Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/682

652 PERSIA [HISTORY. 1851-1872. cited as a cause of danger ; and on the niglit of 13th November 1851 he was summoned to the palace and informed that he was no longer premier. Mirza Agha Khan, the " itimadu "d-daulah," was named to succeed him, and had been accordingly raised to the dignity of "sadr azim." As the hostile faction pressed the neces sity of the ex-minister s removal from the capital, he was offered the choice of the government of Fars, Ispahan, or Kum. lie declined all ; but, through the mediation of Colonel Sheil, he was afterwards offered and accepted Kashan. It is not probable that Mirza Taki, once fallen from his high estate, would have long survived, or rather would have been long suffered by his rivals or foes to survive, this crisis in his career. For intriguers and char latans he was too real a character to be harmless, and means would have doubtless been devised to get rid of him altogether. As it happened, opportunity was taken of an ill-timed if well-meant interference on his behalf of the Russian legation, and the shah s ire was aroused more than ever against him. "Once having got him out of the way," writes Major Euan Smith from infor mation gathered on the scene of the tragedy lie is recounting, "his enemies had full play, and, forty days after his banishment, prevailed upon the king to issue orders for his execution. . . . The executioners arrived at Fin, and, seeing the ex-minister, told him that they had been sent by the shah to ask after his health. Mirza Taki Khan at once saw that his fate was sealed ; he merely asked that, instead of having his throat cut, he might be allowed to die in his own way. The request was granted ; he went into the hammdm, where the king s barber opened the two principal arteries in each arm, and he quietly sat there and bled to death." 1 Rupture When England was engaged in the Crimean War of 1854-55 her with alliance with a Muhammadan power in no way added to her popu- Englaud. larity or strengthened her position in Persia. The Sunni Turk was almost a greater enemy to his neighbour the Slu ah than the formidable Muscovite, who had curtailed him of so large a section of his territory west of the Caspian. Hence during the war Persia coquetted with Russia as to a possible secret alliance, rather than with Franco or England. Moreover, since Sir John M Neill a arrival in Tehran in 1841, formally to repair the breach with Muhammad Shall, there had been little differences, demands, and explanations, which were portentous of a storm in the future ; and these symptoms had culminated in 1856, the year of the peace with Russia. As to Afghanistan, the wazir Yar Muhammad had in 1842, when the British troops were perishing in the passes, or otherwise in the midst of dangers, caused Kamran to be suffocated in his prison. Since that event he had himself reigned supreme in Herat, and, dying in 1851, was succeeded by his son Sa id Muhammad. This chief soon entered upon a series of intrigues in the Persian interests, and, among other acts offensive to Great Britain, suffered one Abbas Kiili, who had, under guise of friendship, betrayed the cause of the salar at Mashhad, to occupy the citadel of Herat, and again place a detachment of the shah s troops in Ghurian. Colonel Sheil remonstrated, and obtained a new engagement of non-interference with Herat from the Persian Government, as well as the recall of Abbas Kuli. In September 1855 Muhammad Yusuf Saduzai seized upon Herat, putting Sa id Muhammad to death with some of his followers who were supposed accomplices in the murder of his uncle Kamran. About this time Kolian Dil Khan, one of the chiefs of Kandahar, died, and Dost Muhammad of Kabul annexed the city to his terri tory. Some relations of the deceased chief made their escape to Tehran, and the shah, listening to their complaint, directed the prince-governor of Mashhad to march across to the eastern frontier and occupy Herat, declaring that an invasion of Persia was imminent. Such was the situation when the Hon. Mr Murray was fulfilling his second year of duty at the legation in Tehran. He had relieved Mr Taylour Thomson, Colonel Shell s locum tcnens, at a time when relations were somewhat strained, and coolness and want of con fidence were daily becoming more apparent between the British representative and the court to which he was accredited. The following passage is from a recently- published work treating of the place and period. 2 " At the end of 1855, our relations with the court of Tehran were anything but satisfactory. Even the outward semblance of civility towards the English representative was disregarded, and, in like manner, the veneer of courtesy was wanting in the official communications bearing the sign-manual of the Shah or his responsible minister. So great was the tension of ill-feeling occasioned, that our envoy withdrew to Baghdad, declining to resume the functions of his office until am pie. apology had been made, by certain persons named, for certain offences charged, after a manner detailed by himself. A crisis such as this may, it is true, be brought about in Persia by ourselves, through defective diplomacy and ignorance of the native character, ways, prejudices, and, to some extent, language ; but it may also arise from many other causes among others, a wilful pre-detennination on the part of the local government. Once instructed to give offence to strangers and provoka a rupture, the Persian is a wonderful adept in fulfilling his instructions ; and will prove as capable in bandying insult and innuendo as in the more complex and refined game of compliment and cajolery. In the present instance, there was in the attitude of Persia evidence of wilfulness and an exhibition of more than ordinary temper ; for not only were the Shah s own words full of insult, but his expressions were supplemented by deeds. Finally, by sending a large military expedition under his royal uncle, Prince Murad Mirza, to take possession of Herat, he showed his contempt of treaties, and aimed a blow at England s Eastern policy in the most sensitive part. 1 Eastern Persia, vol. i. p. 156. The palace of Fin, near Kashan, was the residence of the amir nizam. 2 James Outram: a Biography, vol. ii., London, 1880. "This occurred in December, the same month in which the British envoy quitted Tehran. In the first week of 1856, negotiations were opened at Con stantinople, when the Persian charge d affaires in that city related his version of the quarrel to our well-known ambassador there. Discussion was prolonged for some months in 1850, during which an ultimatum from Lord Clarendon had been put forward without avail ; and in October, a plenipotentiary named Farrukh Khan arrived at the Porte with the Shah s instructions to settle the whole matter in dispute. But although this personage went so far as to sign a declaration that Herat should immediately be evacuated by the troops of his sovereign, other engagements were required from him which he could not undertake, and the attempt at a settlement failed. Lord Stratford presented a new ultimatum on November 2~2< ; but it was then too late to avert an out break. The news that Herat had been captured on October 26th, and that three proclamations declaring war against Persia had been issued by the governor-general of India on November 1st, soon reached Constantinople, and Farrukh Khan s occupation was, for the moment, gone." In less than three weeks after issue by the governor-general of India of the proclamation of war with Persia the Sind division of the field force left Karachi (Kurrachee). On 13th January following the Bombay Government orders notified the formation of a second division under Lieutenant-General Sir James Outram. Before the general arrived the island of Karak and part of Bushahr had both been occupied, and the fort of Rishir had been attacked and car ried. After the general s arrival the march upon Barazjun and the engagement at Khushab two places on the road to Shi raz and the operations at Muhamrah and the Kdrim river decided the campaign in favour of England. On 5th April, at Muhamrah, Sir James Outram received the news that the treaty of peace had been signed in Paris, where Lord Cowley and Farrukh Khun had conducted the negotiations. The stipulations regarding Herat were much as before ; but there were to be apologies made to the mission for past insolence and rudeness, and the slave trade was to be sup pressed in the Persian Gulf. With the exception of a small force retained at Bushahr under General John Jacob for the three months assigned for execution of the ratifications and giving effect to certain stipulations of the treaty with regard to Afghanistan, the British troops returned to India, where their presence was greatly needed, owing to the out break of the mutiny. The envoy retraced his steps from Baghdad to Tehran, to receive the excuses of the shah s minister. Before Mr Murray s arrival, however, an act of so-called retaliation, but savouring rather of sheer revenge, had been perpetrated, which could not have commended itself to the mind of an English diplo matist on the spot. One of the articles of the treaty of peace pro vided for the release of all prisoners taken by the Persians at Herat. Among these was the ex -ruler Muhammad Yusuf, who, having resisted the besieging army, had been brought captive to Tehran. The provision of mercy M as in his case tantamount to a sentence of savage death, for the relatives of Sa id Muhammad (whom he had slain in return for the murder of his uncle Shah Kamran) awaited his release literally to hew him to pieces in front of the Kasri Kajar, a royal palace about 5 miles from the walls of the capital. When Colonel Taylor and the officers deputed with him to certify the evacuation of Herat by the Persian soldiers reached their destination, they were received by a newly-appointed governor, Sultan Alirnad Khan, better known as Sultan Jan, nephew and son-in-law of the amir Dost Muhammad. It is unnecessary to refer to other than the political reasons of the war. They soon ceased to interest the minds of even European residents in Persia ; and the war became a thing of the past. Mr Murray was succeeded in 1859 by Sir Henry Rawlinson as British envoy. No more popular nomination could have been made than that of this justly -dis tinguished Oriental statesman ; but he barely remained a year at the work. Retiring at his own request, he was succeeded by Mr Charles Alison, whose marvellous acquaintance with Turks and their language had rendered him an invaluable secretary at Constantinople. It now only remains to mention those incidents which have engaged the attention of the British Government, or in which British officers have had to play a part. Such are the establishment of a telegraph, the settlement of the Perso-Baliich, and the arbi tration on the Perso-Afghan frontier. The proceedings of Russia in the countries east of the Caspian and bordering on the Oxus have, moreover, a bearing more or less direct on the interests of Great Britain, with especial reference to her Indian empire. The question of constructing a telegraph in Persia as a link in Angl the overland line to connect England with India was broached in Indi; Tehran by Colonel Patrick Stewart and Captain Champain, oltfcers teleg of engineers, in 1862, and an agreement on the subject con- line. eluded by Mr Edward Eastwick, when charge d affaires, at the close of that year. Three years later a more formal conventior r including a second wire, was signed by Mr Alison and the Persian foreign minister ; meantime the work had been actively carried on, and communication opened on the one side between Bushahr and Karachi and the Makran coast by cable, and on the other between Bushahr and Baghddd via Tehran. The untrustworthy character of the line through Asiatic Turkey caused a subsequent change of direction ; and an alternative line the Indo-European from London to Tehran, through Russia and along the eastern shores of the Black Sea, was constructed, and has worked well since 1872,