particularly by the Prince Royal in _Aderbigian_, will in a very short
time so much influence the general character and disposition of the
people, that they will scarcely be recognizable. Ever since their
late wars with Russia, and their political connections with Europe,
the effect produced has been most striking: and a person of excellent
authority, who was in Persia during the time of KERIM KHAN, affirmed,
in my hearing, that the nation could scarcely be considered the same.
From _Constantinople_ we went to _Smyrna_, where we remained till we
quitted Turkey. On the 7th September 1809, the _Mirza_ and his servants
went on board the _Success_, Captain AYSCOUGH, to proceed to England.
The people of _Smyrna_ gathered in crowds to see him. The yards were
manned; and he was honoured with a salute of fifteen guns, which (as
soon at least as it was over) gave him no little satisfaction.
He soon accommodated himself to the manner of a ship, sleeping in
a cot, and eating with a knife and fork. He did not miss a single
opportunity of informing himself on every thing which he saw on board;
and whatever he learned, he carefully noted in a book. His attendants
seldom complained, except sometimes of the badness of the water, the
hardness of the biscuit, and the want of fruit. I was struck with their
natural ignorance of relative distance: they had been ever accustomed
to calculate distance by _menzils_ or day’s journies; and they were
surprised to find it impossible to continue such reckoning. A world of
water seemed to them incomprehensible; and one of them gravely said to
me--“This is quite extraordinary: this country of your’s is nothing but
water!”
The Persians were particularly astonished, that women and little boys
went to sea. The _Mirza_ seeing some women on board the _Success_,
exclaimed, “Is it possible! if I were to tell our women in Persia that
there were women in ships, they would never believe me. To go from one
town to another is considered a great undertaking taking amongst them;
but here your women go from one end of the world to the other, and
think nothing of it. If it were even known in my family that I was now
in a ship and on the great seas, there would be nothing but wailings
and lamentations from morning to night.”
Among the many things which struck the Persians as extraordinary on
board the ship, was the business of signals. They looked very much
inclined to believe, that I was telling them untruths, when I said,
that at two _fursungs_ distance they might ask any questions from
another ship, and receive an immediate answer: and that when we should
reach England, our arrival would be known in London in ten minutes,
and every necessary order returned before we could get out of the
ship. All these things the _Mirza_ carefully noted down in his book,
ever exclaiming, “God grant that all such things may take place in my
country too!”
When we arrived at _Malta_ we were not permitted to land on account
of the quarantine; a very mortifying prohibition to the Persians, who
had no greater wish than to set foot once again on shore. I could make
the Envoy indeed comprehend the nature of quarantine laws; but his
people were not so tractable, and frequently suggested their fears to
him, that he might not be allowed to land even in England. He spoke
seriously to me:--“It is well that I have already seen your countrymen,
and know many of their regulations; for, if any other Persian had been
in my place he would have required instantly to return back to his own
country.” They were much delighted with the exterior of _Malta_; and
particularly with the quantity of shipping in the port. On the left
of the harbour, there is a very fine building begun by BUONAPARTE,
intended as a hospital. They seemed mightily astonished that so superb
a building should be the habitation of the sick.
Those, indeed, who have been accustomed to live under an arbitrary
government, and to see acts of despotism committed every day, look with
contempt, rather than with admiration, upon the establishments of a
free and liberal government; and ridicule objects by which the promoter
apparently and directly gains nothing.
We talked of female dress. I asked the Envoy what effect the visit of
an European woman dressed in her own way would produce in Persia. He
replied, that “if the King were to see her, He would probably order all
his _Harem_ to adopt the costume, and that every other man would follow
his example, and enforce a fashion, which is not only so much more
beautiful, but so much less expensive than their own. Their women are
clothed in brocade and gold cloth, which is soon spoilt; or at least
which is always cast off, whenever they hear that a new cargo arrives
from Russia.”
I asked him if he had seen any handsome women in _Constantinople_: he
replied, that he had seen none so beautiful as those of Persia. “They
were fair indeed, but they wanted that carnation on their cheeks,
which is called the _numuck_ or salt of beauty; and which is the
second requisite of female perfection. The first is large black eyes
with brows very much arched.” A tame antelope was then playing about
the cabin close to me, when the _Mirza_ said, “Do your poets ever use
the simile so constantly applied by ours, ‘eyes like the stag?’ The
frequency of that image will prove the value which we attach to the
object.”
I desired him to tell me the principal occupations of the women in
the Harem. He complied: “They sew, embroider, and spin: they make
their own clothes; and my wife even used to make mine: besides that,
they superintend all the domestic concerns of the house; they keep an
account of the daily expences; distribute provisions to the servants;
pay their wages; settle all disputes between them; manage the concerns
of the stable; see that the horses have their corn; and, in short,
have the care of all the disbursements of the house. The King’s mother
had more business than can be described. She had the controul of all
her son’s _Harem_, which might consist altogether of more than a
thousand women: and you may well conceive the trouble which they could
give.” When I suggested the difficulty of a woman transacting so many
occupations, without seeing any other man than her husband, and asked
how she could settle any business but that of the _Harem_ itself? and
how she could succeed even in that without seeing the men servants? He
replied, that “in the households of Persia there is always an officer
called a _Nazir_, with whom the wife daily arranges all that relates
to the male part of the establishment, to whom she pays the wages of
the others; and who is accountable to her.” As a necessary preparation
for the duties which thus devolve upon them, the women of Persia learn
to read and write: as children they are sent to school with the boys,
and when too old to be permitted to go unveiled, their education is
finished at home by female _Mollahs_, who attend them for the purpose.
They do not, however, like European women, learn music and dancing:
these arts are taught to slaves only, who practise them for the
amusement of their owners: and the wives never sing or dance, except
perhaps at the wedding of a brother or sister.
The King has this right over all the women of his realm, that they must
appear unveiled before him.
THE ARAB PIRATES.
[_p. 44._]
The Arabs in every age, have been alike distinguished for a spirit of
commerce and of plunder: and were early and great navigators, both
as merchants and as pirates. In the time of MAHOMED there existed a
predatory tribe, whose chief is described in the _Koran_, according to
EBN HAUKAL,[51] as “the King, who forcibly seized every sound ship.”
This empire is said to have been founded prior to the time of MOSES;
and if the continuance of the same occupations on the spot be a proof
of the identity of the people, it may be traced to the Arabs of the
present day.
The Portuguese power was often violated by these pirates:[52] and in
the same age the English interests in the East were so much endangered
by them, that one of the Agents in Persia (who had all indeed
successively made representations on the necessity of sending an armed
force to destroy them) declared, that “they were likely to become as
great plagues in India, as the Algerines were in Europe.”[53] Some of
these ships had from thirty to fifty guns:[D] and one of their fleets,
consisting of five ships, carried between them one thousand five
hundred men.[54] Within the last few years, their attacks have been
almost indiscriminate; nor had they learnt to respect even the English
colours, as the instance in the text, and the subsequent capture of the
_Minerva_, Captain HOPGOOD, proved too well. The British government
however, knowing the intimate connection of these pirates on the coast
with the _Wahabee_,[55] proceeded in the suppression of the evil with
cautious judgment; and when, by the extension of these outrages to
themselves, they were driven to vindicate the honour of their flag,
and to extirpate their enemies, they regarded all the ports, which
had not actually included the British within their depredations, as
still neutral; and endeavoured to confine their warfare to reprisals,
for specific acts of violence, rather than to commit themselves
generally against the _Wahabees_, by extending the attack to those of
that alliance who, amid all their piracies, had yet not violated the
commerce of England.
We might indeed thus separate the _Joassmee_ tribe from the _Wahabee_,
for we had already, in a formal treaty, recognised them as an
independant power; though perhaps for all other purposes, they might
be considered as identified. The strength however of the _Joassmees_
alone was very considerable. The ports in their possession contained,
according to a well-authenticated calculation, in the middle of the
year 1809, sixty-three large vessels, and eight hundred and ten of
smaller sizes; together manned by near nineteen thousand men. This
force was increasing; the pirates, in a fleet of fifty-five ships, of
various sizes, containing altogether five thousand men, had, after a
fight of two days, taken the _Minerva_, and murdered almost all the
crew: in the next month a fleet of seventy sail of vessels, (navigated
severally by numbers rising from eighty to one hundred and fifty
and two hundred men) were cruizing about the Gulph and threatening
_Bushire_: and the chief of _Ras al Khyma_ (the _Roselkeim_[56] of
the text, p. 44,) whose harbour was almost the exclusive resort of
the larger vessels, had dared to demand a tribute from the British
government, that their ships might navigate the Persian Gulph in
safety. Our forbearance was now exhausted, and an expedition was sent
from _Bombay_, under Captain WAINWRIGHT, and Lieutenant-Colonel SMITH,
of His Majesty’s sea and land forces, to attack the pirates in their
ports. The first object was _Ras al Khyma_. The armament, after a short
siege, carried the place by storm, destroyed all the naval equipments,
and sparing the smaller vessels, burnt the fifty large ships which the
harbour contained. They proceeded to the ports of the Arab pirates on
the Persian coast, and completed the destruction of all their means
of annoyance. They then attacked _Shinass_, one of their harbours on
the Indian ocean. The defence of this place was most heroical; and
was conducted indeed for the _Joasmees_, as was subsequently learnt,
by a favourite and confidential general of SAOOD IBN ABDOOL UZZEER,
the chief of the _Wahabees_. When on the third day of the siege,
the few survivors were called upon to surrender, they replied, that
they preferred death to submission; and when the towers were falling
round them, they returned upon their assailants the hand-grenades
and fireballs before they could burst. Twice Lieutenant-Colonel SMITH
ceased firing, to endeavour to spare the unavailing effusion of their
blood; till at length, when they were assured of being protected from
the fury of the troops of our ally the _Imaum_ of _Muscat_, which had
co-operated with us, they surrendered to the English.
The expedition then scoured all the coast a second time, to destroy
any fragments of that pirate power, against which it was directed;
and extirpated in every quarter all the means of annoyance which the
_Joassmees_ possessed. There was indeed another force of another
tribe, which might eventually grow up into a formidable enemy; but
this was distinctly under the protection of the _Wahabee_, who had
invested its chief with the title of _Sheik al Behr_, or “Lord of the
Sea;” and till it marked its hostility to us by joining in the attacks
upon our commerce, it was judged expedient not to confound it in one
indiscriminate warfare; but rather to open a communication with this
particular chief, and through him to the _Wahabee_ himself, advising
the one to prohibit the piracies of his dependants, and requiring the
other to respect the flag of England. In answer the _Wahabee_ observed,
“The cause of the hostilities carrying on between me and the members of
the faith, is their having turned away from the Book of the Creator,
and refused to submit to their own prophet MAHOMED. It is not therefore
those of another sect, against whom I wage war, nor do I interfere in
their hostile operations, nor assist them against any one; whilst under
the power of the Almighty, I have risen superior to all my enemies.” *
* * “Under these circumstances, I have deemed it necessary to advise
you that I shall not approach your shores, and have interdicted the
followers of the _Mahomedan_ faith and their vessels, from offering any
molestation to your vessels: any of your merchants therefore, who may
appear in, or wish to come to my ports, will be in security; and any
person on my part who may repair to you, ought in like manner to be in
safety.” * * * “Be not therefore elated with the conflagration of a few
vessels, for they are of no estimation in my opinion, in that of their
owners, or of their country. In truth then war is bitter; and a fool
only engages in it, as a poet has said.”
The want of timber has always been felt so much by the people of the
two Gulphs, and of the Western coast of the Indian ocean, that a check
on their supplies from the Malabar coast, which Brigadier-General
MALCOLM very seasonably suggested, will probably keep down the future
growth of the pirate power. The fleet of the Soldan of Egypt, which was
destined to relieve Diu, was formed of Dalmatian timber, transported
overland to the arsenals of _Suez_;[57] and even some of the houses at
Siraff, on the Gulph of Persia,[58] were formed of European wood. In
the seventeenth century, the Arabs of _Muscat_, who subsequently formed
connections on the Malabar coast to procure timber, obtained permission
from the King of _Pegu_ to build ships in the ports of his country.[59]
If therefore the importation of foreign wood were cut off, the Arabs
could hardly, without extreme difficulty, maintain a naval force.
SHAPOUR.
[_p. 86._]
The city of _Shapour_ derived its name from the monarch who founded
it,[60] SAPOR, the son of ARTAXERXES, and the second Prince of the
_Sassanian_ family. In his reign it was probably one of the capitals
of Persia; and for some ages continued to be the chief city of that
district of _Persis_ Proper, which was connected with his name, the
_Koureh Shapour_ of EBN HAUKAL.[61] The great province in which it was
included, had been particularly favoured by CYRUS, and his dynasty: it
was their native seat, and contained their palaces, their treasures
and their tombs. When their empire was overthrown, this portion was
still administered by a race of native princes,[62] who, after an
interval of five hundred years, revived their pretensions to the
throne of CYRUS,[63] and re-established in their ancient seats, the
religion and the empire of the _Caianian_ Kings. The Princes of the
house of _Sassan_, who thus came forth from it as from the cradle of
their strength, regarded it as the original and favourite appanage of
their crown; and marked their peculiar connection with it by imposing
their names on its four districts,[64] a division which, amid all the
revolutions of their dominions, is even yet recognized.[65] Here,
therefore, the revival of the worship of fire, the great object of
their dynasty, was established more generally and more permanently,
than in other parts of their monarchy; for in the tenth century, when
the Mahomedans had been three hundred years in possession of Persia,
“no town or district of _Fars_ was without a fire-temple;”[66] and the
division of _Shapour_ in particular, contained two at least of the four
temples which EBN HAUKAL has particularised in the province.[67]
In this district accordingly, which was connected with the house of
CYRUS and of SASSAN by so many ties, and in _Susiana_, which was
alike the favourite of both dynasties, we may expect to find the most
splendid remains of their greatness. Both provinces have been explored
very imperfectly, as travellers have been confined to the regular road;
and no European has enjoyed those opportunities of observation and
enquiry, which a residence in the country alone can give. _Persepolis_
itself might probably have been unknown, if it had not been passed in
the line from _Shiraz_ to _Ispahan_; but the ruins of _Pasagardæ_,[68]
of _Darabgherd_,[69] and of _Jawr_,[70] in _Fars_; as well as those
of _Susa_, of _Ahwaz_, and of _Shooster_, in _Khuzistan_, are almost
unknown. The whole of the plain of _Merdasht_, the hollow Persis
of the ancients, as well as the part more immediately surrounding
_Persepolis_, contained, as CHARDIN believed, a continued succession of
ruins; “Je southaiterois que quelque habile curieux allât passer un eté
a _Persepolis_, à la decouverte de toutes les ruines de cette fameuse
ville. Les gens du pays assurent que ces ruines s’etendent a plus de
dix lieues à la ronde.”[71]
_Shapour_ itself is an instance of the very limited knowledge of Persia
which we possess, beyond the immediate line of a common route. It is
situated only a very few miles from the road, yet it has been passed
by every traveller from TAVERNIER and THEVENOT, down to SCOTT WARING,
without a suspicion of its present existence. It certainly retained
a share at least, of its political importance after the fall of the
house of SASSAN. It contained a mosque as well as a fire-temple, in the
time of EBAN HAUKAL;[72] and probably like other great cities of the
East, suffered less from the first violence of the Arabian invasion,
than from the successive wars of native dynasties, and from the
gradual decay to which the declining population and exhausted wealth
of the empire consigned all the works of their former greatness. Still
_Shapour_ appears to have survived these causes of desolation, and
to have deserved a place among the cities of Asia, at the end of the
sixteenth century, for it occurs in a table of latitudes and longitudes
in the _Ayeen Acbaree_.[73] From that time nothing more is known of
it: its position indeed is marked in a map of the year 1672;[74] and
its name, on the authority of Oriental geographers, is repeated by
D’ANVILLE as the capital of the district. But no European traveller had
described its actual state, or alluded to its history; and the first
account of those sculptures, which yet render it an object of interest,
was conveyed to us in a short note, added by Sir HARFORD JONES from his
own observations, to the second edition of Dr. VINCENT’S _Nearchus_, p.
391.
The Eastern monarchs have often commemorated the great exploits of
their reigns by the foundations of cities. CYRUS is thus said to have
built _Pasagardæ_, to celebrate his overthrow of the Median empire; and
ARTAXERXES, on the spot where he had defeated ARTABANUS, the last King
of the Parthians, raised the city of _Jawr_.[75] Succeeding princes
of his house, as BAHARAM[76] and SHAPOUR D’HULACTAF,[77] severally
raised _Kermanshah_ and _Casvin_, to immortalize particular acts of
their history. It is probable therefore that SHAPOUR the first, who
is described by the Orientals as the founder of great cities,[78] and
acknowledged by all to have built _Shapour_, imposed his own name upon
that which he destined to record the most brilliant of his successes:
and that the city of _Shapour_ accordingly, was the memorial of the
defeat, captivity, and servitude of the Emperor VALERIAN.
The architect of such a work would naturally select his ornaments
from the subject in which his plan originated; and the sculptures
at _Shapour_ might therefore be supposed to contain some prominent
allusions to the Roman war. The triumphs of that war are almost
unremembered in the history or the traditions of the Orientals; and
the only records of the victories of SAPOR, which are left in Persia,
are the sculptures on the rocks of _Shapour_ and _Nakshi Rustam_: and
though, like every other work, of which nothing is known, they are
referred by the modern Persians to the fabulous exploits of RUSTAM the
HERCULES of their country, the internal evidence of their design is
sufficient to appropriate them to their real and historical objects.
That in fact the triumphs of the house of SASSAN, are represented
both at _Shapour_ and at _Nakshi Rustam_, can hardly be contested.
That in one of the sculptures, the royal figure on horseback is SAPOR
himself, and that the Roman suppliant before him is the Emperor
VALERIAN, is probable almost from the first view of the delineations;
is strengthened by the history of the spot where they are found; and
is confirmed by the identity of the principal figure here, with one
bearing an inscription in the name of SAPOR,[79] at _Nakshi Rustam_.
Such a subject would naturally be suggested to the artists of SAPOR,
and while the Roman chariot and standard among the fragments, and
the Roman dress of the suppliant alike mark in the sculpture the
humiliation of VALERIAN, the _Sassanian_ costume of the Prince on
horseback, the double diadem, and the very expression of his face,
(which is that of the medals ascribed to SAPOR by DE SACY,[80]) concur
in the designation, and supply the figure of the conqueror.
It may appear scarcely necessary to have added one line of explanation,
as the internal evidence of the sculpture itself may seem to fix
its history. But DE SACY[81] has considered all the subjects at
_Nakshi Rustam_, and consequently their duplicates at _Shapour_,
as representing one subject only, the conquest of the Parthians
by ARTAXERXES: and on this theory he has regarded the suppliant
as ARTABANUS, the last King of the Parthians, and the victor as
ARTAXERXES. It is due to such a man as DE SACY, to differ from him
with hesitation, and to state the grounds of difference fully. The
engravings of CHARDIN, LE BRUN, and NIEBUHR, which alone were before DE
SACY, are so entirely unworthy of the originals, that the conclusion
to which he was led was almost unavoidable; but if he, who has done so
much with imperfect materials, had enjoyed the opportunity of examining
the full and characteristic distinctions preserved in Mr. MORIER’S
Sketches, he would have separated the subjects of the sculptures, into
those which commemorate the Parthian victories of ARTAXERXES, and those
which were similarly destined to immortalise the Roman triumphs of
SAPOR.
The Plate, No. X. may be assumed then to represent SAPOR in the act
of receiving the submission of VALERIAN; and that marked No. XIX. to
display him in his triumphal splendour. The fragments, No. XII. contain
some of his Roman spoils; and the head to which the text alludes, page
89, in describing the hall of audience of a great King, is possibly
that of CHOSROES, King of Armenia,[82] who was murdered by SAPOR, after
an unavailing war of thirty years; and whose fall therefore may be
commemorated as an object of importance in the series of the exploits
of SAPOR.