A ride through western Asia

II With Illustrations

ILontion MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1897

All rights yeser-jed

Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, london and bungay.

NOTE

The author of the following volume, who had previously served in the Grenadier Guards, held after he made the journey which is here described and until recently the appointment of Honorary Attache to the British Embassy at St. Petersburg. He has now orone out to the seat of war as a correspondent for one of the principal English newspapers, and the publishers have to thank the Hon. T. W. Legh, M.P., for having kindly undertaken to see the book through the press in his absence.

Chapter 1 Bayazid To Tabreez

PAGE . 87

TABREEZ AND ARDABIL ^°I

THE ELBURZ AND CASPIAN LITTORAL lOQ

ENZELl AND RESHT ^^7

TEHERAN

ISPAHAN '^5

PERSEPOLIS AND SHIRAZ • • 134

SHIRAZ TO SHUSTER ^43

SHUSTER AND DIZFUL ^S^

CHAPTER X

DOWN THE KARUN '59

CONTENTS

Part III Turkish Arabia

PAGE

BUSRAH AND THE TIGRIS 167

CHAPTER n

BAGHDAD I73

Part IV Persia West To East Chapter I

THROUGH KURDISTAN 183

CHAPTER n

THROUGH KHORASAN 189

CHAPTER HI

MESHED 197

Part V Central Asia

RUSSIAN TURKESTAN 205

TRANSCASPIA AND BOKHARA 212

SAMARKAND 219

X CONTENTS

FACE

THROUGH FERGHANA 224

ACROSS THE ALAl INTO CHINA 23 1

KASHGAR 239

THE TIAN SHAN MOUNTAINS . . 248

ACROSS THE STEPPE 255

THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY 262

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ANGORA To face page 19

crusaders' castle at gilisi „ „ 31

bridge on road between sivas and

essinjan „ „ 44

street in erzerum „ ,, 57

cemetery and citadel at erzerum , . „ „ 58

jewelled door of the shrine, meshed . ,, „ 98

execution of persian criminal .... „ „ i02

persian infantry „ ,, iio

shah's TOWER, IN ENZELI ,, ,, II 8

KAZVIM ROYAL MOSQUE „ ,, I20

THE SHAH RETURNING TO TEHERAN ... „ ,, 122

CHAPPER KHAUEH (pOST HOUSE) ,, ,, 126

THE KAJAR BRIDGE AT ISPAHAN ,, ,, 1 30

PRISON AT TAHUR „ „ 136

RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS „ ,, 138

THE TOMB OF HAFIZ AT SHIRAZ „ ,, 1 40

GOPHERS „ „ 170

MOSQUE OF KAZIMAIM BAGHDAD „ ,, 175

ROCK CARVING AT TAKHT, I BOSTAN ... „ ,, 184

ROCK CARVING OF CYRUS AT TAKHT I BOSTAN . „ ,, 186

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

KIRGHIZ WOMEN AND YURT To face page 2IO

CARPET BOOTH IN BOKHARA „ „ 212

BOKHARIOTES ,, „ 2l6

MINARET, BOKHARA ,, „ 2l8

GREAT SQUARE, SAMARKAND „ ,, 2 20

GUR AMIR, OR TOMB OF TAMERLANE, SAMAR- KAND „ ,, 2 22

PAMIR POST ,, „ 224

PALACE OF AMIR AT KHOKAND „ ,, 229

IN THE PAMIRS „ „ 232

KIRGHIZ ON YAK „ „ 236

CUSTOM HOUSE, IRKESTAN ,, „ 237

BAZAR OUTSIDE KASHGAR „ ,, 240

KIRGHESE „ ,, 248

MAPS

ASIA MINOR At end of Book

WESTERN ASIA , . . . . „ „

PERSIA „ „

THE RAILWAY OF ASIA „ „

Part I As/a Minor A Ride Through Western

ASIA

LONDON TO CONSTANTINOPLE

Towards the end of June, 1895, the troubles in Armenia had reached an acute stage. Asia Minor was reported to be closed, and an Irade had been issued by the Sultan forbidding all Europeans from entering the Asiatic provinces of Turkey north of the Lebanon until further orders, that is, until the disturbances were over. These circumstances invested a visit to Armenia with the additional charm of apparently insuperable difficulty. Anxious to travel in a country which was playing a leading part in European politics, I resolved to make the attempt. But I hardly realised what the obstacles were until I consulted the few people I knew who happened to be conversant with Turkish affairs, and who all told me that my project was impossible. It was only owing to remarkable good luck that it proved the

B 2

4 A RIDE THROUC7H WESTERN ASIA PART i

reverse and that I spent my summer in the heart of Armenia.

The first thing to consider was the best way of entering Asia Minor, There were four possible routes which represented roughly the four points of the compass. The first was the most direct, across the Bosphorus, and through Anatolia to Erzerum, which is practically the capital of Armenia. Hardly any one had gone this way since Burnaby, and it was considered folly to attempt it, firstly because it necessitated a direct start from Constantinople, where the officials would be on the alert, and secondly because it meant travelling through a most disaffected part of the country, along a line of towns in each of which a powerful Pasha would probably try to prevent my going further. The second route was the ordinary one — by boat to Trebizond, and thence by road to Erzerum. Two British officers anxious to see Armenia had lately made an attempt to get through this way, but at Trebizond they had been politely reshipped for Constantinople, our Consul informing them that it was impossible for them to continue their journey. The third route was by sea to Alexandretta, and thence overland to Diabekr. This way is long, hot, and dangerous. It had, moreover, been tried by the correspondent of a well-known newspaper, who must have been well equipped with money, influence, and knowledge of the country, and he had been arrested and ignominiously sent back to his starting-point. A further argument against this route was a report that

Chap. I London To Constantinople 5

cholera was raging in the southern provinces of AnatoHa. The fourth way, recommended by an experienced traveller, was to go to Batum on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, and from there — if it were found impossible to penetrate into Erzerum by the Kars road, where the Turks were on the look-out — to go south by post to Khoi or Tabreez in north-western Persia. From there it would be easy to strike west over the mountains, and slip into the villayet of Bitlis or Van. The objection to this plan was that even given safe arrival in Kurdestan, a foreigner would be an object of suspicion at once, and would run a risk of being imprisoned by the Turks. The natives in those parts are exceptionally lawless, and the journey was longer than any of the others proposed. Practically there was little to choose between the four routes on the score of difficulty. All seemed hopeless, the first one being perhaps the most so. Yet it was by this way that I succeeded in getting into the very centre of Armenia within a month of my leaving London. I had no particular design in choosing this way. It simply occurred to me that there were people in Constantinople who could give me much needed information, and it was in any case the best starting-place, and that was why I decided to go there.

I left London on June 22nd, caught the Orient Express at Chalons, and after staying twenty-four hours in Vienna, where I had to deliver some Foreign Office despatches, I set out for Constantinople, which I reached on the 26th. I spent two days in the city sight-seeing, and then went up to Therapia on the Bosphorus, where the Embassy and most of the British residents live in the summer. I soon discovered that any official application for leave to travel in Asia Minor would be refused, and that my only chance, a poor one at best, was to endeavour to get an ordinary travelling passport, or " tezkereh " such as Ottoman subjects apply for.

One day, accompanied by an old Jew interpreter, I found my way to the great rambling police office in Stambul, where these tezkerehs are issued. Here after much struggling and pushing in one dirty room after another, each one full of Mussulman clerks writing on their laps and surrounded by clamouring Turks and Armenians, I managed to o-et a document with some Turkish characters on it,

o

and the Sultan's signature lithographed at the top. This, the Jew told me, would take me to Angora, to which place there is a single line, and one train daily, the pace of which never exceeds sixteen miles an hour. Still it is quicker than either riding or drivinor. The chances were that I should be sent straight back to Constantinople from Angora, but I thought the attempt at getting further into the country from there worth making.

Armed with my tezkereh I set about making preparations for the journey. In this I was helped by Colonel Chermside, our late Military Attache in Turkey, and one of the most travelled and best informed men in the Ottoman Empire. I had

CHAP. I LONDON TO CONSTANTINOPLE 7

brought from London, in addition to a few clothes, a Wolseley valise, an old saddle, a pair of canvas saddle bags, an india-rubber bath, a revolver, and a gun, but I had to buy in Constantinople all those things which are necessaries when travelling- in a country where there are neither roads nor inns.

In a French shop called the " Economique," I bought two saucepans, a cooking-pot, a kettle, a basin, knives and forks, a few tin cups and canisters, a tea-pot, marmalade, potted meat, tea, brandy, chocolate, curry powder and Keating's powder. In a Greek shop at Galata, I purchased some cartridges, which proved villainous, and in the leather market at Stambul two laroe leather boxes covered with

o

canvas, which were a great success. These boxes are called khorgines. They have broad straps let into their backs just below the hinges of the lid by which they can be slung together over a horse's pack-saddle, when driving is impossible. In Asia Minor I was able to keep the same cart for my luggage and servant the whole time, but from Bayazid on the borders of Persia the going was all on horseback, and the khorgines were very useful.

These preparations occupied nearly a week, and then I was obliged to look out for a servant. This was a difficulty. It is almost impossible to find a Turkish dragoman, that is, a pure Turk who can talk any European language, and will travel as a servant. As yet I knew little Turkish, and it would be hard to make myself understood by a Turk who had no knowledge of any but his own tongue. Armenians and Greeks are plentiful enough, but I did not care to take one, for an Armenian would have been a needless source of danger on my travels, and a Greek servant is proverbially dishonest. I decided on a Turk, thinking it better to have a servant I could not understand than one who was a thief, and also because I wanted to learn the Turkish language as quickly as possible. Colonel Chermside again came to my help, and recommended a Turk called Murad. He had been groom to Mr. Block, the first dragoman in the British Embassy, and had travelled with him in Asia Minor.

Murad came up to Therapia to see us. He was a solid, hardy-looking man of about forty, dressed in the short blue jacket, baggy trousers, finishing in unbuttoned spats, and voluminous cummerbund which make up the typical Cavass dress. He wore a fez, and in the folds of his belt carried a curved knife, and many things besides. The conversation was conducted by Colonel Chermside, as though Murad professed to know " Bir az ingliz," I soon found it only amounted to the words, — " one-and-a-half," " two-and-a-half," " pepper " and "salt." That was all the English I recognised during- the three months he was with me, althouQfh he may have known more than he wished me to think. He had besides an amusing stock of Levantine words, a cross between French and Italian, such as "paletot," " baiio," "locanda," "soldatt," and others. I agreed to hire him at ;^4 a month. It

CHAP. I LONDON TO CONSTANTINOPLE 9

seemed expensive, but he served me excellently and proved himself worthy of his hire. Not only was he a good groom and a fair vet., but he could cook well, mend my clothes, and wriggle out of every difficulty.

Murad engaged, I had to think next of money and horses. Mr. Evans, at that time sub-director of the Regie, the great tobacco monopoly of Turkey, gave me a letter of credit in French and Turkish on the various depots of the institution which are scattered over nearly all the small towns in Asia Minor, and this I found more easily negotiable than any draft I could have got from the Imperial Ottoman Bank, which has comparatively few provincial branches. I took a letter of introduction to the British Consul at Angora, and Colonel Chermside wrote to the Consul at Erzerum telling him of my intended visit, although no one thought at that time that I should get beyond Angora. I deferred buying a horse until I arrived at the latter place.

It was the 19th of July before I went back to the hotel at Constantinople preparatory to starting for Angora. I had to wait two days more before Murad obtained his tezkereh. Every day the reports from Armenia grew more exciting, and the murder of Stambulof and the consequent disturbances in Macedonia threatened a collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The Sadr Azam, or Grand Vizier, was said to have issued stringent orders against any Europeans, and particularly Englishmen, entering Asia Minor, and my friends told me I should prolo A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I

bably be sent back directly I had crossed the Bosphorus, and should be extremely lucky if I reached Angora. But I was proof against all persuasions to wait a little longer, and at last on July 2 1 we started, fully expecting to be back in a few days.

Before closing this chapter it may be worth while to describe briefly the country and people I was going to see. Armenia, roughly speaking, comprises the villayets of Erzerum, Bitlis, Van, and Kharput, besides parts of Trebizond, Sivas, and Diarbekr, all in Asia Minor ; the provinces of Kars, Erivan, and Elizabetpol in Caucasia, and the greater part of Azerbajan in Persia. According to tradition, Armenia was the first country inhabited after the Deluge, the first king being Haik, great-grandson of Japhet. In historic times Tigranes the ally of Cyrus and Mithridates were well known Armenian monarchs. In the Middle Ages Tamerlane and subsequently Shah Abbas devastated the country, and the latter carried off many of its inhabitants to colonise Julfa the great Armenian city of Persia, situated near Ispahan.

The Armenian people are certainly one of the oldest Aryan races existing, although they now only compose one-seventh of the population of their country, sharing their inheritance with Turks, Kurds, Circassians, Persians, and Russians. There are about six millions of them scattered over the face of the world.

Christianity was introduced by St. Jude, but in

CHAP. 1 LONDON TO CONSTANTINOPLE ii

the sixth century the Armenian Church severed its connection with the Byzantine patriarchs. This rupture was probably detrimental to the Armenians, for now according to Binning {Travels in Persia), "like most Asiatic Christians they do the faith they profess no credit, and their Christianity seems to be quite nominal." They are almost entirely ignorant of their religion. Their Bible and sacred books are written in the ancient tongue which none but the priests understand. Still in secular matters they are a remarkably clever people, excellent linguists, and intelligent traders. But when this is said all is said, and their other characteristics are just those which an Englishman dislikes. Astute and subtle, they possess in Asia a reputation very similar to that enjoyed by the Jews in Europe. Their uncleanly habits, their strong disposition to lying and cowardice, account in part for the hatred cherished for them by the Turks. On the other hand, for centuries they have been the victims of tyrannous oppression, and in our own time their treatment has aroused the indig-na-

o

tion of Europe.

ANGORA

On the morning of July 21 Murad, who had at last got his passport, came round to the hotel just before five, and we engaged two "hammals" (porters) to carry the boxes through the tortuous streets of Galata to the Bridoe of Boats. These hammals are an important feature in Constantinople. Many of them are Armenians, and they suffered particularly in the last massacre (September, 1896). They form a sort of guild, and seem quite indifferent to the weight of their load. At the Bridge we found ourselves in a crowd of Greeks, Jews, Armenians and Turks all getting tickets. My ignorance of Turkish caused some trouble over mine. Murad told me exactly what to say, in the paternal tone he adopted to me from the first, but I found it difficult to frame the words. After having secured the tickets and labelled the luggage, we still had to wait nearly an hour before we moved off from the Bridge. The Golden Horn looked beautiful in the early morning sun, glittering and still with the stillness of the dawn. Then all round us ships began to move,

Chap. II Angora 13

and the quay woke into life. The fascination of the scene was increased by the magic colours of an eastern sunrise. I shall never forget the deep blue of the Marmora — my last view of the sea until two months later I looked on the dull, gray Caspian. Constantinople, with its white mosques and palaces, its golden minarets and domes backed by a gorgeous sky and sea, is certainly one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and the cosmopolitan stream of life which flows through it adds to its picturesque maornificence.

o

We were half an hour crossing, and landed at Haidar Pasha, just below Scutari, where the railway terminus is. I was afraid that my tezkereh would be examined or my books and gun annexed by the Douane, but no one seemed to be aggressive, and we slipped unmolested into the little station of the " Chemin de fer d'Anatolie," where we found the train waiting. I got into a first-class carriage thinking it was quite time for an event, but nothing more serious happened than the guard addressing me as " Eccellenza," the only European word he knew. Apparently no one travels first-class in Turkey except Government officials, hence the respect. The train started in a casual fashion at 7. 30, and we were soon among the small villages outside Scutari. The villas of the Ottoman magnates looked pretty through the trees. Crowds of handsome peasants in gay dresses were on the. platform at every station. I had plenty of time to observe them, as the train never halted for less than twenty minutes, although it seldom bore off more than one passenger. At Ismid, I again steeled myself to face the Customs, and they really were there this time, but for some unknown reason they passed by my carriage. We proceeded in this leisurely way until the evening, when we reached Eski Sheyr, where the train lies up for the night. Here at last came the dreaded examination of my tezkereh. Directly we got out of the train, we were hustled into a little room, very close and dingy, with a rail across the middle. Behind the rail was a bed and on it lounged a Turkish corporal in the full glory of an authority against which he knew there was no appeal. He wore uniform surmounted by a night-cap. As I came in, this Rhadamanthus fixed his eye on me, and the whole time he was scrutinising the other tezkereh, he was watching me as well. At last the room began to empty. Every one else having passed the ordeal, the corporal put me through my facings. This was made a difficult matter by my ignorance of Turkish, and it ended in the conversation being carried on in Russian, of which we both had a fragmentary knowledge. The corporal began by asking why I was going to Angora.

"To see it," I said.

But he seemed to think this a very insufficient reason, and taking up my tezkereh, he read it through.

"No Englishman is allowed to go to Angora," he said curtly.

There was a dead silence after this, and I began to

CHAP. II ANGORA 15

feel as if I were condemned to stay at Eski Sheyr for ever. The corporal read the tezkereh through again, meditated, and put it away, saying he would let me know in the morning, whether I might continue my journey. As it was now nine o'clock I suQi'o-ested that he migrht tell me where I could get a dinner and a bed. He produced a Greek friend who kept a "locanda," and I was allowed to leave the station in his company, Murad following behind with a bundle of his personal effects. My boxes remained at the station in custody.

The locanda was the dirtiest inn I have ever seen. It consisted of a kitchen which also served as a dining and smoking room, a staircase and two beds in a top passage. We found a Levantine there, a very pleasant fellow, who talked Italian fluently. I asked his advice about my tezkereh, and he said that if I paid the Greek well, and gave the corporal a medjidieh, everything would go smoothly, as the two were in league. This seemed good advice, although, for all I knew, my Italian friend might have been the third party in the alliance. I explained the idea to Murad as well as I could, and he went out to approach the corporal. In half an hour he was back ag-ain.

" Shu onbashi guzel adam," (That corporal is a line man) he said as he came in, which I took to mean that the bribe had been accepted.

The dinner was oily, but I was too hungry to criticise it, and the Levantine made it pass off well i6 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I

by his wonderful stories of opium-sellers. I went to bed in the passage soon after eleven, but the insects made sleep impossible, and I was not sorry when Murad appeared at five and said it was time to start. We gave the innkeeper a medjidieh, about four times too much, and directly we reached the station, the corporal came out of the office, and returned me my tezkereh with a low bow saying he had made a mistake about it. At seven the train started across the great plain of Angora which stretches from Eski Sheyr to Yozgat. This plain has been the battle-ground in turn of the opposing forces of Roman and Persian, of Greek and Turk, and some day may be the Turk will have to face the Russian there.

At a wayside station a man in a frock coat and fez, accompanied by an imposing train of attendants, got into a carriage higher up than mine. He was the Vali of the province, and we were lucky not to have been obliged to wait two or three hours for him, for when a Pasha wants the train he orders it, and as there is only one train the other passengers have to wait the Pasha's pleasure. At four o'clock we arrived at Angora, which is built on the side of a hill, and looks very white and pretty from a distance. The whiteness, I heard afterwards, was due to the forethought of the Vali, who had ordered the inhabitants to whitewash all the parts of their houses visible from the railway in order to impress the traveller. It was certainly a good idea, for it gives a spotlessly clean appearance to a town which

CHAP. II ANGORA 17

is as dirty as it is interesting. Alexander the Great came here in 330 B.C., just after cutting the Gordian Knot, and the Romans used the place as a militarydepot on their great road to the East. But at the present time the fame of Angora centres round its shawls, its camlets and its cats.

At the station some fifty soldiers were drawn up in line commanded by quite thirty officers ; this constituted the Vali's guard of honour. The men were fine and tall, and looked healthy, but their arms were wretched and their drill execrable. As a rule the Turkish soldiers are good fighters, and ride well, but the officers are frequently indifferent.

At the station Murad got a fly and we drove to a locanda. It was kept by a Greek who talked Italian, and there were several Greek and Armenian traders staying there. Mr. Cumberbatch, the British Consul, now promoted to be Consul-General at Smyrna, was very kind to me from the first, and it was entirely due to him that I got my tezkereh vis^, and was able to proceed to Sivas. In fact British and American consuls in Turkey and Persia are exceptionally hospitable and friendly. They are regarded with great respect in the country because by writing to their embassies they can often get offensive governors displaced or transferred.

The first thing to do was to see the authorities, and next day the Consul's dragoman accompanied me to the Vali, Memdouch Pasha, a man of great ability, who had once been, and is now again, a member of the Cabinet at Constantinople.

c i8 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i

We walked up to the door of the serai, where two sentinels were lolling in a lazy attitude, and after passing through a large hall built of wood, we were shown into the Vali's audience chamber. On going in, I lifted my hand to my hat without taking it off, which I had been told was the projDer salute. The Vali rose from his state chair and shook hands, and directed us to sit down. Then there was a silence until coffee and cigfarettes had been handed round. Meanwhile I had time to observe the Vali. He was a big man with a black beard, and was dressed in a frock coat and fez. He carried on a long conversation with the dragoman in Turkish, the upshot of which was that he would give me a "buyuruldu" or special order to go to Sivas, and would provide an escort if the British Consul would send a written guarantee that I was a bofia fide traveller. We thanked the Vali for the concession, and took our leave, and soon after rode out to Gezireh to report progress to Mr. Cumberbatch. He wrote the required guarantee, and a Chawush, or sergeant of Zaptiehs, was told off to accompany me to Sivas.

Sivas is in another province, not under Memdouch Pasha's rule, and as the Vali there was on bad terms with him, it was more than likely that he would send me back in spite of the buyuruldu. The Chawush was sent with me, possibly to make sure that I was neither an agitator nor a newspaper correspondent, but I paid him well and he proved of great use to me.

CHAP. II ANGORA 19

I decided to start for Sivas at once, and set about getting some kind of transport. There has been a scheme for the last ten years for continuing the railway which now stops at Angora to Erzerum and to Baghdad, by way of Sivas, but it is as far from realisation as ever, owing to the want of enterprise which prevails in Turkey. The road to Sivas is as bad as it can be — in some places a mere track over the rocks. We hired a common country cart called an "araba," furnished with a hood, to carry the baggage. The price as far as Sivas (290 miles) was ^4 i^s. Murad said he could easily sit in the cart, and the next thing to get was a horse for myself I bought a little black four-year-old, which carried me well for 700 miles and more, to Khoi in Persia. He cost me £g, and I sold him for ^5 at Khoi, so he was a good bargain. We bought a dozen bottles of red wine, as the cholera in the country made water drinking dangerous, and also some bread, rice, potatoes, and cooking oil. We trusted to finding chickens and eggs on the road, as it was too hot to make any attempt to store meat. Finally I bought a fez, as at that time it was a protection against attack in the towns. All Government officials and employes, whatever their creed, wear a fez, and a Christian meets with more respect in one than he would in a " shapka " or hat. It is a very hot head-dress, but mine served its purpose as far as Bayazid, where I discarded it for a helmet.

The dragoman took me all over Angora. It is more like a Levantine than a Turkish city, for it

c 2 is full of Greek, Italian, and Armenian traders. The bazars are well stocked, but typical Ottoman wares are few. The dragoman lived in a quaint old house, strongly fortified. In one room there was a large silver eikon, and the house was provisioned as if for a siege. I spent the night before starting for Sivas with the Consul at Gezireh, and slept in a bed for the last time for a month or more. The next day, July 25, I left the Consulate, attended by a Cavass (an armed Mussulman attendant), and went into Angora to call for Murad at the locanda. Mr. Cumberbatch promised before I went away that he would telegraph my coming to the American Consul at Sivas, and that was but one of the many kindnesses he showed me. I paid my bill at the locanda — a bill by the way is not settled on paper in Turkey, but by word of mouth — and then moved off, the Zaptieh and Cavass in front, next the hotel-keeper, who insisted on escorting me to the gate, and the araba last with Murad and Hassan, its owner, on the front seat, and the baggage inside.