A HISTORY OF PERSIA,
&c. &c.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Population of Persia—Cultivated Portion of the Country very small—Supply of Water—Artificial Irrigation—The Elburz Mountains—Attachment of Persians to their Native Country—Persia inhabited by Men of various Races—The wandering Tribes—The Turkish and the Persian Languages—Two classes of People in Persia—The Persians a robust Race—The Persian Character—Estimate formed of it by Europeans—Persian Government—Checks on the Royal Authority—Court of the Shah—Education in Persia—National Religion of the Persians—The Persian Army Labourers and Villagers—Mendicants—Trade and Produce—Climate—Prospects of the Country.
A history of Persia under the Kajar Princes may be appropriately prefaced by an account of the general condition of that country and of its inhabitants during the reigns of the kings of that dynasty. Such an account, however, may be the more suitably condensed in this work, inasmuch as a full description of the manners and the religion of the people of Persia at the beginning of this century has been already written by an English author,[1] and as it may be said of the customs of the
- ↑ Sir J. Malcolm.
1
