Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/678

648 PERSIA MODERN 809-1830. concluded a treaty with Persia the month after his arrival at the capital; but the Government of India were not content to leave matters in his hands : notwithstanding the anomaly of a double mission, Malcolm was in 1810 again despatched as their own parti cular envoy. He brought with him Captains Lindsay and Christie to assist the Persians in the war, and presented the shah with some serviceable field-pieces ; but there was little occasion for the exercise of his diplomatic ability save in his non-official intercourse with the people, and here he availed himself of it to the great advantage of himself and his country. 1 He was welcomed by the shah in camp at Ujani, and took leave a month afterwards to return via Baghdad and Basrah to India. The next year Sir Harford Jones was relieved as envoy by Sir Gore Ouseley. Renewal Meanwhile hostilities had been resumed with Russia : the crown of Rus- prince vainly attempted to penetrate Georgia ; and one or two en- sian war. gagements ensued with more or less assertion of success on either side. In 1812 the British envoy used his good offices for the restora tion of peace between the belligerents, and a Russian officer of high rank was sent to the Persian camp to propose the appointment of deputies. But there was no possibility of agreement, and the endeavour failed. To add to the Persian difficulty, it so happened that in July of this year a treaty was concluded between England and Russia "for re-establishing the relations of amity and good understanding between the two kingdoms respectively"; and this circumstance caused the envoy to direct that British officers should take no further part in Russo-Persian military operations. Christie and Lindsay, however, resolved to remain at their own risk, and advanced with the Persian army to the Arras. On the 31st October the force was surprised by an attack of the enemy, and retreated ; the next night they were again attacked and routed at Aslanduz. Christie fell bravely fighting at the head of his brigade ; Lindsay saved two of his nine guns ; but neither of the two Englishmen was responsible for the want of proper disposition of the troops which mainly caused the disaster. Lankuran was taken by Persia, but retaken by Russia during the next three months ; and on the 13th October 1813, through Sir Gore Ouseley s intervention, the treaty of Gulistan put an end to the war. Persia formally ceded Georgia and the seven provinces before named, with Karabagh. On the death of the emperor Alexander in December 1825 Prince MenschikofF was sent to Tehran to settle a dispute which had arisen between the two Governments regarding the prescribed frontier. But, as the claim of Persia to a particular district then occupied by Russia could not be admitted, the special envoy was given his co?iye, and war was recommenced. The chief of Talish struck the first blow, and drove the enemy from Lankuran. The Persians then carried all before them ; and the hereditary chiefs of Shirwan, Sheki, and, Baku returned from exile to co-operate with the shah s general in the south. In the course of three weeks the only advanced post held by the governor-general of the Caucasus was the obstinate little fortress of Shishah. But before long all was again changed. Hearing that a Russian force of some 9000 men was concentrated at Tiflis, Muhammad Mirza, son of the crown prince, advanced to meet them on the banks of the Zezam. He was defeated ; and his father, seeking to repair the loss, was routed more seriously still at Ganja. The shah made great efforts to renew the war ; but divisions took place in his son s camp, not conducive to successful operations, and new proposals of peace were made. Ardabil, and even Tabriz, had been threatened, and, although the threat had been rather signified than expressed, the presence of Russian troops south of the Arras was calculated to strike terror in Adarbaijan. But Russia demanded Erivan and Nakhtchivan (Nakhichevan) as well as the cost of the war; and in 1827 the campaign was reopened. Briefly, after successive gains and losses, not only Erivan was taken from Persia but Tabriz also, and finally, through the intervention of Sir John Macdonald, the English envoy, a new treaty was concluded at Turkmanchai, laying down the boundary between Russia and Persia very much as it has been formed in 1884. Among the hard conditions for the latter country were the cession in perpetuity of the khanates of Erivan and Nakh tchivan, the inability to have an armed vessel in the Caspian, and the payment of a war indemnity of some 3,000,000. War After Russia, the neighbouring state next in importance to the with wellbeing of Persia was Turkey, with whom she was united on the Turkey, west by a common line of frontier. Fath All Shah was fortunate in having had but one war with the sultan during his whole reign, and that one of no duration. Salim had not scrupled, it is true, in 1804 and 1805, to allow the Russians to make free use of the south-eastern coasts of the Black Sea, to facilitate operations against the shah s troops ; and there had been a passage of arms between the king s eldest son, Muhammad All Mirza, and Sulaiman Pasha, son-in-law of the governor-general of Baghdad, which is locally credited as a battle won by the former. But there was no open rupture between the two sovereigns until 1821, when the frontier disputes and com- i The "wakilu 1-mulk," governor of Karman, told Colonel Goldsmid, when his guest in 18C6, that "his father hail been Sir John Malcolm s Mihnw.nddr. There never was such a man as Malcolm Sahib. Not only was he generous on the part of his government, but with his own money also" (Tderirai/h and Travel, p. 585). plaints of Persian travellers, merchants, and pilgrims culminated in a declaration of war. This made Abbas Mirza at once seize upon the fortified places of Toprak Kai ah and Ak Sarai within the limits of the Ottoman empire, and, overcoming the insufficient force sent against him, he was further enabled to extend his inroads to Mush, Bitlis, and other known localities. The Turkish Government retaliated by a counter -invasion of the Persian frontier on the south. At that time the pasha of Baghdad was in command of the troops. He was defeated by Muhammad Ali Mir/a, then prince -governor of Karmanshah, who drove his adversary back towards his capital and advanced to its immediate environs. Being attacked with cholera, however, the Persian commander recrossed the frontier, but only to succumb under the disease in the pass of Kirind. In the sequel a kind of desultory warfare appears to have been prosecuted on the Persian side of Kurdistan, and the shah himself came down with an army to Hamadan. Cholera broke out in the royal camp and caused the troops to disperse. In the north the progress of Abbas Mirza was stopped at Baiyazid by a like deadly visitation ; and a suspension of hostilities was agreed upon for the winter season. At the expiration of four months the sardar of Erivan took possession of a Turkish military station on the road to Arzrum (Erzeroum), and the crown prince marched upon that city at the head of 30,000 men. The Ottoman army which met him is said to have numbered some 52,000 ; but victory was on the side of their opponents. Whether the result was owing to the defection of 15,000 Kurds or not the evidence adduced is insuffi cient to decide. In the English records of the period it is stated that "the defeat of the Turks was complete ; the greater part of their army fled in disorder from the field, abandoning all their tents and baggage, and fourteen pieces of artillery." It is added : "the prince royal followed up his successes, and advanced within two days march of Arzrum, but the cholera morbus is said to have again broken out in his army, and in such a manner as effectually to arrest its further advance." 2 Profiting from this victory, Abbas Mirza repeated an offer of peace before made without avail to the pasha of Arzrum ; and, in order to conciliate him more effectually, he retired within the old limits of the dominions of the shah, his father. But more troubles arose at Baghdad, and other reasons intervened to protract negotiations for a year and a half. At length, in July 1823, the treaty of Arzrum closed the war between Turkey and Persia. It may be remarked that this document is sensible and business-like, and provides especially against a recurrence of the proved causes of war, such as interference in one another s frontier districts, extorting taxes from Persian travellers or pilgrims, disrespect to the ladies of the royal harem and other ladies of rank proceeding to Mecca or Karbala (Kerbela), irregular levies of custom -duties, non- punishment of Kurdish depredators transgressing the boundary, and the like. Fath All Shah in it is styled " King of kings, the Sultan son of a Sultan the Conqueror," and Mahrnud II. is "Protector of the Faith, Guardian of the Holy Cities, Ruler by Sea and Land, the Sultan son of a Sultan the Conqueror." With respect to the eastern boundaries of his kingdom, Fath Ali The Shah was fortunate in having to deal with a less dangerous neigh- Afghan hour than the Muscovite of persistent policy and the Turk of question, precarious friendship. The Afghan was neither a contemptible foe nor a sure ally, but he was not tainted with that fictitious civiliza tion of semi-Oriental people which makes duplicity the essence of diplomatic intercourse. He had seen too little of Europeans to imitate them in their worst and weakest points ; and, though equal to the Persian in physical force and prowess, he was his inferior in worldly knowledge and experience. Quite as dishonest as his neighbours and more treacherous than most, he had not the polished ingenuity to conceal his dishonesty and double-dealing. Moreover, the family divisions among the ruling houses of Afghanistan grew from day to day more destructive to that patriotism and sense of nationality which Ahmad Shah had held out to his countrymen as the sole specifics for becoming a strong people. The revolt of Nadir Mirza had, as before explained, drawn tho shah s attention to Khurasan in the early part of his reign ; but, although quiet had for the moment been restored at Mashhad by the presence of the royal camp, fresh grounds of complaint were urged against the rash but powerless prince, and recourse was had to extreme measures. Charged with the murder of a holy saiyid, his hands were cut off and his tongue was plucked out, as part of the horrible punishment inflicted on him. It does not appear that Nadir Mirza s cause was ever seriously espoused by the Afghans, nor that Fath Ali Shah s claim to Mash- had, as belonging to the Persian crown, was actively resisted. But the large province of Khurasan, of which Mashhad was the capital, and which included Darahgaz and Kelat-i-Nadiri in the north and Kaiyan in the south, had never been other than a nominal dependency of the crown since the death of Nadir ; and in the autumn of 1830 5 Annual Register, " History of Europe " (1822). There is a note in connexion with the text from which these extracts are taken, on the state of Anglo-Persian relations and the predominance of Russian influence at Tehran, well worthy the reader s perusal.