Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/657

POPULATION.] PERSIA tinguish it from other cities in the shah s territory ; but it can boast also the tomb of the famous Harun al-Rashid and of Gauhar Shah Agha, the favourite wife of Shah Rukh ; and its canal and quays merit at least a passing remark from their rarity. It is divided into two towns, the sacred and the secular, each of which has its distinct governor the first called the "mutawali," the second being also governor of the whole province of Khurasan, and often a prince of the blood-royal. After Mashhad, among the chief towns of Khurasan are Nishapur and Sabzawar on the highroad to Tehran, the first an ancient city within walls, the second notable for its surrounding cultivation ; Bujiiurd on the north, which in Burnes s time was " a rather large place standing in a spacious valley " ; Turbat-i-Haidari, the chief town of a populous district with ten viflages, visited by Conolly in 1830, by Goldsmid in 1872, and by Stewart in 1880 ; Sultanabad, capital of the Turshiz district (in which there is no specific " Turshiz "), called by Colonel Stewart " a small and flourishing town of some 5000 inhabitants " ; Kaiyan, surrounded by a wall (of irregular outline), which goes outside all the houses, and encloses besides a space quite equal to that occupied by the houses taken up with cultivation and gardens. Thus it is," he adds, " that Tun may be said to be a town 4 miles in circum ference, though, if only the space occupied by houses was calculated, it would dwindle to one-eighth of this. There are no buildings of any note in the place, but a few mosques and colleges are to be found, while most of the better houses, of which there is a total of about 1500, have badgirs." l Coupled with Tiin is Tabas, to which the same writer gives no importance ; then come Birjand, pictur esque and clean, with a better class of mud buildings, well situated at the foot of hills, and having rather high mountains to the west ward, the modern capital of the Kaiyan district ; and finally, Sikuha, the true but somewhat insignificant chief town of Sistan, here chosen in preference to Nasrabad, its military headquarters. Mr Rozario, medical attache to the mission of 1872, described Sikuha as "com posed of 200 arch-roofed mud-built houses, connected with each other without any kind of woodwork about them," the land wanting in rice and timber, but producing wheat, barley, beans, and cotton in abundance. S.thern The fourth, Southern Persia, is a very extensive division, em- Fsia. bracing not only the whole seaboard between 48 and 61 30 E. long, but a great part of the country as far north as 32 40 , the parallel of Ispahan. Nothing could better illustrate the arbitrary and uncertain mode of parcelling out a kingdom than the separa tion of natural and the combination of abnormal elements of union to be found in this vast territory entrusted to the charge of the "zil-i-sultan," or "shadow of the monarch," the title given to the shah s eldest son. That such an arrangement can work at all is one of many strange truths which are intelligible only to persons acquainted with the centralizing power exercised in Tehran. General Schindler, an officer of great local knowledge and experience, has guaranteed the correctness of the statement that the prince-gover nor or govern or -general of Southern Persia residing himself at Slurdz "(or at Ispahan) appoints governors to the following places : Kurdistan, Karmanshah, Luristan, Burujird, Dizful, Shustar, Muhamrah, Behbahan, and Ram Hormuz in the west ; the tracts occupied by the Bakhtiaris, Gulpaigan, Khonsar, Fari- dun, Chahar Mahal, Yazd (with Nain, Baft, and Shahr-i-Babek) ; Fars (with Fasa, Darab, Lar, Parum, and Kazarun) in the centre ; Bushahr and Lingah on the coast ; and Karman (with Bam, Bam- pur, Rafsinjan, Khabis, Sirjan, Jiruft, and Rudbar) to the east. Among the more prominent cities or towns within this range are : Ispahan, a fine city, still worthy from its site, buildings, gar dens, river, and surroundings to be the royal residence ; Shiraz, happily situated with pleasant neighbouring resorts and the ordi nary requirements of a first-class Persian town, possessing, more over, a special national prestige for high and low, yet not a genial residence for strangers, who can accomplish its lions in a couple of days ; Yazd, a large and fairly populated city, with one remark able mosque and a handsome new bazaar, but somewhat gloomy in character and drearily situated on a flat plain in an amphitheatre of hills ; Karman, a place of pleasant recollection to those English travellers who experienced the genuine kindness and hospitality of the wakilu 1-mulk, Muhammad Ismail Khan, its governor in 1865-66, and not wanting in material attractions of its own ; lastly, Bam and Bampur, visited by Lieutenant Pottinger in 1810, more than half a century afterwards by Colonel Goldsmid, and later still by Majors St John and Lovett, the one a frontier town with associations of border warfare, the other a mere Perso-Baluch cantonment with a fort and mud buildings, long the residence of Ibrahim Khan, a chief of notoriety serving the interests of Persia. Muhamrah, Bushahr, Lingah, and Bandar- Abbas are ports, but there is no real harbour between Fao at the mouth of the Shattu T- Arab and Karachi (Kurrachee) in British India, 1 Literally "wind-catchers," towers erected on the roofs of houses for pur poses of ventilation. Astrabad is a town and district near the entrance of the bay of Minor the same name on the Caspian. In 1884 it was governed by govern- Habib Ullah Khan, the "sa idu 1-daulah," or "arm of the state." ments. Mazandaran and Gilan are the Caspian provinces, par excellence, of Persia. General Schindler makes them distinct governments, but they appear to have once formed part of the northern division under the prince-governor. Kharnsah, a district on the high road between Tabriz and Tehran, of which the chief town, Zaiijan, is a place of some importance. The governor s name in 1884 was Nasr Kiili Khan, the " amidu 1-mulk," or "prop of the kingdom." Kazvin, a considerable town, with surrounding district, in the plains south of the Alburz, and not a hundred miles from Tehran, was governed in 1884 by Mirza Riza, the "mu ayinu 1-sultanah," or " helper of the kingdom." Gerrus is a district on the south of Khamsah. Population. Although the present section deals with statistics only, the following well-considered remarks of Mr Robert Grant Watson, formerly a secretary in the Persian legation, form an appropriate preface to the record of population. " Persia is peopled by men of various races. A very great pro- Races, portion of the population is composed of wandering tribes, that is, of a large number of families who pass a portion of the year on the hills. It is in this sense only that they can be considered wanderers. They invariably occupy the same pasture-grounds one year after another. Their chiefs are possessed of great authority over the tribesmen, and all dealings between the Government and the tribes are carried on through the heads of these divisions. Through the chief the taxes, whether in money or in kind, are paid, and through him the regiments which his tribe may furnish are recruited. The office of chief is hereditary. The tents in which the tribesmen dwell are for the most part composed of a light framework of the shape of a beehive. This is covered with a coating of reeds, and above it is placed a thick black felt. It has but one door, and no window or chimney. This is the Turkman tent, which is used by the Shahsavand and other tribes, but the Iliyats in central Persia make use of tents of another construction, with flat or slightly-sloping roofs. " The provinces near the Persian Gulf contain many Arabs and men of Arab extraction. Such are for the most part the inhabitants of Laristan and of the country lying to the left of the Shattu 1-Arab and of the lower part of the Tigris. The Bakhtiari mountains, between the valley of the lower Tigris and the plain of Ispahan, are the dwelling-place of tribes of another race, and of whom and their country very little is known. The mountains of Kurdistan give birth to a warlike people, who are attached to their own tribe- chiefs, and who never go far from the borders of Turkey and of Persia, sometimes proclaiming themselves subjects to the Porte, and sometimes owning allegiance to the Shah. At the foot of one part of these mountains, on the borders of the lake of Urumia, there is a plain on which dwell many Christian families who hold the tenets of Kestorius. At Ispahan, at Tehran, at Tabriz, and in other parts of Persia, there is a more or less considerable popu lation of Armenians. At Hamadan, at Ispahan, at Tehran, at Mashhad, at the town of Damavand, and elsewhere in Persia, Jews are found in considerable numbers. The province of Gilan is in habited by a race of men peculiar to itself, the descendants of the ancient Gels. The people of Mazandaran speak, as do the Gileks, a dialect of their own. The province of Astrabad is partly inhabited by Turkmans ; and in the districts claimed by Persia, which border on Afghanistan and Baluchistan, the Afghan and Baluch elements are prominent in the population. At Karman a few Hindus reside, and at Yazd there are about 2000 families of the original fire-worshippers of Iran. 2 But the two principal races to be met with in Persia are the Turks and the Persians or Mongols. The former are, as a general rule, spread over the northern pro vinces ; the latter over the southern. The Persians of Mongol extrac tion for the most part speak only the Persian language, while those of Turkish race speak the Turkish language in preference to Persian. "The inhabitants of Persia may be divided into two classes, those who inhabit the towns and villages, and those who dwell exclusively in tents. The former class remain stationary during the greater part of the year, the richer orders only leaving the towns for two months during the summer heats, when it is possible to obtain cool air in the hills or upper grounds close by. The tribes who dwell in tents move from place to place with the varying seasons of the year. In the springtime they drive their flocks and herds to their accustomed pasture-grounds, and if they have a right to the pasture of mountains which are inaccessible in spring, they move up to their summer quarters as soon as the snow disappears. Winter finds them on the plains, , prepared, in their black tents, to brave its utmost rigour. These Iliyat tribes serve each a separate chief., For the Iliyats of Fars there is a hereditary chief called the Ilkham, to whom they all owe allegiance ; from whom they receive the laws that rule their conduct ; and to whom they pay the revenue imposed upon them. They contribute a certain number - Since greatly reduced in numbers.