In the Kingdom of the Shah

Preface

. In 1894 I made a journey through Persia, from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea. The object of the expedition was to visit the Prince Zille Sultan, the eldest son of the Shah, and Governor of Ispahan, who wished to consult me with reference to an affection of his eyes. A telegram arrived, asking me to start with as little delay as possible, on the evening of the day I was married, and, after much deliberation, I decided to take my newly-wedded wife with me. Everything was done to render our journey as comfortable as possible, and the reader of the following pages will discover what travelling en luxe in Persia is like. I am aware that many descriptions of travel in Persia have of late years been published, and that

PREFACE.

. much which I have to say has been described before. Persia is, however, still a land almost entirely un known to nine out of every ten of the English people, and I believe that the description of a journey which was brimful of interest to myself cannot fail to be entertaining to others. London, April 1896. CONTENTS 0 CHAP. FACE I. Z0R0ASTRIANISM 3 II. THE PORTS OF THE PERSIAN GULF . . . .II III. ASCENT TO THE TABLELAND OF IRAN ... 27 IV. THE FAIREST JEWEL OF IRAN 52 V. TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. . . 67 VI. OUR ISTAKEAL 102 VII. THE SHADOW OF THE KING AND HIS SURROUND INGS 130 VIII. SCIENCE, ART, AND SUPERSTITION . . . -159 IX. THE CITY OF SHAH ABBAS THE GREAT AND ITS ARMENIAN COLONY 204 X. MOONLIGHT DRIVES THROUGH DESERT PLAINS 243 XI. THE KING OF KINGS, THE ASYLUM OF THE UNIVERSE 267 XII.

CHAPARING 27S b LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE THE PRINCE ZILLE SULTAN— THE SHADOW OF THE KING ........ Frontispiece MAP 2 PERSIAN SHOES . . 45 THE KALIAN OR WATER PIPE 56 GENERAL VIEW OF PERSEPOLIS (AFTER MADAME DIEULAFOY) 72 COMBAT OF KING AND MONSTER (SCULPTURE AT PERSE- POLIS, AFTER KERR PORTER) 8 1 RELIEF ON THE STEPS OF XERXES AT PERSEPOLIS (AFTER GEORGE RAWLINSON) 84 PROPYLÆA OR GATEWAY OF XERXES AT PERSEPOLIS (AFTER MADAME DIEULAFOY) 88 THE TOMB OF CYRUS (AFTER MADAME DIEULAFOY) . . 96 YEZDIKHAST (AFTER MADAME DIEULAFOY) . . . . 1 1 0 A HOUSE AT JULFA 127 CHEHL SITUN PALACE, ISPAHAN (AFTER MADAME DIEU- LAFOY) J35 PERSIAN PAINTING IN THE CHEHL SITUN PALACE (SHAH ABBAS THE GREAT ENTERTAINING ABDUL MOHAMMED KHAN) :4' A PERSIAN LADY'S INDOOR COSTUME 1 56 A PERSIAN LADY'S OUTDOOR COSTUME . . . .163 A LADY PATIENT . . . 166 A BAKHTIARI PEASANT GIRL LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE A GROUP OF EARTHENWARE FROM ISPAHAN . . .182 A SHERBET BOWL l84 EWER AND BASIN 1 86 A PERSIAN PAINTING I&9 EMBROIDERED PORTIERE J94 EMBROIDERY IN GOLD THREAD 197 A WELL-KNOWN ARMENIAN OF JULFA 207 AN ARMENIAN WOMAN OF JULFA (AFTER MADAME DIEU- LAFOY) 2IO AN ARMENIAN GIRL (AFTER MADAME DIEULAFOY) . . 21 5 THE GREAT MEIDEN AT ISPAHAN (AFTER MADAME DIEU- LAFOY) 2l8 THE ROYAL MOSQUE AT ISPAHAN (AFTER MADAME DIEU- LAFOY) 222 THE BRITISH CONSULATE AT ISPAHAN .... 227 A ROAD IN JULFA (AFTER MADAME DIEULAFOY) . . 232 A PANORAMIC VIEW OF JULFA (AFTER MADAME DIEULAFOY) 236 A KURDISH GIRL SPINNING WOOL 252 TOMB OF FATIMA AT KUM (AFTER MADAME DIEULAFOY) . 256 A GROUP OF EARTHENWARE FROM KUM .... 260 A KURDISH WOMAN

Chapter I. Zoroastrianism

We started from London on 9th February 1894. The only instructions I had received were to proceed with as little delay as possible to Ispahan, by way of Bushire, and to take with me everythingnecessary for treating diseases of the eye. I was not told what symptoms my patient was suffering from, but a rumour came (I know not whence it arose) that he had a serious disease of the eye, which would probably require immediate operation. Forty-three hours' continuous going in the Orient Express from Calais brought us to Brindisi, where we caught the P. & O. s.s. Australia, which had left London nine days previously. We reached Aden on the 19th, and changed to the s.s. Clyde. This change gave rise to a complica tion which caused me considerable anxiety the whole of the rest of my journey to Ispahan.

I discovered on arrival at Bombay, on the evening of 24th February, that one of my boxes containing all my instruments, which was duly labelled with the Company's labels, had not been transhipped, and was on its way to Australia. To have been landed in Persia without my tools would have been most disastrous ; fortunately I succeeded in arresting its progress to the Antipodes by tele graphing at once to Colombo, where the Aust7-aha stopped a short while for coaling. The boats for the Persian Gulf leave Bombay once a week, and we could have proceeded with the mails straight on without stopping. I was glad, however, after my hurried departure from London, to break the journey for a week at Bombay, and to complete my outfit there. Even then I was not able to take my case of instruments with me, for it did not arrive from Colombo until the day after I left.

While in Bombay, the Parsees (the descendants of the ancient fire-worshippers of Persia, who fled to India before the Arab horde which overran their fatherland in the seventh century) ZOROASTRIANISM. 5 naturally excited our special interest and attention. Their faith is one of the oldest in the world ; its founder, Zoroaster of Bactria, has been considered by some as a contemporary of Moses, but the date at which he lived is very uncertain, it being generally estimated at about 4000 years ago. Firdausi says that Isfendiyar, son of Gushtasp, king of Persia, was his first convert, and that this prince by his eloquence persuaded his father to the faith. Gushtasp had its precepts inscribed upon 12,000 tanned cowhides, which were deposited in a vault at Persepolis, a special guard being set over them.

The Zend-avesta, or " sacred book," of the Parsees of the present day dates back to the reign of the first king of the Sassanian dynasty, about the middle of the third century, at which time the idols of the Parthians were destroyed, and Zoroastrianism was re-established as the national religion. The Zend-avesta is supposed to have been a translation of a portion of the original writing. The Zoroastrians believe in one impersonal god, Ormuzd, "the excellent," who created all that is good, but who acts according to certain fixed laws. The evils of the world are attributed to Arhiman, "the destroyer," andthe earth is the scene of the conflict between these two spirits, good ultimately prevailing. Fire is held to be the emblem of the Deity, and the believer is directed to turn towards it, or to the sun or moon, while praying.

Zoroastrianism places woman on an equal footing with man ; it advocates monogamy, it teaches kindness to animals, it ennobles labour : " He who guides the plough does a pious deed," is one of its maxims. Truth, cleanliness, and charity to all — not only those who are followers of a like faith — are virtues specially inculcated. The defiling of running water is regarded as a sin, a maxim which might with advantage have been adopted by other nations and religions. Like all other religions, Zoroastrianism has at various times, in the course of the centuries which have elapsed since its foundation, become complicated by cere monies and mysticisms introduced by its Magi, or priests, which were quite foreign to the original faith. Judged by its results, it must be considered one of the most successful creeds the world has known.

It was the predominant faith of the Medes and Persians, who, under the Achæmeriian kings, were the most powerful nation of their time ; who ex- ZOROASTRIANISM. 7 tended their realms over the whole of Western Asia, even into Egypt ; who built the palaces at Persepolis and Susa, the remains of which to-day, by their massive size and artistic beauty, excite our wonder and admiration ; whose strict probity in their laws is still proverbial all the world over, and whose liberality to dependent nations is shown by the way they permitted the Jews to return from captivity, and erect once again at Jerusalem the Temple of their God. Men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles, and there can be little doubt that all this prosperity and strength was the outcome of a pure and beautiful faith.

The followers of Zoroaster to-day form but small communities both in Persia and India. The Guebres, as they are termed in the former country, are nearly entirely confined to the towns of Yezd and Kerman, of which they only form a small part of the population. In India Zoroastrianism, previous to the advent •of the English, ran a good chance of becoming stamped out altogether by the Mohammedanism and Brahmanism by which it was surrounded. During the last century there has been a marked revival of interest and enthusiasm amongst the Parsees in their religious books and old doctrines, and they are now showing themselves worthy descendants of an ancient and glorious lineage. Though Zoroastrianism now plays directly but a small part in the world to what it once did, indirectly it is still bearing abundant fruit ; it greatly influenced Judaism during the long period they were brought in contact, and, through Judaism, Christianity is much indebted to it.

Bombay would look far less gay than it does without the Parsees. The women deck them selves with silk cloaks of the most brilliant and varied hues, which fall In graceful folds from the head to the shoulders and body, and set off most effectively their dark hair and swarthy complexion. On Malabar Hill we visited the " Towers of Silence," and saw the method of disposal of the dead adopted by these worshippers of fire. They are unable to bury their dead in the ground, for that would be a pollution of the earth, the source of all life. They cannot consume them with fire, which is the emblem of the Deity - they therefore expose them to the air that they may be devoured by carnivorous birds or animals, and be transformed once more into flesh. This ZOROASTRIANISM. 9 custom accounts for the absence in Persia of the vast ancient cemeteries that are such a striking feature in other countries, which, like it, were densely populated in olden times.

The arrangements for carrying out this mode of disposal of the dead at Bombay is as follows. Situated at the top of a hill overlooking the town and bay is a beautiful garden, full of trees and flowers. In it are several circular towers, unroofed, and entered by only one door. Running round the interior of the towers are iron gratings, on which the dead bodies are laid by attendants, there being separate places for men, women, and children. Vultures sit on the walls of the towers, and, as soon as the body is placed in one, pounce down and strip it of the flesh. The bones remain to dry in the sun, and when the rains come the earthy constituents of them are washed down into a central pit, which drains away into the ground. No one but the attendants are allowed to ap proach beyond a spot a certain distance from the towers, which is termed "The Place of Parting."

A model of the interior of a tower is shown to visitors. A building is "provided in the garden for the friends of the deceased to sit and pray, or meditate in. As we were leaving the garden we met the body of a child being brought up the hill. The attendants, dressed in white, were carrying it ; two priests, in flowing white robes, and the parents following. It seemed to us at first horrid to think of those ferocious birds tearing to pieces the body of one whom we held dear. It is a good example of how a habit of mind influences us in what we con sider gruesome or otherwise. A Parsee doubtless would feel much the same sense of horror at the defilement of the holy earth by a dead body, as we feel horror at the tearing to pieces of a body by a carnivorous bird. As a matter of fact, apart from sentiment, it becomes merely a question of the body being devoured quickly by birds or slowly by worms.

At Bombay you see side by side three different modes of disposal of the dead — the Towers of Silence of the Parsees, the funeral pyres of the Hindoos, and the burial in the earth of the Christians. There is no doubt that that of the followers of the faith which prides itself on being the most civilised has the least to recommend it from a sanitarian's point of view.

Chapter II. The Ports Of The Persian Gulf

We left Bombay in the s.s. Karagola on March 3rd. The whole of the foredeck was occupied by a mixture of Afghans, Parsees, Arabs, Persians, and Hindoos, together with their luggage, their bedding, and their eatables to last them for two days, until we reached Kurrachee. They were carried there for a rupee each, but had to find their own food and water. It was a curious sight to see this mixture of different nationalities, with their varying costumes, all crowding together, eating, drinking tea, sleeping, smoking, playing cards, or praying. When, the day after we started, the wind arose, the ship rolled, and the waves were dashing over, the scene presented is indescribable. At Kurrachee we again changed steamers, and were transferred to the s.s. Mecca. Both it and the one we had just left belong to the British India Steam-Ship Navigation Company, in whose hands is the main trade of the Gulf.

The next place we stopped at was Muscat, the capital of the province of Oman. It has a most picturesque little harbour, surrounded on three sides by high jagged brown rocks, with not a leaf or blade of vegetation showing on them anywhere. On a piece of level ground facing the entrance of the harbour at the foot of the rocks, lies the town of flat-roofed houses. Flags were flying over the Sultan's palace and the British Consulate, the latter being by far the most sub stantial building in the place. On getting well into the harbour we could see that the rocks on the south side of it were in the form of an island, being separated from the mainland by a narrow stream. This huge island of rock, whose sides rise almost perpendicularly from the sea, has been a playground for British tars, who have amused themselves by decorating it with the names of their vessels and the dates at which they were located there, in large white letters.

An English vessel, we were told, once passed safely through the narrow stream between the island and the mainland one Christmas morning, when absent friends had been toasted rather too freely. On the heights overlooking the town on either side are perched some small forts, which, together with the guns they contain, are some of the relics to be found all along this coast of the Portuguese ascendency in matters maritime during the six teenth century. This secluded spot, just a year after our visit, was the scene of considerable confusion and strife. A party of Bedouins, on account of some religious misunderstanding, attacked and gained possession of the town : the Sultan and his followers took refuge in the surrounding forts, the Europeans and English subjects fled to the gun boats in the harbour.

The disturbance lasted for some days, peace being ultimately restored by the payment of a sum of money to the invaders. England has a large share in the management of the affairs of Muscat ; the Sultan is paid by her Rs. 80,000 a year, formerly received by him from the Sultan of Zanzibar, but taken on by Eng land on his consenting to put down the slave trade. The trade of Muscat is nearly entirely British, or Anglo-Indian, the chief export being dates. On our coming to anchor our vessel was soon surrounded by natives, in long narrow boats, which they propelled with paddles the shape of spades. They brought on board for sale, dates, pomegranates, shells, and a sweetmeat, called Halzva, which they manufacture from flour, milk, sugar, and spice. Its appearance is not in its favour, being of a dirty grey colour, and having a gelatinous consistency ; it tastes, however, much better than it looks.

On account of the great delay there was in transhipping cargo, we lay for nearly twenty hours in the harbour. In the early morning we went ashore with Captain Skinner in his gig, and had a walk through the town ; we passed the gateway of the Sultan's palace, where formerly a lion was kept chained up, but which we were disappointed to find had been removed from his post. The gate posts of most of the houses — even some of the commonest — are elaborately carved. The town is surrounded by walls with large gateways in them, which are kept guarded. All the inhabi tants were going about armed with knives, pistols, or matchlock guns with long barrels. It being Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, the greater part of the Bazaar was closed. We saw, however, Halwa in the process of manufacture, which did not increase our desire to partake of it.

We left Muscat at noon : it was a new moon that night, and the sea was a dead calm. We stood for a long time on the bridge, watching the beautiful phosphorescence in the water. The ripples made by the steamer appeared as sinuous curves of the most brilliant bluish-green hue. " Tis moonlight over Oman's sea, Her banks of pearls and palmy isles Bask in the night beam beauteously, And her blue waters sleep in smiles." — Moore. When Bartholomew Dias rounded for the first time the southern limit of Africa, in 1486, the death-warrant of the extensive commerce, which was then carried on in the Persian Gulf, was signed, and its execution became only a matter of time. The discoverer of the Southern Cape of Africa named it the "Cape of Storms," but the Portuguese sovereign, delighted with the prospects its dis covery opened up, changed it to the " Cape of Good Hope."

It proved to be anything but a cape of good hope to the ports of the Persian Gulf, which up to then had been on the high road along which the goods from India and China passed to the West. The chief of these ports was the once celebrated city of Ormuz. The original city of Ormuz (the one visited by that king of mediæval travellers, Marco Polo) was situated on the mainland, but the one which attained to so much wealth and prosperity was on an island some little distance from the Persian coast. We passed close to this island, which, as far as we could see, appeared destitute of animal or vegetable life. It was originally inhabited by Arabs, who sought refuge there from the Tartar invaders of Persia. Albuquerque conquered it, and for a century it was in the possession of Portugal. The inhabitants were secure from the exactions to which they would have been exposed on the mainland, by the unsettled and oppressive government of the surrounding countries.

Hence, though exceed ingly badly adapted for the site of a great city, on account of its poor water-supply and the severe climate, it became the great emporium to which the rich and varied manufactures of the East and its numerous other products were brought, to be subsequently conveyed by caravan across Persia to Europe. In 1622 Ormuz was captured by the united forces of Shah Abbas and the East Indian Company from the Portuguese, and the chief seat of commerce was again trans ferred to the mainland, to a town then named Gombrum, but which was afterwards changed to Bunder Abbas, in honour of the king who had conquered it. We anchored outside Bunder Abbas. There is no proper harbour, and the coast shelves down very gradually, so that we had to keep out a long distance from the shore. Here, where the trade used to consist of precious stones, silks, pearls, ivory, and cloth of gold — what is it we wait all day to take on board ?

One thousand grindstones, which are carried up to Busrah for an anna apiece, and numerous packages of henna leaves, a decoction made from which the Moham medans use to stain a light orange colour their nails, hair, palms of their hands, and soles of their feet. This cargo was brought to the steamer in craft of the most rotten description, whose prows were long and narrow, projecting a long way out of the water. They were propelled by one broad square sail, and had formidable-looking, five pronged anchors. The skins of their occupants varied greatly in hue from the lightest brown to the darkest black ; the clothing of many con sisted only of a loin-cloth, while some had in addition elaborately embroidered waistcoats ! Bunder Abbas has the reputation of being one of the hottest places on the face of the earth.

It is commonly reported that you have only to scratch the surface of the ground and you come at once upon the infernal regions. B We left Bunder Abbas about seven in the evening, passed the island of Kishm, and arrived at Lingah at six the next morning. From the sea Lingah is a pretty-looking place, with a long range of flat-roofed houses, from the midst of which rise a graceful minaret and some date-trees- It is backed by a lofty range of mountains of a light grey and deep purple colour. The captain told us it is a place to which distance lends en chantment, and did not advise us to go ashore, the town and habits of the people being equally filthy. As we dropped anchor the most vivid forked lightning was playing over the mountains, and shortly afterwards we had a thunderstorm, accompanied by heavy rain.

This was repeated later on in the day, and so delayed the discharge of cargo that we could not get off again that night. 5 We were awakened the next morning by a tremendous babel of voices : numbers of excited natives, all shouting their loudest, were crowding in their boats around the steamer. The cause of all this commotion was that one of them had stolen Rs.30, and had got on board the previous night, thinking we should have left before morning, He had been tracked, and was discovered hiding under one of the second-class berths. He was taken off to have justice administered to him. Poor wretch ! the punish ment for theft, according to the Mohammedan law, is the loss of a hand. From Lingah we crossed the Gulf to Bahrein, the far-famed centre of the pearl fishery ; a low lying island on the Arabian coast.

We had looked forward to going ashore here and riding on donkeys to some celebrated wells, but it was a long way from the ship to the shore, the wind was unfavourable, and we should probably have got drenched, so we allowed ourselves to be dissuaded from going. The pearl fishery does not com mence until much later in the year, about June. The whole business is in the hands of contractors, for whom the divers work. Packages of artificial pearls, we were told, are frequently shipped up here to be mixed with the genuine ones. The Arabs in their boats, with long flowing brown tunics made of camel's hair, resemble exactly the Apostles as they are depicted on the Sea of Galilee. We took on board from Bahrein 1 50 passengers, mostly pilgrims bound for Kerbela. The closely-veiled women were hauled up the side of the vessel, looking like bundles of rags.

The whole of our foredeck now became densely packed with the strangest collection possible. We had, too, several Arabs and Chaldeans as first-class passengers, who, fortunately, did not feed with us, but prepared their own mixtures of rice and meat in one large dish, around which they sat on the deck and fed themselves with their fingers. The cabin boys were Portuguese, and the crew Lascars, so that we had on board about as varied a mixture of the human species as can well be met with. It was a treat to get on the bridge, away from all the crowd on deck, with their numerous and varied odours, and watch the brilliant, sparkling moonlight dancing on the waves. The moon hath risen clear and calm And o'er the green sea palely shines, Revealing Bahrein's groves of palm And lighting Kishma's amber vines." — Moore.

On leaving Bahrein we again crossed the Gulf to get to Bushire. All along the Persian side of the Gulf there is a wall of high rugged mountains —the boundary of the great tableland of Iran. Between these mountains and the shore there is a tract of level country three or four miles in width, which looks as if nature had especially designed it for a line of rail. Mr Palgrave, the celebrated African explorer, suggested many years ago the extension of the railway from Kurrachee, along the coast-line of the Gulf to Busrah on the Shat-el- Arab. It would form one link in the chain which must sooner or later connect India with the Mediterranean by an iron road, and place it within a week's journey of London. Whether the continuation of this chain should follow the old caravan route up the Euphrates Valley to Allepo and Alexandretta, or whether, as has recently been suggested by Mr Black in an article in the Contemporary Review, it should cross the Arabian Desert to Port Said, the link binding Kurrachee to Busrah would in both cases be the same.

The Euphrates Valley line would open up an intensely interesting piece of country. The ruins of Babylon, the city of Job, the city of the Caliphs, and the supposed site of the Garden of Eden, would doubtless soon become popular holiday resorts. The line along the shore of the Persian Gulf is one which I should imagine would be favourably regarded by the Persians themselves, for while it would afford an excellent outlet for their natural products and manufactured goods, it would not break through the seclusion and protection they obtain from their steep, rocky mountain passes. A railway of such a character would, of course, have to be constructed by British capital. Along the coast-line it would be perfectly secure for British interests, for the English are the police of the Gulf, and every where in it their influence is predominant.

The advantages which would result from shortening the route to India by seven days are so obvious that it is needless to enter into them. The only wonder is that the matter has not long before been made one of national importance, and pressed forwards by all concerned with the greatest impatience. Bushire, which we reached soon after break fast, has now under British influence become the chief Persian port, but it has no proper harbour. A stretch of three miles of shallow water intervenes between the anchorage and the shore. The whole Persian fleet was lying here ; it consists of but one vessel, the Persepolis, built and officered by Germans. There was also close by H. M.S. Sphinx, a paddle-wheeled steamer, especially constructed to draw very little water, for use along the shelving coast of the Gulf.

We went on board her : the officers' cabins are unusually roomy and well ventilated ; everything has been done to render an existence of three years in the hottest sea in the world as endurable as possible. We were just negotiating with one of the rogues of boat men, who had put off for cargo, to take us ashore, when a boat came alongside with one of Messrs Sassoon's agents, and a tall man, an Armenian, with iron-grey hair and moustache, who wore European clothes, and one of the most voluminous frock-coats I had ever seen, there being numerous little pleats in it from the waist downwards. I afterwards discovered that frock-coats in Persia are the correct thing, and that the more there is of the frock about them the better. This man was an interpreter, Abed by name, sent down by the Prince Zille Sultan from Ispahan to act as my guide there.

He was a native of Julfa, had seen a great deal of life, and spoke English excellently. He was an engineer by trade, and had been for some time in the employ of the British India Steam-Ship Company. He bad kept a store in India, had served with the English in the Abyssinian war, and, just before coming for us, had been engaged by the Prince Zille Sultan to erect telephone wires between his hunting quarters and Ispahan. Immediately on our touching the shore there was an immense struggle amongst a crowd of shouting natives for the privilege of carrying our boxes, and I was thankful we had not landed by ourselves. Abed now took charge of them, and they were passed through the Customs without any trouble ; not once in the whole journey had I to open them for examination. At Bushire we were the guests of Mr Eugene Von Kornatski and his sister.

He was the agent for Sassoons, and had been instructed by the Prince to engage servants and prepare everything for our journey to Ispahan. We were very fortunate in having his and his sister's advice to guide us, for they had had con siderable experience of Persian travelling, and were able to forewarn us of the difficulties we should be likely to encounter. Many times in the course of the next month we had reason to be thankful for the arrangements their foresight had made for us. The Kornatski's house, like most of those of the European residents in Bushire, was situated three miles outside the town. It must be an exceedingly unpleasant part of the world to be located in — for quite half the year human beings are in the condition of cold-blooded animals, the temperature being higher than that of the body.