Produced by James Tenison
THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA OF ISPAHAN
BY
JAMES MORIER
ILLUSTRATED BY H.R. MILLAR
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE HON. GEORGE CURZON, M.P.
MACMILLAN AND CO. LONDON AND NEW YORK
1895
All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
In the first decade of the present century Persia was for a short time
the pivot of the Oriental interest of English and Indian statesmen.
But little known and scarcely visited during the preceding century,
it suddenly and simultaneously focussed the ambitions of Russia, the
apprehensions of Great Britain, the Asiatic schemes of France. The
envoys of great Powers flocked to its court, and vied with each other
in the magnificence of the display and the prodigality of the gifts with
which they sought to attract the superb graces of its sovereign,
Fath Ali Shah. Among these supplicants for the Persian alliance, then
appraised at much beyond its real value, the most assiduous and also the
most profuse were the British, agitated at one moment by the prospect of
an Afghan invasion of India, at another by the fear of an overland march
against Delhi of the combined armies of Napoleon and the Tsar. These
apprehensions were equally illusory; but while they lasted they supplied
the excuse for a constant stream of embassies, some from the British
sovereign, others from the viceregal court at Calcutta, and were
reproduced in a bewildering succession of Anglo-Persian Treaties. Sir
John Malcolm, Sir Harford Jones, Sir Gore Ouseley, and Sir Henry Ellis
were the plenipotentiaries who negotiated these several instruments; and
the principal coadjutor of the last three diplomats was James Justinian
Morier, the author of Hajji Baba.
Born and nurtured in an Oriental atmosphere (though educated at Harrow),
he was one of three out of four sons, whom their father, himself British
Consul at Constantinople, dedicated to the Diplomatic or Consular
service in Eastern Europe or in Asia. His Persian experience began when
at the age of twenty-eight he accompanied Sir Harford Jones as private
secretary, in 1808-1809, on that mission from the British Court
direct which excited the bitter jealousy and provoked the undignified
recriminations of the Indian Government. After the Treaty had been
concluded, James Morier returned to England, being accompanied by the
Persian envoy to the Court of St. James, who figures in this narrative
as Mirza Firouz, and whose droll experiences in this country he
subsequently related in the volume entitled Hajji Baba in England.
While at home, Morier wrote the first of the two works upon Persia, and
his journeys and experiences in and about that country, which, together
with the writings of Sir John Malcolm, and the later publications of Sir
W. Ouseley, Sir R. Ker Porter, and J. Baillie Frazer, familiarised the
cultivated Englishman of the first quarter of this century with
Persian history and habits to a degree far beyond that enjoyed by the
corresponding Englishman of the present day. Returning to Persia with
Sir Gore Ouseley in 1811-12 to assist the latter in the negotiation of a
fresh Treaty, to meet the novel situation of a Franco-Russian alliance,
Morier remained in Tehran as _charge daffaire_ after his chief had
left, and in 1814 rendered similar aid to Sir H. Ellis in the conclusion
of a still further Treaty superseding that of Ouseley, which had never
been ratified. After his return to England in 1815, appeared the account
of his second journey. Finally, nearly ten years later, there was issued
in 1824 the ripened product of his Persian experiences and reflections
in the shape of the inimitable story to which is prefixed this
introduction. Hajji Baba at once became a favourite of the cultured
reading public, and passed speedily through several editions. That
popularity has never since been exhausted; and the constant demand for a
new issue is a proof not merely of the intrinsic merit of the book as
a contemporary portrait of Persian manners and life, but also of
the fidelity with which it continues to reflect, after the lapse of
three-quarters of a century, the salient and unchanging characteristics
of a singularly unchanging Oriental people. Its author, having left the
Diplomatic service, died in 1849. The celebrity of the family name has,
however, been revindicated in more recent diplomatic history by the
services of his nephew, the late Sir Robert Morier, who died in 1893,
while British Ambassador at St. Petersburg.
James Morier was an artist as well as an author. The bulk of the
illustrations in his two journeys were reproduced from his own drawings;
and he left upon his death a number of scrap-books, whose unpublished
contents are, I believe, not unlikely to see the light. In the Preface
to the second edition of Hajji Baba he also spoke of numerous notes
which his long residence in Persia would have enabled him to add, but
which his reluctance to increase the size of the work led him to omit.
These, if they ever existed in a separate form, are no longer in the
possession of his family, and may therefore be presumed to have ceased
to exist. Their place can now only be ineffectually supplied, as in
the present instance, by the observations of later travellers over the
familiar ground, and of inferior gleaners in the same still prolific
field.
Such was the historic _mise-en-scène_ in which James Morier penned his
famous satire. I next turn to the work itself. The idea of criticising,
and still more of satirising, a country or a people under the guise of
a fictitious narrator is familiar in the literature of many lands. More
commonly the device adopted is that of introducing upon the scene the
denizen of some other country or clime. Here, as in the case of the
immortal Gil Blas of Santillane, with whom Hajji Baba has been not
inaptly compared, the infinitely more difficult plan is preferred of
exposing the foibles of a people through the mouth of one of their own
nationality. Hajji Baba is a Persian of the Persians, typical not merely
of the life and surroundings, but of the character and instincts and
manner of thought of his countrymen. And yet it is from his lips that
flows the delightful stream of naive confession and mordant sarcasm
that never seems either ill-natured or artificial, that lashes without
vindictiveness, and excoriates without malice. In strict ratio, however,
to the verisimilitude of the performance, must be esteemed the talents
of the non-Oriental writer, who was responsible for so lifelike a
creation. No man could, have written or could now write such a book
unless he were steeped and saturated, not merely in Oriental experience,
but in Oriental forms of expression and modes of thought. To these
qualifications must be added great powers of insight and long
observation. James Morier spent less than six years in Persia; and yet
in a lifetime he could scarcely have improved upon the quality of his
diagnosis. If the scenic and poetic accessories of a Persian picture
are (except in the story of Yusuf and Mariam and a few other instances)
somewhat wanting, their comparative neglect is more than compensated
by the scrupulous exactitude of the dramatic properties with which is
invested each incident in the tale. The hero, a characteristic Persian
adventurer, one part good fellow, and three parts knave, always the
plaything of fortune--whether barber, water-carrier, pipe-seller,
dervish, doctors servant, sub-executioner, scribe and mollah,
outcast, vender of pipe-sticks, Turkish merchant, or secretary to an
ambassador--equally accepting her buffets and profiting by her caresses,
never reluctant to lie or cheat or thieve, or get the better of anybody
else in a warfare where every one was similarly engaged in the effort to
get the better of him, and equipped with the ready casuistry to justify
any transgression of the moral code, Hajji Baba never strikes a really
false chord, or does or says anything intrinsically improbable; but,
whether in success or adversity, as a victim of the roguery of others,
or as a rogue himself, is faithful to a type of human character which
modern times and a European surrounding are incapable of producing, but
which is natural to a state of society in which men live by their wits,
where the scullion of one day may be the grandee of the next, and the
loftiest is not exempt from the extreme vicissitudes of fortune, and in
which a despotic sovereign is the apex of a half-civilised community of
jealous and struggling slaves.
Perhaps the foibles of the national character upon which the author is
most severe are those of imposture in the diverse and artistic shapes
in which it is practised by the modern Persian. He delights in stripping
bare the sham piety of the austere Mohammedan, the gullibility of
the pilgrims to the sacred shrines, the sanctimonious humbug of the
lantern-jawed devotees of Kum. One of his best portraits is that of
the wandering dervish, who befriends and instructs, and ultimately robs
Hajji Baba, and who thus explains the secrets of his trade:--
It is not great learning that is required to make a dervish; assurance
is the first ingredient. By impudence I have been a prophet, by
impudence I have wrought miracles, by impudence I have restored the
dying to health--by impudence, in short, I lead a life of great ease,
and am feared and respected by those who, like you, do not know what
dervishes are.
Equally unsparing is his exposure of the reputed pillars of the Church,
_mollahs_ and _mûshteheds_, as illustrated by his excellent stories of
the Mollah Bashi of Tehran, and of the mollah Nadan. He ridicules the
combined ignorance and pretensions of the native quacks, who have in
nowise improved since his day. He assumes, as he still might safely do,
the venality of the _kadi_ or official interpreter of the law. He places
upon the lips of an old Curd a candid but unflattering estimate of the
Persian character, whose great and national vice is lying, and whose
weapons, instead of the sword and spear, are treachery, deceit, and
falsehood--an estimate which he would find no lack of more recent
evidence to corroborate. And he revels in his tales of Persian
cowardice, whether it be at the mere whisper of a Turcoman foray, or in
conflict with the troops of a European Power, putting into the mouth
of one of his characters the famous saying which it is on record that
a Persian commander of that day actually employed: O Allah, Allah, if
there was no dying in the case, how the Persians would fight! In this
general atmosphere of cheerful rascality and fraud an agreeable climax
is reached when Hajji Baba is all but robbed of his patrimony by his own
mother! It is the predominance in the narrative of these and other
of the less attractive aspects of Persian character that has led some
critics, writing from the charitable but ill-informed distance of an
English arm-chair, to deprecate the apparent insensibility of the author
to the more amiable characteristics of the Iranian people. Similarly,
though doubtless with an additional instigation of ambassadorial
prudence, Sir Harford Jones-Brydges, Moriers own chief, wrote in the
Introduction to his own Report of his Mission to the Persian Court these
words:--
One may allow oneself to smile at some of the pages of Hajji Baba;
but it would be just as wise to estimate the national character of the
Persians from the adventures of that fictitious person, as it would be
to estimate the national character of the Spaniards from those of Don
Raphael or his worthy coadjutor, Ambrose de Lamela.... Knowing the
Persians as well as I do, I will boldly say the greater part of their
vices originate in the vices of their Government, while such virtues as
they do possess proceed from qualities of the mind.
To this nice, but, as I think, entirely affected discrimination between
the sources respectively of Persian virtues and vices, it might be
sufficient answer to point out that in Hajji Baba Morier takes up the
pen of the professional satirist, an instrument which no satirist worthy
of the name from Juvenal to Swift has ever yet dipped in honey or in
treacle alone. But a more candid and certainly a more amusing reply was
that which Morier himself received, after the publication of the book,
from the Persian envoy whom he had escorted to England. This was how the
irritated ambassador wrote:
What for you write Hajji Baba, sir? King very angry, sir. I swear
him you never write lies; but he say, yes--write. All people very angry
with you, sir. That very bad book, sir. All lies, sir. Who tell you all
these lies, sir? What for you not speak to me? Very bad business, sir.
_Persian people very bad people, perhaps, but very good to you, sir._
What for you abuse them so bad?
There is a world of unconscious admission in the sentence which I have
italicised, and which may well stand in defence of Moriers caustic, but
never malicious, satire.
There is, however, to my mind, a deeper interest in the book than
that which arises from its good-humoured flagellation of Persian
peccadilloes. Just as no one who is unacquainted with the history and
leading figures of the period can properly appreciate Sir Thomas Mores
Utopia, or Gullivers Travels, so no one who has not sojourned in
Persia, and devoted considerable study to contemporary events, can form
any idea of the extent to which Hajji Baba is a picture of actual
personages, and a record of veritable facts. It is no frolic of
imaginative satire only; it is a historical document. The figures that
move across the stage are not pasteboard creations, but the living
personalities, disguised only in respect of their names, with whom
Morier was brought daily into contact while at Tehran. The majority
of the incidents so skilfully woven into the narrative of the heros
adventures actually occurred, and can be identified by the student
who is familiar with the incidents of the time. Above all, in its
delineation of national customs, the book is an invaluable contribution
to sociology, and conveys a more truthful and instructive impression of
Persian habits, methods, points of view, and courses of action, than
any disquisition of which I am aware in the more serious volumes of
statesmen, travellers, and men of affairs. I will proceed to identify
some of these personages and events.
No more faithful portrait is contained in the book than that of
the king, Fath Ali Shah, the second of the Kajar Dynasty, and the
great-grandfather of the reigning Shah. His vanity and ostentation,
his passion for money and for women, his love of flattery, his discreet
deference, to the priesthood (illustrated by his annual pilgrimage, in
the garb of penance, to the shrine of Fatima at Kum), his royal state,
his jewels, and his ambrosial beard, form the background of every
contemporary work, and are vividly reproduced in these pages. The
royal processions, whether in semi-state when he visited the house of a
subject, or in full state when he went abroad from the capital, and
the annual departure of the royal household for the summer camp at
Sultanieh, are drawn from the life. Under the present Shah they have
been shorn of a good deal of their former splendour. The Grand Vizier
of the narrative, that notorious minister, decrepit in person,
and nefarious in conduct, a little old man, famous for a hard and
unyielding nature, was Mirza Sheffi who was appointed by Fath Ali
Shah to succeed if Ibrahim, the minister to whom his uncle had owed
his throne, and whom the nephew repaid by putting to death. The
Amin-ed-Dowleh, or Lord High Treasurer, a large, coarse man, and the
son of a greengrocer of Ispahan, was Mohammed Hussein Khan, the second
personage of Court. Only a slight verbal change is needed to transform
Hajji Babas master, Mirza Ahmak, the kings chief physician into
Mirza Ahmed, the _Hakîm Bashi_ of Fath Ali Shah. Namerd Khan, the
chief executioner, and subsequent chief of the hero, whose swaggering
cowardice is so vividly depicted, was, in actual life, Feraj Ullah Khan.
The commander of the Kings Camel Corps, who had to give up his house to
the British _Elchi_, was Mohammed Khan. The Poet Laureate of the story,
Asker Khan, shared the name of his sovereign, Fath Ali Khan; and the
story of his mouth being filled on one occasion with gold coins, and
stuffed on another with sugar-candy, as a mark of the royal approbation,
is true. The serdar of Erivan, an abandoned sensualist, but liberal
and enterprising, was one Hassan Khan; and the romantic tale of the
Armenians, Yûsûf and Mariam, down to the minutest details, such as the
throwing of a hand-grenade into one of the subterranean dwellings of the
Armenians, and the escape of the girl by leaping from a window of the
serdars palace at Erivan, is a reproduction of incidents that actually
occurred in the Russo-Persian war of that date. Finally, Mirza Firouz
Khan, the Persian envoy to Great Britain, and the hero of Hajji Baba
in England, is a portrait of Mirza Abul Hassan Khan, a nephew of the
former Grand Vizier, who visited London as the Shahs representative
in 1809-10, and who was subsequently sent on a similar mission to
Petersburg. This individual made a considerable sensation in England by
his excellent manners and witty retorts, among which one is worthy of
being quoted that does not appear in Moriers pages. When asked by
a lady in London whether they did not worship the sun in Persia, he
replied, Oh yes, madam, and so would you in England too, if you ever
saw him!
The international politics of the time are not without their serious
place in the pages of Hajji Baba. The French ambassador who is
represented in chapter lxxiv. as retiring in disgrace from Tehran, was
Napoleons emissary, General Gardanne, who, after his master had signed
the Peace of Tilsit with the Tsar, found a very different estimate of
the value of the French alliance entertained by the Persian Court.
The English embassy, whose honorific reception is described in chapter
lxxvii., was that of Sir Harford Jones. The disputes about hats, and
chairs, and stockings, and other points of divergence between English
and Persian etiquette, are historical; and a contemporary oil-painting
of the first audience with the Shah, as described by Morier, still
exists on the walls of the royal palace of Negaristan in the Persian
capital. There may be seen the portraits of Sir Harford Jones and Sir
John Malcolm, as well as of General Gardanne, grouped by a pardonable
anachronism in the same picture. There is the king with his spiders
waist and his lordly beard; and there are the princes and the ministers
of whom we have been reading. The philanthropic efforts of the
Englishmen to force upon the reluctant Persians the triple boon of
vaccination, post-mortem examinations, and potatoes, are also authentic.
Quite a number of smaller instances may be cited in which what appears
only as an incident or an illustration in the story is in reality a
historical fact. It is the case that the Turcoman freebooters did on
more than one occasion push their _alamans_ or raids as far even as
Ispahan. The tribe by whom Hajji Baba is taken captive in the opening
chapters is seemingly rather the Yomuts beyond Atrek River than the
Tekke Turcomans of Akhal Tekke. I have myself ridden over the road
between Abbasabad and Shahrud, where they were in the habit of swooping
down upon the defenceless and terror-stricken caravans; and the
description of the panic which they created among vastly superior
numbers of Persians is in nowise exaggerated. The pillar of skulls which
Aga Mohammed Shah is represented as having erected in chapter vii. was
actually raised by that truculent eunuch at Bam in Persian Beluchistan,
and was there noticed by an English traveller, Sir Henry Pottinger, in
1810. I have seen the story of the unhappy Zeenab and her fate described
a review of Hajji Baba as more characteristic of the seraglio at
Stamboul than of the harem at Tehran. This is an ignorant remark; for
this form of execution was more than once inflicted during the reign of
Fath Ali Shah. At Shiraz there still exists a deep well in the mountain
above city, down which, until recently, women convicted of adultery were
hurled; and when I was at Bokhara in 1888 there had, in the preceding
year, been more than one case of execution by being thrown from the
summit of the Minari-Kalan or Great Minaret. It is an interesting
but now well-nigh forgotten fact that the Christian dervish who is
represented in chapter lix. as publicly disputing with the _mollahs_ in
a _medresseh_ at Ispahan, and as writing a refutation of the Mohammedan
creed, was no other than the famous Henry Martyn, who created a
prodigious sensation by the fearlessness of his polemics while at
Shiraz, and who subsequently died at Tokat, in Asiatic Turkey, in 1812.
The incidental mention of the great diamond or Mountain of Light that
was worn by Fath Ali Shah in one of his _bazubands_ or armlets, though
historically inaccurate, is also of interest to English readers;
since the jewel alluded to is the Daria-i-Nur or Sea of Light, the
sister-stone to the Koh-i-Nur or Mountain of Light, which, in the
previous century, had been carried from Persia to Afghanistan, and in
this century passed through the hands of Runjit Singh, the Lion of the
Punjab, into the regalia of the British crown. The Sea of Light is
still at Tehran.
In two respects the Persia of Hajji Baba differs notably from the
Persia of to-day. The national, and still more the court dress, as
depicted by him, have been considerably modified. The Kashmir shawls and
turbans, and the red-cloth gaiters, which were _de rigueur_ at the court
of Fath Ali Shah, are now only seen at the _salams_ or official levees
of Nasr-ed-Din Shah. Nor does the young dandy of modern Tehran wear the
lofty black sheepskin _kolah_ or hat, indented at the top and stuck on
sideways, as described by Morier. A lower and less pretentious variety
of the same head-gear adorns the brow of the _fin de siècle_ Iranian
gallant. Secondly, the Tehran of Hajji Baba has been transmogrified
almost out of existence; and, in particular, the fortified Ark or Palace
of the earlier Kajars, with its watch-towers and the open porch over
the gates in which the king sat to see reviews, and the lofty octagonal
tower from which Zeenab was thrown, have been entirely obliterated in
the more spacious architectural reconstruction of the reigning Shah.
Unchanged, however, are those customs by which now, as then, the royal
coffers require to be replenished or the royal purse relieved by the
application of a judicious spur to the backward generosity of the
subjects of the King of Kings. Still, as described in Hajji Baba,
is the visit of the Sovereign to any of his officials the recognised
intimation that a large money equivalent is expected for the unsolicited
honour. Still must the presents of the king be repaid by gifts of more
than corresponding value to the bearers of the royal favour. Still
is the sending of the royal _khalat_ or dress of office adopted as an
ingenious method of discharging the arrears of wages due to the royal
ministers or servants. In chapter xxxiii. the sub-lieutenant to the
chief executioner gives an admirable account, as true now as when
penned, of the methods by which salaries are capable of being recruited
in Persia; and the speech of the grand vizier in chapter lxxviii.,
on political morality as interpreted in that country, would, I am
confident, have been enthusiastically re-echoed by every subsequent
incumbent of that high office.
The art, however, in which Morier especially excels is of introducing,
so to speak by a side wind, as a subordinate incident in the narrative,
or as a spontaneous comment on the lips of the various _dramatis
personae_, informing and luminous knowledge upon the local charactistics
of places, or the social customs of peoples. For instance, he takes
advantage of being at Meshed to bring in the passion-play of Hussein, as
annually enacted by the Shiah Mohammedans in the month of Moharrem; of
mentioning Herat to introduce the _bad-i-sad-o-bist-ruz_ or famous wind
of 120 days; of conducting his hero to Kum, to describe the curious
prescription of _bast_ or sanctuary that still adheres to that sacred
spot; and of his arrival at Bagdad, to inflict upon him the familiar
pest of the Bagdad pimple. His description of camp-life among the
Turcomans is only surpassed in fidelity by his corresponding picture of
the vagrant existence of the border Cûrds; nor is there anywhere to
be found a more dramatic realisation of the incidents of a nomad
encampment, the arrangement and meals and etiquette, the striking of
the tents, and the straggling march of the tribes with their flocks
and herds, than in the narrative of the child-hood of the Cûrdish slave
Zeenab.
It is to be noted that Morier represents her as a Yezeedi or
devil-worshipper (though it is more than doubtful whether the Yezeedis
could ever with justice be so described), and attributes her origin to
one of the incestuous nocturnal orgies that were said to be practised by
that people, and that gave rise to the epithet Chiragh Sunderun, or Lamp
Extinguishers. It is to be observed, however, that in such a case
Zeenab would have known her parentage on the maternal rather than on
the paternal side; whereas Morier, by a curious error, represents her
as knowing her father, but being in ignorance of the identity of her
mother.
In different chapters of Hajji Baba we are further initiated into the
domestic life and habits of the Persians. We learn that it is considered
a mark of respect for a man to keep his hands and feet hidden beneath
the folds of his dress. In two places we have mention of the profoundly
Persian device of conforming with the letter, while trifling with
the spirit of the religious law, by neatly ripping open a seam as a
substitute for rending the fabric of a garment in token of woe. We are
reminded of the prohibition from exacting interest that is imposed
upon the true believer, and of the still common custom of divination by
extracting a _fall_ from the pages of Hafiz or Saadi. We may gain a good
deal of information about the culinary methods of Turcomans, Persians,
and Cûrds; the operations of the _hammam_ or bath are disclosed to
us, and we are surreptitously introduced along with the hero to the
mysteries the Persian harem or _anderûn_, and its petty existence,
inane frivolity, open jealousy, and clandestine intrigue. The death and
funeral of the old barber provide an opportunity for a valuable account
of Persian customs upon those occasions.
Similarly the story of Yûsûf and Mariam is utilised to furnish an
equally interesting description of the Armenian ritual in cases of
betrothal and marriage. Incidentally the return of the poet Asker from
his captivity among the Turcomans acquaints us with the curious habit of
bringing back a person supposed to be dead, not by the door, but through
the roof; and when Hajji Baba, from the terrace of the doctors house,
listens to the distant din of the kings band, the crash of the drums,
and the swell of the trumpets, announcing sunset, he is alluding to a
custom that has prevailed for centuries in all the Mohammedan courts
of Central Asia and India, that is supposed to be a relic of extinct
sun-worship, and that is still observed in seats of royal or princely
rule, alike at Tehran, Ispahan and Kabul.
Mention should not be omitted, in passing, of the perfect familiarity
of the author both with cultured and colloquial Persian and with the
Persian classics. An Oriental metaphor, however hyperbolical, slips as
easily from his lips as though it had always rested there. Quotations
from Hafiz and Saadi play as large and as apposite a part in his
dialogue as they do to this day in the conversation of any well-educated
Asiatic who has been brought up in countries where Persian is the
language of literature and fashion. No one who has not been in the East
can fully appreciate the talent for self-detachment and for successful
assimilation of an alien mode of thought and expression which such an
exercise demands.
Nor, though this is beside the main purpose of the work, should we shut
our eyes to the side-lights which are thrown upon foreign nations;
and which, while they lend additional testimony to the insight of the
writer, are invaluable as showing the point of view from which European
institutions and customs were then and are still for the most part
regarded by the Asiatic Mussulman. How amusing is the description,
placed in chapter xix., in the mouth of the Chief Physician, of the main
external differences between Persians and Europeans, and in the ensuing
chapter, of the contemporary costume, regarded by the Persians as so
improper, of the English doctor who came in the train of Sir Harford
Jones. In those days the only Feringhis known to the Persians were the
English, the Russians, and the French; and it no doubt was a matter of
genuine surprise to the Persian ambassador to find when he arrived at
Constantinople that the Franks consisted of many nations with as many
kings. The Persians were particularly concerned to find out the truth
about the infidel Boonapoort, whose career they much admired from its
supposed resemblance to that of their own hero Nadir Shah. Nor is there
less humour in Hajji Babas attempt to make progress in the study of
their language by writing down the words that he heard most frequently
in the conversation of the French envoys, viz. sacré, Paris, and
lEmpereur. That the Persian Court was thoroughly alive to the jealous
and interested struggle of the two Powers, England and France, to
acquire political ascendency at Tehran, is sufficiently evident from the
history of the period, but is admirably illustrated by the diplomatic
argument placed in chapter lxxvi in the mouth of Fath Ali Shah. Finally,
can a pupil of Party Government, and much more a member of the House of
Commons, read without a delicious emotion this description of the system
under which is conducted the government of the greatest empire in the
world?--
Then they have certain houses full of madmen, who meet half the year
round for the purpose of quarrelling. If one set says white, the other
cries black; and they throw more words away in settling a common
question than would suffice one of our _muftis_ during a whole reign.
In short, nothing can be settled in the state, be it only whether a
rebellious Aga is to have his head cut off and his property
confiscated, or some such trifle, until these people have wrangled.
Such are among the many merits of this admirable, and, I would fain add,
immortal book. Even were the Persians be blotted out of existence as
a nation, even though Tehran, and Meshed, and Shiraz were to share
the fate of Persepolis and Susa, it would yet remain as a portrait of
unrivalled humour and accuracy of a people who, though now in
their decadence, have played an immense and still play a not wholly
insignificant part in the complex drama of Asiatic politics. It is the
picture of a people, light-hearted, nimble-witted, and volatile, but
subtle, hypocritical, and insincere; metaphysicians and casuists,
courtiers and rogues, gentlemen and liars, _hommes desprit_ and yet
incurable cowards. To explain the history and to elucidate the character
of this composite people great tomes have been written. I am conscious
myself of having added no inconsiderable quota to their bulk; but if
all this solid literature were to be burned by an international hangman
to-morrow, and were Hajji Baba and the Sketches of Sir John Malcolm
alone to survive, I believe that the future diplomatist or traveller who
visited Persia, or the scholar who explored it from a distance, would
from their pages derive more exact information about Persian manners,
and acquire a surer insight into Persian character, than he would gain
from years of independent study or months of local residence. Together
the two works are an epitome of modern and moribund Iran.
GEORGE N. CURZON.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Of Hajji Babas birth and education.
CHAPTER II
Hajji Baba commences his travels--His encounter with the Turcomans, and
his captivity.
CHAPTER III
Into what hands Hajji Baba falls, and the fortune which his razors
proved to him.
CHAPTER IV
Of his ingenuity in rescuing his masters money from the Turcoman, and
of his determination to keep it.
CHAPTER V
Hajji Baba becomes a robber in his own defence, and invades his native
city.
CHAPTER VI
Concerning the three prisoners taken by the Turcomans, and of the booty
made in the caravanserai.
CHAPTER VII
Hajji Baba evinces a feeling disposition--History of the poet Asker.
CHAPTER VIII
Hajji Baba escapes from the Turcomans--The meaning of falling from the
frying-pan into the fire illustrated.
CHAPTER IX
Hajji Baba, in his distress, becomes a saka, or water-carrier.
CHAPTER X
He makes a soliloquy, and becomes an itinerant vendor of smoke.
CHAPTER XI
History of Dervish Sefer, and of two other dervishes.
CHAPTER XII
Hajji Baba finds that fraud does not remain unpunished, even in this
world--He makes fresh plans.
CHAPTER XIII
Hajji Baba leaves Meshed, is cured of his sprain, and relates a story.
CHAPTER XIV
Of the man he meets, and the consequences of the encounter.
CHAPTER XV
Hajji Baba reaches Tehran, and goes to the poets house.
CHAPTER XVI
He makes plans for the future, and is involved in a quarrel.
CHAPTER XVII
He puts on new clothes, goes to the bath, and appears in a new
character.
CHAPTER XVIII
The poet returns from captivity--the consequences of it for Hajji Baba.
CHAPTER XIX
Hajji Baba gets into the service of the kings physician--Of the manner
he was first employed by him.
CHAPTER XX
He succeeds in deceiving two of the faculty, getting a pill from one,
and a piece of gold from the other.
CHAPTER XXI
He describes the manner in which the Shah of Persia takes medicine.
CHAPTER XXII
Hajji Baba asks the doctor for a salary, and of the success of his
demand.
CHAPTER XXIII
He becomes dissatisfied with his situation, is idle, and falls in love
CHAPTER XXIV
He has an interview with the fair Zeenab, who relates how she passes her
time in the doctors harem.
CHAPTER XXV
The lovers meet again, and are very happy--Hajji Baba sings.
CHAPTER XXVI
The history of Zeenab, the Cûrdish slave.
CHAPTER XXVII
Of the preparations made by the chief physician to receive the Shah as
his guest, and of the great expense which threatened him.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Concerning the manner of the Shahs reception; of the present made him,
and the conversation which ensued.
CHAPTER XXIX
A description of the entertainment, which is followed by an event
destructive to Hajji Babas happiness.
CHAPTER XXX
Hajji Baba meets with a rival in the Shah himself, and loses the fair
object of his affections.
CHAPTER XXXI
His reflections on the loss of Zeenab--He is suddenly called upon to
exert his skill as a doctor.
CHAPTER XXXII
Hajji is appointed to a situation under government--He becomes an
executioner.
CHAPTER XXXIII
He accompanies the Shah to his camp, and gets some insight into his
profession.
CHAPTER XXXIV
Employed in his official capacity, Hajji Baba gives a specimen of
Persian despotism.
CHAPTER XXXV
Fortune, which pretended to frown, in fact smiles upon Hajji Baba, and
promotes him to be sub-lieutenant to the chief executioner.
CHAPTER XXXVI
Although by trade an executioner, he shows a feeling heart--He meets
with a young man and woman in distress.
CHAPTER XXXVII
The history of Yûsûf, the Armenian, and his wife Mariam.
CHAPTER XXXVIII
Sequel of the foregoing history, and of the resolution which Hajji Baba
takes in consequence.
CHAPTER XXXIX
The Armenian Yûsûf proves himself worthy of Hajji Babas confidence.
CHAPTER XL
Hajji Baba gives an account of his proceedings to his superiors, and
shows himself a friend to the distressed.
CHAPTER XLI
He describes an expedition against the Russians, and does ample justice
to the cowardice of his chief.
CHAPTER XLII
He proceeds to the kings camp, and gives a specimen of lying on a grand
scale.
CHAPTER XLIII
He relates a horrid tale, the consequences of which plunge him in the
greatest misery.
CHAPTER XLIV
Hajji Baba meets with an old friend, who cheers him up, gives him good
advice, and secures him from danger.
CHAPTER XLV
He takes refuge in a sanctuary, where his melancholy thoughts are
diverted by a curious story.
CHAPTER XLVI
He becomes a saint, and associates with the most celebrated divine in
Persia.
CHAPTER XLVII
Hajji Baba is robbed by his friend, and left utterly destitute; but is
released from his confinement.
CHAPTER XLVIII
Hajji Baba reaches Ispahan, and his paternal roof, just time enough to
close the eyes of his dying father.
CHAPTER XLIX
He becomes heir to property which is not to be found, and his suspicions
thereon.
CHAPTER L
Showing the steps he takes to discover his property, and who the
diviner, Teez Negah, was.
CHAPTER LI
Of the diviners success in making discoveries, and of the resolution
which Hajji Baba takes in consequence.
CHAPTER LII
Hajji Baba quits his mother, and becomes the scribe to a celebrated man
of the law.
CHAPTER LIII
The mollah Nadân gives an account of his new scheme for raising money,
and for making men happy.
CHAPTER LIV
Hajji Baba becomes a promoter of matrimony, and of the register he
keeps.
CHAPTER LV
Of the man Hajji Baba meets, thinking him dead; and of the marriage
which he brings about.
CHAPTER LVI
Showing how the ambition of the mollah Nadân involves both him and his
disciples in ruin.
CHAPTER LVII
Hajji Baba meets with an extraordinary adventure in the bath, which
miraculously saves him from the horrors of despair.
CHAPTER LVIII
Of the consequences of the adventure, which threaten danger, but end in
apparent good fortune.
CHAPTER LIX
Hajji Baba does not shine in honesty--The life and adventures of the
mollah Nadân.
CHAPTER LX
Hajji and the mollah make plans suited to their critical situation,
showing that no confidence can exist between rogues.
CHAPTER LXI
The punishment due to Hajji Baba falls upon Nadân, which makes the
former a staunch predestinarian.
CHAPTER LXII
Hajji Baba hears an extraordinary sequel to his adventure in the bath,
and feels all the alarms of guilt.
CHAPTER LXIII
He is discovered and seized, but his good stars again befriend and set
him free.
CHAPTER LXIV
He reaches Bagdad, meets his first master, and turns his views to
commerce.
CHAPTER LXV
He purchases pipe-sticks, and inspires a hopeless passion in the breast
of his old masters daughter.
CHAPTER LXVI
He becomes a merchant, leaves Bagdad, and accompanies a caravan to
Constantinople.
CHAPTER LXVII
Hajji Baba makes a conquest of the widow of an emir, which at first
alarms, but afterwards elates him.
CHAPTER LXVIII
He obtains an interview with the fair Shekerleb, makes a settlement upon
her, and becomes her husband.
CHAPTER LXIX
From a vender of pipe-sticks he becomes a rich Aga, but feels all the
inconvenience of supporting a false character.
CHAPTER LXX
His desire to excite envy lays the foundation of his disgrace--He
quarrels with his wife.
CHAPTER LXXI
He is discovered to be an impostor, loses his wife, and the wide world
is again before him.
CHAPTER LXXII
An incident in the street diverts his despair--He seeks consolation in
the advice of old Osman.
CHAPTER LXXIII
In endeavouring to gain satisfaction from his enemies he acquires a
friend--Some account of Mirza Firouz.
CHAPTER LXXIV
He becomes useful to an ambassador, who makes him a partaker of his
confidence.
CHAPTER LXXV
Of his first essays in public life, and of the use he was to his
employer.
CHAPTER LXXVI
Hajji Baba writes the history of Europe and with his ambassador returns
to Persia.
CHAPTER LXXVII
The ceremony of receiving a Frank ambassador at the court is described.
CHAPTER LXXVIII
Hajji is noticed by the grand vizier, and is the means of gratifying
that ministers favourite passion.
CHAPTER LXXIX
Of the manner in which he turned his influence to use, and how he was
again noticed by the vizier.
CHAPTER LXXX
The conclusion--Misfortune seems to take leave of Hajji Baba, who
returns to his native city a greater man than when he first left.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Hajji shaves the camel-driver.
The chaoûsh tells what he will do when he meets the robbers.
Hajjis master and the great Turkoman.
Hajji Baba bleeds the Banou.
Turcomans attack the caravanserai.
The princes tent-pitcher strikes Hajji over the mouth with his slipper.
Hajji carries the great water-sack.
The dervish slays the ape.
Hajji and the disguised Mohtesib.
Hajji receives the ferosles.
Hajji is cauterised for his sprain.
The shaving of the ass.
I pretended to receive a violent twitch.
Hajji and Zeenab.
Hajji sings to Zeenab.
The khanum ill-treats Zeenab.
The procession of slaves before the Shah.
An explosion took place in the very room.
I beheld her fair form in the air, falling down the giddy height.
The two Russians drive back the Persians.
Death of Zeenab.
Hajji takes sanctuary.
The baked head.
O mercy! mercy! cried Kior Ali.
To where the dead body of a Jew lay extended.
Hajjis father dying.
The diviner and the rice.
Hajji interviews the fair candidates for marriage.
The mock marriage.
The degradation of Hajji and the mollah.
Drowning of the mollah bashi.
Hajji in the mollah bashis house.
Hajji leaves the village hurriedly after collecting the money.
Hajji meets Osman Aga again.
The curing of Hajji Baba.
Shekerleb approaches Hajji.
Hajji curses Shekerleb and her relations.
Hajji disrobes.
Hajji relates his story to Mirza Firouz.
The British ambassadors and the Shah.
INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE
TO THE REV. DR. FUNDGRUBEN CHAPLAIN TO THE SWEDISH EMBASSY AT THE
OTTOMAN PORTE
ESTEEMED AND LEARNED SIR, You will be astonished to see yourself
addressed by one, of whose existence you are, perhaps, ignorant, and
whose name doubtless long since been erased from your memory. But when
I put you in mind of an English traveller, who (forgive my precision)
sixteen years ago was frequently admitted to enjoy the pleasure of your
conversation, and who was even honoured with a peculiar share of your
attention, perhaps then you may indulgently recollect him, and patiently
submit to peruse the following volumes, to which he now takes the
liberty of prefixing your name.
At the time to which I allude, your precious hours were employed in
searching into the very depths of hieroglyphic lore, and you were then
almost entirely taken up in putting together the fruits of those your
researches, which have since appeared, and astonished the world in that
very luminous work, entitled The Biography of Celebrated Mummies. I
have frequently since reflected upon the debt of gratitude which you
imposed by allowing me to engross so much of your time, and upon matters
of comparatively trivial importance, when your mind must have been
so much engaged upon those grave and weighty subjects, which you have
treated with such vast learning, clearness, and perspicuity in your
above-mentioned treatise. In particular I have ever borne in mind a
conversation when one beautiful moonlight night, reclining upon a sofa
of the Swedish palace, and looking out of those windows which command
so magnificent and extensive a view of the city and harbour of
Constantinople, we discussed subjects which had reference to the life
and manners of the extraordinary people its inhabitants.
Excuse me for reporting back your own words; but as the subject
interested me much, I recollect well the observation you made, that no
traveller had ever satisfied you in his delineation of Asiatic manners;
for, said you, in in general their mode of treating the subject is
by sweeping assertions, which leave no precise image on the mind, or by
disjointed and insulated facts, which, for the most part, are only of
consequence as they relate to the individual traveller himself. We were
both agreed, that of all the books which have ever been published on the
subject, the Arabian Nights Entertainments give the truest picture of
the Orientals, and that, for the best of all reasons, because it is the
work of one of their own community. But, said you, notwithstanding
they have been put into an European dress, weeded of their numerous
repetitions, and brought as near to the level of our ideas as can be,
still few would be likely to understand them thoroughly who have not
lived some time in the East, and who have not had frequent opportunities
of associating with its inhabitants. For, you added, opening a volume
of that work at the same time, to make a random observation upon the
first instance which occurs here in the history of the three Calendars,
I see that Anima, after having requested the porter whom she had met to
follow her with his basket, stopped at a closed door, and having rapped,
a Christian with a long white beard opened it, into whose hand she put
some money without saying a single word. But the Christian, who knew
what she wanted, went in again, and a little while after returned,
bringing a large pitcher full of excellent wine. You observed, that
although we who lived in Turkey might know that wine was in most cities
prohibited to be sold openly, and that if it was to be found it would be
in the house of a Christian, many of whom disposed of it in a mysterious
manner to the Mohammedans; yet that circumstance would not immediately
occur to the mere European reader, who, perhaps, would expect something
to be forthcoming in the future narrative, from what is, in fact, only a
trait of common life.
I then suggested, that, perhaps, if an European would give a correct
idea of Oriental manners, which would comprehend an account of the
vicissitudes attendant upon the life of an Eastern, of his feelings
about his government, of his conduct in domestic life, of his hopes and
plans of advancement, of his rivalities and jealousies, in short, of
everything that is connected both with the operations of the mind and
those of the body, perhaps his best method would be to collect so many
facts and anecdotes of actual life as would illustrate the different
stations and ranks which compose a Mussulman community, and then work
them into one connected narrative, upon the plan of that excellent
picture of European life, Gil Blas of Le Sage.
To this you were pleased to object, because you deemed it almost
impossible that an European, even supposing him to have rejected his
own faith and adopted the Mohammedan, as in the case of Monsieur de
Bonneval, who rose to high rank in the Turkish government, and of
Messrs. C---- and B---- in more modern times (the former a _Topchi
Bashi_, or general of artillery, the latter an attendant upon the
Capitan Pasha), could ever so exactly seize those nice shades and
distinctions of purpose, in action and manner, which a pure Asiatic only
could. To support your argument, you illustrated it by observing, that
neither education, time, nor talent, could ever give to a foreigner, in
any given country, so complete a possession of its language as to make
him pass for a native; and that, do what he would, some defect in idiom,
or even some too great precision in grammar, would detect him. But,
said you, if a native Oriental could ever be brought to understand so
much of the taste of Europeans, in investigations of this nature, as to
write a full and detailed history of his own life, beginning with his
earliest education, and going through to its decline, we might then
stand a chance of acquiring the desired knowledge.
This conversation, reverend sir, has remained treasured up in my mind;
for having lived much in Eastern countries, I never lost sight of the
possibility of either falling in with a native who might have written
his own adventures, or of forming such an intimacy with one, as might
induce him faithfully to recite them, and thus afford materials for the
work which my imagination had fondly conceived might be usefully put
together. I have always held in respect most of the customs and habits
of the Orientals, many of which, to the generality of Europeans, appear
so ridiculous and disgusting, because I have ever conceived them to be
copies of ancient originals. For, who can think the custom of eating
with ones fingers disgusting, as now done in the East, when two or more
put their hands into the same mess, and at the same time read that part
of our sacred history which records, He that dippeth his hand with me
in the dish, etc.? I must own, every time that, dining with my Eastern
friends, I performed this very natural operation (although, at the same
time, let it be understood that I have a great respect for knives and
forks), I could not help feeling myself to be a living illustration of
an ancient custom, and a proof of the authenticity of those records
upon which our happiness depends. Whenever I heard the exclamation so
frequently used in Persia, on the occasion of little miseries, What
ashes are fallen on my head! instead of seeing anything ridiculous in
the expression, I could not but meditate on the coincidence which
so forcibly illustrated one of the commonest expressions of grief as
recorded in ancient writ.
It is an ingenious expression which I owe to you, sir, that the manners
of the East are, as it were, stereotype. Although I do not conceive that
they are quite so strongly marked, yet, to make my idea understood,
I would say that they are like the last impressions taken from a
copperplate engraving, where the whole of the subject to be represented
is made out, although parts of it from much use have been obliterated.
If I may be allowed the expression, a picturesqueness pervades the whole
being of Asiatics, which we do not find in our own countries, and in
my eyes makes everything relating to them so attractive as to create a
desire to impart to others the impressions made upon myself. Thus, in
viewing a beautiful landscape, the traveller, be he a draughtsman or
not, _tant bien que mal_, endeavours to make a representation of it;
and thus do I apologise for venturing before the public even in the
character of a humble translator.
Impressed with such feelings you may conceive the fulness of my joy,
when not very long after the conversation above mentioned, having
returned to England, I was fortunate enough to be appointed to fill an
official situation in the suite of an ambassador, which our government
found itself under the necessity of sending to the Shah of Persia.
Persia, that imaginary seat of Oriental splendour! that land of poets
and roses! that cradle of mankind, that uncontaminated source of Eastern
manners lay before me, and I was delighted with the opportunities
which would be afforded me of pursuing my favourite subject. I had an
undefined feeling about the many countries I was about to visit, which
filled my mind with vast ideas of travel.
Sive per Syrtes iter aestuosas,
Sive facturus per inhospitalem
Caucasum, vel quae loca fabulosus
Lambit Hydaspes.
I was in some degree like a French lady of my acquaintance, who had
so general a notion of the East, that upon taking leave of her, she
enjoined me to get acquainted with a friend of hers, living, as she
said, _quelque part dans les Indes_, and whom, to my astonishment, I
found residing at the _Cape of Good Hope!_
I will not say that all my dreams were realised; for, perhaps, no
country in the world less comes up to ones expectation than Persia,
whether in the beauties of nature, or the dress and magnificence of its
inhabitants. But in what regards manners and customs, it appears to me
that no Asiatics bear so strong the stamp of an ancient origin as
they. Even in their features I thought to have distinguished a decided
originality of expression; which was confirmed when I remarked, that the
numerous faces seen among the sculptures of Persepolis, so perfect as
if chiselled but yesterday, were so many likenesses of modern Persians,
more particularly of the natives of the province of Fars.
During my long residence there, I never lost the recollection of our
conversation on the sofa of the Swedish palace; and every time I added
an anecdote or an observation illustrative of Oriental manners to my
store, or a sketch to my collection, I always thought of the Reverend
Doctor Fundgruben, and sighed after that imaginary manuscript which some
imaginary native of the East must have written as a complete exposition
of the life of his countrymen.
I will not say, learned sir, that the years I passed in Persia were
years of happiness, or that during that time I could so far keep up an
illusion, that I was living among the patriarchs in the first ages of
the world, or among those Persians whose monarchs gave laws to almost
the whole of Asia: no, I sighed for shaven chins and swallow-tailed
coats; and, to speak the truth, though addressing an antiquary of your
celebrity, I felt that I would rather be one among the crowd in the
Graben at Vienna, or in our own Bond Street, than at liberty to range in
the ease of solitude among the ruins of the palaces of Darius.
At length the day of my departure came, and I left Persia with books
filled with remarks, and portfolios abounding in original sketches.
My ideas during the journey were wholly taken up with schemes for the
future, and, perhaps, like every other traveller, I nourished a sort of
sly and secret conviction that I had seen and observed things which
no one before me had ever done; and that when I came to publish to the
world the fruits of my discoveries, I should create a sensation equal at
least to the discovery of a new planet.
I passed at the foot of the venerable Mount Ararat, and was fortunate
enough to meet with a favourable moment for traversing the cold regions
of Arminia, _nec Armeniis in oris stat glacies iners menses per
omnes_; and I crossed the dangerous borders of Turkey and Persia
without any event occurring worthy of record. But I must request your
indulgent attention to what befell me at Tocat; for it is to that
occurrence you are indebted for this letter, and the world for the
accompanying volume.
It was at the close of a fatiguing days journey, that I and my escort,
consisting of two Tatars, two servants, and the conductors of our
baggage and post-horses, entered the city of Tocat. Our approach was as
usual announced by the howls of the _Surujees_, who more than usually
exerted their lungs in my service, because they felt that these sounds,
the harbingers of rest and entertainment, could but be agreeable to
weary and jaded travellers like ourselves. The moon was shining bright
as our cavalcade clattered over the long paved road leading to the city,
and lighted up, in awful grandeur, the turret-topped peaks which rear
their heads on the crest of the surrounding abrupt crags. On entering
the post-house, I was immediately conducted into the travellers room,
where, having disencumbered myself of my cloak, arms, and heavy boots,
and putting myself at ease in my slippers and loose dress, I quietly
enjoyed, the cup of strong coffee and the _chibouk_, which were
immediately handed to me, and after that my dish of rice, my tough fowl,
and my basin of sour curds.
I was preparing to take my nights rest on the sofas of the post-house,
where my bed had been spread, when a stranger unceremoniously walked
into the room, and stood before me. I remarked that he was a Persian,
and, by his dress, a servant. At any other moment I should have been
happy to see and converse with him; because having lived so long in
Persia, I felt myself, in some measure, identified with its natives, and
now in a country where both nations were treated with the same degree of
contempt, my fellow-feeling for them became infinitely stronger.
I discovered that he had a tale of misery to unfold, from the very
doleful face that he was pleased to make on the occasion, and I was not
mistaken. It was this,--that his master, one Mirza Hajji Baba, now on
his return from Constantinople, where he had been employed on the Shahs
business, had fallen seriously ill, and that he had been obliged to stop
at Tocat; that he had taken up his abode at the caravanserai, where he
had already spent a week, during which time he had been attended by a
Frank doctor, an inhabitant of Tocat, who, instead of curing, had, in
fact, brought him to his last gasp,--that having heard of my arrival
from Persia, he had brightened up and requested, without loss of time,
that I would call upon him, for he was sure the presence of one coming
from his own country would alone restore him to health. In short, his
servant, as is usual on such occasions, finished his speech by saying,
that, with the exception of God and myself, he had nothing left to
depend upon in this life.
I immediately recollected who Mirza Hajji Baba was; for though I had
lost sight of him for several years, yet once on a time I had seen much
of him, and had taken great interest in everything that regarded him,
owing to his having been in England, whither, in quality of secretary,
he accompanied the first ambassador which Persia had sent in modern
times. He had since been employed in various ways in the government,
sometimes in high, and sometimes in lower situations, undergoing the
vicissitudes which are sure to attend every Persian; and at length had
been sent to Constantinople, as resident agent at the Porte on the part
of the Shah.
I did not hesitate an instant, tired and jaded as I was, immediately
to accompany his servant; and in the same garb in which I was, only
throwing a cloak over my shoulders, I walked in all haste to the
caravanserai.
There, on a bed spread in the middle of a small room, surrounded by
several of his servants, I found the sick Mirza, looking more like
a corpse than a living body. When I had first known him he was a
remarkably handsome man, with a fine aquiline nose, oval face, an
expressive countenance, and a well-made person. He had now passed the
meridian of life, but his features were still fine, and his eye full of
fire. As soon as he saw he recognised me, and the joy which he felt at
the meeting broke out in a great animation of his features, and in the
thousand exclamations so common to a Persians lips.
See, said he, what a fortunate destiny mine is, that at a moment
when I thought the angel of death was about to seize me for his own, the
angel of life comes and blows a fresh existence into my nostrils.
After his first transports were over, I endeavoured to make him explain
what was the nature of his complaint, and how it had hitherto been
treated. I saw enough by his saffron hue, that bile was the occasion of
his disorder; and, as I had had great experience in treating it during
my stay in Persia, I did not hesitate to cheer up his hopes by an
assurance of being able to relieve him.
What can I say? said he. I thought at first that I had been struck
with the plague. My head ached intensely, my eyes became dim, I had a
pain in my side, and a nauseous taste in my mouth, and expected to die
on the third day; but no, the symptoms still continue, and I am alive.
As soon as I arrived here, I enquired for a physician, and was told
there were two practitioners in the town, a Jew and a Frank. Of course I
chose the latter; but tis plain, that my evil star had a great deal to
say in the choice I made. I have not yet been able to discover to what
tribe among the Franks he belongs,--certainly he is not an Englishman.
But a more extraordinary ass never existed in this world, be his nation
what it may. I began by telling him that I was very, very ill. All he
said in answer, with a grave face, was _Mashallah!_ Praise be to God!
and when, in surprise and rage, I cried out, But I shall die, man!
with the same grave face, he said, _Inshallah!_ Please God! My
servants were about to thrust him from the room, when they found that
he knew nothing of our language excepting these two words, which he had
only learnt to misapply. Supposing that he still might know something
of his profession, I agreed to take his medicine; but I might have saved
myself the trouble, for I have been daily getting worse.
Here the Mirza stopped to take breath. I did not permit him to exert
himself further; but, without loss of time, returned the post-house,
applied to my medicine-chest, and prepared a dose of calomel, which was
administered that evening with due solemnity. I then retired to rest.
The next morning I repaired to his bedside, and there, to my great
satisfaction, found that my medicine had performed wonders. The
patients eyes were opened, the headache had in great measure ceased,
and he was, in short, a different person. I was received by him and his
servants with all the honours due to the greatest sage, and they could
not collect words sufficiently expressive of their admiration of my
profound skill. As they were pouring forth their thanks and gratitude,
looking up I saw a strange figure in the room, whose person I must take
the liberty to describe, so highly ludicrous and extravagant did it
appear. He was of the middle size, rather inclined to be corpulent, with
thick black eyebrows, dark eyes, a three days beard, and mustachios.
He wore the Turkish bag dress, from his shoulders downwards, yellow
_pabouches_, shawl to his waist, and carried a long cane in his hand;
but from his shoulders up he was an European, a neckcloth, his hair
dressed in the _aile de pigeon_ fashion, a thick tail clubbed, and
over all an old-fashioned, three-cornered laced hat. This redoubtable
personage made me a bow, and at the same time accosted me in Italian. I
was not long in discovering that he was my rival the doctor, and that he
was precisely what, from the description of the Mirza, I expected him
to be, viz. an itinerant quack, who, perhaps, might once have mixed
medicines in some apothecarys shop in Italy or Constantinople, and who
had now set up for himself in this remote corner of Asia where he might
physic and kill at his pleasure.
I did not shrink from his acquaintance, because I was certain that
the life and adventures of such a person must be highly curious and
entertaining, and I cordially encouraged him in his advances, hoping
thus to acquire his confidence.
He very soon informed me who he was, and what were his pursuits, and
did not seem to take the least umbrage at my having prescribed for
his patient without previously consulting him. His name was Ludovico
Pestello, and he pretended to have studied at Padua, where he had
got his diploma. He had not long arrived at Constantinople, with the
intention of setting up for himself, where, finding that the city
overflowed with Esculapii, he was persuaded to accompany a Pasha of two
tails to Tocat, who had recently been appointed to its government, and
was there now established as his body physician. I suspected this story
to be fabrication, and undertook to examine his knowledge of physic,
particularly in the case of my friend the Persian Mirza. The galimatia
which he unfolded, as we proceeded, was so extremely ridiculous, and he
puzzled himself so entirely by his answers to the plain questions which
I put, that at length, not being able to proceed, he joined, with the
best good-nature possible, in the horse-laugh, from which I could not
refrain. I made him candidly confess that he knew nothing of medicine,
more than having been servant to a doctor of some eminence at Padua,
where he had picked up a smattering; and that, as all his patients were
heretics and abominable Mussulmans, he never could feel any remorse for
those which, during his practice, he had despatched from this world.
But, _caro Signor Dottore_, said I, how in the name of all that is
sacred, how have you managed hitherto not to have had your bones broken?
Turks are dangerous tools to play with.
Oh, said he, in great unconcern, the Turks believe anything, and I
take care never to give them medicine that can do harm.
But you must have drugs, and you must apply them, said I. Where are
they?
I have different coloured liquids, said he, and as long as there is
bread and water to be had I am never at a loss for a pill. I perform
all my cures with them, accompanied by the words _Inshallah_ and
_Mashallah_!
Bread and water! wonderful! did I exclaim.
_Signor, si_, said he, I sprinkle my pills with a little flour for
the common people, cover them with gold leaf for my higher patients, the
Agas and the Pasha, and they all swallow them without even a wry face.
I was so highly amused by the account which this extraordinary fellow
gave of himself, of the life he led, and of the odd adventures which he
had met with, that I invited him to dine; and were it not for the length
which this letter has already run, I should, perhaps, have thought it
right to make partake of my entertainment by retailing his narrative.
I repaid him, as he said, over and above, by presents from my
medicine-chest, which he assured me would be plentifully sufficient to
administer relief to the whole of Asia Minor.
I could not think of leaving the poor Persian in such hands; and feeling
that I might be the means of saving his life, I determined to remain at
Tocat until I saw him out of danger.
After three days administration of calomel, Hajji Babas complexion was
nearly restored to its original hue; and as he might now be said to be
free from danger, and in a fair way of recovery, I proposed proceeding
on my journey. The poor man could not find words for the expression
of his gratitude, and I saw that he was labouring hard to discover a
present worthy of my acceptance. At length, just before taking my
leave, he desired his servants to leave us alone, and spoke to me in the
following words:--
You have saved my life; you are my old friend and my deliverer. What
can I do to show my gratitude? Of worldly goods I have but few: it is
long since I have received any salary from my government, and the little
money I have here will barely suffice, to take me to my own country.
Besides, I know the English,--they are above such considerations; it
would be in vain to offer them a pecuniary reward. But I have that by me
which, perhaps, may have some value in your eyes; I can assure you that
it has in mine. Ever since I have known your nation, I have remarked
their inquisitiveness, and eagerness after knowledge. Whenever I have
travelled with them, I observed they record their observations in books;
and when they return home, thus make their fellow-countrymen acquainted
with the most distant regions of the globe. Will you believe me, that I,
Persian as I am, have followed their example; and that during the period
of my residence at Constantinople, I have passed my time in writing a
detailed history of my life, which, although that of a very obscure and
ordinary individual, is still so full of vicissitude and adventure, that
I think it would not fail to create an interest if published in Europe?
I offer it to you; and in so doing, I assure you that I wish to show
you the confidence I place in your generosity, for I never would have
offered it to any one else. Will you accept it?
Conceive, my dear sir, conceive my happiness upon hearing this--upon at
length getting into my possession precisely the sort of work which
you so long since had looked upon as a desideratum in the history of
mankind, and which I had utterly despaired of ever seeing in reality.
My eyes, I am sure, glistened with pleasure when I expressed my sense
of the Mirzas liberality; and as fast as I refused his offer (for I
thought it but generous to do so upon the terms he proposed), the more
he pressed it upon me.
As a further inducement, he said, that he was going back to his country,
uncertain if he enjoyed the favour of the Shah; and as he had freely
expressed his sentiments, which included his observations upon England,
he was afraid, should he be in disgrace, and his work be found upon him,
that it might lead to his destruction.
Unable to withstand these entreaties, I at length acceded to his
request, and became the possessor of the manuscript. It forms the
subject of the following work; and tell me, can I dedicate it to any
but him who first awakened my mind to its value? If you will do me the
favour to peruse it, you will find I have done my best endeavour to
adapt it to the taste of European readers, divesting it of the numerous
repetitions, and the tone of exaggeration and hyperbole which pervade
the compositions of the Easterns; but still you will, no doubt, discover
much of that deviation from truth, and perversion of chronology, which
characterise them. However, of the matter contained in the book, this
I must say, that having lived in the country myself during the time to
which it refers, I find that most of the incidents are grounded upon
fact, which, although not adhered to with that scrupulous regard to
truth which we might expect from an European writer, yet are sufficient
to give an insight into manners. Many of them will, no doubt, appear
improbable to those who have never visited the scenes upon which they
were acted; and it is natural it should be so, because, from the nature
of circumstances, such events could only occur in Eastern countries.
A distinct line must ever be drawn between the nations who wear the
hat and those who wear the beard; and they must ever hold each others
stories as improbable, until a more general intercourse of common life
takes place between them. What is moral and virtuous with the one,
is wickedness with the other,--that which the Christian reviles as
abominable, is by the Mohammedan held sacred. Although the contrast
between their respective manners may be very amusing, still it is most
certain that the former will ever feel devoutly grateful that he
is neither subject to Mohammedan rule, nor educated in Mohammedan
principles; whilst the latter, in his turn, looking upon the rest of
mankind as unclean infidels, will continue to hold fast to his bigoted
persuasion, until some powerful interposition of Providence shall dispel
the moral and intellectual darkness which, at present, overhangs so
large a portion of the Asiatic world.
Fearing to increase the size of the work, I have refrained adding the
numerous notes which my long residence in Persia would have enabled
me to do, and have only occasionally made explanations necessary to
understand the narrative. In the same fear, I have not ventured to
take Hajji out of his own country. His remarks upon England during his
residence there, and during his travels, may perhaps be thought worthy
of future notice; and should they be called for, I will do my best
endeavour to interpret his feelings as near to nature as possible.
I must now, dear sir, take my leave, expressing my regret at your
absence from Constantinople on my return from Persia; for had I then
been fortunate enough to meet you, no doubt, from the valuable hints
which you would have afforded me, the work now presented to you would
have been in every way more worthy of your acceptance. But you were
far better engaged; you were seeking another oasis in the wilds of the
desert (that emblem of yourself in hieroglyphic lore), to which, so I
was informed, you expected to have been guided information gained in the
inside wrappers of one of your most interesting mummies.
May your footsteps have been fortunate, and may I live to have the
pleasure of assuring you by word of mouth how truly I am, esteemed and
learned sir,
Your very devoted and Obliged humble servant, PEREGRINE PERSIC.
LONDON, 1st December 1823.
[Illustration: Hajji shaves the camel-driver. 1.jpg]
THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA
CHAPTER I
Of Hajji Babas birth and education.
My father, Kerbelai Hassan, was one of the most celebrated barbers
of Ispahan. He was married, when only seventeen years of age, to the
daughter of a chandler, who lived in the neighbourhood of his shop; but
the connexion was not fortunate, for his wife brought him no offspring,
and he, in consequence, neglected her. His dexterity in the use of a
razor had gained for him, together with no little renown, such great
custom, particularly among the merchants, that after twenty years
industry, he found he could afford to add a second wife to his harem;
and succeeded in obtaining the daughter of a rich money-changer, whose
head he had shaved, during that period, with so much success, that he
made no difficulty in granting his daughter to my father. In order to
get rid, for a while, of the importunities and jealousy of his first
wife, and also to acquire the good opinion of his father-in-law (who,
although noted for clipping money, and passing it for lawful, affected
to be a saint), he undertook a pilgrimage to the tomb of Hosein, at
Kerbelah. He took his new wife with him, and she was delivered of me on
the road. Before the journey took place he was generally known, simply
as Hassan the barber; but ever after he was honoured by the epithet of
Kerbelai; and I, to please my mother, who spoilt me, was called _Hajjî_
or the pilgrim, a name which has stuck to me through life, and procured
for me a great deal of unmerited respect; because, in fact, that
honoured title is seldom conferred on any but those who have made the
great pilgrimage to the tomb of the blessed Prophet of Mecca.
My father having left his business during his absence to his chief
apprentice, resumed it with increased industry on his return; and the
reputation of a zealous Mussulman, which he had acquired by his journey,
attracted the clergy, as well as the merchants, to his shop. It being
intended that I should be brought up to the strap, I should perhaps have
received no more education than was necessary to teach me my prayers,
and I not been noticed by a _mollah_, (or priest), who kept a school
in an adjoining mosque, whom my father (to keep up the character he had
acquired of being a good man) used to shave once a week, as he was wont
to explain, purely for the love of God. The holy man repaid the service
by teaching me to read and write; and I made such progress under his
care, that in two years I could decipher the Koran, and began to write a
legible hand. When not in school I attended the shop, where I learnt the
rudiments of my profession, and when there was a press of customers, was
permitted to practise upon the heads of muleteers and camel-drivers, who
indeed sometimes paid dear for my first essays.
By the time I was sixteen it would be difficult to say whether I was
most accomplished as a barber or a scholar. Besides shaving the head,
cleaning the ears, and trimming the beard, I became famous for my
skill in the offices of the bath. No one understood better than I
the different modes of rubbing or shampooing, as practised in India,
Cashmere, and Turkey; and I had an art peculiar to myself of making the
joints to crack, and my slaps echo.
Thanks to my master, I had learnt sufficiently of our poets to enable
me to enliven conversation with occasional apt quotations from Saadi,
Hafiz, etc.; this accomplishment, added to a good voice, made me
considered as an agreeable companion by all those whose crowns or limbs
were submitted to my operation. In short, it may, without vanity, be
asserted that Hajji Baba was quite the fashion among the men of taste
and pleasure.
My fathers shop being situated near the Royal Caravanserai, the largest
and most frequented in the city, was the common resort of the foreign,
as well as of the resident, merchants; they not unfrequently gave him
something over and above the usual price, for the entertainment they
found in the repartees of his hopeful son. One of them, a Bagdad
merchant, took great fancy to me, and always insisted that I should
attend upon him, in preference even to my more experienced father. He
made me converse with him in Turkish, of which I had acquired a slight
knowledge, and so excited my curiosity by describing the beauties of the
different cities which he had visited, that I soon felt a strong desire
to travel. He was then in want of some one to keep his accounts, and
as I associated the two qualifications of barber and scribe, he made me
such advantageous offers, to enter into his service, that I agreed to
follow him; and immediately mentioned my determination to my father. My
father was very loath to lose me, and endeavoured to persuade me not to
leave a certain profession for one which was likely to be attended with
danger and vicissitudes; but when he found how advantageous were the
merchants offers, and that it was not impossible that I might become
one myself in time, he gradually ceased to dissuade me from going; and
at length gave me his blessing, accompanied by a new case of razors.
My mothers regret for the loss of my society, and her fears for my
safety, derived no alleviation from the prospect of my expected future
aggrandizement; she augured no good from a career begun in the service
of a _Sûni_;[1] but still, as a mark of her maternal affection, she
gave me a bag of broken biscuit, accompanied by a small tin case of
a precious unguent, which, she told me, would cure all fractures, and
internal complaints. She further directed me to leave the house with
my face towards the door, by way of propitiating a happy return from a
journey undertaken under such inauspicious circumstances.
[Illustration: The chaoûsh tells what he will do when he meets the
robbers. 2.jpg]