we ae ' Fis = . a wa > b © : 7, “ eo i \ a - ‘4 aa LIPRARY- Oy UNIVER HE DEE ut juss THE PERSIAN MAN 67 | spend many hours in visiting his friends, sipping in- -numerable cups of tea—the national drink—and smoking kalians. It will indeed be well if he obeys the pre- cept of the Prophet and refrains from wine and games of chance, and merely smokes Shirazi tobacco instead of the opium and fashish, now sadly common among the jeunesse dorée of Persia. The idea of having a career is not one that finds favour with young men in a land where to do nothing gracefully is a fine art. Certainly there is not much open to a youth save minor positions at the Court of the Shah or acting as a hanger-on to some governor of a province or high official, such sinecures being spoken of as “doing service.” If of the merchant class or the son of a priest, a craftsman, or a peasant, a man will in all probability succeed his father in his occupation. But a nation which counts time as of no value, and whose favourite expressions are Murda inshallah (To-morrow, please God!) and Azb ne dared (It doesn’t matter), would look upon the “strenuous life” as a kind of lunacy. And here a few words must be said about the Persian servant to whom his master confides his sons at an early age. Domestics are fed and clothed by their employers, dressing so much like them that foreigners new to the country might find it difficult to distinguish a master from his dependents were it not for the humble air of the latter and their habit of hiding their hands in their sleeves. They are supposed to receive wages in cash, but as that commodity is scarce in Persia they often have to depend on the commission of I0 per cent. which they take on everything that they purchase for the household. Besides this, if a master sends a present, 68 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE the servant selected to carry it receives the value of the article in money from the recipient. This is a custom which Europeans often find inconvenient, as they are apt, on their arrival in Persia, to be overwhelmed with gifts for which they will, zolens volens, have to pay far more than they are worth. F Juvenile Persians play with the children of the ser- vants, one of whom may be educated by the mulla with the sons of the family, partaking in the amuse- ments of the latter and following his young masters on horseback after gazelle and partridge.‘ A gentle- man visiting a house will always speak to the head- servant of his host, and it is a particular mark of friendship to the latter to send his retainer on some trifling errand, this being looked upon as a great com. | pliment from a superior when visiting an inferior. The. servants break into the conversation at intervals, the guests often refer to them, and they are expected to bring home all the gossip of the bazaars with which | to regale their employers. In fact they are part and parcel of the family, look upon their master as a kind | of father, care for his interests, are called by him | batchaha (children), and hold perhaps a better posi-. tion than that of the poor relatives and hangers-on to. be found in so many households.. Talking of servants leads on to slaves, and, strange though it may seem, | Persia is the Paradise of that unhappy class. Though their owners have power of life and death over them, | Persians say that as slaves are costly to buy they must. be well treated and given no hard work to do; more- over, as they have no home of their own all their interest is sure to be centred in that of their adoption, therefore they can be trusted far more than any servant. THE PERSIAN MAN 69 Owing to the vigorous way in which Great Britain has put down the slave trade in the Persian Gulf, negroes ‘an negresses are expensive, though many are still introduced by the pilgrims from Mecca. As a rule they become much attached to their owners, who leave everything in their care without hesitation, and lives often get considerable wealth if in the household ‘of a man of position, but hardly ever wish to purchase their freedom. If a negress has a child by her master she becomes free, and her boy or girl will be brought ‘up with the other children of the family and probably will marry a Persian, an admixture of black blood being looked upon as no degradation. The day of a well-to-do Persian is somewhat as ‘follows. He will be roused before sunrise by the call oe the muezzin, his servant not daring to wake him, as it is a sin to disturb the slumbers of the Faithful. The clear voice rings from the mzzar of the mosque above the slumbering town or village, summoning all men to prayer in the following words :— ' “God is great! There is no God but God! Mohammed is ‘the Prophet of God! Come to prayers! Come to salvation ! ‘Come to good works! There is no other God but God! , Prayers are better than sleep !” . These last words are only recited at dawn, and our Persian, flinging off his padded quilts, makes a speedy toilet by donning his coat and trousers, his under- garments being only renewed at the weekly bath. He exchanges his felt skull-cap for the orthodox tall, black lambs’-wool hat, as he is never seen with uncovered head, even in the intimacy of the family circle, 70 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Water is then poured from a ewer over his hands, and he washes his face, his arms to the elbows, and his feet and ankles, before prostrating himself in devotion on his prayer-carpet, his face turned in the direction of the Kaaba at Mecca, and his forehead resting on a fragment _ of earth from the Holy City. Among other prayers he will recite the Fatzha, held in as great reverence by Moslems as is the Lord’s Prayer by Christians, and used almost as often. It is the opening chapter of the Koran, and runs thus :— “Praise be to God, Lord of all the worlds! The Compassionate, the Merciful ! King on the Day of Judgment ! Thee do we worship and to Thee do we cry for help! Guide Thou us on the right path ! The path of those to whom Thou art gracious ! Not of those with whom Thou art angered, | Nor of those who go astray!”? | His prayers and genuflexions (which are repeated again noon and at sunset) being accomplished, he: drinks a glass of much-sweetened tea without milk, This he stirs with a silver spoon that is worked in filigree in order to take away the temptation of sipping from it, and thus committing the unlawful action of putting this metal into his mouth; and) when he has eaten a flabby cake of bread with some) sweetmeats, and has smoked a water-pipe, he will be ready for the work of the day. The next meal is an’ ample repast served at noon, a leather cloth being laid’ on the ground, thin flaps of bread serving as plates’ and napkins, and fzlaus, chilaus, kabobs, and sherbets making their appearance with plenty of fruit ae | T Rodwell’s translation of the Koran. THE PERSIAN MAN Oy summer. The /i/au, the national dish of Persia, js a mound of beautifully cooked rice mixed with clarified butter, bits of meat and different vegetables, and if served with a sauce of pomegranate juice and chopped almonds it is called a fisenjan. The chilau kabob, or chef @euvre of Persian cookery, is made from the thick part of a saddle of lamb, the tiny pieces of meat being steeped beforehand in vinegar and herbs and disposed on a mound of rice, raw eggs and butter being its accompani- ‘ments. Kabobs consist of pieces of lamb, fat, liver, and onion stuck alternately on skewers which are turned over a charcoal fire and then handed to the guests, all of whom eat far more rice and bread than meat. The sherbets are merely fruit syrups, those made of lime or pomegranate juice being most refreshing drinks in hot weather, and they are served in large bowls, in each of which is a big ladle, often exquisitely ‘carved from pear-wood by the villagers of Abadeh. Every one drinks from the same spoon, but it is against ‘etiquette to touch it with the lips. As there are no ‘knives and forks, each man feeds himself with his fingers, moulding the rice with his right hand into a kind of sausage and manipulating it so cleverly that nota ‘grain is dropped. After the meal, which is eaten in .silence, is over, the servants pour rose-water over the greasy right hands of the party (it would be a gross -breach of decorum to use both hands in feeding), and all then compose themselves for a siesta—a habit indulged in by the lowest as well as the -highest, and which it is almost a crime to dis- turb. Tea, fruit, and sweetmeats appear to be taken at any time during the day, and the evening 72 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE i meal after sunset is sometimes not served till nine o’clock. ? If guests are invited to this they drink wine before dinner in defiance of the Prophet’s prohibition, and apparently callous to his threat that his followers will be forced to expiate each draught by swallowing a pecu- liarly nauseous water in the next world. They nibble salted pistachio nuts, zachod (a kind of pea), and melon: seeds, indulging in lively conversation until the meats arrive, and before partaking of these they must rinse their mouths and wash their hands clean of the forbidden wine, — As no Persian eats beef or pork, and there is no > fish in the interior, the menu is practically mutton and fowls with sometimes game. The dishes already given repeat themselves year in, year out, with hardly any » variation, though there is a profusion of fruit and vege- - tables to compensate for this monotony. The moment dinner is over the guests depart, andl those of the household prepare for bed, taking off their | outer garments, throwing themselves on divans, and | pulling vesazs, or padded cotton quilts, over them, head and all. The public bath is used by a Persian as a club where he meets his friends and exchanges the gossip of the © town, and he will be attended by his servant carrying | towels, a change of linen, and jugs of cold water to pour — over his master, when the latter has emerged from the | hot tank. As water is a valuable commodity in Persia, | the contents of the large tanks are not changed | frequently, and a bather runs great risk of contracting | infectious diseases in a low-class hammam. After the bath the hair is dyed’a glossy blue-black with indigo — THE PERSIAN MAN a and henna, and the nails and finger-tips of the middle slasses are tinted with the juice of the latter plant. The >rthodox shave the top of the head, letting the back hair zrow long, the idea being to leave two locks by which the angels who come to question a newly buried man, may carry him up to the realms of the Blessed if he is able -o affirm that he is a good Mohammedan. Persians say that this custom of shaving the head is out of compli- ment to Ali, who was bald and who dyed his long beard. ‘All men cultivate a moustache, a hairless upper lip being looked upon as effeminate, and at about thirty a short clipped beard is grown, which after the age of forty is never cut. _ Friday is the Mohammedan equivalent to our Sunday, business being suspended in the bazaars, and after the bath orthodox Persians repair to the mosque for noonday prayer. Here there is no distinction made between rich and poor, a prince prostrating himself next the dirtiest beggar, and all looking toward the mel vab, a recess which points in the direction of the sacred black stone built into the Kaaba at Mecca. This relic is supposed to have been brought by Abraham, and was held in such profound reverence in Mohammed’s day, that the Reformer himself did homage to it, although he strictly prohibited the worship of idols of any kind. _ The service and the portions of the Koran selected are all recited in Arabic, the pzshnamaz or leader of the prayers in a mosque, taking the congregation through some thirteen invocations to God, each said with the body in a different attitude of devotion. Then the preacher mounts the step of his low pulpit and delivers the hutbah, or Friday oration—a_ kind | 74 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE | of sermon, which includes prayers for Mohammed, the | “Companions,” and the Shah, and which is delivered, in Arabic. When he arrives at a suitable age, the parents of a. Persian youth busy themselves in arranging a marriage for him. Bachelors are looked down upon in Iran—in | fact it is a disgrace for a man to die unwedded, and in. such a case his funeral is spoken of in mockery as his _ marriage. H As a Persian has never seen the face of any lady save: 1 his relatives, he has no opportunity of choosing his wife | and must leave the selection entirely to his mother, — Unless he marries a cousin, recourse will probably be | had to certain old women who act as go- -betweens, telling the mothers of eligible sons about the dowry. and charms of eligible daughters. Suppose a suitable. } girl be found, the would-be mother-in-law goes to inspect her, and if the young lady is adverse to the | match, for she may have seen the youth on her rare outings, she will offer refreshments so rudely that the — negotiations will be broken off in a hurry. This, however, seldom occurs, as a Persian girl is usually, anxious to be married, and if all has gone smoothly she — and her mother will drink tea at the house of the would-be fiancé who, hidden away, may perhaps get a glimpse of his future bride. (| After this comes the public betrothal by the priest, : at which the man is supposed to see the face of his bride for the first time, and has his one chance af : drawing back at the price of paying to the girl’s parents _ half the dowry that they would have given him with’ their daughter ; but a man doing this is socially disgraced. | THE PERSIAN MAN 75 The betrothal and marriage take place in the house and not in the mosque. The hospitable Persians often saddle themselves with a heavy load of debt on these sccasions, as the wedding festivities may last a whole week, during which there is much eating and drinking, musicians, dancers, and wrestlers being hired to entertain the numerous guests. Four wives are allowed to each man by Mohammedan law, but owing partly to the poverty of the country and perhaps because of the worry of rival wives, polygamy is becoming rare in Iran, Persians even speaking of the ‘custom as “unfashionable.” “Two tigresses in a house are better than two mistresses,” is a significant proverb ; and indeed the jealousy that ensues in such a case may easily be imagined, and has been known to end in the ‘death by poison of one of the wives or perhaps of the ‘husband himself. Owing to the seclusion of women, it is hardly possible ‘for a wife to be a real companion to her husband. She ‘may never be seen with him in public, she cannot ‘discuss with him anything that is going on in the outside world, as her horizon is practically bounded by the walls of her own home, and she knows none of his friends nor he any of hers. Indeed, so strict is Persian ‘etiquette that a man may only inquire about the health of his friend’s family by the discreet term of Rhana, or the “house.” The husband really manages the establishment, pays the servants, and checks the accounts of his steward and head groom, the wife being ‘by no means a “helpmate” in the English sense of the 'word. The love of a Persian is bestowed on his children and on his parents, a man once telling the writer that it would be against nature for any one 76 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE a to care for a wife as much as for a father or ‘| mother. } The priest who educates a Persian advises him, as one of the cardinal rules of life, to do the exact contrary of what a woman counsels; therefore it can easily be understood that a man’s opinion of women is by ne means an exalted one, and the fact that a husband may introduce temporary wives to any extent into his house. hold, lowers it still further. Polygamy frequently breeds hate between fathers and sons, and no real home-life is possible if a wife feels that she may be divorced at any moment. When a Persian comes to the hour of death he is never left to die “in peace,’ according to the English idea, the room in which he lies being crowded with relatives and friends, all talking loudly, smoking kalians, and sipping tea at intervals. As soon as he has breathed his last, with his face turned towards Mecca, his corpse is prepared for buria! with camphor and spices, the interment taking place within twenty-four hours. | It is a time of hurry and confusion. All the water in the house is thrown away at once, in the belief that any one drinking it would be afflicted with colic; mullas recite portions of the Koran; and the hired mourners wail and beat their breasts, hie aid being invoked because the Prophet forbade weeping on the part of relatives, as their dear ones were in a state of happiness, When the coffin arrives, friends crowd in to help to bear it to the cemetery. Many take turns in carrying the bier, this being a meritorious act, and the corpse is borne at a great pace to the graveyard, Mohammed | THE PERSIAN MAN 77 elling his followers to hasten their steps in order to tive the righteous man happiness as soon as possible, igi in the case of an evil man, to get rid of his weight yom off their shoulders. The deceased is placed in the ‘offin with his shroud loosened and two sticks under the wmpits to enable him to raise himself when the two slack angels, with their blue eyes, come to question him 's to his orthodoxy. When the earth is shovelled over i and the bearers have repeated the Hatzha they de- yart in the belief that the angels are already settling the fate of their friend, and either enlarging his grave to he size of a room, or narrowing it so that he yells ‘n anguish. _ Even if the deceased is able to satisfy his inquisitors, je hasstill to pass the Bridge of Sirat, “finer than a hair ind sharper than a sword,” before he can reach Paradise. This bridge spans the fires of hell, and while the lighteous pass over easily to the abode of the Blessed, she wicked fall headlong into the torments below. On the third day after the burial the relatives of a Jead man visit the grave and employ mmullas to recite sortions of the Koran ; this mourning is kept up fora week, much money ee expended on the priests and on hired mourners. _ If the deceased has been unable to go to Mecca in iis lifetime his family will often actually pay some one 0 make the pilgrimage for his benefit, the pilgrim accruing no advantage to himself. If it be possible the dead man will be interred in the precincts of a shrine, deing practically sure of heaven in such a holy resting- dlace; and rich men build their tombs beforehand and often visit them in the company of admiring friends. But they do not have things entirely their own way ; for 78 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE if a wealthy man who has led an irreligious life t buried close to a shrine, an angel will exchange h corpse for that of a poor and saintly man lying in som neglected grave outside the city walls! Three days are set apart in each year for visiting ' graves. On these occasions the well-to-do invite the friends to sit on carpets laid among the tombs an to listen to a mudla reciting the Koran while the partake of refreshments, the whole being quite a soci function. If a Persian has not omitted to perform h devotions, has fasted during Ramazan, and has give alms to the poor, he dies in a happy confidence ( attaining to a Paradise replete with material enjoyment Rivers of delicious water, of milk, and of honey, flo through lovely gardens, where beautiful youths han round goblets of unfermented wine. A marvellous tre laden with every conceivable fruit, thrusts its branch through the windows of the mansion apportioned / each Believer, offering him his favourite dishes, ar even providing him at his desire with horses reac saddled and bridled. The Faithful, clad in silke garments, lie on couches and are tended by houris / surpassing beauty, who sing enchantingly and mal them forget the women they have known on earth, tl humblest believer being said to have no less the seventy-two of these fair ministrants. All renew their youth and its desires in Paradise, bi though faithful women may enter this abode of th Blessed, it seems plain that the Prophet did not co} template that the marriages made on earth should tf re-cemented in heaven. Indeed it appears that womé are relegated to an inferior garden peopled with angel: THE PERSIAN MAN 79 companions of the male sex. Therefore I think it may fairly be claimed that the Persian man from his birth, , during the whole of his lifetime and in the next world, has a decided advantage over the Persian woman. It is difficult to judge his character fairly, as the Oriental standard is not the same as the European; but ,on the whole the typical upper and middle class Irani _is a pleasant-mannered man with a flow of conversation, /and because of his social qualities has been called the “Frenchman of the East.” _ He is keen, lively, and full of curiosity, vain of his looks and figure, and is careful in his dress, though forbidden to wear gold or silver, save the setting of his ‘ring and the mounting of his sword-hilt. He loves ‘visiting his friends, and is most hospitable, to lay food before a guest being, according to the proverb, one of ,the three occasions on which it is right to hurry. His literary and artistic tastes find an outlet in beautifully ‘written copies of the poets, his carpets, the decoration of his kalians, and sometimes in the laying-out of his garden. A Persian’s speech is picturesque and inter- | ‘larded with apt quotations from Saadi or Hafiz, and he. is very proud of his native tongue, which Mohammed is said to have promised should be the language of \Paradise. To an Englishman his conversation often ‘sounds profane, so frequently is the name of God intro- ‘duced. A Persian, for example, if asked to do any- 'thing, consents by the word Jushallah (Please God), encourages his horse with plentiful Yadllahs (O God), ‘offers anything with the remark Bismillah (In ‘the name of God), and intersperses a narrative with many i Ses ae ¢ THE PERSIAN MAN 85 acruel bit, goads it with the sharp points of his shovel- stirrups and would never dream of dismounting to ease it if the going were bad. The Prophet said on one occasion that every animal would appear at the Resurrection in order to give testimony for or against its owner; but he neutralised this salutary warning with the command that no animal was to be killed save for food or for sport. This has led to conduct revoltingly cruel to English ideas ; for any worn-out animal, instead of being put out of its misery, is given “the freedom of the desert,” which means that it is driven away from its home to die of starvation onthe utterly barren Persian plains. In one case the decrepit pet-dog of a Persian of rank was carried some miles out of the town and left to perish, but to the astonishment of all the little creature found its way back to breathe its last at its callous owner’s feet. Any traveller is certain to come across camels or mules lying beside the track zz extremis, and his servants will greatly object if he is humane enough to give them their release, telling him that such an act will in all probability evict a sim, or a departed spirit, that will wreak vengeance on those who have disturbed it. _ It must be confessed that the typical Persian is not a patriot, though he has a great fondness for his native city, and as a rule much dislikes being exiled from it. ‘The proverb “ Every man loves his own country, even if jit be hell,” really means his own town; this trait being partly owing to the corrupt form of government, that has looked upon Persia merely as a treasure-mine, to be exploited by any one in power, and also to the isolation of the different cities, All the principal towns are several days’ journey from one another, long distances 86 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE apart which have to be traversed by riding. Thereta it comes to pass that the difficulty of communicati; cuts off the cities from the national life, and forces tha to have their own organisation, and be self-centrd, much as were the towns of Europe during the Mide Ages. Moreover, the inhabitants of every city « credited with special characteristics, the Isfahani beig prudent, thrifty, and avaricious, as contrasted with te Shirazi, the Neapolitan of Persia, who is generous ad quick-tempered, a lover of wine, poetry, and gaiety, ad a passionate horseman. The inhabitants of Meshd are said to be boorish, those of Kashan cowardly, ad so on. ; It seems hard to dub the Kashanis cowards wha that failing is shared by so many of the Shah’s subjes —in fact the Persian proper is looked upon as te reverse of brave throughout Asia, and is a braggt to boot. . An English officer travelling in Iran once caie across a great party of pilgrims at the mercy of ce man, who was forcing his unlucky victims to disgore their money by threatening them with a pistol. Englishman covered the bandit with his revolver ad made him drop his ill-gotten gains and his weapa, which latter was discovered to be not only unloadd but so out of repair that it could not have been fid off on any pretext! The pilgrims were anxious 0 wreak vengeance on their assailant as soon as he ws defenceless ; but this the officer did not permit, ad allowed him to retreat to the hills, after which i¢ caravan proceeded joyfully on its way, carrying 1¢ broken pistol as a safeguard! Yet the descendants of the men who hurled bak 1 THE PERSIAN MAN 87 smies of Rome again and again in the time of the 2arthian and Sasanian kings still exist, the Bakhtiari nd other nomad tribes, being splendid fighters, and upplying the best troops in the Persian army. The ountry has not lost her fighting material, but she ppears to have lost her leaders, the officers the writer iad the privilege of meeting being singularly deficient a pluck and grit, and not at all ashamed of pro- laiming the fact. Morier’s immortal “ Haji Baba” depicts the Irani to he life—so much so that a Persian gentleman to whom he book was lent complained that it did not interest im, because it was just what he and his acquaintances id and said every day! The Persian has his failings, certainly, but he is atensely human, and therefore very likeable, and there re few travellers who do not wish him and his country vellin the crisis that both are undergoing. A nation gat had a civilisation before those of Greece and come, and is still keenly intellectual, will, it is to be oped, rise again, unless it is too heavily handicapped y a bad government, lack of communications, and the ead weight of Islam. CHARLTERIV A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED THE HOLY VERY Persian city has some special feature that) distinguishes it from other towns. There are, for example, the great square and mosque of Isfahan,. the ark, or citadel, of Tabriz, the leaning mznar of Kashan and the gold-domed shrine of Kum; but all these cities are more or less alike in their labyrinths of narrow alleys enclosed with high mud walls, opening. out here and there into squares, and the bazaars are’ all built on a fairly uniform pattern. : As Meshed, capital of the province of Khorasan, afi famous for its shrine, which is a centre of pilgrimage, is a typical Persian city, some account of it and its sur-| roundings will give the reader a better idea of town life than pages of general description. There are two ways of reaching the Holy City from England. One is to go by the Mediterranean and Black Seas to Batoum, thence by the Transcaucasian railway to Baku on the Caspian, crossing the inland sea to Krasnovodsk, where the railway is again taken to Askhabad, the Russian capital of Transcaspia. The line passes by Geok Tepé, the scene of the great massacre of the Turkomans by Skobeleff, and across a 88 a A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED THE HOLY 89 barren steppe, intolerably hot in summer, to the gar- rison town of Askhabad. Here the traveller starts off on his hundred and sixty mile drive to Meshed, along a road cleverly engineered by the Russians across the mountain ranges, which separate Transcaspia from the Plateau of Persia. This is not a metalled highway, and even in fine weather a four or five days’ drive along it is not a particularly agreeable experience, as the rock, cropping out in places, and the boulders embedded at frequent intervals, cause the strongly built victorias to jolt horribly. A nervous traveller, moreover, will not ‘appreciate the speed at which the drivers take their teams of four horses abreast round the sharp zigzags. _ The Persians have laid the last part of the road from |Kuchan, and in fine weather it is a rough and very dusty track across the vast plain that begins as soon as »the Elburz mountains are crossed, and extends beyond /Meshed. A government concessionaire is supposed to ' keep up the whole route from the Russian frontier, but i little or nothing is spent on repairs. Streams have often to be crossed in order to avoid broken bridges, ‘and here and there long détours must be made, the road proper being too dangerously broken up to use. “It can be understood that such a route is almost )}impassable in a spell of rain or snow, and many are ithe disasters that overtake the heavy /fourgeons and _their willing horses during bad weather. _ Another and quicker way of reaching Meshed is the overland route by Vienna, Cracow, and Rostov to _ Baku, where the Caspian is crossed to Krasnovodsk. _ Here the Transcaspian railway can take the traveller go PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE to Kakha, beyond Askhabad, from which station he can ride a hundred miles by rough bridle-paths, across the mountains, reaching Meshed from London in about thirteen days. The high passes are, however, blocked by snow during the winter,,only being open at the end of April; and as there are no rest-houses and hardly any villages on the route, mules are necessary to carry the tents, baggage, and provisions. ! Coming from Europe it is usual to approach the Holy City by the Askhabad road, along which pass the little victorias, the diligences and fourgeons of the West, jostling the East in the form of strings of solemn camels, jingling caravans of mules, donkeys laden with firewood or manure, and wild men on wiry, tireless horses, both riders and steeds looking as if they had come from the Middle Ages. The gleam of the golden-domed Shrine of Imam Reza can be seen far across the plain, but is lost sight of as the traveller drives through a suburb consisting of squalid mud-built hovels. Then comes a long stretch of the castellated mud wall of the city, which has towers at intervals, is surrounded by an empty moat, and is pierced by some- what dilapidated gateways, their pinnacles adorned with glazed bricks. Here shabby-looking soldiers armed with obsolete muskets will be on guard, their dirty garments having hardly the semblance of uni- forms, and their flat kolahs decorated with the bag of the “ Lion and the Sun.” Originally Meshed was entered by six gateways, al of which are closed at sunset; but not long ago a seventh, a grandiose affair, was Denice by the Russians, to give their bank outside the city walls direct com- munication with the town, and this step caused much eee. A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED THE HOLY og1 _searching of heart among the Faithful, who looked | upon it almost as a sacrilege. _Inwhat may be called the “West End” of Meshed - stands the ark citadel, where the Governor and his troops live, its gateway opening on to the mezdan, _where some obsolete cannon are ranged, and on one side of which stand the Customs buildings, officered by Belgians. A cobbled road leads past the square to _ the British Consulate, and between the avk and the city gate are houses and gardens occupied by the _small English colony, and by the ans, or gentry | of Meshed, the Russian Consulate being nearer the town. This quarter is well planted with trees, which | give it a green look in spring and summer, and it may , be called the saterzal force of the Holy City, for here | are the Governor in his citadel, ill-clad soldiers, and some dozen cannon. The magnificent group of build- ings constituting the Mosque and the Shrine may be looked upon as the sfzritual force of Meshed—the very , heart and soul of the city. These holy places, alas, the Unbeliever is only _allowed to see from a distance, as he rides round the city walls, or mounts some roof to get a glimpse of the , golden dome of the Shrine with its attendant gold- , topped mzxars, and the beautiful tilework on the great \ porticoes of the Mosque. _ The sacred buildings are surrounded by a great enclosure, within which no unbeliever or animal may , pass, and this region is called das¢, or sanctuary. Evil- doers of all kinds used to be perfectly safe when once they had reached these precincts, and as most of the _best shops are in the dasz, refugees were wont to live at their ease and make good terms for themselves from 92 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE | their retreat. It is, however, annoying to the travelle passing along the Khiaban, or principal street, to fin his way stopped by an archway through which he ma_ not venture, and in the bazaars by a great chain “a which he may not pass. But each day as he rides outside the city he will se the Mosque and the Shrine from some new aspect, ye nearly always backed by ranges of hills often purpl. and rose-tinted. At early dawn in the winter, the many coloured tiles will faintly gleam through the semi-dark ness, and a few hours later the golden dome will E shining with an almost unbelievable splendour unde the rays of the Persian sun at noon, the metal wit which it is covered never tarnishing in the dry climat If the storm-clouds are gathering over the mountain and the sky is black with threats of rain, the appearan« of the dome will become almost sinister, turning to copper-red against its angry background, and seemin to be all that is left of a city wreathed in mist an gloom. Again, in the “after-glow ” of sunset, which throws | elamour as of magic over the mud walls and squal hovels of the city, the Shrine built in honour of tl Imam Reza, and the Mosque, the work of a dee queen, stand up, airy and unsubstantial, throbbing wil a soft rose-light like some wonderful vision revealed '. the elect for a space, and then reft away for ever. B enough has been said to make the reader understar. that this splendid mass of buildings is the great featu: that dominates the landscape. It is impossible to } indifferent to them, and after awhile the eye turns to tl majesty of their construction, to the fine blues all yellows of their tilework with a sense that they ar «WZHa WV; HNIAHS HHL OL WONVAIN x SENG es A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED THE HOLY 93 they alone are Meshed, and that all else is maya, or illusion. In front of the Mosque is a piece of ground railed ‘ound with a stone balustrade, and the Persians tell how when Gohar Shad began to build her fine monument, a poor widow refused to sell this little Naboth’s vineyard. ‘The queen, in great contrast to the usual Oriental _potentate, declined to press the matter, and to this day the small enclosure in the sacred precincts goes by the name of “ The mosque of the poor woman.” Professor Vambéry!t who, disguised as a dervish, visited the holy places, speaks of the Shrine as inlaid with gold, its walls hung with jewellery, weapons of great value, and carpets with precious stones woven into their texture, the tomb of Imam Reza being enclosed in a silver trellis-work which the hundreds of pilgrims kissed with fervour as they passed round it muttering ‘prayers. Gorgeous as is the Shrine both inside and out, ‘Vambéry infinitely preferred the Mosque from the ‘standpoint of architectural beauty, and its magnificent tilework is hardly surpassed in Asia. Fraser,2 on his visit to Meshed some forty years earlier than Vambéry, was taken into the Shrine dis- guised as a Persian, but would have met a violent ‘death had he been found out. As he was most anxious ‘to make a sketch of the Saku (the magnificent court- /yard), and the adjoining Mosque, he actually pretended, later on, to be a convert to Islam, repeating the kalma, or confession of faith, before a body of witnesses, in order to gain his point. However, the fanaticism of the populace prevented him from enjoying the privileges purchased at such a price. * “Karly Adventures.” 2 “Yourney into Khorasan.” 94 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Eastwick,t who in the ’sixties had a glimpse of the Imam Reza from an upper alcove of the great quad- rangle of the Shrine, might have lost his life, as he relates that the whole of Meshed was in an uproar the next day, saying that the sacred body of the Imam had been defiled by the by no means near presence of the Englishman. Not long ago a French lady-traveller, staying for a short time in the Holy City, purchased a Persian woman’s dress, and the idea: spread through the town that she intended to penetrate into the Shrine in this apparently secure disguise. A Persian gentleman told the writer that such an attempt meant almost certain death, for the visitor would be met by a group of seyzds as she entered the sacred building, and one would con- stitute himself her guide, reciting to her the customary prayers in Arabic that she would be obliged to repeat after him, and telling her where to prostrate herself. As the Ferznght had no knowledge either of Persian — or Arabic, nor of Oriental customs or genuflexions, she | would have speedily betrayed herself to her conductor, — and the crowd, rendered savage by fanaticism, would have torn her to pieces. The pilgrims who visit the saint’s last resting-place _ in thousands, obtain the title of MWeshedi for their devotion, and the poorest will often spend the earnings of a lifetime in such an undertaking. Sunnis from Turkey, Afghanistan, Bokhara, and Samarkand wor- ship here with the Persian Shiahs, but must walk — humbly in the stronghold of what they consider to be the unorthodox faith. This great influx of pilgrims leads to a considerable 1 “Three Years’ Residence in Persia.” VZHa WVNTI,, HNIAXHS HHL f#O GaVALANOO A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED THE HOLY 95 rade in Meshed to supply their wants, and the tra- ellers, following a Persian custom, are in the habit f taking to themselves ségehs, or temporary wives, uring their stay. This custom, sanctioned by the ‘hurch, for a mulla is called in to marry the ouple for as many days, weeks, or months as may be esired, is common throughout the country, and is a otent factor in the degradation of the womanhood of ersia. The city of Meshed (Place of Martyrdom) owes its ery existence to the Imam Reza, in whose honour the shrine was erected. According to Persian tradition ais descendant of Ali who lived at Tus was taken into igh favour by the Khalif Mamun, son of the illustrious larun-al-Rashid, was given the Khalif’s daughter in iarriage, and was designated as his successor to the -halifate. As happens so often in the East, an intrigue as started against the _ Imam, and Mamun’s jealousy sing aroused, he resolved on the death of his innocent m-in-law, and it is said offered poisoned grapes to him ith his own hand. After the victim had partaken of ie deadly fruit, feeling that he was doomed, he rose to ave, and on the Khalif inquiring where he was going, he iswered, looking at him with reproach, “I am going to 1e place where you have sent me.” At the present iy pilgrims are shown, embedded in the wall of the arine, the plate on which is supposed to have lain the disoned grapes; and as the devotees pass round ‘e tomb of the saint, kissing the lock of the grating at encloses it, they call down fervent curses upon both amun and his father Harun, the latter being buried (ose to the Imam Reza. Whether this legend be true or not, it is known 96 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE that the Eighth Imam died in the ninth century 4 Tus, the old capital of Khorasan, and was buried : the garden of Sanabad where the Khalif Harun was already interred. His tomb became a place of pil- grimage at once, and after the sack of Tus by Mongol hordes in the thirteenth century, those of the inhabi-| tants who had escaped massacre betook themselves to the garden-shrine round which the present city of Meshed has grown up. | Early in the fifteenth century Shah Rukh galel rich gifts to the sanctuary, and completed the fine mosque that his queen had begun to build. But the Uzsbegs from the north looted the city again and again despoiling the Shrine of its treasures, and it was not till 1598 that Shah Abbas, whose rule in Persia i looked upon as a Golden Age, recaptured the alt from these raiders. He then repaired the sanctuary, covered its dome with plates of copper overlaid wit] gold, and adorned its fine facade with splendid tile work, in order to encourage his subjects to expen! their enthusiasm and their money in Persia rather tha: in Arabia. Henceforth it became the Mecca of the Shia world, and though of course the tomb of Ali at Neje| and Husein’s shrine at Kerbela had prior claims t sanctity, yet patriotic and pious Persians contente themselves with rendering honours to the Imat Reza. a In the troublous times after the extinction of th Sefavi dynasty, Meshed changed her rulers often, an again and again the Shrine was despoiled of 1 jewellery, china, rare manuscripts, and gold, until, 1 1818, Fath Ali Shah gave the city some years | peace, and at last, in 1848, Nasr-ed-Din Shah subdue A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED THE HOLY 97 the almost independent province of Khorasan, and gave large offerings to the burial-place of the Eighth imam. The space round the Shrine is one vast graveyard, deople paying from £10 to £100 for the privilege of interment within its precincts. And this season of ‘est is not of very long duration; for as soon as the nscription on the flat stone, which forms part of a great pavement is defaced by the myriad feet of pil- rims, a fresh corpse will be laid in the grave, and ‘he stone re-cut for the new-comer. Indeed Meshed ‘s ssalmost as much a city of the dead as of the living, ‘or every open space seems to be covered with flat ‘ombstones. And when there is no more room inside he walls, the graves lie in thousands outside, riders ind pedestrians taking short cuts across them; and hese cemeteries are said to be haunted by hare rats f such ferocity that the grave- -diggers are forced to year long leather boots as a_ protection against hem. _ The custom of laying the dead to rest among the ‘ving, as it were, is in order that the passers-by may ay, “God grant you peace and a dwelling in Paradise vith the Prophet.” Such crowded burial-grounds and ‘te habit of disturbing them, would probably lead to pidemics in any other country; but the pure, dry ir of Persia apparently acts as an antiseptic, the Teshed children looking healthy enough in spite of 1e absence of all hygienic precautions and a water- ipply by no means above suspicion. Persians affirm tat nothing can ever be wrong with running water, ad do not object to the women washing their eigehes » the spot where the water enters the city; and | # : ¥ 98 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE they also say that the contents of a receptace holding more than fifteen gallons of water cannot be impure, scoffing at the idea that the tanks used for ablutions in front of their shrines may possibly be disseminators of disease. Next to the Shrine and Mosque, the Khiaban, or Avenue, made by Shah Abbas, is a distinctive feature of which all the inhabitants of Meshed are proud, This is the main street of the town, over a mile and a half in length, down the centre of which runs @ narrow canal, said to contain the water that the poet Firdawsi’s daughter gave to the city of Tus, anc which was afterwards carried on to Meshed. Here men drink and perform their ablutions, and thr women wash soiled garments in the stream, whicl is bordered by plane-trees and crossed at interval by rickety-looking bridges. On either side of thi promenade are booths and many a tea-shop. Thi latter institution answers in a way to the Englis) public-house, so much so that in the winter of 190 the women of Meshed went in a body to the Governo of the city begging him to close the ¢chaz-khana on the plea that their husbands spent all their earning there. Tea is the national drink of Persia, owing t centuries of intercourse with China, and the tea-sho is the club of the middle and lower class Persia where he can talk to his friends or listen to the son of a caged dulbul, Here the public story-teller fin an audience, and sometimes the J/utzs will give | performance of music and dancing. For the travel there is the interest of watching the passing along many nationalities, the inhabitants of Meshed ther selves being rougher in looks and manners than tho QGQHYHSHNW AO ANINHS AHL GNNOW AYVA-AAVUD ‘~ | A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED THE HOLY 99 of other towns of Persia, and showing the admixture of Turanian blood in their broad faces, high cheek- bones, and in many cases their red hair and fresh colouring. From the Khiaban is an entrance to the covered-in alleys of the different bazaars, which are lit and ventilated by large holes placed at intervals in the brickwork of the vaulting. The pushteen- makers are working at the picturesque coats of sheep- skin which defy all weathers, the wool being worn next the person, and the skin embroidered with yellow silk in beautiful designs. Further on men are repairing old carpets so wonderfully that the darns are only visible when the back is examined, and there is a noisy quarter where the brass-wrokers are hammering and turning out samovars, graceful ewers with long spouts for rose-water and utensils for aousehold use. Elsewhere the processes of bread and sweetmeat-making are being carried on in full view. Amid hideous patterned modern carpets, silk em- mroidery of the crudest colouring, masses of shoddy clothing and third-rate crockery are old_ bits of varved and painted work which could not be produced nowadays, or perhaps a scrap of a Turkoman saddle- »ag looking like velvet from constant use, or an old lamascened weapon, the gold still gleaming from its yvackground of rusty steel. _ The bazaars are a disappointment to the European 7ho wants to pick up old carpets and good turquoises; nd when his road is barred by a heavy chain it is mnoying to be told that the best shops are all in the ast, where no unbeliever may visit them. However € cannot fail to be interested in the life surging ound him. Swarthy, hook-nosed Afghans in white q 4 if iid 4% 100 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE 4 garments and turbans; Bokhariotes in striped silk coats; Turkomans and Kurds in huge sheepskin caps; merchants in tightly folded embroidered turbans and . brown abbas (clokes); seyids (descendants of the. Prophet) with green or blue-black headgear and waist- cloths ; all go about their respective business. Perhaps a holy mujtehid (high priest), with long beard and flowing robes, will pass along, seated on an ass, and the crowd will reverently make room for him as he| goes on his way. The women, closely shrouded in their black chadars, look more like spectres than: human beings, as they glide by, and impart an ele- ment of mystery to the haggling, gesticulating crowd. A Amid all the hurly-burly of buying and selling the European will be haunted by a familiar aroma of which perhaps he was first aware in the bazaars of Smyrna or of Constantinople, and which he will meet throughout: Asia. There is in it a hint of spices, of attar of roses, of burning wood, and of fried meat; in summer the fruit-stalls play their part, mixed with an odour of humanity and animals, not to speak of open drains, But whatever its component parts may be, when the traveller who has “ heard the East a’calling ” sniffs it, he knows that he is back once more in the land that has captured and held part of his soul, and for which he ha: hungered half-unconsciously amid the settled life anc comfort of the West. Like most Persian towns, Meshed gives an impressior of being coloured in different shades of khakz, the wort meaning the colour of earth or dust (Persian khak, and has little of the “gorgeous East” about it, apar from the Mosque and Shrine. The high walls, broke: A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED THE HOLY tor by wooden doors leading to the jealously hidden ‘dwellings, are made from the same mud as the roads, ‘and only better-class buildings are plastered. Though ‘the townsfolk may be clad in black or blue with black Jambs’-wool hats, yet the prevailing dust gives them a {dingy appearance; and in winter the felt and sacking clothing of the peasants is of the same tone as the soil ‘on which they work. Grey donkeys stagger along the ‘cobbled lanes laden with sun-dried mud-bricks or great ‘piles of dun-coloured camel-thorn, and in and out slip ‘the dust-coloured, mangy pariah-dogs. These sca- 'vengers of the town make night a pandemonium with ‘their barking, and are, with reason, looked upon as unclean animals by all good Mohammedans. Here ‘and there is a row of stalls with a very meagre stock- in-trade of groceries; or a baker's shop with the long, damp, thin, brownish cakes of bread stuck on mails; or a fruit-stall, a mass of colour. Despite the marrow alleys (one cannot call them streets except ‘by courtesy), sheep will be tethered in front of the shops, or rather booths: a fighting ram with great black, curled horns is fastened at a corner; and a couple of camels may be seen lying on the ground, completely blocking the way, and meditatively chewing a meal of chaff laid in front of them. _ The dervishes are usually to be found where the people congregate most. They are striking-looking figures in white garments of dubious cleanliness, with leopard skins dung over their shoulders on which flow their long, ankempt locks from under a conical felt cap, often em- oroidered with texts. Sometimes they carry a begging- owl, beautifully carved, and they go from place to place velling fortunes, giving charms and love-potions, and 102 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE professing to cure sickness with their 2uffus, or sacred breath. This they accomplish by blowing three times on the afflicted part, and reciting the Matha. Although there are learned dervishes, and poets among their ranks, yet many are lazy, impudent beggars addicted to opium, who demand alms from all they meet, and get free board and lodging and the best seats every- where as a right, the pious saying that “God provides their kitchen.” They are much to the fore during the month of Muharram, forming processions in which they strike and cut themselves as a sort of advertisement of their holiness; and at the No Ruz, or New Year, they pitch tiny NS at the doors of persons of rank, and make ridiculous little gardens of pebbles and twigs. in the dust of the road just as children would do. They | then keep up an incessant braying with cow-horns, yelling at intervals Ya Hak! Ya Hu! (“Oh Truth! Oh He!”—meaning God), this zeal obtaining for thet, a handsome present from the owner of the mansion, | And roaming about the streets of Meshed may be seen an old seyid who constitutes himself censor of public. morals. If he meets a man with unshaven head and) shaven beard, he beats him with the small stick che he carries. This he will also apply to the back of any man whom he sees strolling along munching a cake of bread—the reason of this being that no one should eat before performing his ablutions, and that the food should be laid on a cloth. Moreover, he’ reproves any woman who dares to uncover her face in the streets. The inhabitants of Meshed look upon this somewhat eccentric character as a saint, and those who are ill call him in to pray over them, believing that marvellous recoveries have been effected by his prayer A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED THE HOLY 103 _ In the poorer parts of Meshed the courtyards of the ‘houses are all below the level of the street, a custom ‘which makes the dwellings very damp if the winter ‘be a wet one; and heavy rain is a real calamity, as many of the flat mud roofs are certain to fall in. When ‘there is snow every one shovels the mass from his ‘roof into the street—a simple method rendering the ‘narrow lanes almost impassable until the thaw comes. ‘The cobbled streets have no names, and the houses ‘no numbers; but the whole city is divided into wards, ‘and every one is supposed to be in his house by ten 'o’clock at latest. As there are no workhouses in Persia, the beggars ‘have to shift as best they can, and it is a pathetic ‘sight to see them huddled up on the wooden counters of shops, covered with a piece of sacking during the cold of a winter’s night when the thermometer may ‘register 5° to 11° Fahrenheit. It is not surprising that many die from the exposure, in spite of the com- ‘forting Persian saying that God gives much cold to ‘the well-clad, but little to those who lack clothing. The traveller riding round the city walls is struck ‘by the very primitive manner in which they are roughly patched, the inhabitants having been terrified by a ‘recent Turkoman raid into repairing their defences. Just ‘outside the gates he will notice great heaps of manure ‘that are left for some time in the open before being used on the land, Persians sitting among them when they “eat the air,’ and apparently callous to their odours. Unsightly brick-kilns, with huge, untidy stacks ‘of yellow bricks, are a blot on the landscape; near by are hundreds of broad, earthenware hoops used in kanat-making, scores of kuszehs, or pitchers, stand- 104 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE ing beside the public highway waiting to be baked, | also piles of stones to be burnt for lime are dumped down at haphazard. Here and there flows a small stream, and the busy washerwomen spread garments of many colours to dry on the kaza¢ mounds ; or the water is being used by the dyers, and runs crimson or indigo as the case may be. By the public shambles a crowd of fierce pariah dogs come bounding out, barking savagely, and at this point a flock of sheep is standing, | and brisk bargaining going on between the shepherds | and the butchers, or great heaps of wool are being examined by would-be purchasers. Not far from here long strands of scarlet and blue worsted used in carpet- making are being strained against the city wall, and further on is the tanners’ quarter with hundreds of skins hung out to dry. Stately Khorasan camels hold their heads high as they stalk solemnly past, laden with great bales of cotton and wool, or perhaps with oil and | hardware from Russian territory. Sometimes the leader of a string of these animals may carry a huge plume of brown wool which stands erect on the back of the pack-saddle, and looks much like the nodding feather — ornaments of a hearse, giving the caravan a curious appearance when seen from a distance, Everywhere there is dirt and squalor, and to the European eye nearly everything is badly in need of repair; the so-called road is a track broken in places; the so-called bridges over the streams are often unsafe for horses to negotiate, and repellent- looking beggars seem to appear at every few yards The reader may say that the glamour of the East 1s conspicuous by its absence. But if he saw the scene under a heaven of deep turquoise blue and lit up by GCYHSHIN Wt cs + ger ee te L V aT = IVIS S.aa LG cEOd A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED THE HOLY 105 a sun that gilds and beautifies the meanest details, transforming a mud-built village into a picturesque fortress ; and if he drank in an air perhaps unsurpassed for its purity and invigorating qualities, he would be in the mood to look for beauties and not for defects, and would fall a victim to the mysterious spell of the “Land of the Lion and the Sun.” CHAPTER VI THE ENVIRONS OF A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED HE Holy City of Meshed lies at the broadest part of the valley of the Kashaf Rud, long ranges of mountains, peak rising behind peak, bounding the wide plain on either side. Tracks, worn by the feet of count- | less caravans that have passed through the centuries, _ cross and recross what is one of the most fertile districts _ of Persia, and in the spring the wide stretches of land under cultivation are green with crops of wheat, barley, millet, lucerne, beans, and opium. The greater part of | the ground is irrigated, and water is carried from the hills by means of £anats, the shafts used in the boring of these subterranean watercourses being dotted all over the plain. In the course of years, the mouths of — these great circles of earth fall in, and assume alarming dimensions, one close to the city being capable of engulfing a carriage and pair with ease as it lies beside the rough track frequented by all who drive. Some five miles to the north of the town the river. runs, much encumbered with mud shoals, that in some places are white with salt-efflorescence and in others are | hidden by great masses of rushes, the haunt of wild duck and teal. It is a sluggish stream of no great width as it winds across the plain, its name appropriately 106 JAGHERK VALLEY ‘ENVIRONS OF A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED 107 signifying a tortoise. In the hills are rushing torrents with charming villages on their banks which are a beautiful sight in spring-time.when the cherry, peach, apple, pear, nectarine, and apricot-trees are in full bloom. The most picturesquely situated of these is Jagherk, its name having the ominous meaning of “ Place of Drowning.” It is some twenty miles distant from Meshed, and as the stream foams and swirls among the boulders, big poplar groves dispute with the fruit- trees for every foot of ground on its banks, and lush herbage strewn with flowers srows to the very edge of the water, reminding one of the Austrian Tyrol, and the resemblance is borne out by the frown- ing peaks that enclose this Happy Valley. The villagers in bright blue cotton coats with white shirts, turbans, and cammerbands, are a pleasing contrast to the dingily attired townsfolk, and sometimes a dandy will appear in a costume of royal purple, or another will wear a mauve shirt with embroidered collar and indulge in a coat of an artistic raw-sienna shade of cloth. Many of the children are as rosy as those in England, yet it ts said that the inhabitants of Jagherk and the other villages in the narrow valley suffer much from fever and 2ye-complaints. Indeed, to live where the houses are auddled so closely together that it is possible to walk over nearly the whole village on the roofs, where the ‘ew lanes are ankle deep in dirt, and where drainage is oractically non-existent, cannot be healthy ; but it is infair to malign the beautiful climate when the illnesses ire owing to man’s mismanagement. Such of the English as are able spend the hot nonths in this valley, and the children come back to 108 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE the town bronzed and vigorous as from a trip to an English seaside. To return to the immediate environs of Meshed, the most striking object about a mile from the city is Kuh- i-Sangi, a curious double hill, from the top of which | can be obtained a fine view of the Mosque and Shrine, | and under which is a much-frequented tea-house and little sanctuary. The track leading to these is the promenade of Meshed, and carriages and riders go up | and down it on Fridays and holidays, the horsemen > careering madly about and often racing one another, Legend says that Ali told the Persians to quarry for’ stone in these twin-hills. His advice, however, has not | been acted upon, for the quarries proper are in the hills | behind, and are merely narrow passages in the flanks of -the mountains, the stone being all cut out by hand, without the aid of blasting, and carried into Meshed on > the backs of the patient donkeys. Stone is therefore | expensive, and in consequence nearly all the buildings ° are made of sun-dried bricks that crumble away with ° the passing of the years. Not far from Kuh-i-Sangi is a stretch of desert used ' by the English for polo and golf, the “greens” of the — latter game being composed of grey sand slightly ' different in colour to the prevailing dun of the plain. Persians do not appreciate the “egg game,” as they | designate it; but the polo played by the English and the escort of Indian sowars is one of the sights of the city. . Major Sykes,t who reintroduced the old national ' game of Persia both at Tehran and Meshed, believes. that gu-2-chogan, as the Persians call polo, was played | t “Ten Thousand Miles in Persia.” { ! M | ENVIRONS OF A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED tog vin Iran from prehistoric times, probably being in vogue before 700 B.C. He points out that although the earliest reference to the game is in the Pahlavi history of Ardeshir, yet Firdawsi in his “Book of the Kings” gives a vivid account of a match in which a legendary hero, who lived before the dawn of history, was the chief | player. _ Under the Sasanian dynasty, so popular was the -game that, according to the poet Nizami, ladies played it. He gives a highly picturesque account of a match which Khosru Parvis and his wife, the beautiful Shirin, attended, the Shah being so charmed with the exhibi- tion that he insisted on joining in and knocking about ithe ball with these “ fairy-faced ones.” In Mohammedan times Sir Anthony Sherley, when at the Court of Shah Abbas, early in the seventeenth century, and Chardin somewhat later, both witnessed ‘and wrote descriptions of the game; but after the ‘Sefavean dynasty, Persia became such a prey to anarchy and invasion that polo died out, and unfortunately there seems no likelihood that it will ever be revived by the , Persians themselves. _ Across the plain of Meshed at frequent intervals are ‘mud-built towers that were used some forty years ago to protect the shepherds from the raids of the Tekke -Turkomans., These terrible “men-stealers,”’ as they were yealled, were accustomed to ride a hundred miles a day (on their tireless steeds, their object being to take the luckless, and, it must be confessed, cowardly Persians as 'prisoners, and sell them for slaves in the markets of Khiva and Bokhara. Vambéry?! gives a vivid account of the utter panic into which a large caravan of pilgrims * “Life and Adventures,” 110 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE : escorted by soldiers armed with rifles, would fall, did. they see a few horsemen galloping towards them. The weapons would be thrown down and every one, soldiers included, would tamely submit to be herded into captivity without striking a blow to avoid what they knew was a miserable fate, their captors treating them with a brutality which passes description. On one occasion Vambéry met a Turkoman who on foot anid alone had actually made prisoners of three Persian men, driving them before him for eight miles into slavery!) If kept by these nomads to herd their flocks, the captives, would be half-clothed and half-starved, and at night’ would be tethered to a stout wooden staple by a chain: which they were forced to drag about with them all day, M. de Blocqueville, a French photographer in the employ of Nasr-er-Din Shah, was captured by these barbarians, who routed the Imperial troops, and he was | kept in slavery for a year and a half before the | paid the exorbitant ransom demanded for him. Travellers such as Ferrier, Fraser, and Fastwidie show how the Turkomans terrorised the whole of Khorasan, and Persia owes a debt of gratitude to the’ Russians who, under Skobeleff, rid the northern pro- vinces of these raiders; although the General’s whole-| sale massacre of the tribe when he took their great fortress of Geok Tepé sounds like an echo from the times of the Mongol invasion rather than modern) warfare. Even at the present day the Turkoman spirit is not entirely quenched, and in the December of 1907 the Kurdish troops had an encounter with them not far from Meshed, the soldiers returning in triumph and bearing thirty Turkoman heads on poles which were paraded through the city. ENVIRONS OF A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED 111 | The British Government has utilised the energies of some of these nomads by forming them into 1 postal service to carry the mails between Meshed and India, officials of the Amir of Afghanistan ‘taking the letters over at Herat and being respon- sible for their safe convoy to India. One of these sowars, Reza by name, is really a Persian, having geen stolen in childhood by the Turkomans and Jiving with them until he was grown up, when an ancle, employed by the British as a muleteer during a Boundary Commission, recognised his long-lost nephew. Reza then became a postal sowar, and usually meets at Askhabad any English travellers to Meshed, being able to turn his hand to anything— an invaluable quality when “on the road”; and, moreover, is of such a cheerful, garrulous, friendly dis- position, that he is a prime favourite, in spite of his iorigand-like exterior. _ Just outside Meshed there rises in lonely grandeur jone of the few monuments remaining to testify to the mmunificence of the Sefavean dynasty. This is the Musalla, or Place of Prayer—a lofty brick portico once faced with beautiful tiles, the pattern of which is ‘dentical with those on one of the entrances to the Mosque. Now, in common with most old Persian duildings, it has fallen into a ruinous condition, shough it is used occasionally as a place of inter- ion when storm, famine, pestilence, or war are lreaded, the people making a pilgrimage to it at such cimes. _ Here also on the Festival of Gadir a camel is killed, 1needy Persian prince collecting alms to purchase the animal, which is adorned with gay trappings, and its VW b ; flesh is distributed amongst the populace when th sacrifice is consummated. The design of the Musalla shows the striking dif ference between Gothic and Oriental architecture. / Gothic cathedral is beautiful viewed on all sides; bu as a rule, a mosque, however fine may be the grouping of its dome and mzuars, must be surveyed from a specia standpoint. The great portico of the Musalla is im pressive when seen from the front, but is an ugly mas of brickwork at the back and sides. The method, more over, of covering large parts of a building with tilewor] is hardly satisfactory, however beautiful it looks wher perfect, because if the tiles drop out in places ar immediate effect of neglect and decay is given. The only monument near Meshed in fairly goo repair is the shrine of Kwajah Rabi, some five mile to the north of the town and charmingly situated in ; garden planted with trees. On the gateway is ai. inscription declaring that the sanctuary was erecte by Shah Abbas in 1621, the sovereign calling himsel — the “ King of the Kings of the World,” “the Sovereigi of Mankind,” and so on, but with a touch of humility adding that he is after all a mere “Dog of the Porc! | of Ali.” | Below all this verbiage is a modern inscription invok — ing a curse on the man who does the least injury t the shrine or to the trees surrounding it; but this a not been much of a deterrent, for many of the fines planes in the avenue leading to the sacred buildin; have been felled, and the dome and portico themselve have been stripped of their best tiles. Everything i allowed to go to ruin; the brickwork has many a gapin: crack and the handsome blue, purple, yellow, an 112 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE ENVIRONS OF A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED 113 black glazed bricks which adorn the porticoes, together with the tiles, are sadly in need of repair. Inside, fortunately, all is much as it was when Shah Abbas prayed here. A broad turquoise band of tile- work, on which are verses from the Koran in white lettering, runs beneath the spring of the stencilled dome, and at a height of some four feet from the ground, round the entire building, is some of the most beautiful tilework in Persia. These hash? are grounded alternately in purple and turquoise-blue, relieved with white designs, outlined with a brown so lustrous that it gives the gleam and impression of gold. Under the lofty dome, in a large, red, wooden box, rest the remains of the saintly Kwajah Rabi, the com- panion of Ali, son-in-law of the Prophet, and on the wall of the sanctuary runs an inscription saying that the Imam Reza made the pilgrimage to Meshed, solely to pray at this tomb. Little did the Imam then think that above his own grave there would rise a shrine the ‘most magnificent and renowned of all Persia, and that Kwajah Rabi’s blue dome would be left to fall into decay and be only visited at rare intervals. One reason for this is that the Sunnis claim the saint as theirs, and send their dead to be buried round his resting-place. But as Kwajah Rabi was a personal friend of Ali, and lived in the days before Shiah and Sunni came into being, it seems a little hard that he should owe his unpopularity to this cause. The environs of Meshed do not offer much to the sportsman, but some of the English are in the habit of shooting snipe and teal in the marshes, or duck by the ‘iver during the winter. On such occasions it is I 114 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE the dawn, as the best shooting ground lies some twelve miles from the town. If snow has fallen recently, the cobbled, narrow lanes of Meshed will be scattered with hummocks of frozen snow, making it advisable to dis- | mount and stumble over them on foot, rather than on~ horseback. At this early hour hardly any one is to be > seen, and the few poor people afoot have muffled up their heads in many wraps, though in all probability their feet are only protected by cotton shoes; and the Khiaban, the Piccadilly of Meshed, is almost deserted, | Some twenty minutes’ walk, the last part of the way being through the squalid dwellings of the poorest | quarter of the city, brings the party to a gate sadly in | need of repair, and here every one mounts. Though the | roads are slippery, and ice-covered pools must be | carefully avoided, yet the sun is rising higher into the heavens every moment, warming the world and melting | the frozen slush. Once free of the graveyards and the . ( broken ground round the city, the horses begin to. canter along the tracks still covered in places with snow, | and at last reach a dry watercourse with high cliffs | rising on either side of what was once the bed of a. broad stream. (The Persian word for river, rwdkhana, | means the “house” or bed of the stream, from the fact that the water itself is so often conspicuous by its absence). Crossing this zul/ak and ascending and descending slippery slopes of mud, a long valley or rather frozen swamp is reached, intersected by a stream | from which branches many small rivulets. On either. side are low, reddish-coloured hills, and it is wet’ walking, for every one now dismounts, the sportsmen. plunging into the rough reeds and sedges covered with i necessary to rise in the chilly darkness that precedes | | — oa - re ——-77— s 1 er =—= 93 ——exer- eee = ~ ~~ ENVIRONS OF A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED 11s thin ice that breaks promptly and lets them into the _ water below. A wisp of snipe (xaw-2-diraz, long beaks, as _ the Persians call them) fly up and are stalked, and some _ duck and teal fall to the guns. One of the grooms, a _ most intelligent and active beater, implores the Sahibs - to shoot a couple of beautiful green-legged bittern, that he says will be excellent eating for himself and the escort, and whenever a bird is dropped he rushes forward with his knife to cut its throat, muttering the formula that makes it Aal/dl, or fit for food. A fox- terrier, quite as keen and almost as intelligent as Shahbaz, leaps into the water after any lost bird, often putting up others as he hunts in and out the reed- beds. After four or five hours’ tramp, during which the sun has become quite hot, though the exhilarating air \ wards off any fatigue, the long valley has been beaten \ from end to end, and the party mount and ride a couple ' of miles to the spot where lunch and a change of boots ' and stockings are waiting for them. The food eaten in the open tastes excellent, the roads are now almost free of frost, and it is possible to canter the whole way back to the city to the luxuries of hot baths and tea. This same valley about the middle of March will resound with the songs of birds, flocks of larks will soar jubilantly into the sky, and the ground will be sprinkled with almost stalkless mauve crocuses while the tiny scarlet tulips should be about to burst into bloom. Lizards, black spiders, ants of an abnormal size will be busy with their several avocations ; herds of sheep and goats will crop the herbage encrusted with salt in place of ice, and cattle 116 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE will plough the red loam on the crests of the low hills. Some sixteen miles from Meshed, on the banks of the Kashaf Rud lies Tus, the parent city of the present capital of Khorasan, and where the Imam Reza breathed his last. It is a charming ride on a spring day along the well-worn tracks “made by Allah,” as Persians put it, and across the fertile plain, green with springing crops, where the oxen engaged in ploughing give a touch of life to the wide expanse bounded on all sides by mountain ranges, Huge mounds, all that is left of Khaka, the oldest city of the valley, are passed; and some four miles away stands the ruined shrine of Tus, the fragments of its citadel and its broken-down walls being | distinctly seen in the radiant clearness of the atmo- sphere. The medieval capital of the province is_ approached by a “camel-backed” bridge, sadly out : of repair, and the traveller is astonished to find that a circumference of little over four miles of mud-built wall encloses the ruins of a city once. famous throughout Asia for its poets, astronomers, and philosophers, among whom dwelt Firdawsi, the great epic poet of Persia. Chinghiz Khan and his savage Mongol hordes sacked the city in the thirteenth century and decimated its inhabitants, who gradually took refuge in Meshed round the tomb of the Imam Reza. There is little enough of Tus to-day to recall its departed glories. The shrine, built of fine brickwork and adorned with charming stucco, is a picturesque ruin, and there is no indication in whose honour it was erected, the inscription on its plaster-work, ! | | 4 ‘ ENVIRONS OF A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED 117. “The world lasts but for an hour,” being singularly appropriate. Fraser,t who visited Tus in 1821, speaks of the interior of this shrine as being perfect. However, at the time of the writer’s visit in 1908 its walls were partly broken through, though it still made a fine concert-hall for a young Persian with a high falsetto voice. He was singing beautifully in the Oriental mode with many a shake and triil which echoed and re-echoed through the ruin. Listening to him stood a group of handsome _ youths in turbans and flowing cloaks, holding the bridles of their spirited horses, adorned with the gayest of trappings; and behind them, through a ruined arch, could be seen snow-capped peaks standing up against a turquoise heaven, the whole forming a picture that would have delighted an artist. The remains of the mznar, fifteen or twenty feet of which was standing in Fraser’s day, have now totally disappeared, the fine brickwork having probably been _ taken for building purposes; the ruins of the old citadel built on an artificial mound, and consisting of an inner and outer stronghold, both surrounded by _ Moats, have shared the same fate, the peasantry ’ carrying off the crumbling sun-dried bricks to be used as manure for the crops. Fraser speaks of a dome ornamented with tilework and standing near the gateway, having been pointed out to him as the tomb of Firdawsi. This building, however, is not to be seen at the present day; but close to the little village that nestles in a corner of the old city wall, is a mound of débris littered with Scraps of tile that the peasants say is the grave of the * “A Journey into Khorasan.” 118 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE great epic poet. It appears that some forty years — ago a literary governor of Khorasan wished to erect a fitting monument over the last resting-place of the “ Homer of Persia,” but the site of his grave could not be found. At this crisis a seyzd had an opportune dream, and on awaking he declared that the spot . shown to-day by the peasantry had been revealed to him in this vision, and on it the governor accordingly commenced a dome, which he never completed, and which is now a mere mass of rubble. Certainly Persians care little, as a rule, for the last resting-places of their illustrious dead; but in this case they are not to blame, because the old chronicle relates that the great poet was buried in a garden belonging to him, outside the city walls. And as the traveller returns to Meshed, leaving behind him only unsightly ruins with never a trail of ivy or a creeper to hide their nakedness, and beautify them as in Europe, he reflects that the road along which he canters is much as it was in the Middle Ages, On either side the same crops, the same primitive method of ploughing, the same species of marmot, that scuttles into its burrow with a sharp squeak at the approach of the horses. And around him the same mountain ranges coloured in many shades of purple, © amber, and sienna, the high peaks behind:them covered with snow until April showers her own snow in the form of blossom on the myriad fruit-trees of the valley. The famous turquoise mines of Nishapur can hardly be considered to belong to the “environs” of Meshed. As, however, that city is the headquarters of the only gem to be found in the country, and as the firuza (the name meaning victory) is looked upon as a power- ae eee SS _ ENVIRONS OF A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED 119 ful amulet, being worn by every one who can afford it, some account of the mines may be of interest. They are about three days’ journey from Meshed, and are supposed to have been worked from _ Achzemenian times. Major Sykes, who visited them in 1908, says that they are difficult of access, no ladders | being used, and the visitor being obliged to hoist himself up and down the shafts by sheer force of arm. No machinery whatever is employed, the miners _ chipping off the hard stone with chisels. In the rock itself are found the best kind, the samngz (stony), which, when deep blue and flawless, will fetch very high prices. The other kind, the #hakz (earth) stones, are found by washing the soil, and are usually pale and specked with white. Connoisseurs are able to tell at a glance from which special mine a stone has been dug. The turquoises are found in groups between the layers of matrix, and the matrix itself is often cut and polished if the blue in it predominates over the _ black. Tiny “seed” turquoises are discovered in great numbers, and are used for ornamenting pipe-heads, amulet boxes, and even harness, being of such small ’ value that a hundred can be purchased for sixpence. In buying turquoises it is as well to call in the assist- _ ance of an expert, for the sellers are in the habit of keeping the stones moist, in order to deepen their ' colour. Pale and worthless stones are often ornamented with gold devices, and are stuck on the ends of short sticks for sale, looking attractive when new, but soon acquiring a greenish tint. The workers in the mines are searched when their daily task is over, but it is said that many of the best turquoises are concealed and sold by the miners; and indeed the temptation must be i 120 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE sreat, when a moderate-sized stone will easily fetch £30 : to 440 if of a deep sky-blue and without a flaw. These stones acquired their European name from the fact that. they were first introduced into the West by way of | Turkey. Riding in the neighbourhood of Meshed it is noe unusual to meet a gruesome caravan of mules laden | with corpses which have been sent from different parts — of Persia to be buried near the shrine of the Imam > Reza. The coffins, fastened up in sackcloth, are in the charge of the muleteer, who has been given the burial-money to hand over to the authorities of the Shrine. It is said that these charvadars, usually marvel- lously honest, are occasionally tempted by the large sums given them beforehand, to drop the bodies into some ravine on the road and there leave them to their fate. And indeed this is hardly to be wondered at, for the odour of a “caravan of the dead” during the hot weather is terrible. This is how Professor Vambéry?! describes a mid- night encounter with such a caravan :— “Tt consisted of about forty animals, horses and mules. The backs of the animals were laden with coffins, and we made every effort to avoid the dread procession. In passing near one of the horsemen who had charge of the caravan, I caught sight of a face which was frightful to look at. The eyes and nose were concealed by some wraps, and the rest of his lividly pale face looked ghastly by the light of the moon. ... At some distance from the caravan of the dead, I glanced back at the strange funeral procession. The animals with their sad burden of coffins hung their * “Life and Adventures.” 7 | | ENVIRONS OF A PERSIAN CITY—MESHED 121 heads, seemingly trying to bury their nostrils in their breasts, whilst the horsemen, keeping at a good distance from them, were urging them on with loud cries to greater speed. It was a spectacle which, seen any- where, could not fail to produce a profound impression of terror, but seen in the very centre of the desert at the dead hour of the night, in the ghastly illumination of the moon, it could not fail to strike the most intrepid soul with awe and terror.” CHAPTER vial A POPULAR ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA ERSIA is a Mohammedan country, but it must not be forgotten that Zoroastrianism, commonly known as Fire Worship because its followers took the sun and fire as symbols of the Deity, was the religion of the land until the fall of the Sasanian dynasty, conse- quent on the Arab invasion in A.D. 641. Its followers still survive in some thousands, though they have undergone every kind of persecution since the Moslems conquered them. | At that period and later many Zoroastrians migrated to India, where they were called Parsis (z.2., inhabitants of Persia). Here they prospered exceedingly, and are now doing something to help their co-religionists in Iran. At the present day the Zoroastrians, called Gabrs or infidels, are chiefly to be found at Tehran, Yezd, and Kerman, but all over the country they are in request as gardeners. This is probably because of their belief that tilling the soil is a good action. Zoroaster, the founder of the old national religion of Persia, was a great religious teacher, in the same rank as Buddha, Confucius, and Socrates. Professor Williams Jackson, the latest authority on this subject, believes * “Zoroaster,” by Professor Williams Jackson. a 122 cnt ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA 123 ‘that he was probably born near Lake Urumiah in the province of Azerbaijan, about B.C. 660. He belonged to the tribe of the Magi, who were supposed to be the depositories of learning in those days, and it is said that he retired from the world for some years of religious preparation before he entered upon his ministry at the age of thirty, having then received the first of seven revelations from Ormuzd, the Principle of Good, whose symbol was fire. His creed is that man must fight throughout his life against Ahriman, the Principle of Evil; but that he will be helped in his struggle by Ormuzd, and if he prevails he will attain sternal life at the Resurrection. It is the exact opposite 7o the creed of renunciation and quietism, with the ibsorption into Nirvana preached by the Buddha; there s no trace of asceticism in it; and it has a clarion note of struggle and reform that ends in victory. Yet, while 0-day Buddha has millions of followers, those of - Zoroaster are not a hundred thousand all told, and his ‘eligion practically never spread beyond the confines of the Persian Empire. When the Median Prophet began to preach his nission, he only gained a single convert after ten long rears of effort, during which he was encouraged to ‘ontinue by visions from heaven. Then success came ar above his expectations, for Vishtaspa, King of dactria (the King Gushtasp of the Shahnama), was onverted, and the new religion spread rapidly, pene- tating into Turan, or Tartary, as well as throughout the ‘ersian Empire. Zoroaster preached his doctrines idefatigably. He founded fire temples wherever he vent, installed zzobeds, or priests, to tend them, and istructed them in the elaborate ritual that he had a may 124 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE S| instituted. But the King of Tartary, the hereditary enemy of Persia, would not suffer the old idol-worship) to be destroyed without striking a blow in its favour, He and his Tartar hordes invaded Bactria, storme Balkh its capital, and killed Zoroaster who was offici- ating in the fire temple. This contemporary of Thales and Solon, and the forerunner of Confucius and Buddha, is supposed to have died at the age of seventy-seven, and his death gave an impetus rather than a check to his doctrines. The gallant Isfundiar, son of King Gushtasp, was filled with the zeal of a Crusader y the new religion, and defeated the King of Tartary, after which Zoroastrianism became the national faith, and flourished greatly until the conquests of Alexander, and later on the rule of idol-worshipping Parthian sovereigns dealt it heavy blows. In A.D. 226 King Ardeshir, who founded the Sasanian dynasty, made Zoroastrianism again the State religion of the land, He collected the scattered fragments of the Zend Avesta (the Parsi scriptures) and the Gathas or Psalms, the oldest part of the Avesta, written by the Prophet himself and containing his teachings, The complete copies of the sacred works, written on tanned ox-hides, had been burnt or dispersed when Alexander had set fire to the palace at Persepolis where they were kept. Priests, however, were found who had handed on the worship from one to another during centuries of neglect and persecution, and the! teaching of the Median Prophet was again supreme in| Iran until the Mohammedan conquest in A.D. 641 practically exterminated it. Zoroaster declared that the ancient gods were only devils, but that Ormuzd was to be worshipped ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA 125 alone. Good thoughts, good words, and good actions vere the goal of every believer, who wore a three- old cord round his waist to signify this, unfastening and refastening it three times daily at the hours of | Earth, fire, and water were not to be polluted, as they vere the work of the Deity, and fire in particular was to 2e reverenced, no Gadr, for example, ever smoking. A he Zoroastrians of Yezd at the present day claim that che flame which burns on the altar of their temple, has never been extinguished since it was lit in the life- ime of Zoroaster. Their priests always approach it vith a cloth over their mouths lest their breath should collute it, and wherever a new fire temple may be rected, its altar is lit from that of Yezd. To make the iacred flame it was necessary to bring to the same qearth sixteen different fires. Some of these were used N various trades, and one came from the burning of a dead body. The Zoroastrians hold the dog in high esteem as xing sacred to Ormuzd, and it is a crime to kill or njure one of these animals that are supposed to have poe power of driving away evil spirits. The “four-eyed” dog of the Avesta is still common in the north of tn and was so named from having a yellow patch above each eye: it was white with yellow ears and vellow markings on its body. This animal is called in fo decide whether a Gadr be dead or not, the belief | t deing that if the dog eats a piece of bread laid on the oreast of the corpse, its action proves that life is extinct. , The dead man is laid out by men appointed to the fice, Zoroastrians so greatly dreading the defilement 126 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE “ that ensues from touching a corpse that the dying are often left untended in their last moments. The body is then carried to a Dakmeh, or “Tower of Silence,” . where it is exposed to be devoured by the vultures and crows, as it would pollute the earth if laid in the ground, © Zoroastrians hold that if the birds pluck out the right eye first the soul of the departed has been safely guided over the Bridge of Chinvad to the realms of Ormuzd, to live for ever in the Paradise of the Blessed. If, however, | f } ) the vultures decide to remove the left eye, the survivors © fear that the soul has been hurled from that narrow | bridge of inquiry, down to the gloomy kingdom of | Ahriman, where are only bad thoughts, deeds, a | words. Close to the Tower of Silence is usually a mud-built house in which the relatives of a dead man prepare a meal, affirming that the soul, just after its separation from the body, is always greatly in need of nourish- | ment, as it is believed to wander for three days near its" earthly tenement. The Zoroastrians, who chiefly survive at Yezd and Kerman, are a fine, manly-looking race in spite of the — petty persecution of centuries. The Persians make | them wear a peculiar dress, do not allow them to ride in the towns, force them to dismount if they meet any Persian of rank outside the city wall, and do not. permit them to carry umbrellas, among other irritaaan restrictions. As polygamy and divorce are forbidden by thane | religion, the women have a much better position than their Moslem sisters, and it is rare for them to marry the followers of the Prophet. The poorer women look ) picturesque in gay chintz jackets, full trousers em- | ( ‘ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA 127 proidered in many-coloured stripes, and half a dozen wraps for the head, the fifth being a graceful white veil dowing down the back, and the last a big cotton sheet with which they envelop themselves when out of doors. The little girls wear a small coif from which the hair falls in long plaits, but the women would consider it -mmodest to show their heads without their numerous coverings. _ The ordinary people have the vaguest ideas about cheir religion. The writer’s Parsi maid, for example, ised to extinguish candles with her fingers in order not <0 pollute the flame with her breath, and was horrified at hearing that her mistress had visited the Tower of Silence, explaining that she herself would be hopelessly defiled did her garment but brush against its wall. She ilways refused to wash anything on a Tuesday, saying chat it would never be cleansed; and she attached a white shell to any possession she feared to lose, affirm- ng that it was an infallible charm. She was devoted ‘o her employer and of a transparent honesty; but the Persians say that all Gadrs are honest, because they ack the courage to steal! Would that the Irani were afflicted with a like timidity! \ , The Nestorian Church comes next in point of Antiquity in Persia, the followers of its founder estab- ishing themselves in Iran soon after the Council of Zphesus (431 A.D.), at which the doctrines of Nestorius, she Patriarch of Constantinople, were condemned, and ae himself excommunicated and banished. , It is, however, believed that Christianity had many idherents early in the fourth century, and that its ollowers joined the Nestorian Church. This body 128 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE flourished exceedingly in the sixth century, ha bishoprics throughout Persia, and was so filled witl proselytising zeal that it sent missonaries into Chin; and India, with the result that Marco Polo, travelling in the thirteenth century, found Christians throughou Asia. Early in the fifteenth century Tamerlane almos| extirpated the remnant of Christians which had sur vived the Arab conquest and the Mongol invasions, si that at the present day there are only some twentil five thousand Nestorians, who are principally to b found in the district of Urumiah where their Patriare resides. There are altogether about ninety thousand Christian in Persia (Nestorians, Armenians, Greek, Orthogal Protestants, and Roman Catholics) and some thirty-sf, thousand Jews, who are looked down upon and persé¢ cuted, and who supply the ranks of the despised clas of /utzs or public dancers, singers, and entertainer. They are expected to undertake dirty work of ever kind, and by no means uphold their European repute tion for financial ability, being invariably worsted i) trade by the Armenians, of whom Persians say, “If yo can deal with an Armenian, you can deal with a devil himself.” Three centuries ago Shah Abbas transported som, thousands of Armenians ex masse from Julfa on tk Araxes, to a suburb of Isfahan (which he named aft their native city) in order to teach their handicrafts 1 the Persians. Since then, in spite of persecution, the have never given up their religion. As they have inte married among themselves they have kept their origin type, their women in scarlet dress with a white a — rogies ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA 129 ‘hrown over the head and concealing their mouth and shin being a pleasant contrast to their black-shrouded Persian sisters. The authorities are tolerant to all faiths since the residence of Europeans in Persia; but the populace is iow and again stirred to fury by the mud/as against the afirs, or unbelievers—and, indeed, the Armenians are lot favourites in Iran owing to their business capacity nd their reputation of being grasping and avaricious. And now we come to Islam, the national religion of ersia, which her children were forced to embrace then conquered in 641 A.D, during the Khalifate of )mar. ' The Persians, partly from hatred of their conqueror nd partly because Ali’s son, Husein, is said to have larried the daughter of their last Sasanian monarch, sined the Shiahs (Followers of Ali) when Islam was lit up into the two great sects of Shiah and Sunni, ad at the present day Omar is burnt in effigy through- ‘at the kingdom with an accompaniment of fireworks ad popular execrations. This matter, however, is eated more fully in the chapter on Muharram. Mohammed, the Prophet of Arabia, elevated his ‘ctrine that there is but one God delivering them ma degrading idol-worship that permitted the utder of their infant daughters and other horrible actices. As he found both polygamy and slavery tong the Arabs he can hardly be blamed for not ‘orming these customs; but he still further degraded 2 position of women, although many writers assert 7 €xact contrary to be the case. In the words of Sir K 2a *) 130 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE William Muir,? a wife “was possessed of more freedom | and exercised a greater, a healthier, and more legitimate influence under the pre-existing institutions of Arabia | than under the sway of Islam” ; and again, “As regards female slaves under the thraldom of Mahometan masters, it is difficult to conceive more signal degradation of the — human species.” Mohammed claimed to be the successor of Moses and > of Christ and to be greater than either ; and his followers | believe that the Koran was delivered to him in detach- . ments by the angel Gabriel and that there is not a single word in it which is not of Divine origin. The sacred character of this book is so strongly impressed © upon Moslems that they would look upon it as blas-: phemy to think that any part of it could be the work of: aman; no one would dare to touch the revered volume! before performing his ablutions, and the most shifty’ believer would regard an oath taken upon it as binding, The Prophet called his religion Islam, which means “Resignation to the Will of God.” He taught that those falling in battle in its defence would go straight to one of the seven heavens prepared for Moslems, whatever may have been their past lives; but that any apostate would be consigned to the seventh hell, lower than that peopled by Jews and Christians. This belief rendered the warlike Arabs perfectly fearless in battle and accounted for their marvellous early conquests With it was bound up the doctrine of Predestination — impressing on a man that his fate is marked out foi } him and that, strive as he may, he cannot alter it. Mohammed also taught that prayer wafted th — believer half-way to heaven, fasting assisted him t a t “Life of Mahomet,” 4 ‘ ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA 131 the gate of Paradise, and almsgiving took him within the sacred precincts. Perhaps it is not possible for a European to criticise an Oriental religion fairly, yet to the writer, on whom at first Islam made a favourable impression, it seems to have led its followers into a kind of stagnant moral backwater where progress appears to be impossible. The belief in Azsmet (destiny) encourages a dreary fatalism, its exponents shrugging their shoulders at whatever goes wrong without making any effort to right it, and prayer has sunk into a mere formula, an “empty repetition.” Dean Stanley says that “it is reduced to a mechanical act as distinct from a mental act, beyond any ritual observances in the ‘West. . . . It resembles the worship of machines rather than of reasonable beings.” Travellers in the East have often commented on the way in which a Moslem will spread his prayer-carpet and perform his devotions unabashed in the sight of the -world and have held this up as a worthy example to ‘European reticence. Certainly there is something fine in this open profession of faith; and yet when the ‘stranger observes how a Persian will constantly inter- wupt his devotions for a few words with a friend, and will glance at anything passing by, he may not be so greatly impressed ; indeed, the habit of praying in public must militate against concentration of thought. _ Asan example of this is a quotation from Mr. East- wick’s* account of a visit he paid to the Imam Juma, or high priest, of Meshed, a man revered by the fanatical populace for his sanctity and for being a seyzd, or descendant of the Prophet. The holy man was at his | * “Three Years’ Residence in Persia.” a devotions, but notwithstanding sent a servant to bid his. visitor enter. The Imam Juma was kneeling on his prayer-carpet, on which were some books and a comb. for his beard. “‘Talk, he said; ‘do not mind me’ [I said I would rather not talk while prayers were going. on. He said, ‘Oh, I thought your heart would be dull; that’s why I told you to talk” I said, ‘Excuse me, I shall not be dull. I would rather not talk till you have done praying.’ So he went on praying, bowing and prostrating himself, also coughing and spit and combing his beard and occasionally saying, ‘How d’ye do?’ to persons who came into the room. This lasted for more than half an hour. ... | Fraser! in his travels notes much the same thing, “However men may be occupied when the set hour for prayer arrives,” he writes, “those who choose to observe it merely turn aside from the rest, still laughing, perhaps, at the last ribald jest, and commence thei 132 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE ) iF invocation to God. During the intervals they continue — the conversation, scold or give orders to their servants comb their beards or adjust their persons, frequently interrupting their expressions of praise or of devotior to give vent to the most trifling or perhaps the mos' | obscene remarks.” The rosary, or ¢asdzh, is used by all Mohammedan: for counting the ninety-nine attributes of Allah; fo: reciting various acts of devotion; and for purposes 0 divination. It consists of a tated beads, and i supposed to have been borrowed from the Buddhists there being no record that the Prophet and his earlies . followers used it: in all probability the Crusaders intro duced it into the Christian Church. * “Journey in Khorasan.” | EEE _ ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA 133 Fasting is practised from sunrise to sunset during the whole month of Ramazan, no food or water passing the lips nor kalan being smoked, and it is believed that ‘those who die during that time are secure of paradise. ‘This enforced abstinence presses lightly on the rich, who sleep all day and feast and pay visits to one another all night ; but the poor are obliged to work until midday, and if Ramazan happens to fall during the heat of summer, the want of water is a cruel deprivation. As the Mohammedan year is a lunar one, Ramazan will fall annually about eleven days earlier than it did in the preceding year. | Mothers with young children, girls and boys under ten and twelve, and really delicate men and women are granted a dispensation from the fast: and many Persians are in the habit of going ona journey during ‘he month in order to secure immunity. With these 2xceptions all Moslems must submit to this month of abstinence or be looked upon as unbelievers and risk 2xcommunication by the priests, and ostracism, if not worse, from their neighbours, In the town cannon fired at dawn and_ sunset innounce the commencement and end of the day’s fast ; ind during Ramazan most of the shops in the bazaars te shut, and business is more or less at a standstill, The pious often “meet” Ramazan, as they say, by ommencing to fast some days earlier than is necessary, it W. Muir: points out that it was winter when the ’rophet first instituted this fast, and that in all ‘tobability he intended it to be kept at the same ®ason ; for though the Arabian year was lunar, yet the ‘tabs corrected it by a system of intercalating one * “Life of Mahomet.” 134 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE month into every three years. This system Mohammed overthrew later, and it is a wonderful testimony to the | power of Islam that its followers all over the globe’ should still keep Ramazan as strictly as in the early | days of the Faith, whatever may be the sufferings | undergo from thirst. Almsgiving is, as we have seen, highly commended, and the Prophet is said to have deprived himself of everything, save the necessaries of life for himself and. his wives, to give to the poor. There are of course plenty of charitable Moslems ; but it often seemed to the writer as if Persian almsgiving were a form of “laying up merit,” a guarantee against risks both here and in’ the world to come. For example, every one going on a journey gives money to the beggars in order to ensure the prosperity of the undertaking ; yet no effort is made to reclaim these miserable creatures, nor is money spent on hospitals, orphanages, or education for the destitute, It is a greater savab (act of merit) to give to a drunken seyid than to the most deserving beggar. Before the end of the world the Mahdi, the last of the Twelve Imams, is to appear, and inaugurate a millennium and this doctrine has been fruitful of much trouble, a: it has encouraged the rise of countless False Prophet: throughout Islam, who have attracted followers to thei standards by their claims to be the long-expeaa Saviour. The angel Israfil blows the last trumpet at th Mohammedan Day of Judgment, which is suppose to last over half a century, and which will be precede by the coming of Antichrist, who will ‘be slain late by Jesus. Persians, however, affirm that their belove © Ali will rout the false Christ and the horned devi | 1 | | i ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA 135 attending him, with the aid of his famous two-bladed sword Zulfakar. At this time all the dead return to their bodies, the eyes of men and women moving to the tops of their heads in order that they may not see one another, but only Allah and the heavenly hosts. The angels, who have kept an account of their deeds _on earth, then weigh them in balances, and if the evil $=» outweighs the good the man or woman is cast into hell; but if the reverse, he or she is given the choice of a material paradise or of returning again to earth. On this occasion all the animals will rise up and _ bear witness as to how their owners have treated them, | after which they are annihilated ; and the wicked, who | are reserved for eternal torments, will beseech Allah of | His mercy to turn them into dust likewise; but their prayer will be offered in vain. The whole social structure is based on the re- _ligious law, and the Persian priesthood, as a rule, uses its influence against progress and the spread of education. Any man who can read and interpret the _ Koran can act as a mudlla. If he is able to expound | the shar, or religious law, the people will flock to sh Sate A ae? ae Se him for judgment and give him the title of mujtehdd, | or chief priest, his decisions, if he has a high reputation, . being regarded as final. The Government does not usually appoint these eccle- Siastical dignitaries, but often gives the guardianship of an important shrine, such as that of Meshed, to a Court | Official as a reward. Nadir Shah seized the endowments | of the clergy to pay his soldiers, thus dealing a blow at their power from which they have never recovered. The mudlas conduct the services in the mosques, teach -and recite the Koran, preach, visit the sick and 136 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE write letters, and in the villages their fees are paid in kind, The numerous holidays that help to keep Persia a | poor country are all, with the exception of No Ruz, associated with their religion, chief among them being the Eed-i-Kurban, or Feast of Sacrifice, which the Prophet instituted in imitation of the great Jewish Day of Atonement. Mohammedans say that it com- memorates Abraham’s sacrifice of Ishmael, erroneously imagining that he, and not Isaac, was about to be offered up by his father. At this festival the head of each family takes a cow, sheep, goat, or camel, and turning the head of the creature towards Mecca, he repeats over it a religious formula and then slays it, dividing its flesh among his family, his relatives, and the poor. There is also the Eed of Ramazan, the end of the long month of fasting, and this is naturally a season of rejoicing for all, at which time it is incumbent on the Faithful to give money to the poor. Salutes of cannon, brass bands playing out of tune, and official receptions take place in all Persian cities on the festival of the Haj, when the pilgrims who | have arrived at Mecca receive the coveted title of Flajz. The way by land to the centre of the Moslem faith is long and arduous; and it may happen that a Persian caravan of pilgrims fails to arrive in time to present the offerings of sheep at the great holocaust at the Kaaba, in which case all their toil, time, and money will have been expended in vain. Although there is much real piety connected with this pilgrimage, yet it is said that some go to Mecca in order to use the ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA 137 | sobriquet of Haji as a business speculation. People imagine that a man must be wealthy to undertake such an expensive expedition, and therefore, sometimes _ to their cost, lend him money readily. These are only a few of the Persian festivals that . seem legion to the European, who is frequently in- -convenienced by the constant closing of the bazaars and work of all kinds coming to a standstill. The entire life of a Moslem is ordered by a religion . that encloses him in a network of observances—a religion that takes away his individual responsibility and that _ has become for most of its adherents a barren form. _ And what are the fruits of Islam? It destroyed idol- . worship with much gross superstition, and taught the _ pure doctrine of one infinitely perfect God to whom all must surrender their wills. But on the other hand - the Koran degrades family life, in fact makes it almost \ impossible, by its encouragement of polygamy, divorce, _ and slavery; and it also forbids any religious freedom, ———————e Se death being the penalty for apostasy. Islam is, in fact, a set of rules, which proceed from a God with whom man can never come into contact, but whose Prophets proclaim His will. No Moslem consequently must ever criticise the Prophet, and must accept every word in the Koran as divine, thus yielding up all personal ' responsibility ; and a Persian will see no great harm in dishonesty and immorality, as long as he performs his religious observances. Such a creed bars the way to progress and liberty, and its adherents cannot attain to a true civilisation, for its cast-iron framework admits of no expansion, Here a word must be said as to the missionary work 138 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE done in Persia. The American missionaries have — practically taken over the north of the kingdom, the English sphere of influence being from Julfa, the suburb of Isfahan, southwards, with centres in Yezd and Kerman, and there are also Roman Catholic missions. Tourists say that the missionaries confine their efforts to reclaiming the often degraded Nestorians and Armenians, and that their converts from Islam are conspicuous by their rarity. As the penalty by law for apostasy from that creed is death, it would be surprising if conversions were numerous; but the writer believes that the missionaries by living among the people, by giving them medical aid, and by holding up a high standard of life and morals, have an influence for good that cannot be estimated. The mere fact that men and women are devoting their lives to helping others who are not of their own race or religion, works powerfully on many minds, and a rough muleteer spoke of one lady missionary, known throughout Persia for her medical skill, in the following words: “ Allah in His mercy has sent an angel to Iran in that He allowed the ‘Khanum Mariam’ (Lady Mary) to dwell in the land and heal us and speak good words to us.” A Persian acquaintance who was educated by the missionaries never lost an opportunity of affirming that he was a convinced Mohammedan and had only attended the school in order to imbibe Western learning. Yet those years of training had left an ineffaceable mark on his character. He had grasped in a way unusual with his countrymen the meaning of truth and patriotism ; he hated the intolerance of the priesthood and was an ardent Nationalist, looking to the Majlis” ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA 139 -to inaugurate the Millennium for Persia and sweep -beggary out of existence. Though he maintained that ‘the British Constitution, which he regarded with an ‘ignorant admiration, was based on the Koran, yet he rr ar — ruefully complained that there were many “ dark passages” in that sacred book, and that his female relatives looked upon him almost as an unbeliever for having hinted this to them. In fact, owing to missionary influence, he had climbed to a higher level than those around him, and it is to him and to his fellows that ' Persia must look for regeneration. The Persians made a long and stout resistance to their Arab conquerors, and even when they yielded + to the fierce armies of Islam and gave up the doctrines of Zoroaster for the Koran, they never received the Prophet’s teachings in the simple, unquestioning way in which the uncivilised Arabs had done. Almost from ‘the first they employed their subtle intellects in debat- ing this point or that until heresies and false prophets without number arose. Among the latter Al Mukanna, immortalised by Moore in “Lalla Rookh” as “The Veiled Prophet of Khorasan,” is probably the only one whose name will be familiar to the ordinary reader. This man, who is said to have been a fuller at Merv, gave out, about A.D. 780, that he was an Incarnation of the Deity. Thousands of credulous Persians flocked to his standard, and the armies of the Khalif fought against him in vain for the space of fourteen years, after which they besieged and took the fortress wherein he and his followers were holding out. Their victory was an empty one, however, for they found nothing but dead 140 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE bodies as they burst through the gates, the adherents of the False Prophet having taken poison, and he himself having died on a funeral pyre in order that the people might believe that he had left them but for a season, and would reappear as he had foretold. Every legend about Al Mukanna speaks of the mask, or veil, which he habitually wore to conceal a countenance of surpassing ugliness; but the reason he himself gave was that he covered his face in order not to dazzle his disciples with its effulgence. There is also the tradition that he caused a “false moon” to rise from a certain well, which was visited night after night by crowds of people anxious to see this remarkable phenomenon. It gained for him hundreds of converts, and the “ Moon of Al Mukanna” is mentioned in two Persian poems, such an impression did the Veiled Prophet and his dramatic death make on his own and succeeding generations. Sufism and Babism are the two heresies about which Europeans in Persia hear most. The Sufis, or Mystics, are those who do not take the words of Mohammed literally, but give them a so-called spiritual interpretation ; and they came into prominence in the time of Ismail Shah, the founder of the Sefavean dynasty. Sufism is more a philosophy than a religion, and several of the most celebrated poets of Iran, such as Hafiz, are supposed to be singing of divine mysteries in their songs of love and wine. Though there are seekers after truth in their ranks, yet many writers affirm that the Sufis use their mystical creed as a veil for excess. Professor E. G. Browne, however, speaks of them as * “A Year among the Persians.” ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA 141 akin to the Quietists and Quakers, and says: “It is indeed the eternal cry of the human soul for rest; the insatiable longing of a being wherein infinite ideals are -fettered and cramped by a miserable actuality. It is in essence an enunciation more or less clear, more or less eloquent of the aspiration of the soul to cease altogether from self and to be at one with God.” The sect of the Babis is so remarkable that many hoped that it might vivify the dry bones of Islam. From the works of Lord Curzon? and Professor E.G. Browne,? the latter of whom has made a special study of this subject, we learn that the founder of | Babism, Mirza Ali Mohammed, a native of Shiraz, was given to religious meditation and went on pilgrimages from an early age. At the age of twenty-four he pro- claimed himself to be the Bab, or “Gate,” by which his followers might attain salvation; and throughout Persia he was hailed as the Mahdi, the long-expected Twelfth Imam. His doctrines spread so rapidly that the Government and priesthood became alarmed, and imprisoned him at Shiraz. From that city he escaped to Isfahan, . where the governor protected him; but on the death of his patron he was again consigned to a captivity . which only ended with his death. On his way to the fortress where he was to be immured, village after . village on the route poured forth its inhabitants to greet him with the wildest enthusiasm ; his adherents rose at Yezd and in the province of Mazanderan ; and the inhabitants of Zanjan defended their town against a Persian army with marvellous bravery. The beautiful poetess Kurratu ‘l-’Ayn spread his doctrines far and i Persia,” 2 «“ A Year among the Persians,” etc. <7, 142 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE wide, until her tragic death at Tehran; and it seemed as if the status of women would be raised, for they were to be considered equal with men, were to throw off their veils, and polygamy and divorce were to be abolished. The Bab, however, was shot at Tabriz in 1850. Strangely enough, he actually escaped unhurt after the soldiers had fired at him, the bullets having merely cut the cords that bound him; and the cloud of smoke concealed his flight. His hiding-place was soon discovered, and he was dragged forth and done to death. His adherents were suppressed with terrible cruelty, and their attempt to assassinate the Shah resulted in sanguinary massacres in which, almost without exception, they met death and torture with unflinching heroism. If the Bab had escaped, in all probability Persia would have been converted to his doctrines ex bloc, and would have emerged from the petrifying influence of Islam into a liberal atmosphere where progress was possible. At his death his followers split up into two factions; one following Mirza Yahya, whom the Bab had desig- nated as his successor, and the other Beha Ullah the half-brother of the new Gate. Beha soon asserted his claim to be “He whom God shall manifest,” and gave out that his revelations were superior to those in the Bayan, or Bible, composed by the Bab during his imprisonment; and at the present day his successor is regarded as the head of the Babi faith, and his adherents visit him in his retirement at Acre. Almost up to now the Babis have been persecuted at intervals, the last popular outburst against them, ACCOUNT OF THE RELIGIONS OF PERSIA 143 engineered as usual by the priesthood, occurring at -Yezd in 1903, when many were slain. It is difficult to know whether the movement is | gaining ground or not, as its followers naturally keep their faith a secret; but the standard it sets up is so high that it is to be hoped that in time it may _ become a power in the land. Many look upon the latest development of Babism, Behaism as it is called from its founder, as one of the . great religions of the world, and they affirm that it numbers its adherents by millions. _ Beha Ullah asserted that he was the last Manifes- , tation of the Deity, and, as such, included in his own . person the teachings and powers of Zoroaster, Moses, _ Buddha, Christ, and Mohammed. There is no cere- ) monial or priesthood in his religion, which inculcates ; love toward all men, equality of the sexes, a universal ‘ language, and peace throughout the world. Beha Ullah himself died in 1892, but his son carries | on his work, and at the present day European and Oriental men of every nation and belief meet at Acre to sit at the feet of Abbas Effendi, the Master, as they call him, and imbibe his teachings. CHAPTER PE MUHARRAM HE month of Muharram (meaning sacred) is | to the Mohammedan world what Lent is to the Christian—a time of mourning, self-sacrifice, and acts of special devotion. No one who has lived in a Moslem city during this period can fail to have been impressed with the religious fervour shown, and will never forget the dirge-like lament “Hasan! Husein!” and the accompanying dull thud, as the mourners beat their breasts in sign of impassioned grief. In a Shiah country such as Persia, Muharram is a great factor in the religious life of the people, and the play com- memorating the tragic deaths of Husein and his family is able now, after the lapse of over a thousand years, to rouse the Persians to a frenzy of woe. There are many scenes of this great Persian drama, and the only thing to which it may be compared is the “Passion Play” as acted by the peasants of Ober-Ammergau. In each case the play is a religious tragedy, the onlookers feeling that they are present at a sacred spectacle, and being deeply moved when the objects of their — adoration are presented to them in bodily form. But before we give any account of the ceremonies of 144 | j / | | j MUHARRAM 145 Muharram, the story of the martyrdom of Mohammed’s descendants must be told. According to the Shiahs, Ali ought to have succeeded the Prophet as the first Imam, and the festival of Gadir commemorates a dubious tradition that Mo- hammed, when he deserted Mecca for Medina, stopped at the village of Gadir Khom, and mounting on a platform of camel-saddles declared to thirty thousand of his adherents that he nominated Ali as his successor. Sir William Muir! however, points out that the man who presided at public prayer was always considered to hold the chief authority ; and when Mohammed was too ill to perform this task himself, he delegated it to Abu Bekr (father of his beloved wife Ayesha), who ) was chosen to be the first Khailif. _. It is not improbable that Ali may have considered that he had a right to the succession in virtue of his ) marriage with Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter, and the jlatter never recognised Abu Bekr as Khalif and wes endeavoured to stir up her friends against his rule. The Persians have a tradition that on the Prophet’s -death Fatima urged her husband to demand the . Khalifate, and that throughout a whole morning she /returned again and again to the charge, but was met with total silence. At last, when it was noon and the call to prayer rose from the mznar, Ali opened his mouth and inquired, “What is that man saying?” ““There is but one God, and Mohammed is His _ Prophet,’” Fatima answered, somewhat surprised. “Do you wish that call to be heard throughout the world?” her husband continued; and on hearing his wife’s assent, he said, “If I become Khalif it will t “ Life of Mahomet,” L 146 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE cease, but if Abu Bekr be elected it will endure ;” and from that moment Fatima ceased to urge Ali, who perhaps knew his own limitations. Abu Bekr was succeeded by Omar, the conqueror of Persia, and at his death the Khalifate was offered to Ali. But when the latter announced that he would be guided by the Koran and his own judgment, paying no attention to the “tradition of the elders,” Othman was chosen in his stead ; and it was not until the assassination of this latter that the “Lion of God,” as he was called from his personal courage, became Khalif in A.D. 655. But he succeeded to a most uneasy throne, and having more valour than brains, he refused to listen to all advice. Ayesha supported his deadliest enemy Moawiyeh, Governor of Syria, in the latter’s pretensions to the Khalifate, even ac- companying his troops at the famous Battle of the Camel, which was the beginning of civil war among the Faithful. Ali was victorious on this occasion, but was worsted in the next encounter; and while he was gathering troops for fresh efforts he was assassinated in the mosque of Kufa by one of his old adherents. Two others of the band attempted to murder Moawiyeh and Amrou at the same time, believing that Islam would be at peace if the Khalif and his bitterest enemies could be removed; but their enterprise ended in failure. Hasan, Ali’s elder son, was now elected to the Khalifate, but was of different fibre to his father, for he meekly abdicated in favour of Moawiyeh, only | stipulating that he should resume his position on the death of the latter, This plan, however, the Khalif : frustrated by instigating Hasan’s wife to poison her MUHARRAM 147 | and Yezid succeeded to the throne of his father Moawiyeh at Damascus. _ But there was yet another son of Ali, the gallant -Husein, and he and his descendants are peculiarly _dear to Persians, because he is believed to have married ‘the daughter of the last king of Persia and thus carried on the royal Sasanian line. Husein was living quietly at Mecca when he was urged by the inhabitants of Kufa to place himself at ‘their head, and lead a revolt against the usurping 'Khalif Vezid. He acceded to their request, and set ‘off with his family for Kufa; but Yezid promptly ‘sent the stern Governor of Busreh to suppress the ‘premature insurrection by putting the leaders at Kufa _to death, and by despatching troops to intercept the »grandson of the Prophet. Husein and his few adherents were easily surrounded ‘by the Syrian soldiery at Kerbela on the Euphrates ; ‘but so great was the reluctance to bear arms against ithe man whom they believed to be half-divine, that ‘two of the leaders sent against him did their utmost ‘to dissuade the Governor from proceeding to extremi- ities. Their efforts were in vain, and on the tenth day ithe little band, perceiving that the end was very near, corded their tents closely to one another in order ‘to keep off the onslaught of the Syrian horse. _ Husein behaved throughout with unshaken courage, ‘and on the morning of the fatal day he washed and perfumed himself, saying to his companions that he ‘and they would soon be with the houris of Paradise ; -and when they had prayed all prepared ehemanlves for the inevitable. Just before the fight began, one of the Syrian captains galloped into the doomed camp, 148 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE resolved to die with the man he looked upon as his lawful Khalif; and in another moment Shimr, who — is execrated equally with the Khalif Yezid throughout the entire Shiah world, led his soldiers to the attack, and shot the first arrow with his own hand. | And now ensued many a pathetic incident, one being the death of Husein’s baby-son in his father’s arms, another the severing of his little nephew’s hand by a sword. Husein himself was wounded again and again; but it seemed as if he bore a charmed life, until Shimr, by dint of threats, forced his unwilling soldiers to despatch him. It is said that this brutal commander galloped over the prostrate corpse of Ali’s son with his cavalry, trampling it into the ground with savage fury, after which it was decapitated. Thus was Husein slain on the 9th of October, A.D. 680, together with sixteen of his relatives; and Yezid’s deed split up the Mohammedan world hence- forth into the two great factions of Sunni and Shiah. To put the matter shortly, the Sunnis, or “ Tradi- tionists,’ who are in a vast majority, acknowledge the first four Khalifs to be the rightful successors of Mohammed, and affirm that they are faithful to the traditions, as their name implies. The Shiahs, or “ Followers” of Ali, consider that the first three Khalifs were usurpers, and that Ali and his descendants are the true Imams, or leaders of the Faithful. Persia became hotly Shiah, even when she was governed by Sunni rulers. At the present day Persians invoke the aid of Ali more frequently than that of the Prophet; they celebrate the death of Omar with rejoicings and bonfires in which he is burnt in effigy — MUHARRAM 149 like another Guy Fawkes; and it is looked upon as a deadly insult if one man call another Yezid, or Shimr. The first ten days of the lunar month of Muharram are dedicated to the memory of the Prophet’s grand- sons, and on each day some special incident of the tragedy of the plain of Kerbela is symbolised. For example, on one day the whole populace will gasp, hold their throats and exclaim, “I thirst!” in memory of the suffering undergone by the Faithful when they were cut off from the Euphrates by the soldiery during the heat of that Arabian October. If a Persian boy is sickly in infancy, his parents often vow that if he survive he shall be a sakka, or water-carrier, in memory of the thirst endured by Husein and his followers. This means that from the age of five the boy will attend the ruzakhana, or recitations, during Muharram, and offer water or sherbet to the audience. He will be dressed in dark red or blue silk, velvet, or cotton, according to the rank of his parents, silver Azsmzllahs (in the Name of God) being sewn upon his garments, and a skin water- bottle strapped across his shoulders. He will pour out the iced liquid with his left hand into a metal saucer which he holds in his right, and passing through the audience will give refreshment to all who ask for it. When Muharram begins, the devout give up shooting and their usual amusements. They dress in black, leaving part of the chest bare, and walk with naked feet in the different processions, beating their breasts with much vigour. Princes, merchants, and peasants often make a vow to join these processions for one, two, or more days, especially if they have recovered from any illness, 150 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE The fanatical are wrapped in white garments repre- senting their shrouds, the idea being that they are ready to die for their faith; and armed with swords and knives, these men work themselves up to such a frenzy that they cut their heads and faces until the blood pours over their clothing. They might easily kill themselves in their zeal were they not attended by men carrying sticks, who strike up the weapons when the blood-letting has gone far enough, or stop any particularly dangerous slash; but even so these devotees often die from the after-effects of their wounds. They will fasten padlocks into their cheeks; and yet in curious contrast to their almost maniacal self- mutilation and shriekings, they will halt quietly at some big house, and having partaken of sherbet and fruit, will go their way with renewed fervour. Though sharing the same religious convictions, it is dangerous for these processions to meet one another, as in such a case they are certain to come to blows for the honour of Husein. At the present day the zealots are often armed with revolvers, and if the governor of a fanatical city such as Meshed did not insist that each procession should start at a different hour and should follow a specified route, many lives would, in all probability, be sacrificed. The dervishes play a great part during Muharram, and have processions of their own in which they leap along with streaming hair, leopard skins being thrown over their white garments. With a discordant braying of cow-horns, and a fearsome yelling as they beat themselves with clubs and chains, they make their way to the houses of the Persian notables, who give them gifts and refreshments; but these noisy pro- WVAUAIVHOW HO! HO HHLSVd ge i ee —_——_ se MUHARRAM 151 fessionals are very different to the fanatics who almost kill themselves for the exaltation of Husein. On the tenth day of Muharram the climax of woe is reached, and all the processions call out “Husein is dead!” with the wildest laments, the very servants in European households going about barefoot in sign of crief, while every face looks pale and dejected. So universal is the mourning that the Persian equivalent of “To cry out before you are hurt,” is, “ He begins to weep before the recital of the death of Husein.” At Tehran there is a huge circular theatre, or zakzeh, for the representation of the “ Passion Play” during the first ten days of Muharram. It is not roofed in, but covered with an awning during the representations, and all round it are boxes for the Shah and the aristocracy, the populace finding places in the arena. The hundreds of black-clad women and children sit in front of the stage, which is a round platform in the middle of the building ; and behind them are the men. To European eyes it is a curious thing to see perhaps three or four thousand women, not one of whom dis- closes her features, and who can only look through the _ strip of lacework inserted in the white cloth that hangs over her face. They all come very early in order to get good places on the mud floor on which they sit on their heels, and they drink sherbets and smoke kalians at intervals, listening to the exhortations of different #zu//as who try to work upon the emotions of the great crowd. At last barbaric music heralds the approach of the actors, who mount the steps leading to the platform, and the audience stops smoking and drinking and prepares itself for what follows. As no Mohammedan woman may appear in public, the ye 152 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE actors are all men and boys, who mostly play their parts well and with conviction, the honour of appearing in the ¢azzeh often descending from father to son, Indeed parents in the audience will sometimes beg that their boys may be allowed to stand upon the stage fora short time in such parts as that of Husein’s little nephew or of his infant son Abdullah. A Persian gentleman told the writer how when he was a boy of seven, sitting beside his mother at one of these plays, he was suddenly seized by an unknown actor and lifted upon the stage. He gave vent, however, to such lusty howls that he was speedily restored to his relative, who felt that a curse for life would rest upon her unlucky son on account of his indecorous conduct ! There are thirty to forty ¢azzehs, some taken from Jewish legend, but naturally these do not interest the audience in the same way as the touching episodes relating to the events that took place on the desert plain of Kerbela. Many of the actors are clad in suits of chain armour} there is no “scenery,” but horses and camels give an aif of reality to the moving tragedy of the “ Family of the Tent.” The European spectator speedily forgets the primitive mzse en scéne, and cannot fail to be im- pressed by the passionate emotion evinced by the great audience as the play proceeds. “Ya Ali! Ya Husein!” they ejaculate as they weep profusely, and Mr. S. G. W. Benjamin,t who has given a most interesting account of the Persian “ Passion Play,” writes of its effect on the onlookers: “For several moments sobs and sighs, and now and again a half-suppressed shriek, swept from one side of the building to the other. Strong men wept; * “ Persia and the Persians.” MUHARRAM 153 there was not a dry eye in the loggia where I was seated, except my own; and I confess that I was not altogether unmoved by this impressive scene.” When the writer was staying at Ahwaz on the Karun river, she witnessed a curious representation of the death of Husein from the roof of the house in which she was living. Owing to the intense heat the ¢azizeh took place after sunset in front of the governor’s residence, the thudding of drums announcing the ‘appearance of the actors who carried a small green -canopied shrine. Behind this was borne a coffin, sup- posed to be that of Husein, draped in black and sur- ‘mounted by a green turban. Horsemen in chain armour represented the adherents of the Prophet’s ‘grandson and their Arab assailants, and fought fiercely ‘with one another, the large crowd present being apparently in imminent peril of wounds from the wildly brandished weapons, or of being trampled underfoot by the excited horses. Throughout the performance the populace kept up a ‘poignant lament, beating their bare breasts as they cried, “ Hasan! Husein!” in a monotonous iteration ; ‘and as the excitement grew more intense they broke into a barbaric dance. The faces lit up by smoking ‘torches were those of fanatics, and the whole perform- | ance, impressive in its sincerity, was very different to ‘that given by a nomad tribe in south-east Persia. These people, after working themselves up to a tearful ‘emotion, surprised the writer by suddenly giving a ‘travesty of the solemn scene at which actors and ‘spectators roared with ill-timed laughter. _ Sir Lewis Pellyt and Count Gobineau have trans- * “The Persian Miracle Play.” 154 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE lated many of these ¢azzehs, but space forbids me to give more than a résumé of one of them from the translatior of the former. It is the “ Death of Husein,” and is acted on the tenth and great day of Muharram. The grandson of the Prophet is depicted as lament. ing his sad fate and approaching end, and is challenged by the accursed Shimr, who bids him leave his tent anc meet his martyrdom. Upon this his sister Zainak comes to mourn with him the loss of his son Ali Akbar the first of all the family to fall a victim ; of his brothes Abbas, the standard-bearer; of his nephew Kasim and his infant child Abdullah. Husein does his best te comfort her, commending his little daughter to her care and he says last farewells to his other sister, to an olc slave, and to his wife Shahrbanu, the Persian princess Then he puts on a tattered shirt beneath his robes, tell. ing Zainab that he trusts his enemies will be ashamec to strip him of this valueless garment after his death and having refused the help of the King of the Fairies he goes to meet the dagger of Shimr. In his last moments he is consoled by apparitions 0 the Prophet and of Fatima his mother, and his dying words are, “O Lord, for the merit of me, the dear chile of the Prophet; O Lord, for the sad groaning of mj miserable sister; O Lord, for the sake of young Abba: rolling in his blood, even that young brother of mine that was equal to my soul, I pray thee, in the Dayo Judgment, forgive, O merciful Lord, the sins of my erandfather’s people, and Brant me, bountifully, the ka of the treasure of intercession.” . These few words can give no idea of the pathos 0 many of the fifty-two scenes of this wonderful “ Passiot Play,” which certainly has had a far greater influence o1 | MUHARRAM 155 ‘he thousands who annually hear it recited than has any olay that ever was written. In the last scene of all the Resurrection is depicted, the Patriarchs and Prophets rising from their graves ; while the angel Gabriel tells Mohammed to hand the ‘key of Paradise to Husein, saying, “The privilege of making intercession for sinners is exclusively his— \Husein is by my peculiar grace the mediator for all.” | Upon this the Prophet of Islam gives the key to his zrandson with the words, “Deliver from the flames every one who in his lifetime shed but a single tear for thee, every one who has in any way helped thee, every ‘one who has performed a pilgrimage to thy shrine or mourned for thee, and every one who has written tragic werses for thee. Bear each and all with thee to (Paradise ;” and the scene ends with joyful sinners ‘entering the abodes of the Blessed through the inter- ‘cession of Husein. | It is no wonder that there is weeping in abundance on the anniversary of the Martyr’s death, and these tears are often carefully collected by a priest and kept in a bottle, to be applied to the lips of the dying. _ In cities such as Meshed, where the priests set their faces against theatrical representations, the populace attends ruzakhana, or recitals of the tragic tale, which are given by the mz//as in different houses. Three or four priests will be hired by a pious man to give a recital, and the hearers attend in black clothes and carry Jarge pocket-handkerchiefs. It is de rigueur to weep profusely, even though some priests have not the power of moving the listening crowds; but to be unmoved ‘stamps a man at once as an unbeliever. The priests ‘say that such a one will be consigned to hell at | 156 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE his death, while every tear shed in remembrance o Husein washes away many sins. Yet a spirit of levity occasionally creeps in even at these gatherings ; fo a Persian told the writer that he was thankful for hi handkerchief when a very stout man among th audience wept so loudly in a high falsetto voice, wit! such an absurd resemblance to that of a woman, that i was difficult for him to refrain from bursts of unseeml laughter. On the fortieth day after the anniversary of the deat of Husein, some of the Muharram excitement is revive by a big procession, in which men and boys are dresse up to personate the Martyr and all the dramat persone of the “Passion Play.” Representations ¢ Husein’s tomb at Kerbela and the mosque are carried men, apparently decapitated, walk along; bearing thei heads on poles ; horsemen are clad in old chain armou and helmets; Husein’s coffin draped in green is a con spicuous object; and any corpses on the way to th cemetery often join in the procession. This is the last manifestation of Muharram, th celebration of which has moved the Shiah world to i depths, and during which the bulk of the populac would be capable of almost any act of self-devotion an also of any deed of wild hatred against the Sunni factio whom they look upon as the cause of Husein’s untimel death. The grief for the martyrs and the anger agains their enemies are over for that year ; but the Europea spectator is left wondering whether any beneficial moré effect has resulted from so much unrestrained emotion, CHAPTER IX TRAVEL “T°O enjoy travel in Persia a man ought to be strong and keen, of the type of those “who scorn lelights and live laborious days,” and, if possible, he hhould be endued with a dash of imagination, a taste or art, history, and sport, and an interest in his fellow- yreatures. To such a traveller the time spent in Iran will be one of the most cherished memories of his life, a veriod when at his best he lived to the full, a haunting episode filling him now and again with a strange 1ome-sickness. » When he is surrounded with the comforts of the Nest he will hear in fancy the cry of the muezzzn ring vut at dawn above some sleeping city; he will smell he hundred odours, pleasant or the reverse, that go to make up the never-to-be-forgotten aroma of an Asiatic sazaar; he will see again the long string of majestic gamels with heads thrown high pursue their solemn way, their great spongy feet making hardly any sound m the sandy plain, and their sides hung with huge yales of merchandise. Perhaps a caravan of energetic nules jingling with bells will dispute the right of road vith the “ships of the desert,” and in a moment all will »e noise and confusion, The charm of the solitude will ! 157 158 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE be broken, and the air rent with the yells and objurga- tions of camel-men and muleteers whose charges are inextricably mixed and out of hand. And the whole scene will be arched with a vault of so dazzling a blue that it seems to be composed of light itself, on either hand the strongly coloured mountain ranges re- vealing every seam and fissure in their sides beneath the pitiless noonday glare. Or it may be that the traveller is riding on his way, shivering beneath his wraps in the cold wind that heralds in the dawn, and before him, as the veils of mist roll off from the hills, he will see the curious effects of refraction. Everything will be magnified to colossal. proportions, a man on horseback seeming like a giant, and boulders assuming the strangest shapes as of. palaces or of impregnable fastnesses. Perhaps seduc-: tive lakes fringed with palms and waving reeds will lure him on, though he knows full well that they are but an' illusion, the mirage of the desert. In the words of Hafiz :-— “The fountain-head is far off in the desolate wilderness; Beware lest the demon deceive thee with the mirage.” Day after day he rides across vast plains separated from one another by mountain ranges, and that civilisation which in spite of himself has counted for so much in his life hitherto, seems to drop from him. Time has not the same meaning when there are no trains or steam-boats to be caught, and when he is surrounded by men whose favourite phrase is Farda inshallah (“To-morrow, please Allah”). He finds his: tent a welcome change from the crowded hotels of the West, and any uneasy questionings as to life’s problems’ TRAVEL 159 seem folly when an air that courses through the blood ike wine, giving a sense of exhilaration and freedom, lows across expanses that invite the traveller to go ever forward. In such a climate the camp food tastes yetter than the choicest efforts of a Parisian chef, and a spring of good water is as nectar of the gods after orobably much experience of water of varying degrees of flatness, brackishness, or even foulness. , And when the day’s march is over, the traveller, strolling round camp before turning in, will visit the aorses to whom he owes so much of his pleasure and comfort. They will lie picketed near at hand, warmly wrapped up in thick felts, and will neigh softly as he approaches them. Over all, the golden moon and constellations, that glow and throb with a lustre anknown to Western lands, hang like lamps in a sky of velvety purple, and as he lies down to rest on his aard camp mattress, he will be filled with a great content before he passes into sound and dreamless slumber. Is he not free from the shackles of civilisa- ‘ion, and leading that nomad existence the love of which lurks deep down in the hearts of most men? | In the words of Robert Louis Stevenson, who has eloquently sung the praises of such a life — “The untented Kosmos my abode, I pass a wilful stranger : My mistress, still the open Road, And the bright eyes of danger.” The last line of the stanza suggests what always anderlies Persian travel—a sense of adventure, the feel- ng that perhaps some day Death may look the wanderer in the face. Such an idea gives a zest to the 160 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE long day’s march, for “anything may happen” in- passing through certain districts of Iran. A European, — however, is seldom molested, as he has the reputa- tion of being well armed, and the ‘¢ufangchis, or guards, that patrol the roads, thrust themselves upon | the traveller and give him hair-raising accounts of the | vicinity of bandits merely to get money from him, In fact, before the present unrest, Persia was one of the. safest countries in Asia in which to travel. “Much travel is needed to ripen a man,” say the. Persians, and they also add, “He who has seen the, world tells many a lie.” Both proverbs are true in their case ; for the European who is accompanied by. servants accustomed to the march, will find them full of. resource, willing, tireless, cheerful, and with a capacity. for turning their hands to anything. If, however, he. chance to hear them reciting their adventures when they have returned to the settled town-life, he will be almost stupefied at their powers of imagination, and at the ease with which they impose their “ travellers’ tales” on their credulous hearers. | Full of fascination as is travel in Persia, yet looked at from the point of view of the tourist, who carries Baedeker under his arm, there are but few “sights” to be visited. One town is much like another, and as a rule is built on a barren plain, which is sprinkled with patches of cultivation near the city and across which run chains of kamat mounds carrying the water from the nearest mountain streams, The walls and the houses of the towns _ built of dun-coloured mud-bricks, would look intolerably mean were it not for the glitter of the tilework of the domes and minarets of some mosque or shrine, and. | | TRAVEL 161i ; ‘for the glorious sunshine which throws a elowing ‘mantle over the most squalid details. And when the / traveller has passed through the ornate gateway, prob- _ably badly in need of repair, of some town he may feel ‘that there is little of interest for him to see because, ‘being an unbeliever, he will not be allowed to enter ‘a single mosque. In a city such as Meshed he will ‘not even be able to look at the outside of the finest buildings close at hand. Certainly at Isfahan there ‘are remains of the bygone splendour of the Sefavean “kings and the magnificent ruins of Persepolis, and ‘the remarkable rock sculptures of Achzmenian and ‘ Sasanian monarchs would well repay many for the ‘toil of the whole aney but, these apart, there is ‘very little to “see.” The bazaars are much the same ‘everywhere, and have a tiresome monotony of shoddy clothing, third-rate crockery, lamps and mirrors, with ‘an equally tiresome lack of characteristic Oriental ‘goods, the traveller hunting in vain among the myriad stalls which line the covered-in alleys for old carpets and metal-work, old silks and embroideries. Outside ‘them, he will feel imprisoned between the high mud walls that enclose the network of narrow lanes often ‘cobbled, and which are ankle deep in mud in wet weather and thick in dust during dry. He will pass ‘miles of houses, the only indication of their where- abouts being a stout, low door in the concealing wall; and he will notice with what apparent secrecy both. men and women make their exits and entrances, 3iving him the sense of being shut out from the ‘ives of these strange people. Again, he who has ‘onged for the East, and imagines it to be fraught with a certain magnificence, is disappointed at the M 162 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE obvious need of repair of most of the buildings around him, at the dull clothing of the inhabitants, and the general poverty-stricken look of everything. On a grey day the impression left upon him will be one of unrelieved khaki colour, and he may ask him- self why he came to such a land. Nowadays carriages can be hired on all the main routes, but a few years ago there were only two ways of travelling in Persia; by chapar, or post,and by caravan. By the former the traveller rode through the country on post-horses—one for himself and one for his bedding and supplies—and was attended by a shagzrd, or post- boy, who took the often half-starved animals back at the end of each stage. Sometimes there were no horses to be got at the chapar-khana, or post-house, in which case the traveller must halt in discomfort, or must take his tired steeds on for another stage. As his whole kit was squeezed into a pair of saddle-bags, he was not able © to take much in the way of supplies, and, moreover, | could get nothing save tea and bread at the halting- places.- This inspired him to “beat the record” on ~ his journey, and he would ride from dawn to sunset, | proud of having done more miles than any prede-— cessor, and callous as to the feelings of his over- | worked and underfed mounts. Often he arrived far | from fit at his destination, and sometimes an attack of fever was the result of some sixty to a hundred miles a day, little sleep in dirty, vermin-haunted, perhaps crowded chapar-khanas and a régime of insufficient food. The ideal mode of travel in Persia is to “ caravan,” that is, for the traveller to have his own horses, and hire: qvoud HHL NO NVWHTINAD NVISHYAd V ——_ : i ¥ s dela Mion) ae yt a ; TRAVEL 163 ‘some mules to carry his tents, camp equipment, supplies, and servants, making him completely independent of rest-houses and knock-kneed chapar horses. The best time for his journey is during the spring or the autumn, the former being the only season in which flowers and greenery adorn the country. Moreover, the snow that blocks up many of the high passes is melting, and the days are longer than in the autumn. But during the day the heat in the south and on the lower parts of the Plateau is considerable, and insect life is active in the caravanserais. On the other hand, the cold is often intense in the winter during the night and early morning ; but as soon as the sun has risen the climate reminds the traveller of that of some Swiss winter resort, with its floods of sunshine and dry and sparkling air. In the summer heat all travelling must be done at night, and rest taken during the day—a difficult process when the air is resonant with flies, and the mosquito net to check their intrusions almost stifles the would-be sleeper. _ Let us, however, follow a traveller at a time when teat and insects do not trouble, and let us suppose that ye starts from Tehran in January on his ride south about half-way through the forty days of the “Great vold.” He has engaged a good road-servant and a room to cook and look after him and the horses, the nen being delighted to accompany him, for they get a tra. This means that their usual wages are half as much igain in order to recoup them for the extra expense of ‘ood on the journey. They also get a month’s wage defore starting to be spent on suitable clothing for the ‘xpedition, and, moreover, they thoroughly enjoy travel- ing for its own sake, all Persians being nomads at 164 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE . heart. The money question must be taken into con- sideration, for travel in Iran needs a good supply. of ready cash. There is practically no gold coinage in the country, and the coin in current use is the silver kran (worth fourpence-halfpenny in 1909). Ten | krans make up a ¢oman (worth four shillings in 1909) ; but this coin is hardly ever seen, therefore bags full of heavy two-kvan pieces must be carried to meet the expenses of the road. | The traveller has engaged a small caravan of mu under the leadership of a+trusty charvadar (head muleteer), whose sturdy animals can do twenty- -five miles a day if not too heavily loaded, and if given a day’s rest at intervals. Some tinned meats, dried fruits, jam, and butter will greatly add to his comfort during the journey, also forage, charcoal, tea, flour, rice, and meat, sufficient to last until he reaches a town where fresh supplies may be purchased. A tent, camp- -bed- stead, folding-table, chair, and bath ensure luxury when compared with caravanserai accommodation ; and the traveller ought to have his own saddle (with a felt numneh in case of sore backs), wear a felt slouch hat (to be exchanged for a pith helmet in hot weather) and carry blue goggles to save his eyes from the ex- cessive glare. He needs warm clothing and plenty of wraps, also a mackintosh; and it is a wise precaution to bind flannel round his stirrups, as otherwise his feet will be half-frozen in cold weather. Lined Russian top- boots keep the legs warm; but stout English boots and saiters are better for an active man who likes to dismount and lead his horse over bad going, or who wishes to try his luck with any game he may come across, | TRAVEL 165 To “run” a caravan successfully is no easy matter, and the Sahib will find that tact and good temper ‘are necessary ; also some knowledge of the language, ‘a comprehension of Oriental character, and an ability ‘to turn his hand to anything. The muleteers are often independent and unruly, needing skilful management, and quarrels sometimes arise between these gaterchis rr ) ‘and the servants, the combatants resorting to blows. They may even use their knives with disastrous results if their master is not on the alert to smooth away any friction at the outset. | The Persian muleteer always finds it most difficult to tear himself from the fascinations of a town, and there are countless delays on the day of a start. Some are occasioned by the loads not being adjusted properly to the mules at first, or by various things being forgotten, but mostly by that kink in a charvadars character which makes him so tiresome to deal with when he is in a city, though often one of the pleasantest, most honest, and hard- working of Persians when on the road. The experienced traveller knowing this, arranges a short stage for the first day, a mere xakl-c-makan | ‘change of place), as Persians term it, and probably will get no further on his way to Kum than the mehman- thana of Kahrisek, a few miles from Tehran. He will ride through a region of squalid lanes, and leave che capital by one of its grandiose gateways, near which runs the only railway in Persia, six miles in length, which ae follows to the gold-domed shrine of Shah Abdul Azim, where Nasr-ed-Din Shah met his death from an issassin’s bullet. From here the country is bare and deserted-looking, patches of snow lie on the ground and 4 keen wind is blowing from the white-covered mountain 166 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE 4 ranges, making him glad to reach his destination. / mehmankhana is the best imitation of a hotel to b found outside Tehran, and these draughty buildings ar erected at intervals along the road, built by an Englis Company, as far as Kum: they are actually provide with bedsteads, tables, and chairs, and follow thei western models by presenting the traveller with a com paratively heavy bill on his departure. As his servan Akbar is accustomed to the road he will soon be ii comfort. A gz/ém, or cotton-carpet, will be laid on th floor and another hung against the warped and ricket door, through which the winter blasts are howling ; mos buildings in Persia being constructed with an idea o letting in air during the summer heats rather thar excluding it during the intense cold of winter. The samovar, with its core of burning charcoal, will bx hissing merrily, providing tea to warm the travelle after his cold ride, and later on he will take his batt in front of a fire of blazing logs, coal being procurabl only at the capital. His dinner, cooked with the aic of a most rudimentary JOatterte de cuisine over é small pot of charcoal, will perhaps consist of excellent soup, a pz/au, a roast partridge, and a compdte oO) apricots served with custard. There is not much inducement to sit up late, as every one will henceforth rise before daybreak if long marches have to be made. and it is easier to keep warm in bed when the tem: perature is hardly above freezing-point, than beside a fire that seems to emit little heat and needs constant replenishment. Our Sahib will be roused at dawn by his servant to dress in a room full of cold draughts, and to find that the water in the camp basin is frozen over. While TRAVEL 167 he is hurriedly getting into his clothes, his camp equipment will be packed and carried out to be loaded up on the mules, and he will drink tea, eat some bread and eggs in haste, and will then go out to watch his caravan start off. Probably it will consist of three or four fine mules, hung with bells, the loads being carried on high pack-saddles, and the charvadar’s horse, adorned with many-coloured worsted trappings, heading the procession—an evil custom, for if the animal happen to die during the journey the mules will refuse to start on the day’s march without their leader. The muleteers wear striped sacking coats over their shirts, and have great felt cloaks for cold weather and in which to sleep at night, their footgear being the gzva, or cotton shoe, of the country with its rag sole. Their felt skull-caps are swathed with coloured hankerchiefs, and a belt carries their knife, pipe, packing-needle and string, whip and money-bag. They are handsome, wiry fellows, and walk alongside their charges urging them on with cries, but seldom belabouring them with the long staves that they carry. At last everything is loaded up, and the traveller, after seeing the animals well on their way, mounts his steed and canters after them along the road, on either side of which stretches a dreary plain bounded by ranges of hills. He and his servant will probably forge on ahead and halt for an hour about eleven o’clock for lunch, the mules passing them on their way to the night’s resting-place. Distance in Persia is spoken of by the term /arsakh, a measurement of some three and a half to four miles, and, as may be imagined, is not computed with strict accuracy by the natives, and differs according to the difficulty of the road. 168 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE The chief point of note on the third march from Tehran, is the gloomy defile of the “ Valley of the i ! h Angel of Death,” which is interesting as being the mise en scene for many of the “ghoul” stories of © h Persia. To the ordinary traveller there is nothing ~ particularly awe-inspiring about it, and certainly it is © easier to negotiate than many other passes to be met with in the country. When this region is left behind, — that “abomination of desolation,’ the great avzr, or salt, desert is seen, stretching far away on the horizon. Persians credit Shimr, the murderer of their — beloved Imam Husein, with having caused this terrible waste, asserting, with no regard to geographical prob- ability, that he fled here after he had slain the Prophet’s - grandson at Kerbela on the Euphrates, and that on his approach the fertile ground at once turned into a huge salt marsh. And further on a salt lake with brilliantly blue waters — has to be skirted, and Akbar will tell his Sahib that some thirty odd years ago the old road to Kum passed — across its bed, and a large caravanserai gave shelter to travellers. The vizier of the day, however, was_ determined that the present road should be used by — all and sundry, and he thought that he could effect this by removing the dam of a river and flooding the old route. His plan was almost too successful, for not only were the road and caravanserai submerged, — but many miles of the plain were turned into the present lake, and the muleteers were forced to pay dues for using the new road in which the Prime Minister was pecuniarily interested. Some twenty miles from Kum a low pass is crossed, | from the top of which the golden-domed Mosque of TRAVEL 169 | Fatima is clearly seen, the town lying beneath a curious double hill. Little piles of stones are on either side of the track, having been thrown there by the Faithful to indicate that from this spot they have caught their first glimpse of the shrine to which they are making a pilgrimage. The rest of the way is along a broad road, on either side of which stretches the salt desert, and the inexperienced would be engulfed in its numer- ous quicksands, did they venture upon it without a guide. Fatima, the sister of the Imam Reza, in whose honour the magnificent shrine at Meshed was built, is the patron saint of Kum, having died here when on her way to visit her brother at Meshed, and tradition affirms that the Eighth Imam visits his sister every Friday. The ‘present mosque has a gold-covered dome and two gold- topped minarets in the original design, but the Vizier of Nasr-ed-Din Shah added two huge tiled mzxars much later, which destroy the symmetry of the building. Fraser,? who visited the mosque in 1821 in disguise, speaks of the magnificence of Fatima’s tomb, which is enclosed by a massive silver grating, above which hangs the sword of Shah Abbas, and he comments on the beauty of the tilework and mosaic. Next to Meshed itis the great centre of pilgrimage in Persia, thousands of flat graves, as at Meshed, covering the space round ‘the building outside. Women especially favour this ‘shrine, and it is curious that the honour paid to Fatima, ‘and also to her ancestress the Fatima, who was the ‘Prophet’s daughter, has not raised the position of the weaker sex with Moslems. _ The people of Kum are very fanatical, and on the ‘morrow, as the traveller rides through the bazaar, he will * “A Journey in Khorasan,” 170 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE have many a hostile glance from the hundreds of felt- capped Persians busy with their different trades or chaffering as they buy their day’s supplies. It will be a relief to emerge on to the deserted olatl and late that afternoon the tents will be pitched, and: real camp life will commence. The Sahib will, if, possible, choose a spot that has not been used by) caravans, scanning the ground narrowly for ticks, as ) these horrible insects are always left wherever camels | have lain; and he will try to camp above any village in order to draw his water from the anat before it has. been polluted. Then begins the unloading of the mules, | which has to be done in haste, so eager are the animals : for a roll in the dust; and the tents are put up with a good deal of fuss, and complaints that the pegs have. been lost, one of the guy-ropes broken, and so on. At | last they are pitched ; the muleteers have curry-combed , their charges with an iron implement that makes a. rattling noise; and the groom has fed the horses and covered them up with their felt night-clothing. Their. master, clad in thick ulster and cap, is jotting down | notes in his diary by the light of a candle with a glass. shade to prevent it flickering in the night air, and impatiently shouting to know why his dinner is so long. in coming. A clatter of plates, and Akbar arrives with | the soup, usually lukewarm, other courses following in time, and when the meal is finished the Englishman | strolls about the plain for a smoke before he turns in. The moon and stars shine with a cold brilliance, : Persians saying that the latter are holes in the floor-| ing of heaven to let God’s glory shine through ; from. the mysterious depths of the long shadows cast by the mountains a jackal will suddenly steal past like TRAVEL 171 a ghost, to be followed by others on their way to join the pack in its nightly hunt for food, and surely that skulking, hump-backed form with its shambling gait can be no other than the hyzena? The little owls utter their plaintive cry ; the great screech owl shrieks like a badly wounded dog; and, once out of the reach of the ceaseless gufti-gu (chatter) of his dependents, the traveller will hear a score of night noises—weird sounds that he cannot locate, eerie rustlings and patterings that make him understand the whole-hearted Persian belief in ghouls and jzxzs. Between Kum and the next town—Kashan—there is little life to be seen and hardly any cultivation, the patches of salt lying on the barren plains showing the proximity of the great salt desert, and the mountain ranges sharply outlined against the cerulean heaven being destitute of vegetation. Majestic Demavend, monarch of the snowy Elburz range, is clearly visible as far as Kashan, a distance of some hundred and fifty miles as the crow flies, and the traveller often turns in his saddle to have a look at the fine peak that becomes more and more isolated the further he leaves it behind him, until at Jast its attendant mountains have all vanished and the triangular cone stands up without a rival, pale and ghostly, against the blue background. A lofty leaning minaret is the most striking object in the town that has given its name to the beautiful kashz, or tiles, for which Persia is celebrated: it is also the centre of the silk industry. Every writer speaks of the virulence and abundance of the scorpions found here, “ May you be stung bya Kashan scorpion” being a popular curse; and the inhabitants are credited with a cowardice far surpassing fi a RS 172 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE that of the ordinary Persian city-dweller. Sir J. Mal-— colm?! relates that thirty thousand soldiers of Kashan and Isfahan, when disbanded by Nadir Shah, asked that monarch to give them an escort of a hundred soldiers to take them safely home. The Shah, with whom personal courage counted above all virtues, is reported to have said that he regretted his days of brigandage were over, as he would have enjoyed looting such an army of poltroons ! Four miles from Kashan is the lovely garden of Fin, in which is a palace built by Fath Ali Shah, falling into ruin. Here between avenues of cypresses water runs over channels lined with blue and green tiles, and portraits of the builder and his many sons are frescoed on the walls and archways. The visitor will be told how Mirza Taki Khan, the able Vizier of Nasr-ed-Din Shah and husband of his royal master’s sister, met his death here. The courtiers stirred up the Shah’s jealousy against his minister, who was banished to this garden. Though he was watched night and day witha passionate affection by his royal wife, yet means were — found to despatch him when she was off her guard, and ~ a man who might have done much for his country was lost to Persia. The traveller orders an early start when he is about to leave Kashan, and his servant packs his personal equipment in good time, but, as usual, the muleteers | are not forthcoming. In spite of messengers sent to the caravanserai in which they and their animals are lodged, it is past ten o’clock before they make their appearance at the telegraph office and begin to load up. — Even then they profess to have mislaid something at t “ Persian Sketches.” TRAVEL 173 the sevaz and must go to retrieve it. A rope ora piece of gz/ém has been forgotten, so that the sun is high in the heavens before the broken-down buildings of dilapidated Kashan are left behind and the caravan, passing through a zone of cultivation, emerges on to the usual barren plain on its way to Isfahan. The traveller soon comes across one of the few public works of Persia in the shape of a barrier, partly natural and partly artificial, by which the Kohrud river is dammed up right across the valley. This work was executed in the beneficent reign of Shah Abbas in order to give water to Kashan during the hot weather, and, passing along the lake thus formed, the village of Kohrud, which stands at a height of 7,000 feet, is reached. As the night will in consequence be bitterly cold every one is thankful to seek shelter in the chapar- khana. As a rule, these buildings consist of some rooms and stables built round a courtyard, but above the entrance gateway are a couple of rooms for the accommodation of better-class travellers and approached by steps of abnormal height. Up these the rider, stiff from the saddle, will stumble, calling to the keeper of the post-house to bring firewood and a samovar. While he is waiting for these comforts he will be amused to observe that the Persian traveller is in the habit of _ scribbling his name on the walls of chapar-khanas and caravanserais as much or even more than the | British tourist, so often abused for this habit; the Oriental being fond also of writing quotations from his favourite poets. The next day’s stage to Soh may be most wearisome, for snow often falls on the pass which has to be crossed, the track is then obliterated, and the mules, blundering into drifts, fall over and have to be 174 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE unloaded before they can regain their feet. The Sahib, leading his horse, will plough his way as best he can, wearing blue glasses, as the glare from the snow when the sun shines on it is dazzling in the extreme, and the caravan will arrive late and worn out after only a twenty- mile march, warmth, food, and rest being ardently desired by all. During the next day, though the pass has been crossed and the track that leaves the hilly country and emerges on to the great Isfahan plain is denuded of the hampering snow, yet a blizzard is raging. The icy blast seems to blow right through the traveller’s wraps as if they had been made of paper, and his horse becomes unmanageable as it refuses to face the bitter wind that lashes it like a whip. The only thing to be done is to press forward, as there is no shelter within several miles, and were the caravan to return on its tracks it would encounter blinding snow on the pass above instead of the sleet, and probably lose its way in the maze of hills, all the paths being obliterated. The muleteers, enveloped in great felt cloaks, hurry their unwilling charges along as best they can to the accom- paniment of shouts and yells, and the Sahib is forced to urge his trembling steed with whip and spurs. A deadly numbing cold seems gaining upon him, and as the hours go by his limbs appear to be getting paralysed, when suddenly the sun shines from the steely-blue, pitiless heaven, and the sleet-laden wind abates. “Alhamdulillah!” shouts the charvadar ; men and animals take heart again, and after a short halt cheerily proceed on their way, reaching the old capital © of the Sefavi kings a couple of days later. The last stage into Isfahan is a short one, as Persians TRAVEL 175 love to get into a town early in order to wash and put on their good clothes, telling the Sahib that they could not possibly appear in the bazaar in travel-stained garments, as if they did so the Isfahanis would get a bad impression of their employer as well as of them- selves. This apparent care for their master’s reputation is not altogether due to that Zashakhus, or love of show, that most Persians possess in abundance, but from a wish that the establishment to which they belong at the time shall “ put its best foot foremost” so to speak. It is always an effective rebuke to tell a servant that his conduct has given the house a Jad nam (bad name). | As so much has been written about Isfahan, its past splendours and the relics of them that still survive, it will be enough to say that Shah Abbas selected the city for the seat of government as being in the heart of his empire, and that he beautified it with splendid mosques and palaces, avenues of trees, and wonderful bridges. Here ambassadors from many European countries visited him, also foreigners in search of trade, and one and all bore testimony to the magnifi- cence of the sovereign, his Court, and his capital, and to the prosperity of the country under his sway. Of course there must have been filth and squalor, lack of drainage, narrow lanes, and insanitary dwellings, just as at the present day, but there must also have been plenty of commerce, and an encouragement of trade and the arts such as has never been known since, giving some foundation to the Persian saying, “ /sfahan nisf ¢ jehan” Usfahan is half the world). An educated Isfahani remarked to the writer that the reigning dynasty being of Turkish origin, had no esthetic sense, and would not 176 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE disburse a kvan to keep in repair the magnificent works of their predecessors on the throne, but even destroyed them in some cases, the Zil-es-Sultan, for example, ruthlessly cutting down the splendid avenues of chenars planted by. Shah Abbas, which were not only a thing of beauty, but were an inestimable boon to the city during the intense heat of the summer. This conduct he ascribed to a kind of jealous rivalry that will impel a Shah to gild the dome of the shrine at Meshed— a deed that will blazon forth his generosity and religious zeal to the entire kingdom—but will not permit him to keep up roads or bridges, the work of bygone bene- factors. The inhabitants of Isfahan are credited with being niggardly in the extreme, and the Persian proverb to describe a miser, “He puts his cheese in a bottle and rubs his bread on the outside,” is supposed to be derived from the avarice of an Isfahan merchant. This worthy, together with his unfortunate apprentice, lived entirely on bread which the pair were wont to rub against a bottle in which was a piece of cheese, in order to give it an imaginary flavour of this latter. The story goes on to say that the merchant, on leaving the house one day, locked up the room in which was this bottle, and on being pursued by his luckless shagird, who said that he could not swallow his bread without the accustomed relish, the merchant advised him to return and rub it on the closed door! The Persians have a saying by which they seek to account for the almost inexplicable fascination of the “open road,” Musdfir mist t divaéneh ast (The traveller is like a madman), and the Englishman is longing to start off on the march again and has no desire to linger TRAVEL 177 among the departed glories of Isfahan. He needs to see the red streak widen in the East day after day—that ) harbinger of Aurora, who when she appears is often _ surrounded by masses of tiny rosy clouds that vanish as soon as the Sun God leaps into the pale-blue sky and prepares to drive his chariot across the firmament. _ This daily marvel of the dawn never becomes common- _ place, and seems to lift for a brief moment the veil that _ hangs over the heart of things, and to draw the traveller _ closer to the great mother, Nature. The Desert City of Yezd will be his next halting- place, and as he has made a détour to visit the old capital of Persia, the party now travels by little-known tracks through a hilly country where the water is dis- agreeably brackish, and past quaint villages seldom _ visited by Europeans. One of these hamlets, almost as curious in its way as | the remarkable village of Yezdikhast, is built on the _ spur of a mountain, the mud houses hanging over the precipice. In some cases the dwellings themselves are . burrowed out of the living rock, the whole looking par- ticularly insecure, though affording an impregnable refuge for the inhabitants in the old raiding days. The weather keeps cold, and a tent is an airy apartment _ during the hasty morning toilet, when a bitter wind seems to be invariably blowing ; and one never-to-be- forgotten night the traveller is awakened by his canvas home falling upon him, the pegs and pole torn up by a , howling blast, and his equipment blown out into the | darkness. It is a time of lamentation and discomfort. , The cook screams out that his vesaz,or padded quilt, has vanished ; the muleteers complain of various personal , losses, swearing by Ali and all the Imams that jzmms are N 178 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE at the bottom of the turmoil; and as no tent can stand against the fury of the elements, all take what shelter they can and await the dawn in no cheerful spirit. The one ray of comfort in the situation is that the furious wind keeps the rain off; but on the morrow, when the gale goes down, a heavy deluge descends, and everybody and everything are soaked, save perhaps the traveller's bedding in its waterproof valise. Even Akbar, paragon of servants, is grumbling, the dinner provided is a poor one, and all go to rest very early, the steady downpour making its way at last through the stout canvas of the tents in long streaks of wet. But such incidents as these are soon forgotten when next morning the sun shines as usual in undisputed majesty, and the Sahib halts for a day in order to try and bring down a mountain sheep, and also to allow everything to be thoroughly dried. A native shzkarcht guides him up the mountain, and after many hours of climbing and stalking, he returns to the camp in triumph with a fine quarry, which provides master and men with a sumptuous supper: its skull and horns are preserved as a trophy that proudly surmounts one of the mule loads during the rest of the journey. The next contre-temps that occurs—one by no means uncommon in Persian travel—is that the party loses its way, and instead of reaching Taft, a charming village near Yezd, is forced to halt for the night on a barren stretch of ground near a brackish stream. Every one talks of “roads” in Persia, but these are usually a series of parallel tracks made by the kajilas (caravans) during many centuries, and if the route leads up dry river-beds, sown with boulders, or across patches of hard gravel, or bed-rock, it is often indistinguishable. sinabecesi be ' AZHA TRAVEL 179 Moreover, there are dozens of false tracks leading appar- ently nowhere in particular, and it is one of these that has misled the caravan ; and the mules have plodded laboriously over more than a farsakh of stony ground before the mistake is discovered. Then ensues the weari- some return and the anxious search for the right road, | which, when found, cannot be followed, as the February night is ominously near; for there is practically no twilight in Persia, but an almost sudden step from sunset into darkness. It takes longer to pitch the tents than usual, and the traveller who has eaten nothing since a hasty lunch at 10.30a.m., feels his entire stock of patience vanish abruptly when he observes that the hands of his watch point to 10.30 p.m., and that his evening meal still tarries. At last, after constant calls to Akbar, answered by as constant “ 4z chashm, b¢ chashm, Sahib!” (By my eyes), that henchman appears with the much- needed food, and his master falls to with a gusto that he has seldom, if ever, experienced at home; and imme- diately after eating he follows the Persian custom of going to bed at once. The last march into Yezd lies through a great amphitheatre of mountains that open out into a superb pass of castellated limestone cliffs, grand beyond description, and forming a romantic setting for the ‘Desert City, as it lies in a blue haze in the distance. ‘The delightful village of Taft, refuge of well-to-do ‘Yezdis during the hot weather, is now passed, and ‘the traveller here notices the Gabrs, or Zoroastrians, Jabouring in helmet-shaped felt caps, and admires their picturesquely-clad- women. The caravan then picks its way along the stony bed of a dried-up watercourse and emerges on to the plain on which 180 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Yezd stands, the city looking drearier than most Per- sian towns from the absence of any vegetation near it, loose sand not being a favourable soil in which to raise crops. The new arrivals are struck by the count- less dadgirs, or wind-towers, which are far more prominent than the *mznars of the mosques, and their number bears eloquent testimony to the heat of. the summer, the inhabitants retiring to underground rooms beneath these air-shafts, as soon as it becomes oppressively hot. The little English colony will probably put the traveller up, and after his tent-life in the cold uplands he will find his first night in a room furnished in European style a most disagreeable experience, and will feel almost suffocated by the closeness of the atmosphere in comparison with his airy tent, through the canvas of which all the winds of heaven appeared to blow. It will be long before he falls into a disturbed, unrefreshing sleep, and he will sally out on the morrow to see the sights of Yezd in a weary frame of mind, The town, he will be told, is second only to Tabriz and Isfahan in commercial importance, and produces beautiful silk materials, but he will be more interested | in seeing the oft-persecuted Zoroastrians, the remnant | of the pure Iranian race, whom he will speedily ' recognise by the ugly yellow hue of their garments. | He will be told that among other irritating restrictions, ' they are not allowed to build Jdadgirs to their’ houses, to wear spectacles, or to ride horses. Yet, in spite of everything, they have clung tenaciously’ to their religion, and have not intermarried with their conquerors. The dakmehs where their dead are, exposed, are built on low hills a few miles from the —— — Os — TRAVEL 181 city, and the more ancient of these “towers of silence” can be inspected from a neighbouring mountain spur, and contains a huge collection of skulls and bones _ picked clean by the birds of prey. But in spite of _ much kindly hospitality, the traveller is impatient to start on his two-hundred-mile ride to Kerman, his _ next halt, as he has far to go before he reaches the coast. Accordingly, after the usual exasperating delays which occur on leaving any town, and which by now he accepts in a philosophical spirit, he starts off with some of his new friends who speed him on his way by riding a farsakh with him. The weather is stormy, harbinger of the spring, and as high winds and heavy downpours are frequent the party takes refuge at , night in the post-houses built at intervals on the sandy _ plains, over which jzzzs, as Persians call the columns _ of sand, whirl. The chapar-khana of Shemsh as it stands, together with a caravanserai, in solitary state on an absolutely » barren stretch of salt-strewn desert, gives an impression » of desolation hardly to be surpassed even in Persia ; — zs and the effect is heightened when it is discovered that the stream running near by is so brackish that a European can scarcely touch it even when it is served to him in the form of tea. Shortly after leaving this dreary halting-place, the | kafila encounters a dust-storm. The whole _ land- scape is suddenly blotted out by a great dusky cloud, the radiantly shining sun becomes a mere white blur, and the sand is driven along by the wind with a curious swishing sound. As the track is hidden, except when the blast whirls the sand from it at intervals, the party closes up, the men muffling their heads and yelling at 182 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE their lagging and frightened charges, and the traveller hastily donning his goggles to save his eyes from the grit. Progress is now slow in the extreme, for the track, which is often difficult to find in daylight, is almost impossible to follow when only fleeting glimpses are obtainable of it; but eventually men and animals arrive late and sore-eyed at the post-house. The Sahib insists that his dependants should bathe their eyes with boracic lotion, and finds that Persians have a strange dislike to washing their organs of sight if they are at all inflamed, this misguided idea and the lack of brims to their felt caps, leading to half the cases of ophthalmia so common in the country. ; Though the wind is often violent, yet rain only falls now and then on the parched plains; and one day the traveller, halting for lunch beside a running stream, was astonished to find that the whole of the water had vanished and left the bed dry while he was eating. But before it reaches Kerman, the caravan has the unusual experience of being obliged to wade through a mile of flooded country surrounding the town of Bahramabad, The muleteers dash knee-deep into the flood, probing the bottom with their staves to find out any holes, and during the process one man disappears into an unsus- pected pit, and is fished out half-drowned. The mules move forward warily, stopping every moment to try and test the ground with their hoofs ; but at intervals one © after another roll over, and have to be unloaded with much objurgation before they can recover their feet. The traveller, after being unhorsed once, thinks it wiser to splash along on foot, leading his steed that snorts with terror and tries to break away whenever a mule Ps ay i ) \ TRAVEL 183 falls headlong into the flood. Fortunately a villager makes his appearance as they near the town, and offers to guide them through the maze of irrigation channels, now deep and muddy streams, that surround Bahra- mabad, telling them that half the houses are in ruins owing to the unusually heavy rain. It is with great relief that the dirty and dripping party enter the gate of the town, and seek the dubious hospitality of the caravanserai which, to their dismay, they find almost uninhabitable, part of the roof having fallen in and the courtyard being a morass of indescribable filth. Not even the charvadar wishes to halt more than a night in this comfortless place, and next morning the kajfila makes its way gingerly through the town, getting one of the citizens to lead it along the flooded lanes between the gutted mud houses, for in places the road is swept away altogether. At last the city gate is passed, and the party is among a belt of cultivated ground before it reaches the sandy desert again on its way to Kabutarkhan. And from here onwards the long plain across which men and animals have toiled since leaving Yezd begins to close in, and the mountain ranges come nearer together, Kerman itself appearing to lie surrounded by hills on all sides. When the Sahib at last reaches the city, the British Consul offers hospitality to his countryman in a charming house which lies in the garden-quarter outside the town, and has a good view of the two picturesque limestone spurs on which were erected the fortresses of Sasanian days. Nowadays all that is to be seen of the city, that once lay between them, are heaps of mud ruins carried away daily on donkeys to act as manure, and littered with scraps of the beautiful lustre tiles for which Persia was 184 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE formerly so famous. The modern town is built on only a quarter of the site that it occupied in the days when the commerce of the East poured through it on its way north ; and the inhuman Agha Mohammed Khan dealt the final blow to its prosperity when he sacked Kerman in 1794 and blinded the majority of its inhabitants. The visitor notices the poverty-stricken look of the place, surrounded as it is by ruins, and remarkable even in Iran for the number of its beggars, and there are no fine mosques or public buildings to be seen in the narrow lanes in which are frequent holes. The beautiful carpets made in the town will attract him; but if he visits a factory and observes that the children who make the artistic fabrics are crippled and deformed from the long hours of work, ' and diseased from the dark, damp places in which they | are forced to spend their days of labour, he will feel that | the price of Kerman carpets is a heavy one; for the: health and often the lives of countless little ones have: been lost in the making of them. | There is not much of interest to be seen in the: neighbourhood, the city lying on the edge of the great desert, and being supplied with water from the many | fine ranges of hills in its near vicinity. The old chroniclers, however, write that Kerman was once! famous for its rose-gardens that produced half the! attar of roses of commerce, and that its hundreds of) wells made it one of the most fertile districts in Persia, At the present time there is practically but one tree in| the environs of the city (of course not including the! private gardens), and this plane is a prominent land- | mark for miles, bearing pathetic testimony to the work | of deforestation that has largely contributed towards the | sterility of Persia. : TRAVEL 185 The Fire Worshippers held out for long in the ‘Province of Kerman against their Arab invaders, and Zoroastrians still survive here in some numbers, their dakmehs being built on low hills in a desert region a few miles from the city. But the traveller, eager to press southwards to the coast, dares not linger at Kerman, as he dreads the intense heat of Baluchistan, where, according to the Persians, the sun, even during the spring, is powerful enough to cook eggs if they are exposed to its burning rays. He has now to reorganise his caravan, because his charvadar refuses to venture his mules in the wilds of Baluchistan. All Persians have a horror of this country, which they say equals the Infernal Regions in heat, and which is peopled by Sunnis, worthy inhabi- tants of such a land. Therefore six or seven camels are engaged to carry the Sahib’s servants and belongings down to Gwadur, these slowly-moving, evil-smelling beasts being able to pick up a good living from the ‘camel-thorn everywhere abundant, and also being capable of going without water for some days if necessary. Akbar and the groom complain at first at being obliged to exchange their briskly-stepping ‘mules for a camel, as they suffer agonies of sea-sickness until they get accustomed to the lurching movements of ‘their new steeds. Supplies of all kinds must be taken ; forage for the horses, and barley-meal with which to give the camels a feed at night ; also a couple of wooden water-barrels, because a corner of the great waterless Lut has to be crossed. The Sahib sees that his servants have Movable shades to their hats, and looks to his own pith-helmet and blue glasses ; for the glorious Persian + a ‘ 186 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE f. sun that has shone above him hitherto will turn into a dreaded enemy when he has left the lofty plateau and descended into low-lying country. He and his caravan start off early in March, making their way across the sand hummocks of the Kerman Desert to the little village of Mahun, not far from the magnificent Jupar range. Both men and horses are in excellent spirits, the crisp air having such an exhila- rating effect on the latter that the Sahib’s favourite Arab carries its rider up and down the sand-heaps with the buoyancy of a boy at play, and races along the track far ahead of the mules, giving bucks at intervals, to let off its high spirits. Like many of its kind it is very docile, and when not ridden it trots along with the caravan, and if it lags behind comes like a dog at the groom’s call. Much of the traveller’s keen pleasure in his journey is owing to Raksh and to the big raw-boned Turkoman, Shaitan; and he is determined to take both these friends with him when he returns to India. When the party reaches Mahun it halts in a beautiful pleasaunce that in spring and summer is one of the loveliest in Persia, its fountains and cascades, its trees and flowers making it a veritable enchanted garden in comparison with the dreary desert on all sides of it From here the way leads into the hills, and the next night, owing to the cold, is passed in a dirty caravan- serai, its mud-built rooms being without doors of windows, and the party being almost blinded by the volumes of smoke when they attempt to light fires, As the marches are long and the camels go slowly, every one is up before sunrise, and the traveller sees the — “false dawn,” that strange, eerie light that appears and disappears before a crimson point in the East betokens TRAVEL 187 the advent of a newday. A chilly wind invariably blows -at this hour, and the Englishman will lead his horse fora couple of miles to warm himself before mounting ; ‘such conduct being looked upon as little short of lunacy by Persians, who never walk a step if they can help it, and consider it zzfra dig. for a man to do so if he has a steed to carry him. Plain after plain stretches in a ‘wearisome monotony; range after range of barren ‘mountains, often with finely serrated outline and colouring, divide the plains; and if a stream of water with verdure on its banks be reached, the party hail it with delight. At one part of the road it seems as if a ‘great avalanche of mud had overwhelmed the district in prehistoric days, and receding had left a hundred weird, fantastic shapes. Pinnacles and columns, huge animal forms that could only be seen in a nightmare, bastions ‘and castles, rise up on all sides round the party, and Akbar and the shuturchis (camel-men) call out to one another that they are in the country of the demons, and it is well for every one that they have not wandered into this enchanted district after sunset. A few days after leaving the snowy peaks and ice- bound streams of the Kerman highlands, Bam, the frontier town of Persia previous to the annexation of ‘Baluchistan, is reached; and in this district of date- palms, pampas grass, and running streams will be felt tthe first touch of the oppressive heat to be encountered later on. The town, mainly a collection of palm-leaf matting hovels, and dominated by a picturesque fortress suilt on a mountain spur, seems stifling as it lies Bsomed i in feathery date-trees. After fresh supplies of rice, flour, tea, and sugar have been laid in, the camels leave behind them the spot where the ill-fated a? 188 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Lutf Ali Khan, the last of the Zend dynasty, was treacherously captured, and push southward to Regan, beyond which village Persian Baluchistan is entered, Owing to the abundance of water, the country here is wooded. Great plumy tamarisk-trees, starred with rosy blossom, acacias, feathery pampas, and the onar- tree all grow luxuriantly, and in the distance the splendid cone of the extinct volcano Kuh-i-Basman stands up superbly. The strident note of the francolin is heard everywhere; and the traveller sallying out with his gun has such good luck that all fare sumptuously for a couple of days on these fine partridges. But this life and vegetation are merely a fringe on the edge of the desolate Lut, and now the caravan enters Baluchistan. This is a country where the dédris from the low, mean-looking hills is scattered so thickly over the valleys that fast riding is dangerous ; where the tamarisk scrub and palmetto flourish; and where the water-supply is frequently of the scantiest and more often brackish than sweet. It is an unprepossessing-— looking land, and the inhabitants, who live usually in shanties of palm-leaf matting, are far darker and smaller than the Persians and in some parts show signs of negro origin. The national costume of the men consists of a long shirt, baggy trousers, and big turban, all of white. cotton, and would be a becoming one were it not usually so badly in need of washing. Their greasy black hair is, as a rule, uncut and matted, but the young dandies affect bunches of curls hanging over the ears; and a long ringlet, shining with oil, often trails down the chest. All are careful to pluck out the centre of their beards and moustaches in order that these f } : TRAVEL 189 adornments may not be defiled if their possessors drink _ wine, and this custom gives them a curious appearance. The women, poor things! thin, ugly, and prematurely aged, wear long black or white woollen garments with black veils over their heads; but leave their faces uncovered, this dress making them look curiously like nuns, as they glide in and out of their squalid palm-leaf huts. Both men and women are utterly uncivilised and ignorant when compared with the Persians, and are - incorrigibly lazy and “slack.” This the traveller finds ee -—YT to his cost if he has much to do with Baluchi camel-drivers, those once in the employ of Major Sykes? asserting that their camels could not march at night and must graze all day ! They are all strict Sunnis, and bear an unextin- guishable grudge against the Shiah Persians who conquered them some fifty years ago; and the Sahib will have to keep his followers well in hand in order to prevent friction arising on religious grounds. For _ example, if his servants, following the common Persian ' custom, vituperate the Khalif Omar, a fight will almost certainly take place between them and the fanatical Baluchis. Now and again a village will boast a tiny mud- _ built mosque with a low roof of palm-beams; but the religious life of the people appears to be chiefly centred in the shrines. These zzarats are met with every- where, and are large cairns of stones on which are placed sticks to impale the fluttering rags torn from the garments of those who hope to gain some favour from the saint buried beneath. Sometimes the shrine is hung with camel-bells, presumably to call the holy * “Ten Thousand Miles in Persia,” 190 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE man’s attention to the petitions offered up, and they are usually adorned with the horns of ibex and mouffion to signify power. . Mr. Floyer,t however, considers that half these cairns are frauds, as he himself walking on ahead of his caravan, used sometimes to collect a few stones together, and he noticed that when his native camel- men reached the spot, one and all would add to the heap. Palms are the chief source of wealth in Baluchistan, a man’s worldly position being regulated by the number of date-trees he possesses; and when the caravan reaches some oasis in the general sterility, the groves of waving palms beside rippling streams and the green of springing wheat and barley will appear like an earthly paradise in contrast to the sandy desert that stretches on all sides. After the picturesque mud-built fortress of a village is left behind him, the traveller may march through a region of black and reddish-coloured volcanic hills, where not a bird or an animal is to be seen, the only signs of life being small lizards, their colouring imitating so exactly the débris littering the valleys that it is impossible to distinguish them when motion- less. This gloomy district will be full of strange echoes, and weird cries will be heard that cause the party to keep as near the Sahib as possible, all Persians believing that if they are in the company of an European no jzmz or ghoul can appear. Later on the Bampur river will be struck, and the groups of lofty tamarisks, oleanders poisonous to the unwary camel, and occasional clumps of graceful palms, *“Unexplored Baluchistan.” TRAVEL I9t give a park-like appearance to the scene, through which meanders the water, strewn with rush-clad islets. But Sir Thomas Holdicht writes: “The fact is that Makran is a country about which a man may write much as he pleases and never stray far from the truth.” And he gives another aspect of the country in a passage that makes the landscape “leap to the eye” when he Says: “The mountain scenery .. . is not exhilarating, a dead monotony of laminated clay backbones, serrated like that of a whale’s vertebra, sticking out from the smoother outlines of mud ridges which slope down on either hand to where a little edging of sticky ‘salt betokens that there is a drainage line when there ‘is water to trickle along it; and a little faded decoration ‘of neutral-tinted tamarisk shadowing the yellow stalks ‘of last year’s forgotten grass along its banks... .” In marching through this land the traveller will be thankful that his horses are shod @ la Persane, for an English shoe could not adequately protect the hoof on the stony plains thickly strewn with every kind of sharp-cornered pebble and _ boulder. There are not many horses in Baluchistan, it being looked upon as a sign of wealth for a man to possess ‘one; therefore “camelry” takes the place here of the cavalry of Persia. This picturesque-looking force is composed of wild-looking Baluchis who ride in pairs on running camels, and are armed with antique jezazls ‘Persian rifles) and long, curving knives, and Carry eather, brass-embossed Tene | As the party makes its way southward the heat erows Zreater, and soon the daily march begins at 3 a.m., all getting into camp about 9 am., and the traveller yin |? “The Indian Borderland.” (Perso-Baluch Boundary.) 192 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE to make up for his short night’s rest by a middall siesta. This is usually difficult, as the tent, unless | pitched in the shade of palm-trees, is unbearably stuffy; | the flies buzz without intermission, trying to find their way through the mosquito net with which his head and shoulders are enveloped, and there are almost. daily sand-storms. These shaztans (devils), as the | Persians call them, often blow down the tents, insecurely , pegged in the loose soil, until experience teaches the party to put boxes on the guy-ropes: they are also. irritating because they cover everything with a layer; of dust, filling the Sahib’s hair, eyes, and ink-pot, | not to speak of his food, with grit. If he is interested in the past history of the country, ' the traveller will be disappointed when he reaches Bam- | pur, the old capital of the province, to see nothing save — a mud-built fortress, situated on what is apparently an | artificial mound ; and he will soon leave its squalid palm-/ leaf huts and push on to Fahraj, the present capital, i rich in palm-groves and streams of delicious water. 4 Here he will look for traces of Alexander the Great's army; but the inhabitants cannot produce any coins. or pottery, though the sight of great mounds of débris that might reveal the secrets of the past is tantalising, He will be told that further east, at Jalk and Ladgusht,: are the mud-built mausoleums of the Kaianian Maliks, as the natives call them, who ruled over the country: until conquered by Nadir Shah; and every here and) there he will notice how carefully the now utterly barren: hillsides are terraced, testifying to a considerable cultiva- tion in past centuries. But with the heat over 97° in his. tent, with the grumbles of his Persian servants in his’ ears, and the mute suffering of his horses ever before TRAVEL 193 his eyes, he can only think of the best way to the coast ; and decides to negotiate the mountain passes and dry river-beds between Fahraj and Gwadur, a route that Baluchis look upon as constituting an excellent road for these parts. Since he left Tehran several weeks ago, the English- man has had an abundant and varied experience of what travel in Iran means; but he has not yet grasped the danger of camping in the dry bed of a watercourse, not knowing that heavy rain, falling perhaps a hundred miles distant, may send a roaring torrent from the hills that will sweep away everything inits path. Alexander the Great’s camp was destroyed in this fashion, and in | this very country some three centuries before Christ ; and the Baluchis have a saying that a wise man when ‘crossing the bed of the Mashkel river will never stop to adjust the rope that keeps his sandal of palmetto ‘fibre in its place, so sudden and unexpected is the _ onslaught of these see/abs. The Sahib’s last adventure -in Baluchistan might have had a disastrous ending. | His tents were pitched in the bed of a dry torrent ; the camels and horses browsed on the banks above; and preparations were in full swing for the evening meal, ' when, with hardly any warning, a wall of water was seen »bearing down upon the encampment. Master and men ‘fled for their lives, and from the bank ruefully watched stents, stores, and personal belongings of all kinds being swashed away down the river, that night being a sad ‘and supperless one. However, things might have been far worse. Gwadur was only a couple of marches distant, vand as the dispirited caravan followed the course of the stream on the morrow, they recovered various things ‘that had been stranded high and dry by the flood that } | oO 194 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE carried them away. Here was a box with the remains of the supplies, there the Sahib’s saddle, and all rejoiced at the sight of one of the tents caught in a swirling eddy of what was now a good-sized river. Even with these alleviations the two days before the caravan reached the comparative comfort of Gwadur were a time of considerable deprivation; but when the English- man said goodbye to his servants and camel-men and found himself and his beloved horses on board a British India steamer bound for Karachi, he heaved a sigh of regret that what he considered to be one of the best times of his life was over. | The reader of this chapter may not unnaturally wonder wherein lies the charm of such travel; for the writer has spoken of extremes of heat and cold, of sand-storms and gales, of the occasional lack of food and the frequent presence of bad water, besides various | other discomforts. Certainly all these form a part of a journey through Iran; but the true traveller learns to” do without much that he has hitherto looked upon as. necessary ; and he is enjoying such perfect health, is so thoroughly “fit” that he is almost immune to changes of temperature. There is also an exhilarating sense of power in his capacity for surmounting the various. obstacles in his path, and if he has been over-civilised all his days, the song of the desert leading him ever. forward into undiscovered lands where possibly ad-. ventures may await him, has an indescribable enchant- ment. Again, he is an Englishman among Orientals, and it adds something to his pride of race to see how. instinctively Persian and Baluch look to the Sahib in. all emergencies ; and he feels, as never before, that in a_ way he himself is upholding, in a very slight degree, the TRAVEL 195 honour of the British Empire. Half-unconsciously, he ‘knows that his conduct day by day is setting the standard by which his compatriots will be judged, and | such a thought is a powerful stimulus to keep a man at his best. ' Rudyard Kipling, in one short poem, has summed up the inexplicable fascination of such journeys, and the true-born traveller cannot read “ The Feet of the Young Men” without a quickening of the pulses and a thrill of | fellow-feeling, for he too knows the compelling force of the Wanderlust. As the haunting refrain sings— 8 r k : “He must go—go—go away from here ! ) On the other side the world he’s overdue. | ‘Send your road is clear before you when the old Spring-fret comes o’er you And the Red Gods call for you !” ° kL CHAPTER X THE PERSIAN WOMAN UROPEANS travelling in Asia sometimes assert cheerfully that all is well with the Eastern woman, and that she would not change lots with her Western sister if she could, as she is thoroughly con- tented with things as they are. When, however, we come to look at the facts of the case, we shall find that the picture they compose is by no means one of roseate hue. “Woman is a calamity, but no house ought to be without this evil,” is a well-known saying, and sums up the opinion which Persians have of the “ fair sex,” Saadi reflecting on their intellect by writing, “ To consult women brings ruin to a man.” There is seldom any welcome for the Persian baby- sirl as she comes into the world, and is deposited in a common cradle, instead of the silken one that would have been her lot had she been a boy. Her nurse goes in fear and trembling to announce the news of | her birth to her father, for the irate man may possibly order the luckless woman to “ eat sticks,” if he has set his heart on having a son, and the baby’s mother feels’ that she may be divorced for her failure in presenting | her husband with an heir. | | Of course no feast is held in the child’s honour, there | 196 Se . THE PERSIAN WOMAN 197 are no congratulatory visits from friends, and the little thing grows up practically unnoticed. If she is one of several, she will play and perhaps do lessons with her brothers until about the age of | eight, when her so-called education will stop. It is a _ rare thing in Persia to find a woman who can read and 7 s- -_ —— ee Fo write, there being no such thing as a girls’ school in the whole country. The child’s life will be spent in the azderoon or women’s apartments, and she will be taught to embroider, to cook and make sweets and sherbets; but if her parents are rich, her time will probably be passed in absolute idleness. All Persian houses of any size have a dzvoonz and an anderoon. ‘The dzvoonz, or men’s rooms, are approached | from the street, a high mud wall hiding the house entirely, and once through a strong outer door a _ passage. leads to a courtyard on to which several rooms , open and which has a tank in the centre. It would be _ folly for a man to make any ostentatious display of _ wealth unless he were in a position that rendered him i secure from being “squeezed” by any greedy governor, not to speak of the sovereign himself, therefore the —— btroonz, where he sees his friends, and where any one _mMay visit him on business, is always badly furnished. : It is in the axzderoon, which is invisible from the outer courtyard, though the only approach to it is through | this latter, that the master of the house keeps his women, his choicest carpets and silken divans, and the _second-rate European lamps and pictures so dear to f ) his heart. Here are sunk beds of flowers round the tank, which perhaps is lined with vivid blue tiles, _and possibly, if the space be sufficient, a tree spreads \ a its welcome shade in a corner of the enclosure. So 198 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE careful are the Persians to ensure the privacy of their women that men hardly ever walk on the flat roofs of their houses, fearing lest they might be suspected of a wish to peep down into the courtyards of neigh- bouring anuderoons. This seclusion, penetrated by no man save the husband and near relatives, would be like a prison to an Englishwoman ; but a well-to-do Persian lady has no wish for exercise, and cannot take an outing without suitable escort. Her indoor dress gives somewhat of a shock to European eyes. The very short, full trousers not reaching to the knee, are said to be in imitation of the ballet-girls, who charmed Nasr-ed-Din Shah on his journeys to Europe, and the legs and feet are usually bare in summer, though drawers and socks are worn in winter. The loose gauze summer jacket is trans- parent, and the head appears to be the only part which it is incumbent to cover, the chargat, or handkerchief, being worn by day and by night. If a woman, under the influence of some strong emotion, were to tear this — off, it would be a sign that she was so overcome by her feelings as to be lost to all sense of propriety for the time being. Europeans cannot understand why Persians consider a lady’s décolletée dress immodest, when the costume of their own women leaves so little to the imagination ; but the reason is that no male eyes save those of her husband and relatives, ever rest upon a Persian lady’s charms. At the present time many women don what they call an “English dress” on smart occasions, wearing a fitted bodice and draping a chadar from the waist to the feet ; but this fashion is the exception and not the rule, | THE PERSIAN WOMAN 199 __ The Persian woman’s outdoor costume is a complete ' disguise, as she is shrouded from head to foot in a _shapeless black chadar. Trousers and socks in one, - usually of green or purple, are drawn up to her waist, and over her face is a white silk or cotton covering )with a small strip of lace-work across the eyes. Her -own husband would probably be unable to recognise her did she pass him in the street, and however _charming her figure may be, she looks a mere waddling bundle, shuffling along in heelless slippers. Sometimes the face-cloth is of finely woven horsehair, giving its wearer a ghoulish and sinister appearance as she goes _on her furtive way; and as a woman’s voice may not be heard in public, her absolute silence helps to surround \her with an air of mystery, which is increased by the ‘fact that death would be the penalty paid by any man .rash enough to lift her veil. In appearance, Persian , women are not tall, have small hands and feet, and | their rather heavy, oval faces are lit up by fine, dark eyes, ) but they are usually too stout for English taste. Their »white skin has little colour or transparency ; but their ‘passion for powder and rouge makes it hard to judge of their complexions fairly, and they use koh/ to ‘impart a languishing look to their eyes, and to greatly ‘widen the eyebrows, often-making these meet across the bridge of the nose. Their abundant black hair is cut in a straight fringe across the forehead, and any l scantiness in their locks is compensated for by addi- \tions of horsehair. A Persian poet in describing female -beauty, winds up his panegyric with the following ' lines :— “~~ -——— a “ Her face is like the full moon And she waddles like a goose”! 200 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE The women, in their restricted existence, are thrown entirely upon themselves for amusement, even boys and girls not being allowed to mingle ; therefore they give parties to one another to show off their clothes and jewellery, spending as much money as they can cajole from their husbands on personal adornment. Their visits to the public baths are occasions for sossip and display. They spend several hours over their bathing, reposing on cushions while their hair is dyed with henna and indigo, and the nails and tips of their fingers and toes with the juice of the former plant ; and then they eat a light lunch in the steamy atmosphere in company with their children, who are bathed free of charge. A healthier amusement is to drive or ride to some garden outside the town, where the ladies will pass the day in the open air. If they have no carriage they will sit astride upon a horse or donkey, led at a foot’s pace by a servant, and they will feel the summer heat considerably, wrapped up so closely in their black chadars. The custom of veiling is supposed to have come about in this wise. In the time of the Prophet the Arab women showed their faces unashamed, and Mohammed being attracted by the beauty of the wife of Zeid, his adopted son, asked that devoted adherent to give her to him in marriage. This action caused considerable scandal among his followers, though the husband himself made no objection at divorcing his wife in favour of his master; and the Prophet, seeing that he had set an undesirable precedent, commanded that henceforth women should only show their faces to their male relatives. He also dared to say that he PERSIAN WOMEN IN OUTDOOR DRESS LIBRARY - Ob THE HMIVESSITY OF 4. AOES, THE PERSIAN WOMAN 201 had received a Divine revelation permitting this union, and this swzva (number 33) is duly incorporated in the Koran, and at once removed all doubts on the part of the Faithful. The Persians, however, have a different version of the origin of this custom. They say that one day when Mohammed was seated with Ayesha, the best- loved of his wives, a passing Arab, admiring her good looks, offered her husband a camel in exchange for her, and this annoying experience produced the veiling order in Islam. Of course the great interest in the life of a Persian girl is her marriage ; but she has practically no choice in the matter, her parents arranging the whole affair. There is a well-known saying: “To do things quickly is of Satan, because God works slowly. Haste is only permissible in three matters which are as follows: to get a husband for your daughter, to bury your dead, and to set food before a guest.” In earlier times girls were married when eleven or twelve years old; but now a later age is fortunately considered more suitable. Money enters largely into the question, the parents of a daughter having to give two or three hundred tomans to every hundred possessed by the man: they do not appear to take the personal likes and dislikes of the future couple much into consideration, daughters frequently being handed over to men old enough to be their fathers or even grandfathers. If a girl is wedded to a cousin, which is constantly done to keep the property of a family together, she will never have exchanged a word with him since childhood, except in the family circle, and if a marriage is on the 202 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE tapis it is considered unseeemly for the young lady. to visit at the house of the aspirant to her hand. In- fact, the couple are not supposed to see one another at all until the formal betrothal before a mu//a takes ' place, and on this occasion the fiancée’s face is so thickly covered with rouge and powder, and her eyes so painted up that it is difficult to get any idea of her natural charms : moreover, she goes through the cere- mony in total silence. , A really smart wedding may last for five days and nights, or even for a whole week, the ladies arrayed in beautifully embroidered clothes and wearing all their jewellery. They will sip sherbets, drink syrupy tea, smoke falians, and gossip incessantly; but the bride-elect is hardly noticed on these occasions, and sits apart in silence with bent head and her chadar drawn over her face. The guests will present her with jewels, sugar-loaves ornamented with gold-leaf, or big bowls made of sugar-candy with candy stalactites standing upright in them ; and she herself will have her eyebrows widened with indigo, over which is a line of gold-leaf, while tiny flowers will be painted with indigo on her cheek-bones, chin, and throat. In the midst of the dancing and playing by hired musicians, the cry will be raised, “ Behold the bridegroom comes!” and a great helter-skelter takes place, every one present, bride, ladies, singers, dancers, servants, and slaves hurrying pell-mell into an inner room, screened off by curtains, from behind which they peep at the bridegroom and his particular friends, who come to eat sweetmeats in the anderoon. The bridegroom sits in state on a chair, while slaves bring him presents from the bride, serve him and his company with refreshments and water-pipes, and amuse THE PERSIAN WOMAN 203 them by dancing. This visit of ceremony lasts about half an hour, after which the men retire, and the women rush back in a body into the room, which they have been obliged to vacate. The English lady to whom I am indebted for this account said that on one occasion the litle girl-bride ‘who had not been allowed to peer between the curtains, asked her eagerly whether her future husband looked good-tempered, as she had not as yet seen his face! On the last day of the wedding the bride, who has taken practically no share in all the merry-making, is carried off by her nearest relatives to a private bath, where her face and eyebrows are freshly rouged and painted, and on her return to the guest-room all the ‘women rise, and a copy of the Koran is held over her ‘head for luck and also a mirror to double the length of ‘her life. Then her zahaz, or dowry, which has been laid on large wooden trays for all to see, and which consists of many clothes, cooking utensils, lamps, third-rate ‘European oleographs and vases, is carried off to her new home by porters, and the bride is ready to follow ‘them. _ She kisses the hearthstone of her old home, and ‘carries bread, salt, and a piece of gold with her for luck, and then, closely veiled, is lifted on to a large donkey gaily adorned with many-coloured woollen tassels and ‘cowrie shells. A couple of slaves, who form part of ‘her dowry, accompany her on small donkeys, and a ‘great crowd of friends go with her to the house where her husband awaits her. : The Persians have a saying, “ The God of women is a -man, therefore all women must obey men.” This they } ij e! 204 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE x certainly put into practice, looking upon their wives as inferior beings born to submit to their rule,a husband — having the right, if he so chooses, of forbidding his wife to visit her own parents. A bride usually passes from the paternal yoke to the probably heavier one of the husband and mother-in-law combined, Persians living in patriarchal fashion—a custom productive of many quarrels. There is seldom any real friendship or intimacy between the wedded couple, and often the husband will pass all his days in the d¢voond, where his wife may not enter, and will have his meals served to him there, his womenkind eating what he may leave. Mohammed says in the Koran that God, havin given men dominion over women, husbands may punish their wives if the latter are disobedient. As a result of this, wife-beating is not uncommon; a hen-pecked husband is a vara avis; and unfaithful wives are put to death, probably by being forced to take poison, no~ inconvenient questions being asked about their sudden — decease. The Christian ideal of marriage is not under- stood, and indeed there is little sanctity in a tie that can be destroyed so easily by divorce, and where the husband is allowed four legal wives, and as many irregular connections as he pleases, including the house- hold slaves. ayia A Persian may divorce his wife for no other cause — than his own caprice ; but in such a case is supposed to give back the dowry that he received with her. If however, the wife asks for the divorce, although she may be in the right, she will probably forfeit all she possesses ; and cases are by no means uncommon where — a husband, tired of his wife, but determined not to wah al wr THE PERSIAN WOMAN 205 refund her dowry, ill-treats her in order to force her to sue for a divorce. It can easily be understood that, owing to the seclusion in which the women live, it is hard for them to get justice if they have no powerful relations to help them. If a man has uttered the formula of divorce in a fit of anger, and wishes to have his wife ‘back, she must first be married to and divorced by another man before he is able to do so. __A wife is above all things anxious to become the ‘mother of a son, as unless Allah grants her this she will ‘almost certainly be divorced, or a rival will be intro- ‘duced, and she will probably lose the affection of her husband, and be held in small esteem by his family and ther own friends. In the golden-domed Mosque of Kum dedicated to the sainted Fatima, in the meanest mud ‘building supposed to be haunted by the Perz-danou, or )Queen of Fairies, or beside some tree hung with fluttering rags, the poor women of Persia lavish prayers ‘and offerings to unseen powers in the hope of becoming smothers of sons. | A husband often neglects his wife when she is old; ‘but fortunately her children are usually attached to her, ‘there being much filial piety in Persia. When she feels that she is nearing her latter end, the thought of going ‘on a pilgrimage often comes into her mind, because the heaven accorded to women by the Prophet cannot be ‘attained by them with the same ease as apparently the ‘men can enter into their Paradise—in fact tradition ‘states that when Mohammed was permitted a glimpse ‘into hell, he informed his followers that women were in ‘an enormous majority in that fiery realm! When we ‘read that the Infernal Regions are haunted by lions and ‘vipers, the former armed with seven thousand teeth and 206 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE | the latter with seven thousand poison fangs, which | incessantly torture the evil, who are lapped in seas of ' fire, and are for ever in the company of malignant’ devils, it can be understood that an imaginative woman | will make heroic efforts to escape such a doom! She will sell or raise money on her valuables, and persuade her husband to let her go to Mecca, Kerbela, or Meshed, in order to gain the coveted titles of Hajz, Kerbelat, or Meshedz. | Supposing that the latter is chosen, the journey to the famous shrine of Imam Reza, being probably the easiest and cheapest, the Persian lady has no light task before her. If she cannot afford the swaying takht-t-ravan, or litter drawn by two mules, she must sit cramped up in a £ajaveh, or panniet, strapped on to one side of a mule, in which she will be jolted for hour after hour. However hot the weather may be, she must keep her face hidden by her black chadar and white vou-band; and when _ she arrives at her night’s destination, probably half-dead with fatigue, her resting-place is usually in the highly uncomfortable and dirty caravanserai. Her room may be a recess without door or window, and although her servants will sweep it out and lay a cotton carpet on the floor, and hang another across the opening, she will in all probability have a restless night, dis- turbed by the noise of the animals and the conversation of their masters. Women frequently die on the road during these pilgrimages ; but if a lady arrives in safety at her goal, she will probably settle down for several months, and pay daily visits to the Shrine to which she presents offerings of gold and jewellery. She will be met as she THE PERSIAN WOMAN 207 enters the sacred precincts by one of a group of seytds )(descendants of the Prophet), after whom she will | Tepeat the Arabic formulas of devotion, and she will hire a mud/a to recite a portion of the Koran to her | at each visit. If she attends prayer in the mosque she _will sit in a screened-off part where she is invisible to the men-worshippers, and can get but scanty elimpses of the proceedings ; but probably she will find here friends from her native city, with whom she will have »much conversation. _ As her husband has practically managed the house, , paying the servants and engaging or dismissing them, ,and as her children are either grown up or in the | charge of some attached slave, there is no need for her .to hurry back to her duties, for she is not greatly ,missed in her home. If she dies at Meshed she will be interred in the | precincts of the Shrine, with the assurance of attaining to Paradise ; and perhaps if she returns in safety to her family and passes away at home, her corpse may be sent in charge of a muleteer to be buried in some sacred spot, thus forming part of that ghastly caravan _ of coffins often met by travellers near Kum or Meshed. _ When a woman dies there is a_ terrible service ) | enacted at her house after she is buried. All the ladies of the family and their friends assemble ina large room, and hired mourners repeat in a wailing monotone, “ Weep for the sister who is lost—lost— lost!” At each “lost” they strike their naked chests with the right hand and soon stir up their audience, _who repeat the refrain after them and beat their breasts inunison, “Weep for the sister wandering in space— _weep—weep—weep!” So the wail goes on; and the 208 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE relatives sob, tear their hair and clothes, and even knock their heads against the wall in a frenzy of grief, Then suddenly there will be a pause, and cups of tea and kalians will be handed round to refresh the mourners before they give vent to new outbursts of emotion. The life of a Persian woman, taken as a whole, cannot be considered a happy one, and the victims of Islam recognise that their fate is hard when they are brought into contact with European women. The seclusion of their lives, with so little outside interest, encourages hysteria and all sorts of nervous complaints ; and though the townswoman despises her unveiled peasant- sister, yet the latter has the best of it, hard though she may have to work for her livelihood. Certainly the yoke of Mohammedanism presses heavily on the Persian woman, and, through her, on the entire race, for how can a nation make real progress if the mothers of its men are kept in bondage and ignorance? In the words of Sir William Muir, “ The condition fixed by Mahomet for woman is that of a dependent inferior creature, destined only for the service of her lord, liable to be cast off without the assignment of any reason and without the notice of a single hour. While the husband possesses the power of divorce, absolute, immediate, unquestioned, no privilege of a corresponding nature has been reserved for the wife. She hangs on, however unwilling, neglected, or super- seded, the perpetual slave of her lord—if such be his will.” When the writer gained some acquaintances among Persian women, she found that a latent discontent with * “Life of Mahomet.” GABR WOMAN AND CHILD ‘“e "> . a* = eet eee —_ st ae > : : ; z. Y, 7 4) & \ > ea */~ ; 4 tad . 7 — 2 ” } 2 + a at, p. ' LIBRARY . OF THE is “IVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, THE PERSIAN WOMAN 209 their restricted surroundings was fanned into life by the tremendous contrast between the unfettered existence of an Englishwoman and their own. It was pathetic _ to be urged never to marry a Persian! “Oh Khanum” (Lady), a woman would say, “my husband makes me ‘eat’ much sorrow. If his Azdau or sherbet is not to _ his liking he may beat me, and I know that if I had an illness that made me ugly he would divorce me on the spot. And when I get old he will treat me worse \ than a servant.” All this the writer was forced to believe when a Persian boasted to her that his wife trembled in his presence to such an extent that she could not swallow a mouthful of food! Certainly the saying that “no good comes from a house where the hens crow like cocks,” can apply but seldom to the women of Iran! CHAPTER XI COUNTRY LIFE HE Persian peasant, usually clad in blue cotton shirt and trousers with a thick felt sleeveless overcoat, and a felt skull-cap, is a hardy, simple fellow as he trudges along in his cotton gzvas, a comfortable footgear much resembling bathing-shoes. Beside him walks his diminutive ass, often sadly overloaded with bricks, stones from the quarries, manure, or firewood, but, as a rule, not ill-treated by its master. Ifthe aforesaid master is a villager, he tills the land on a kind of feudal system, the owner of a , village providing the ground, the seed, and the tools, . and taking half the produce in payment; no money passes between him and the peasants, many of whom | have never handled a coin in their lives. When it isa | bad year and the harvest fails or locusts devour the | crops, the landowner feeds his tenants and waits for his | share of the profits until times are better. The food of | a labourer is simple enough, consisting principally of | bread, cheese, and fruit, cucumbers and lettuces, with an | occasional bowl of curds or a little meat at rare intervals. | In Baluchistan and the Gulf district dates are the staple , diet, and as he cannot afford firewood, the villager burns | dried manure and camel-thorn. The peasants are all. 210 COUNTRY LIFE 211 very poor, and besides a share of the produce, they ‘often have to give the owner of the land so many kaveh of firewood a year, and perform various other ‘services for him. About half the Shah’s revenue is derived from taxes in the form of cash or kind imposed on all districts, towns, and villages, and the greatest burden falls on the peasantry, the poorest class, Though the tax-assessors change the sums demanded from time to time, yet of late years they have always increased them. As there are no big manufactories in the country, and but little trade, farming is the chief occupation ; and the land well repays cultivation, the most un- promising-looking soil bringing forth abundantly if irrigated. The peasants are not serfs, and are free to leave one village and settle in another; yet there is no incentive ‘or them to overwork themselves, because the landlord would be the chief gainer by their efforts, and in all : orobability the government tax on his property would ii raised were more land taken into cultivation. The writer remembers one spring seeing a group of half- starved peasants working languidly during the Fast of Aamazan, when their “betters” were all abed sleeping off the effects of a night of feasting. The men were offered the remains of the English lunch, and their aead-man stuffed the pz/au into the bosom of his shirt, ‘xplaining that no one might touch a grain of the ice until the sun had set. He added that he trusted Allah would be merciful to them, and not send a vlague of locusts that year, as these insects had levoured all their crops of barley during the previous sutumn, and the peasants had been forced to live on 212 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE half-rations throughout the winter, and must continue to do so until the grain was ripe. Somehow the was a hopelessness about all of them, a weariness | and lack of purpose and vitality that it was sad to. observe. ; The implements used by the villagers are of primitive - description, the V-shaped spade doing about half the : work of an English one, and the plough being nena a harrow dragged by a yoke of oxen. Sometimes as many as six yoke turn up the same small patch of | ground, the oxen apparently walking exactly behind | one another, though in reality keeping slightly to the. right or left: in this case the animals are the property: of a contractor who hires them out to plough all the land in the district. It is curious to notice men! sowing on the unploughed land, the idea being that) the process of ploughing will cover the seed, but to. European eyes it seems reversing the natural order of) things. | Though there are many rain-fed crops grown in northern Persia, yet as a rule the soil is irrigated. To facilitate the process all the ground is divided into squares surrounded by low earth-banks, through which the water is let in to cover the patches of cultiva- tion in turn, and to soak them thoroughly. In order to prevent the caking of the soil, fine sand is thrown over it, and the melon-beds in particular have a coating of silver sand about half an inch in depth. The refuse ol the towns is used as manure after it has been left to ars for a considerable time, and Persians are indefatigable in carrying off the mud-brick déris of all ruins for thi purpose. The chief crop of the country is barley _ which is the food of horses and mules, as oats are no —<— — COUNTRY LIFE 213 -grown, and it is also the food of the poor, wheaten ‘bread being only for the well-to-do. ' The country barley bread is often made in thick ‘flaps, called sanjak, the name implying that it is baked on hot stones, which are placed at the bottom of (the oven, and when fresh and crisp it is excellent. The ‘ordinary oven zan (bread) is made in the shape of thin ‘cakes about a couple of feet long and a foot wide, the |} baker sticking these cakes with a deft movement of his /hand against the sides of the heated oven. Directly ‘they are baked sufficiently they drop off and are hung ‘on a big nail or suspended over a horizontal stick in ) readiness for purchasers. Persians eat quantities of hot ) bread and carry off the long cakes from the bakery hanging over their arms. Owing to the primitive ; methods of grinding the flour there is often a good deal of grit and even an occasional pebble in this bread. The rice for the pz/au, the national dish of Persia, ‘comes from the rainy districts round the Caspian, and | tobacco is cultivated here and in the south, the best ; coming from Shiraz. Cotton is grown in many places, )and dates are an important product of low-lying parts / of Persia, usually situated near the Persian Gulf, and (constitute the wealth of its inhabitants, a man being \rich in proportion to the number of date-palms that he ‘owns. Persians say that the tree was introduced by ; the Arabs when they conquered the country, the hardy {warriors bringing this portable food with them from Arabia and casting the stones along their line of march. _ The opium poppy is largely grown on the Persian ' Plateau and is a real misfortune to the inhabitants, both ‘men and women becoming addicted to the drug and / even giving it to their babies if sleepless and fretful. ~ 214 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE Professor E. G. Browne! translates the Persian opium- smoker’s epigram in these words :— “Sir Opium of ours for every ill is a remedy swift and sure, But he, if you bear for a while his yoke, is an ill which knows | no cure.” Opium is a very precarious crop, as may easily be | understood when the manner of collecting it is explained, | When the flower petals are falling the poppy-heads are gashed with a kind of tiny iron comb, and the juice that | slowly oozes out is scraped off the next morning, this | _ process being repeated twice. If, however, rain happens - to fall when the opium is collecting the juice will all be washed away from the seed-vessels and of course lost, | On any other occasion a rainy day is regarded with unfeigned delight in Persia, and indeed the European who has been some time in the country realises what a. godsend a heavy downfall is to the parched and cracked | soil and what good it will do to the crops that depend, as a rule, entirely on irrigation. Though the Persian rejoices in the moist air and the scent of the wet earth, yet it is hardly credible to what a state the roads are reduced after a day or two of wet weather. Riding is dangerous save at a foot’s pace, the | streets of every town and village run liquid mud, ankle deep in places, and the roofs of the mud-built houses” have an inconvenient habit of falling in. However, the sun soon shines forth again and dries up the country. | A hailstorm is a very different matter. The writer saw such a storm in the north of Persia during April when the trees were a mass of blossom. Stones as large as. cherries rattled down with a great noise, breaking the * “A Year amongst the Persians.” ONIHSHAHL COUNTRY LIFE 215 glass in all exposed windows, stripping the bloom from the branches, tearing the young shoots off the rose bushes, and ploughing up the sunk beds in the garden. And when the storm was over there was much tribula- tion in the district, for the orchards, on which many depend for a livelihood, were ruined for that year. As there is practically no grass in Persia, clover is much used for fodder, several crops being produced yearly from irrigated ground, and the substitute for hay is kah, or straw. After the crops of wheat and barley have been cut with a sickle they are threshed by the _ feet of animals that sometimes drag a kind of cart on rollers. Or this process of threshing may be carried on by a bevy of horses, mules, and donkeys, all harnessed together and forced to go round and round a huge heap of corn, a little of which is tossed beneath their hoofs at a time, thus separating the grain from the ear and breaking up the straw. If possible, a breezy day is chosen for this operation, reminding the onlooker of the verse in the Psalms in which the evil are to be “scattered as chaff before the wind.” All mud bricks have an admixture of kak, and Dr. Wills! points _ out that this was what the Jews demanded when they asked the Egyptians for straw to make their bricks. A good deal of silk is produced in Persia, the best silk- _ worms’ eggs coming from Turkey, and these the land- _ lord gives to his peasants, receiving a proportion of the silk in return. The women often carry the eggs next their skin in order to hatch them, and have to keep the caterpillars in a clean room and guard them from all noise, the buzzing of wasps and flies being supposed to _ be injurious to them when they have begun to work. s « Persia as it 1s.” 216 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE The grape is cultivated throughout the country, the | vines in the north being planted in deep trenches and the stems drawn up through the earth of the lofty banks between the ditches in order to keep the plants warm through the intense cold of the winter when there may | be several degrees of frost at night. Wine is made in many places, but the white wines of Hamadan and Shiraz rank the highest, and it is interesting to note | that natives of this latter city came to Spain in the, Middle Ages to teach the Moors the art of wine- making: the Spanish town Xeres, where they settled, | and our word “sherry,” for the wine produced there are both corruptions of Shiraz. Saadi and Hafiz have sung the praises of this wine, which travels all over Persia in great glass flasks merely packed in straw; and from the refuse of the grapes, arrack, the favourite spirit of the country, is concocted. | A Persian village is picturesque in the distance, being surrounded by a high mud wall, often castellated, | and entered by a gateway, recalling the days, not so } long ago, when Iran was never safe from raiders and | every hamlet was practically a fortress. | Sir Mortimer Durand! gives a word-picture that vividly describes such a spot: “Beyond the village a little fan of cultivation pushed up into a fold in the stony flank of the mountain. A cold stream, fed from. the hills above, came foaming down through a channel of rough boulders, and on both sides of it grew apple orchards and poplars and plane-trees.” To see such a place at its best it should be approached at sunset, when the symbol of the deity, saluted at dawn and eve by the Zoroastrians, is sinking in a golden glory behil } ‘ “Nadir Shah.” | COUNTRY LIFE 217 the western ranges and flushing the eastern hills, the barren plain and the mud walls and buildings of the village, with a magical rosy light. The flocks are returning to their homes, sheep and goats mixed, black, white, brown and particoloured, the patter of their little hoofs making a curious rustling noise on the dry sand. One old man and a handsome, shaggy, white dog will shepherd the animals numbering some hundreds, the man perhaps carrying in his arms a newly born lamb, while others are in the bag slung on his back. It is a peaceful scene of pastoral life ; and as the sun ‘drops below the horizon, the muezzzn, standing on the minar of the tiny mud-built mosque, sends out the call to prayer across the stillness of the plain, and ‘uncouth figures in blue cotton and felt garments prostrate themselves in devotion, their faces turned towards holy Mecca. And the traveller will feel that this is Persia, the great expanse of desert, the mountain ranges shutting '. his view on either side; not a tree and hardly a ‘sign to be seen of Geesiton: and perhaps the only Meine creature a vulture slowly wheeling in the sky. Such is the setting of the insignificant group of mud- domed hovels, all huddled together within their ‘encircling mud wall, and surrounded by small patches “of cultivation which have to be laboriously irrigated by the mountain stream. Inside the village it will be rare for the unplastered mud rooms to have windows, all light and air reaching them through the rickety and warped wooden doors, and if the roofs are not of mud, ‘they will be made of beams, the interstices of which are stuffed with straw. The Persians are not a cleanly nation, and the } ? | | . | ae - 218 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE European seeking village hospitality will probably find the rooms: infested with vermin, and as he sinks to an uneasy rest he will be disturbed by the incessant: angry barking of the peasants’ dogs, as they answer the jackals that are howling round the walls in paca seeking their food. The village women, thin and weather- beaten, are chosen by their husbands for their strength and for their | skill as weavers and cheesemakers. They work hard at | their household tasks such as making the bread, the | clothes for their families, drawing the water, and milk- { ing the flocks; and are unveiled, though they occasion- | ally put the checked cotton sheet that envelops them | across their faces if a foreigner approaches. Most of | them look prematurely aged, owing to the early | marriages in vogue, and sometimes resemble the ; grandmothers rather than the mothers of the often | rosy-cheeked boys and girls who cling shyly to their cotton skirts. The children are clad in cotton jackets ; which hang open, and the writer has seen them in | the depth of winter with no more adequate protection / than this against the intense cold, and has not wondered { at the terrible infant mortality in Iran. To all remon- | strance the peasants shrug their shoulders and say, | “ Dastur dst” (It is the custom) for children to be so lightly clad ; and they add that if Allah intends them to | die it will he of no use to struggle PPS AIDA His decree— | “ Kismet /” 7 Nearly every village, however small, has its school, | where the urchins are taught to read the Koran and | to write. There is no government subsidy, therefore | the boys are often entrusted to a teacher totally unfitted | for his task, who sometimes treats his charges with | COUNTRY LIFE 219 cruelty. The parents will pay the schoolmaster in ' kind for his services, and he often considers the follow- ' ing maxims of Saadi as the pivot of his method: ' “The severity of a teacher is better than the fondness | of a father,” or, “He whom thou hast not chastised as a | child, will not prosper when he grows to manhood.” Perhaps the people who enjoy life most in Persia are the nomads, or /Zats. All over the country these ' wandering tribes travel in the spring from the mud- ' built villages where they have passed the winter, up -into the hills, in search of pasturage for their flocks. | They pitch an encampment of black goats’-hair tents on some grassy upland during the summer, and devote | themselves to the care of their herds, the women | employing their spare time in the weaving of carpets ‘and in cheese making. These nomad women are ( free, frank, vigorous creatures, accosting the traveller \ without shyness, and offering him refreshment. In the ‘north they wear crimson and blue garments and are » adorned with many chains and heavy silver clasps set \ with cornelians. But whether they display jewellery, or -are poorly clad in short, blue cotton skirts showing their bare ankles and feet, their heads being tied up in white cloths, the type from the north to the south is the same. They are on an equality with the men, |whatever their religion may affirm, and are naturally far healthier and happier than their cloistered and often discontented sisters in the towns, who despise them heartily on account of their unveiled faces. bem | Any account of country life would be incomplete saith? out the mention of gardens. Every well-to-do Persian | / takes an intense interest in some stretch of ground ‘ which he lays out and displays to visitors with pride. 220 PERSIA AND ITS PEOPLE It is badly kept according to Western ideas, and the | _ writer who was shown many such gardens felt at first | some surprise at their lack of beauty. As a rule they are square, surrounded by high mud walls destitute | of any creeper, and through them run narrow channels of water, beside which are planted rows of stiff poplars, — the favourite tree of Persian gardeners. In place of the | beautiful English lawns are often patches of clover | which produce several crops annually, and instead © of the wealth of bloom which is the glory of the British garden, there will be a few sunk beds in which some ; balsams, petunias, asters, marigolds, and wallflowers make a poor show, and are usually all withered up © during the fierce heats of summer, everything else being | allowed to run wild. Some gardens are really orchards, | and in the spring the exquisite bloom. of the fruit- | ‘trees is a beautiful sight; while other gardens, that remind the visitor of those in Italy, have pergolas of | vines, avenues of cypresses, groups of pomegranates, — their brilliant flowers shining like flames amid the dark | foliage, and masses of rose-bushes ; and in such charm- ing retreats the du/buls sing all day long. ‘ Rose-water (gu/abz), which is used to cleanse the > greasy right hand after eating, to flavour sherbets and | sweatmeats, and by the well-to-do for their ablutions, | is much made. The rose chiefly found in Persia is the little loose-petalled pink one like the monthly rose, and its petals are pressed down into a great iron © pot, water poured over them, and burning charcoal — piled up round them. A tube is then inserted into the mass of rose-heads, and passing through a jar : of cold water it drips a warm, sickly-scented liquid into a bottle placed to receive it. ss NHaGaYV9 NVISUYHd V oy