King ordered HAJEE IBRAHIM to be put to death, his relations to be
seized, his wives to be sold, and his property to be confiscated. His
nephews of course partook of the disaster: one was deprived of his
sight, and remains to this day at _Shiraz_; the youngest, then twenty
years of age, died under the bastinado; and the second, MIRZA ABUL
HASSAN, who was then the Governor of _Shooster_, was dragged to the
capital as a prisoner. The circumstances of his seizure and escape
from death are better described in his own words. He told me, “I was
asleep when the King’s officers entered into my room: they seized me,
stripped me of my clothes, and, tying my hands behind my back, dragged
me to _Koom_, where the King then was; treating me during the march
with all the rigour and intemperance that generally befals a man in
disgrace. The moment I reached _Koom_, the King pronounced the order
for my execution: I was already on my knees, my neck was made bare,
and the executioner had unsheathed his sword to sever my head from my
body, when the hand of the Almighty interposed, and a messenger in
great haste announced my reprieve. I was indebted for my life to a man
who had known me from my boyhood, and who had long cherished me as his
son. This worthy man, by name MIRZA REZA KOULI, the moment he heard
the sentence of death passed upon me, threw himself at the feet of
the King, and, pleading my youth and inoffensiveness, entreated that
I might be pardoned. The King yielded to his entreaties; my pardon
was announced; and I still live to praise the Almighty for his great
goodness and commiseration towards me.”
After his providential escape MIRZA ABUL HASSAN, (fearing that the King
might repent of his lenity towards him) fled from his country, although
he had received his Majesty’s order to go to _Shiraz_, and to remain
there: he left Persia with the determination of never more returning,
until the disgraces of his family had been obliterated, and until the
wrath of the King against him had entirely subsided. He fled first to
_Shooster_, the city in which he had so recently been all-powerful; and
there he experienced the hospitality for which the Arabs are so justly
renowned. As his administration had been lenient and temperate he found
a host of friends ready to relieve him; and on quitting _Shooster_,
miserable and destitute of even the common necessaries of life, the
inhabitants came to him in a crowd and forced seven thousand piastres
upon him. From _Shooster_ he went to _Bussora_, he then crossed through
the heart of Arabia, frequently obliged to proceed on foot, for want
of an animal to carry him, until he reached _Mecca_. On this journey
he visited _Deriyéh_, the capital of ABDUL ASSIZ, the then chief of
the _Wahabees_. From _Mecca_ he went to _Medina_; and having performed
all the devotions of a pilgrim he returned to _Bussora_. At _Bussora_
he learnt that the King was still inveterate against his family;
and, finding an English ship on the point of sailing for India, he
embarked on board of her, and shortly after reached _Calcutta_, at the
time when the Marquis WELLESLEY was Governor-General of India. From
_Calcutta_ he went to _Moorshedabad_, then to _Hyderabad_, _Poonah_,
and _Bombay_; having remained altogether about two years and a half
in India. At _Bombay_ he received a _firman_ from the King to return
to Persia; by which he was assured of the King’s forgiveness, and of
his having been received into favour. He obeyed the _firman_, and ever
since has enjoyed the royal protection. He has not, indeed, occupied
any specific post under government, but has been the _Homme d’Affaires_
to his brother-in-law the _Ameen-ed-Doulah_, second _Vizier_ and Lord
Treasurer, by which means he has been continually in active and useful
life, until he was nominated the King of Persia’s Envoy Extraordinary
to the Court of England.
CHAP. XIII.
TEHERAN.
=I.= TEHERAN--THE KING’S HAREM--FAMILY--PALACE OF THE
TAKHT-A-CADJAR--PRODUCTIONS OF PERSIA--MANUFACTURES--CLIMATE
OF TEHERAN--UNHEALTHINESS--FAITH IN HAFIZ--PERSIAN
MEDICINE--SUPERSTITIONS--ENVIRONS OF TEHERAN--MOUNTAIN
DEMAWEND--RUINS OF REY--ANCIENT PERSIA--GUEBRES.--=II.=
RANKS IN PERSIA--GOVERNMENT--REVENUE--LANDED PROPERTY--ROYAL
TREASURE--COINAGE--ESTABLISHMENTS OF THE CROWN--POPULATION OF
PERSIA--TRIBES--MILITARY SERVICE--BODY-GUARDS--GUARDS OF THE
CITY--PERSIAN DRESSES--CHARACTER.
_=TEHERAN=_, the present capital of Persia, is situated, as I
ascertained by a meridional observation, in lat. 35°. 40´. It is in
circumference between four and a half and five miles, if we might judge
from the length of our ride round the walls, which indeed occupied
an hour and a half: but from this we must deduct something for the
deviations necessary from the intervention of the gardens, and the
slaughter-houses. There are six gates, inlaid with coloured bricks and
with figures of tigers and other beasts in rude mosaic: their entrance
is lofty and domed; and they are certainly better than those that we
had then seen in any of the fortified places of Persia. To the N. W.
are separate towers. We saw two pieces of artillery, one apparently a
mortar, the other a long gun. The ditch in some parts had fallen in,
and was there supported by brick work.
The town itself is about the size of _Shiraz_; but it has not so many
public edifices: and, as it is built of bricks baked in the sun, the
whole has a mud-like appearance. Of the mosques, the principal is the
_Mesjid Shah_, a structure not yet finished. There are six others,
small and insignificant; and three or four _medressés_ or colleges.
There are said to be one hundred and fifty _caravanserais_, and one
hundred and fifty _hummums_ or baths. There are two _maidans_; one in
the town, the other within the _ark_, a square fortified palace, which
contains all the establishments of the King, is surrounded by a wall
and ditch, and is entered by two gates.
The _Harem_ is most numerous, and contains a female establishment as
extensive as the public household. All the officers of the King’s
court are there represented by females. There are women _feroshes_,
and there is a woman _ferosh bashee_; women _chatters_, and a woman
_chatter bashee_; there is a woman _arz beggee_, and a woman _ish
agassi_; in short, there is a female duplicate for every male officer;
and the King’s service in the interior of the _harem_ is carried on
with the same etiquette and regularity, as the exterior economy of his
state. The women of the _harem_, who are educated to administer to the
pleasures of the King by singing and dancing, are instructed by the
best masters that the country can supply. An Armenian at _Shiraz_ was
unfortunately renowned for performing excellently on the _kamouncha_.
The fame of his skill reached the Kings ears, and he was immediately
ordered up to court on the charge of being the best _kamouncha_ player
in his Majesty’s dominions. The poor man, who had a wife and family
and commercial concerns at _Shiraz_, was during our stay detained at
_Teheran_ expressly to teach the King’s women the art of playing on the
_kamouncha_.
The King’s family consists of sixty-five sons. As they make no account
of females, it is not known how many daughters he may have; although he
is said to have an equal number of both sexes. It sometimes happens,
that many of his women are delivered on the same night, and (if we
might give credit to a Persian) one of these happy coincidences
occurred during our abode in the capital, when in one night six of
his women were brought to bed, four of sons and two of daughters. The
_Ameen-ed-Doulah_ had one, indeed, of the babes at his house; and a
present was sent for it from _Ispahan_, composed of four mules laden
with all sorts of rich clothes.
The _Tahkt-a-Cadjar_ is a pleasure-house built by the present King,
about two miles to the N. E. of _Teheran_. At a distance it presents
a grand elevation, apparently of several stories; but these, on a
nearer view, are the fronts of successive terraces. The entrance is
through an indifferent gate, at the top of which is a summer-house.
It leads into a spacious enclosure: in the middle is the principal
walk, bounded on each side by some young cypress and poplar trees,
and intersected at right angles in the centre by a stone channel,
which conducts a stream at several intervals to small cascades. The
building which stands on the first terrace is in form octagonal,
crowned by a small flat roofed elevation. It is open by arches on
all its sides, and its raised ceiling is supported by pillars. Its
interior is arranged in a variety of water-channels, and through the
centre passes the principal stream, which runs through the whole
building and grounds. This little pleasure-house, though built of
coarse materials and but rudely furnished, is erected on an excellent
model, and is admirably calculated for the heats of the summer. Under
it are subterraneous chambers. Proceeding further on another terrace
is a grand pleasure-house, constructed on a less perfect principle
than that of the first, though still sufficiently adapted for a summer
retreat. Through this also water is introduced from a terrace above.
Before this place is a very extensive square of water, in which, as
we were told, there were fish; we saw none, but the water itself is
most luxuriously clear and refreshing. From this we ascended up two
terraces much more elevated than the first; on these there were only
small reservoirs, from which the water was continually falling into the
basins on the successive descents, at the height perhaps of twenty feet
between each terrace.
[Illustration: _Takht-a-Cadjar._
_Drawn by James Morier Esq^r._
_Published by Mess^{rs}. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown,
Paternoster Row, May 1, 1811._]
At length we entered the main body of the building, which, like all
other Persian houses, consists of a large square court lined on all
sides with rooms of various dimensions and uses. The choicest apartment
of the whole is a small one, placed in the very summit of the building,
where every species of native workmanship in painting, glazing, and
Mosaic, has been collected. We found here portraits of women, Europeans
as well as Persians. The glass is beautifully painted, and the doors
are prettily worked and inlaid with poetical quotations carved in
ivory. From this there is a delightful view of the town and country.
In the other rooms below, there are several pictures of the King and
his favourites; one of the subjects is singular, as it represents His
Majesty in the costume of a sick man.
The whole of this place is of brick, except the exterior wall, which
is mud, flanked however by brick turrets. It is much inferior in
workmanship to any of the brick buildings either of KERIM KHAN, or of
the _Seffis_. The soil on which it is erected is indeed ill-adapted to
the purpose, as it is salt; and the salt oozes out through the walls,
and materially undermines their solidity.
The King is building another summer residence, half a mile from the
town, called the _Negaristan_. One house is finished, consisting
however of only an arched room, in which are various channels for water
and playing fountains. In the garden we found water cresses, of the
eatableness of which the Persians appeared totally ignorant.
The climate of _Teheran_ is variable, in consequence of its situation
at the foot of high mountains, which on the other side are backed by
such a sea as the _Caspian_. For the earlier part of our stay it was
moderate; till the 10th of March the thermometer, which was suspended
near an open window in a room unexposed to the sun, was at 51°
Fahrenheit. On the 10th, throughout the whole day, there was much snow;
indeed on the following morning, when the thermometer was at 47°, the
heat of the sun produced a partial thaw, which was succeeded by a frost
so sharp, that before the close of the day, an officer of the suite,
who weighed fourteen stone, was able to walk and slide upon a square
reservoir before the _Dewan Khonéh_, even though the surface had been
already broken at one corner. The fall of snow was a seasonable supply
of moisture to the country, which had long been without any. On the
new moon of March (the 15th of the month) the rain begun, and for some
days continued regularly, clearing up about four or five hours before
sun-set, and gathering again at night. From the height of the walls
which surrounded us, and the want of weathercocks or chimnies, I could
collect but imperfectly the quarter of the wind; but, as far as I
could judge, it was generally from the S. E. There is a wind sometimes
rushing from the _Albores_ on the N. of the bleakness of which the
natives speak with dread. From the 23d March (the first quarter of
the moon) we had the true ethereal mildness of spring, with light
breezes from the westward in the evening. Vegetation was making rapid
advances: the rose-trees in the court of our house were already green,
and the _chenars_ had just begun to bud. The snow on the _Albores_ was
diminishing fast; and the weather generally, which sometimes lowered
and then brightened up, was that of an English spring. The thermometer
was about 61° to 64°, but in the middle of the day it reached 75°, and
the heat in the close streets of the town was very sensible. In the
first week of April the mornings were beautiful; but about noon a hot
wind set in from the S. E. which increased towards the evening, and
died away at night. About the second week the weather became cooler.
Every thing was in high foliage, and all our horses were at grass. The
heat was then becoming great: on the 19th the thermometer was at 82° in
the shade, and at night we had thunder and lightning with a thick haze
over the _Albores_. On the 21st the temperature, which in the interval
had been at 86°, sunk to 67°. On the night of the 20th there had been a
storm; and on the dawn of day we discovered that the _Albores_, which
before had lost their snow, were again covered. These transitions
are common to situations like that of _Teheran_. The rain refreshed
the air, and gave strength to the grass, which in the more immediate
neighbourhood of the town requires much moisture to enable it to pierce
the hardness of the soil. From this time the days continued cool, with
rain and frequent storms; and the evenings became almost piercing; but
the showers gave a new force to vegetation.
_Teheran_ is considered an unwholesome situation. The town is low and
built on a salt, moist soil. In the summer the heats are said to be
so insufferable, that all those who are able (all perhaps except a
few old women) quit the town and live in tents nearer the foot of the
_Albores_, where it is comparatively cool. We had several illnesses
in our family, which we attributed to the water. The symptoms were an
obstinate constipation with great gripings, a disorder very common
in the place. Our head Persian writer was long laid up with a fever,
which brought him to the point of death. He was bled copiously six
times in six days. These people put no faith in our medicines, and
therefore he would not allow the Physician of the Mission to visit
him. At length however he was persuaded by a “_fall_” which he took in
HAFIZ, and which pointed out, that he should “trust in the stranger.”
The superstitious faith with which the Persians observe these _falls_
is inconceivable: the oracle consists in taking the book of HAFIZ,
wherever it may chance to open, and reading the passage on which the
eyes first happen to alight. That, by which the attention is thus
attracted, is the prediction. Before they open the book, they make
certain invocations to God. Dr. JUKES accordingly prescribed; but his
patient I believe disregarded his advice; and we were despairing about
him, when we were told that the King’s physician had been with him,
and had given him a water-melon to eat, and that the sick man was now
recovering. The theory of Persian medicine is somewhat that of GALEN:
they attribute all sickness to one of two causes, heat or cold. If the
patient is supposed to suffer from much heat, they bleed him beyond
measure; if from cold, they give him cathartics in the same proportion.
In the belief of Persia there is another and a simpler remedy for
malady. Nor perhaps is the credulity confined to Persia: there is
I suspect a more general superstition, that to relieve disease or
accident, the patient has only to deposit a rag on certain bushes, and
from the same spot to take another which has been previously left from
the same motive by a former sufferer.
In the time of the SEFFIS there was also another superstition in
Persia, which perhaps is not wholly extinct at this day. Every one who
has read CHARDIN, will remember the history of the coronation of SHAH
SULEYMAN, who, because his original name was considered unlucky, was
renamed and recrowned.
The fruits which were in season at _Teheran_ in the month of March,
and which were served to us every day at dinner, were pomegranates,
apples, pears, melons, limes, and oranges. The pomegranates came from
_Mazanderan_, and were really here a luscious fruit, much superior
to any that I have seen in Turkey. They were generally twelve inches
in circumference. The vegetables were carrots, turnips, spinach
and beet-root. Hives are kept all over the country, and we had at
_Teheran_ the finest honey that I ever ate, though that of _Shiraz_
is reckoned better, and that of _Kauzeroon_ (which the bees cull from
the orange-groves) is considered as still superior. Our mutton was
excellent, and very cheap; for a sheep costs two piastres only. The
beef was sometimes good; but as their meat is not deemed desirable in
Persia, oxen are not kept or fattened for the purposes of the table. We
eat a hare which had been caught by a man in the plain, and which we
afterwards coursed with our greyhounds. The Persians regard this flesh
as unclean in opposition to the Turks, who eat it without scruple.
In April we got delicious herrings from the _Caspian_, which appears
the proper sea for them. They are much larger than those which we have
on the English coasts, and are called by the Persians the _shah mahee_,
“king of fishes.” In the end of that month we received a fresh salmon
of twenty-five pounds from the same sea also, as a present from the
_Ameen-ed-Doulah_. The Persians call it _kizzel_ or golden: it was to
the palate as good as any English salmon, though with some of us it did
not agree quite so well.
From the account which the Prime Minister gave us of a stone which is
burnt in _Mazanderan_, there must be coals of the finest kind in that
province. Among the products of Persia are gum tragacanth, assafœtida,
yellow berries, _henna_ (coarser than that of Egypt,) madder roots,
which grow wild upon the mountains, and are brought down for sale
by the _Eelauts_ or wandering tribes; the Hindoos only export it as
returns. Indigo is cultivated for the dying of linen and of beards, and
grows about _Shooster Desfoul_, near _Kherat_, and in the _Laristan_.
It is not so fine as the indigo from India, which indeed is a great
article of the import trade of Persia. They use the leaf only for
their beards. There is no cochineal. Cotton is produced enough for
the interior consumption of the country. The best manufacture which
they make is a cotton cloth, called the _kaduck_; of this there is an
exportation to Turkey. The finest is manufactured at _Ispahan_. The
great and richest produce is the silk of _Ghilan_ and _Mazanderan_.
The manufacturing towns of Persia are _Yezd_, silken stuffs, stuffs of
silk and cotton; _Kashan_, silks and copper ware; _Koom_, earthenware;
_Resht_, silks, coarse woollen cloths of which the _tekmis_ are made;
_Shiraz_, swords, fire-arms, and glass-ware; _Ispahan_, brocades,
cotton clothes; _Kermanshah_, arms; _Kerman_, shawls.
4th of May. The most beautiful part of the plain about _Teheran_ is
that to the S. E. The verdure, when I left the country, was most
luxuriant; and the whole animated by peasantry and their cattle. Yet
though the spring was thus far advanced, the mountain _Demawend_
(whenever the clouds, which almost always concealed it, rolled away)
appeared more than ever covered with snow. The direct distance to it
from _Teheran_ is about forty miles; to the base of the first mountain
is reckoned fourteen miles. We had seen it when it was at least one
hundred and fifty miles from us; and were told indeed, as I have
remarked before, that it might be seen from the top of the minaret of
the _Mesjid Shah_, at _Ispahan_, a distance of two hundred and forty
miles. It is visible from _Resht_, and generally along all the south
of the _Caspian_ sea; and it is therefore very credible that that sea,
which is not more than forty miles from the base, may be seen from the
summit, of _Demawend_. But, according to some accounts, no one ever
gained the top; according to others, there is a horse-road through the
whole ascent. I was told at _Tabriz_, by a man of _Mazanderan_, that
he himself knew several who had reached the summit; and, indeed, that
_Derveishes_, led by the information of their books, resorted thither
from India to cull a certain plant convertible into gold, and tinging
with a golden hue the teeth of the sheep that feed upon the mountain.
At the foot of the _Albores_ are many villages and pleasure-houses, and
much cultivation; all the rest of the country in that direction is a
blank with scarcely a shrub.
On the east side of the plain of _Teheran_ there is an elevated road
of a fine bottom running N. and S. which seems to have been connected
with the city of _Rey_. On the 4th of March we visited the ruins of
_Rey_. They are situated about five miles in a south direction from
_Teheran_, and extend as far as the eye can reach over the plain, E.
and W. To the E. at the foot of a projecting range, which branches
from the _Albores_, are the remains of the citadel; consisting of
walls and turrets, built of mud bricks, which in most places are
distinguished with difficulty from mounds of earth. The mass of the
height, on which it is erected, seems rather of earth than of rock.
Near the foot of the citadel stands a tower, which by our hasty
calculation may be about fifty feet in height. It is built of a very
fine species of brick, cemented by mortar. Its exterior is arranged
in twenty-four triangular compartments, the base of each being about
five feet, giving a circumference of one hundred and twenty feet. On
the summit, between two rows of ornaments in brick, is an inscription
in the _Cuffick_ character; the letters of which are formed by small
inlaid bricks. The interior was so full of straw and other rubbish,
that we could not explore it; the door is to the eastward. The style
of building resembles much that of the _Seffis_; with this difference,
that the bricks are put together with a greater portion of mortar, and
are of a rather darker colour. About three miles to the Southward on
an insulated hill are other buildings, and a turret of the same style
as the one just described; and between both is a round tower of stone,
with a _Cuffick_ inscription in brick-work. In this turret we observed
through a window, that there was a winding staircase in the wall, but
we could not find the entrance to it.
Still further on, on the brow of a hill close under the mountain, is a
building, partly of ancient and partly of modern construction; this is
the tomb of one of the wives of IMAUM HOSSEIN. It is composed of two
courts and two inner rooms; three old women officiate here over the
remains of their female saint. There is much running water all around;
part issues from a spring, which gushes out from under a rock. The
mountains are arid, with surfaces indicating much mineral below.
_Rey_ is the _Rhages_ of TOBIT, and is the city where ALEXANDER rested
five days in his pursuit after DARIUS; after he had made a march of
_eleven_ days from _Ecbatana_ or _Hamadan_. ARRIAN calls this city one
day’s journey from the _Caspian Streights_.
_Rey_ was reduced by HUBBE, the general of JENGHIZ KHAN; and from its
scattered population arose the town of _Teheran_. Near the ruins is
still a village called _Shah Abdul Azeem_, with a _Zeeauret_ or place
of worship.