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JOURNEYS
IN
PERSIA AND KURDISTAN
[Illustration: MRS. BISHOP (ISABELLA L. BIRD).]
JOURNEYS
IN
PERSIA AND KURDISTAN
INCLUDING A SUMMER IN THE UPPER KARUN
REGION AND A VISIT TO THE
NESTORIAN RAYAHS
BY MRS. BISHOP
(ISABELLA L. BIRD)
HONORARY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
AUTHOR OF 'SIX MONTHS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS'
'UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN,' ETC.
IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL. I.
WITH PORTRAIT, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1891
TO
The Untravelled Many,
THESE VOLUMES
ARE CORDIALLY DEDICATED
WORKS BY MRS. BISHOP.
"Miss Bird's fascinating and instructive work on Japan fully
maintains her well-earned reputation as a traveller of the first
order, and a graphic and picturesque writer. Miss Bird is a born
traveller, fearless, enthusiastic, patient, instructed, knowing
as well what as how to describe. No peril daunts her, no
prospect of fatigue or discomfort disheartens or repels
her."--_Quarterly Review._
I. UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN, Including Visits to the Aborigines of
Yezo and the Shrines of Nikko and Ise.
With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
II. A LADY'S LIFE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d.
III. THE HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO: Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral
Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands.
With Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d.
IV. THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE AND THE WAY THITHER.
With Map and Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 14s.
JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street.
PREFACE
The letters of which these volumes are composed embrace the second
half of journeys in the East extending over a period of two years.[1]
They attempt to be a faithful record of facts and impressions, but
were necessarily written in haste at the conclusion of fatiguing
marches, and often in circumstances of great discomfort and
difficulty, and I relied for their correction in the event of
publication on notes made with much care. Unfortunately I was robbed
of nearly the whole of these, partly on my last journey in Persia and
partly on the Turkish frontier,--a serious loss, which must be my
apology to the reader for errors which, without this misfortune, would
not have occurred.
The bibliography of Persia is a very extensive one, and it may well be
that I have little that is new to communicate, except on a part of
Luristan previously untraversed by Europeans; but each traveller
receives a different impression from those made upon his predecessors,
and I hope that my book may be accepted as an honest attempt to make a
popular contribution to the sum of knowledge of a country and people
with which we are likely to be brought into closer relations.
As these volumes are simply travels in Persia and Eastern Asia Minor,
and are _not a book on either country_, the references to such
subjects as were not within the sphere of my observation are brief and
incidental. The administration of government, the religious and legal
systems, the tenure of land, and the mode of taxation are dismissed in
a few lines, and social customs are only described when I came in
contact with them. The Ilyats, or nomadic tribes, form a very
remarkable element of the population of Persia, but I have only
noticed two of their divisions--the Bakhtiari and Feili Lurs. The
antiquities of Persia are also passed over with hardly a remark, as
well as many other subjects, which have been "threshed out" by
previous writers with more or less of accuracy.
I make these omissions with all the more satisfaction, because most
that is "knowable" concerning Persia will be accessible on the
publication of a work now in the Press, _Persia and the Persian
Question_, by the Hon. George N. Curzon, M.P., who has not only
travelled extensively in the country, but has bestowed such enormous
labour and research upon it, and has had such exceptional
opportunities of acquiring the latest and best official information,
that his volumes may fairly be described as "exhaustive."
It is always a pleasant duty to acknowledge kindness, and I am deeply
grateful to several friends for the help which they have given me in
many ways, and for the trouble which some of them have taken to
recover facts which were lost with my notes, as well as for the
careful revision of a portion of my letters in MS. I am indebted to
the Indian authorities for the materials for a sketch map, for
photographs from which many of the illustrations are taken, and for
the use of a valuable geographical report, and to Mr. Thistleton Dyer,
Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, for the identification
of a few of my botanical specimens.
In justice to the many kind friends who received me into their homes,
I am anxious to disclaim having either echoed or divulged their views
on Persian or Turkish subjects, and to claim and accept the fullest
responsibility for the opinions expressed in these pages, which,
whether right or wrong, are wholly my own. It is from those who know
Persia and Kurdistan the best that I am sure of receiving the most
kindly allowance wherever, in spite of an honest desire to be
accurate, I have fallen into mistakes.
The retention, not only of the form, but of the reality of diary
letters, is not altogether satisfactory either to author or reader,
for the author sacrifices the literary and artistic arrangement of his
materials, and however ruthlessly omissions are made, the reader is
apt to find himself involved in a multiplicity of minor details,
treated in a fashion which he is inclined to term "slipshod," and to
resent the egotism which persistently clings to familiar
correspondence. Still, even with all the disadvantages of this form of
narrative, I think that letters are the best mode of placing the
reader in the position of the traveller, and of enabling him to share,
not only first impressions in their original vividness, and the
interests and enjoyments of travelling, but the hardships,
difficulties, and tedium which are their frequent accompaniments!
For the lack of vivacity which, to my thinking, pervades the following
letters, I ask the reader's indulgence. They were originally written,
and have since been edited, under the heavy and abiding shadow, not
only of the loss of the beloved and only sister who was the
inspiration of my former books of travel, and to whose completely
sympathetic interest they owed whatever of brightness they possessed,
but of my beloved husband, whose able and careful revision
accompanied my last volume through the Press.
Believing that these letters faithfully reflect what I saw of the
regions of which they treat, I venture to ask for them the same kindly
and lenient criticism with which my travels in the Far East and
elsewhere were received in bygone years, and to express the hope that
they may help to lead towards that goal to which all increase of
knowledge of races and beliefs tends--a truer and kindlier recognition
of the brotherhood of man, as seen in the light of the Fatherhood of
God.
ISABELLA L. BISHOP.
_November 12, 1891._
FOOTNOTE:
[1] I left England with a definite object in view, to which others
were subservient, but it is not necessary to obtrude it on the reader.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
IN VOLUME I.
Mrs. Bishop (Isabella L. Bird) _Frontispiece_
A Gopher _Page_ 19
A Turkish Frontier Fort _To face page_ 78
Lodgings for Travellers 82
Persian Bread-making 159
The Shrine of Fatima 167
A Dervish 237
Castle of Ardal 318
Imam Kuli Khan 326
The Karun at Dupulan _To face page_ 351
Ali Jan 362
Armenian Women of Libasgun 366
Wall and Gate of Libasgun _To face page_ 368
A Perso-Bakhtiari Cradle 372
A Dastgird Tent _To face page_ 378
GLOSSARY
_Abambar_, a covered reservoir.
_Agha_, a master.
_Andarun_, women's quarters, a _haram_.
_Arak_, a coarse spirit.
_Badg[=i]r_, wind-tower.
_Badragah_, a parting escort.
_Balakhana_, an upper room.
_Bringals_, egg plants.
_Chapar_, post.
_Chapar Khana_, post-house.
_Chapi_, the Bakhtiari national dance.
_Charvadar_, a muleteer.
_Far[=a]sh_, _lit._ a carpet-spreader.
_Farsakh_, from three and a half to four miles.
_Gardan_, a pass.
_Gaz_, a sweetmeat made from manna.
_Gelims_, thin carpets, drugget.
_Gheva_, a summer shoe.
_Gholam_, an official messenger or attendant.
_H[=a]kim_, a governor.
_Hak[=i]m_, a physician.
_Hammam_, a Turkish or hot bath.
_Ilyats_, the nomadic tribes of Persia.
_Imam_, a saint, a religious teacher.
_Imamzada_, a saint's shrine.
_Istikbal_, a procession of welcome.
_Jul_, a horse's outer blanket.
_Kabob_, pieces of skewered meat seasoned and toasted.
_Kafir_, an infidel, a Christian.
_Kah_, chopped straw.
_Kajawehs_, horse-panniers.
_Kalian_, a "hubble-bubble" or water-pipe for tobacco.
_Kamarband_, a girdle.
_Kanaat_, an underground water-channel.
_Kanat_, the upright side of a tent.
_Karsi_, a wooden frame for covering a fire-hole.
_Katirgi_ (Turkish), a muleteer.
_Ketchuda_, a headman of a village.
_Khan_, lord or prince; a designation as common as esquire.
_Khan_ (Turkish), an inn.
_Khanjar_, a curved dagger.
_Khanji_ (Turkish), the keeper of a _khan_.
_Khanum_, a lady of rank.
_Khurjins_, saddle bags.
_Kizik_, a slab of animal fuel.
_Kotal_, _lit._ a ladder, a pass.
_Kourbana_ (Syriac), the Holy Communion.
_Kran_, eightpence.
_Kuh_, mountain.
_Lira_ (Turkish), about L1.
_Malek_ (Syriac, _lit._ king), a chief or headman.
_Mamachi_, midwife.
_Mangel_, a brazier.
_Mast_, curdled milk.
_Medresseh_, a college.
_Mirza_, a scribe, secretary, or gentleman. An educated man.
_Modakel_, illicit percentage.
_Mollah_, a religious teacher.
_Munshi_, a clerk, a teacher of languages.
_Namad_, felt.
_Nasr_, steward.
_Odah_ (Turkish), a room occupied by human beings and animals.
_Piastre_, a Turkish coin worth two-pence-halfpenny.
_Pirahan_, a chemise or shirt.
_Pish-kash_, a nominal present.
_Qasha_ (Syriac), a priest.
_Rayahs_, subject Syrians.
_Roghan_, clarified butter.
_Samovar_, a Russian tea-urn.
_Sartip_, a general.
_Seraidar_, the keeper of a caravanserai.
_Sharbat_, a fruit syrup.
_Shroff_, a money-changer.
_Shuldari_ (_Shooldarry_), a small tent with two poles and a ridge
pole, but without _kanats_.
_Shulwars_, wide trousers.
_Sowar_, a horseman, a horse soldier.
_Takch[=a]h_, a recess in a wall.
_Taktrawan_, a mule litter.
_Tand[=u]r_, an oven in a floor.
_Tang_, a rift or defile.
_Tufangchi_, a foot soldier, an armed footman.
_Tuman_, seven shillings and sixpence.
_Vakil_, an authorised representative.
_Vakil-u-Dowleh_, agent of Government.
_Yabu_, a pony or inferior horse.
_Yailaks_, summer quarters.
_Yekdan_, a mule or camel trunk, made of leather.
_Yohoort_ (Turkish), curdled milk.
_Zaptieh_ (Turkish), a _gendarme_.
LETTER I
BASRAH, ASIATIC TURKEY, _Jan. 1, 1890_.
A _shamal_ or N.W. wind following on the sirocco which had accompanied
us up "the Gulf" was lashing the shallow waters of the roadstead into
reddish yeast as we let go the anchor opposite the sea front of
Bushire, the most important seaport in Persia. _The_ Persian
man-of-war _Persepolis_, officered by Germans, H.M. ship _Sphinx_, two
big steamers owned in London, a British-built three-masted clipper,
owned and navigated by Arabs, and a few Arab native vessels tugged at
their anchors between two and three miles from the shore. Native
_buggalows_ clustered and bumped round the trading vessels, hanging on
with difficulty, or thumped and smashed through the short waves, close
on the wind, easily handled and sailing magnificently, while the
Residency steam-launch, puffing and toiling, was scarcely holding her
own against a heavy head sea.
Bushire, though it has a number of two-storied houses and a population
of 15,000, has a most insignificant appearance, and lies so low that
from the _Assyria's_ deck it gave the impression of being below the
sea-level. The _shamal_ was raising a sand storm in the desert beyond;
the sand was drifting over it in yellow clouds, the mountains which at
a greater or less distance give a wild sublimity to the eastern shores
of the Gulf were blotted out, and a blurred and windy shore
harmonised with a blurred and windy sea.
The steam-launch, which after several baffled attempts succeeded in
reaching the steamer's side, brought letters of welcome from Colonel
Ross, who for eighteen years has filled the office of British Resident
in the Persian Gulf with so much ability, judgment, and tact as to
have earned the respect and cordial esteem of Persians, Arabs, the
mixed races, and Europeans alike. Of his kindness and hospitality
there is no occasion to write, for every stranger who visits the Gulf
has large experience of both.
The little launch, though going shorewards with the wind, was tossed
about like a cork, shipping deluges of spray, and it was so cold and
generally tumultuous, that it was a relief to exchange the shallow,
wind-lashed waters of the roadstead for the shelter of a projecting
sea-wall below the governor's house. A curricle, with two fiery little
Arab horses, took us over the low windy stretch of road which lies
behind Bushire, through a part of the town and round again to the
sea-shore, on which long yellow surges were breaking thunderously in
drifts of creamy foam. The Residency, a large Persian house, with that
sort of semi-fortified look which the larger Eastern houses are apt to
have, is built round courtyards, and has a fine entrance, which was
lined with well-set-up men of a Bombay marine battalion. As is usual
in Persia and Turkey, the reception rooms, living rooms, and guest
rooms are upstairs, opening on balconies, the lower part being
occupied by the servants and as domestic offices. Good fires were a
welcome adjunct to the genial hospitality of Colonel Ross and his
family, for the mercury, which for the previous week had ranged from
84 deg. to 93 deg., since the sunrise of that day had dropped to 45 deg., and the
cold, damp wind suggested an English February. Even the Residency,
thick as its walls are, was invaded by sea sand, and penetrated by
the howlings and shriekings of the _shamal_ and the low hiss at
intervals of wind-blown spray.
This miserable roadstead does a large trade,[2] though every bale and
chest destined for the cities of the interior must be packed on mules'
backs for carriage over the horrible and perilous _kotals_ or rock
ladders of the intervening mountain ranges. The chief caravan route in
Persia starts from Bushire _via_ Shiraz, Isfahan, Kashan, and Kum, to
Tihran. A loaded mule takes from thirty to thirty-five days to
Isfahan, and from Isfahan to Tihran from twelve to sixteen days,
according to the state of the roads.
Bushire does not differ in appearance from an ordinary eastern town.
Irregular and uncleanly alleys, dead mud walls, with here and there a
low doorway, bazars in which the requirements of caravans are largely
considered, and in which most of the manufactured goods are English, a
great variety in male attire, some small mosques, a marked
predominance of the Arab physiognomy and costume, and ceaseless
strings of asses bringing skins of water from wells a mile from the
town, are my impressions of the first Persian city that I have ever
seen. The Persian element, however, except in officialism and the
style of building, is not strong, the population being chiefly
composed of "Gulf Arabs." There are nearly fifty European residents,
including the telegraph staff and the representatives of firms doing a
very large business with England, the Persian Gulf Trading Company,
Messrs. Hotz and Company, Messrs. Gray, Paul, and Company, and the
British India Steam Navigation Company, which has enormously developed
the trade of the Gulf.
Bushire is the great starting-point of travellers from India who
desire "to go home through Persia" by Shiraz and Persepolis.
_Charvadars_ (muleteers) and the necessary outfit are obtainable, but
even the kindness of the Resident fails to overcome the standing
difficulty of obtaining a Persian servant who is both capable and
trustworthy. Having been forewarned by him not to trust to Bushire for
this indispensable article, I had brought from India a Persian of good
antecedents and character, who, desiring to return to his own country,
was willing to act as my interpreter, courier, and sole attendant.
Grave doubts of his ability to act in the two latter capacities
occurred to me before I left Karachi, grew graver on the voyage, and
were quite confirmed as we tossed about in the Residency launch, where
the "young Persian gentleman," as he styled himself, sat bolt upright
with a despairing countenance, dressed in a tall hat, a beautifully
made European suit, faultless tan boots, and snowy collar and cuffs, a
man of truly refined feeling and manners, but hopelessly out of place.
I pictured him helpless among the _deshabille_ and roughnesses of a
camp, and anticipated my insurmountable reluctance to ask of him
menial service, and was glad to find that the same doubts had occurred
to himself.
I lost no time in interviewing Hadji,--a Gulf Arab, who has served
various travellers, has been ten times to Mecca, went to Windsor with
the horses presented to the Queen by the Sultan of Muscat, speaks more
or less of six languages, knows English fairly, has some
recommendations, and professes that he is "up to" all the requirements
of camp life. The next morning I engaged him as "man of all work," and
though a big, wild-looking Arab in a rough _abba_ and a big turban,
with a long knife and a revolver in his girdle, scarcely looks like a
lady's servant, I hope he may suit me, though with these antecedents
he is more likely to be a scamp than a treasure.
The continuance of the _shamal_ prevented the steamer from unloading
in the exposed roadstead, and knocked the launch about as we rejoined
her. We called at the telegraph station at Fao, and brought off Dr.
Bruce, the head of the Church Missionary Society's Mission at Julfa,
whose long and intimate acquaintance with the country and people will
make him a great acquisition on the Tigris.
"About sixty miles above the bar outside the Shat-el-Arab" (the united
Tigris and Euphrates), "forty miles above the entrance to that estuary
at Fao, and twenty miles below the Turkish port of Basrah, the present
main exit of the Karun river flows into the Shat-el-Arab from the
north-east by an artificial channel, whose etymology testifies to its
origin, the Haffar" (dug-out) "canal. When this canal was cut, no one
knows.... Where it flows into the Shat-el-Arab it is about a quarter
of a mile in width, with a depth of from twenty to thirty feet.
"The town of Mohammerah is situated a little more than a mile up the
canal on its right bank, and is a filthy place, with about 2000
inhabitants, and consists mainly of mud huts and hovels, backed by a
superb fringe of date palms."[3] In the rose flush of a winter morning
we steamed slowly past this diplomatically famous confluence of the
Haffar and Shat-el-Arab, at the angle of which the Persians have
lately built a quay, a governor's house, and a large warehouse, in
expectation of a trade which shows few signs of development.
A winter morning it was indeed, splendid and invigorating after the
ferocious heat of the Gulf. To-day there has been frost!
The Shat-el-Arab is a noble river or estuary. From both its Persian
and Turkish shores, however, mountains have disappeared, and dark
forests of date palms intersected by canals fringe its margin heavily,
and extend to some distance inland. The tide is strong, and such
native boats as _belems_, _buggalows_, and dug-outs, loaded with
natives and goods, add a cheerful element of busy life.
We anchored near Basrah, below the foreign settlement, and had the
ignominy of being placed for twenty-four hours in quarantine, flying
the degrading yellow flag. Basrah has just been grievously ravaged by
the cholera, which has not only carried off three hundred of the
native population daily for some time, but the British Vice-Consul and
his children. Cholera still exists in Turkey while it is extinct in
Bombay, and the imposition of quarantine on a ship with a "clean bill
of health" seems devised for no other purpose than to extract fees, to
annoy, and to produce a harassing impression of Turkish officialism.
After this detention we steamed up to the anchorage, which is in front
of a few large bungalows which lie between the belt of palms and the
river, and form the European settlement of Margil. A fever-haunted
swamp, with no outlet but the river; canals exposing at low water
deep, impassable, and malodorous slime separating the bungalows; a
climate which is damp, hot, malarious, and prostrating except for a
few weeks in winter, and a total absence of all the resources and
amenities of civilisation, make Basrah one of the least desirable
places to which Europeans are exiled by the exigencies of commerce. It
is scarcely necessary to say that the few residents exercise unbounded
hospitality, which is the most grateful memory which the stranger
retains of the brief halt by the "River of Arabia."
This is the dead season in the "city of dates." An unused river
steamer, a large English trader, two Turkish ships-of-war painted
white, the _Mejidieh_, one of two English-owned steamers which are
allowed to ply on the Tigris, and the _Assyria_ of the B.I.S.N. Co.,
constitute the fleet at anchor. As at Bushire, all cargo must be
loaded and unloaded by boats, and crowds of native craft hanging on to
the trading vessels give a little but not much vivacity.
October, after the ingathering of the date harvest, is the busiest
month here. The magnitude of the date industry may be gathered from
the fact that in 1890, 60,000 tons of dates were exported from Basrah,
20,000 in boxes, and the remainder in palm-leaf mats, one vessel
taking 1800 tons. The quantity of wood imported for the boxes was 7000
tons in cut lengths, with iron hooping, nails, and oiled paper for
inside wrapping, brought chiefly from England.
A hundred trees can be grown on an acre of ground. The mature tree
gives a profit of 4s., making the profit on an acre L20 annually. The
Governor of Mohammerah has lately planted 30,000 trees, and date palms
to the number of 60,000 have been recently planted on Persian soil.
It is said that there are 160 varieties of dates, but only a few are
known to commerce. These great sombre date forests or "date gardens,"
which no sunshine can enliven, are of course artificial, and depend
upon irrigation. The palms are propagated by means of suckers taken
from the female date. The young trees begin to bear when they are
about five years old, reach maturity at nine, and may be prolific for
two centuries. Mohammed said wisely, "Honour the palm, it is your
paternal aunt." One soon learns here that it not only provides the
people with nutritious food, but with building materials, as well as
with fuel, carpets, ropes, and mats. But it is the least beautiful of
the palms, and the dark monotonous masses along the river contrast
with my memories of the graceful coco palm fringing the coral islands
of the Pacific.
I left the _Assyria_ with regret. The captain and officers had done
all that intelligence and kindness could do to make the voyage an
agreeable one, and were altogether successful. On shore a hospitable
reception, a good fire, and New Year's Day come together
appropriately. The sky is clear and cloudless, and the air keen. The
bungalows belonging to the European firms are dwelling-houses above
and offices below, and are surrounded by packing-yards and sheds for
goods. In line with them are the Consulates.
The ancient commercial glories of Basrah are too well known to need
recapitulation. Circumstances are doing much to give it something of
renewed importance. The modern Basrah, a town which has risen from a
state of decay till it has an estimated population of 25,000, is on
the right bank of the river, at some distance up a picturesque
palm-fringed canal. Founded by Omar soon after the death of Mohammed,
and tossed like a shuttlecock between Turk and Persian, it is now
definitely Turkish, and the great southern outlet of Chaldaea and
Mesopotamia, as well as the port at which the goods passing to and
from Baghdad "break bulk." A population more thoroughly polyglot could
scarcely be found, Turks, Arabs, Sabeans, Syrians, Greeks, Hindus,
Armenians, Frenchmen, Wahabees, Britons, Jews, Persians, Italians, and
Africans, and there are even more creeds than races.
_S.S. Mejidieh, River Tigris, Jan. 4._--Leaving Basrah at 4 P.M. on
Tuesday we have been stemming the strong flood of the Tigris for three
bright winter days, in which to sit by a red-hot stove and sleep under
a pile of blankets have been real luxuries after the torrid heat of
the "Gulf." The party on board consists of Dr. Bruce, Mr. Hammond, who
has been for some months pushing British trade at Shuster, the
Assistant Quartermaster-General for India, a French-speaking Jewish
merchant, the Hon. G. Curzon, M.P., and Mr. Swabadi, a Hungarian
gentleman in the employment of the Tigris and Euphrates Steam
Navigation Company, a very scholarly man, who in the course of a long
residence in Southern Turkey has acquainted himself intimately with
the country and its peoples, and is ever ready to place his own stores
of information at our disposal. Mr. Curzon has been "prospecting" the
Karun river, and came on board from the _Shushan_, a small stern-wheel
steamer with a carrying capacity of 30 tons, a draught when empty of
18 inches, and when laden of from 24 to 36. She belongs to the Messrs.
Lynch Brothers, of the Tigris and Euphrates S.N. Co. They run her once
a fortnight at a considerable loss between Mohammerah and Ahwaz. Her
isolated position and diminutive size are a curious commentary on the
flourish of trumpets and _blether_ of exultation with which the
English newspapers announced the very poor concession of leave to run
steamers on the Karun between the Shat-el-Arab and Ahwaz.
[Since this letter was written, things have taken rather a singular
turn, and the development of trade on the Karun has partly fallen into
the hands of a trading corporation of Persians, the _Nasiri_ Company.
By them, and under their representative partner, Haja Mahomad, a man
of great energy, the formidable rapids at Ahwaz are being circumvented
by the construction of a tramway 2400 yards long, which is proceeding
steadily. A merchants' caravanserai has already been built on the
river bank at the lower landing-place and commencement of the tramway,
and a bakery, butchery, and carpentry, along with a _cafe_ and a
grocery and general goods stores, have already been opened by men
brought to Ahwaz by H. Mahomad.
A river face wall, where native craft are to lie, is being constructed
of hewn stone blocks and sections of circular pillars, remains of the
ancient city.
The _Nasiri_ Company has a small steamer, the _Nasiri_, plying on the
lower Karun, chiefly as a tug, taking up two Arab boats of
twenty-seven tons each, lashed alongside of her. On her transference
at the spring floods of this year to the river above Ahwaz, the
_Karun_, a steam launch of about sixty tons, belonging to the Governor
of Mohammerah, takes her place below, and a second steamer belonging
to the same company is now running on the lower stream. Poles from
Zanzibar have been distributed for a telegraph line from Mohammerah to
Ahwaz. The Messrs. Lynch have placed a fine river steamer of 300 tons
on the route; but this enterprising firm, and English capitalists
generally, are being partially "cut out" by the singular "go" of this
Persian company, which not only appears to have strong support from
Government quarters, but has gained the co-operation of the
well-known and wealthy Sheikh Mizal, whose personal influence in
Arabistan is very great, and who has hitherto been an obstacle to the
opening of trade on the Karun.
A great change for the better has taken place in the circumstances of
the population, and villages, attracted by trade, are springing up,
which the _Nasiri_ Company is doing its best to encourage. The
land-tax is very light, and the cultivators are receiving every
encouragement. Much wheat was exported last year, and there is a brisk
demand for river lands on leases of sixty years for the cultivation of
cotton, cereals, sugar-cane, and date palms.
Persian soldiers all have their donkeys, and at Ahwaz a brisk and
amusing competition is going on between the soldiers of a fine
regiment stationed there and the Arabs for the transport of goods past
the rapids, and for the conveyance of tramway and building materials.
This competition is enabling goods to pass the rapids cheaply and
expeditiously.
One interesting feature connected with these works is the rapidly
increased well-being of the Arabs. In less than a year labour at 1
_kran_ (8d.) a day has put quite a number of them in possession of a
pair of donkeys and a plough, and seed-corn wherewith to cultivate
Government lands on their own account, besides leaving a small balance
in hand on which to live without having to borrow on the coming crop
at frightfully usurious rates.
Until now the sheikhs have been able to command labour for little more
than the poorest food; and now many of the very poor who depended on
them have started as small farmers, and things are rapidly changing.
The careful observer, from whose report on Persia to the Foreign
Office, No. 207, I have transferred the foregoing facts, wrote in
January 1891: "It was a sight to see the whole Arab population on the
river banks hard at work taking advantage of the copious rain which
had just fallen; every available animal fit for draught was yoked to
the plough--horses, mules, bullocks, and donkeys, and even mares, with
their foals following them up the furrows."
This, which is practically a Persian opening of the trade of the
Karun, is not what was expected, however much it was to be desired.
After a journey of nine months through Persia, I am strongly of
opinion that if the Empire is to have a solid and permanent
resurrection, it must be through the enterprise of Persians, aided it
may be by foreign skill and capital, though the less of the latter
that is employed the more hopefully I should regard the Persian
future. The _Nasiri_ Company and the Messrs. Lynch may possibly unite,
and the New Road Company may join with them in making a regular
transport service by river and road to Tihran, by which England may
pour her manufactured goods even into Northern Persia, as this route
would compete successfully both with the Baghdad and Trebizond routes.
Already, owing to the improved circumstances of the people, the import
of English and Indian cotton goods and of sugar has increased; the
latter, which is French, from its low price, only 21/2d. a pound in the
Gulf, pushing its way as far north as Sultanabad. Unfortunately the
shadow of Russia hangs over the future of Persia.]
At present two English and four Turkish boats run on the Tigris. They
are necessarily of light draught, as the river is shallow at certain
seasons and is full of shifting sand-banks. The _Mejidieh_ is a
comfortable boat, with a superabundance of excellent food. Her saloon,
state-rooms, and engines are on the main deck, which is open fore and
aft, and has above it a fine hurricane deck, on the fore part of which
the deck passengers, a motley crowd, encamp. She is fully loaded with
British goods.
The first object of passing interest was Kornah, reputed among the
Arabs to be the site of the Garden of Eden, a tongue of land at the
junction of the Tigris and Euphrates. The "Garden of Eden" contains a
village, and bright fires burned in front of the mat-and-mud houses.
Women in red and white, and turbaned men in brown, flitted across the
firelight; there was a mass of vegetation, chiefly palms with a number
of native vessels moored to their stems, and a leaning minaret. A
frosty moonlight glorified the broad, turbid waters, Kornah and the
Euphrates were left in shadow, and we turned up the glittering
waterway of the Tigris. The night was too keenly frosty for any dreams
of Paradise, even in this classic Chaldaea, and under a sky blazing
down to the level horizon with the countless stars which were not to
outnumber the children of "Faithful Abraham."
Four hours after leaving Kornah we passed the reputed tomb of Ezra the
prophet. At a distance and in the moonlight it looked handsome. There
is a buttressed river wall, and above it some long flat-roofed
buildings, the centre one surmounted by a tiled dome. The Tigris is so
fierce and rapid, and swallows its alluvial banks so greedily, that it
is probable that some of the buildings described by the Hebrew
traveller Benjamin of Tudela as existing in the twelfth century were
long since carried away. The tomb is held in great veneration not only
by Jews and Moslems but also by Oriental Christians. It is a great
place of Jewish pilgrimage, and is so venerated by the Arabs that it
needs no guard.[4]
Hadji brought my breakfast, or as he called it, "the grub," the next
morning, and I contemplated the Son of Abraham with some astonishment.
He had discarded his turban and _abba_, and looked a regular
uncivilised desert Ishmaelite, with knives and rosaries in his belt,
and his head muffled in a _kiffiyeh_, a yellow silk shawl striped with
red, with one point and tassels half a yard long hanging down his
back, and fastened round his head by three coils of camel's-hair rope.
A loose coat with a gay girdle, "breeks" of some kind, loose boots
turned up at the toes and reaching to the knees, and a striped
under-garment showing here and there, completed his costume.
The view from the hurricane deck, though there are no striking
varieties, is too novel to be monotonous. The level plains of Chaldaea,
only a few feet higher than the Tigris, stretch away to the distant
horizon, unbroken until to-day, when low hills, white with the first
snows of winter, are softly painted on a pure blue sky, very far away.
The plains are buff and brown, with an occasional splash, near
villages as buff and brown as the soil out of which they rise, of the
dark-green of date gardens, or the vivid green of winter wheat. With
the exception of these gardens, which are rarely seen, the vast
expanse is unbroken by a tree. A few miserable shrubs there are, the
_mimosa agrestis_ or St. John's bread, and a scrubby tamarisk, while
liquorice, wormwood, capers, and some alkaline plants which camels
love, are recognisable even in their withered condition.
There are a few villages of low mud hovels enclosed by square mud
walls, and hamlets of mat huts, the mats being made of woven sedges
and flags, strengthened by palm fronds, but oftener by the tall, tough
stems of growing reeds bent into arches, and woven together by the
long leaves of aquatic plants, chiefly rushes. The hovels, so
ingeniously constructed, are shared indiscriminately by the Arabs and
their animals, and crowds of women and children emerged from them as
we passed. Each village has its arrangement for raising water from the
river.
Boats under sail, usually a fleet at a time, hurry downstream, owing
more to the strong current than to the breeze, or are hauled up
laboriously against both by their Arab crews.
The more distant plain is sparsely sprinkled with clusters of brown
tents, long and low, and is dotted over with flocks of large brown
sheep, shepherded by Arabs in _kiffiyehs_, each shepherd armed with a
long gun slung over his shoulder. Herds of cattle and strings of
camels move slowly over the brown plain, and companies of men on
horseback, with long guns and lances, gallop up to the river bank,
throw their fiery horses on their haunches, and after a moment of
gratified curiosity wheel round and gallop back to the desert from
which they came. Occasionally a stretch of arable land is being
ploughed up by small buffaloes with most primitive ploughs, but the
plains are pastoral chiefly, tents and flocks are their chief
features--features which have changed little since the great Sheikh
Abraham, whose descendants now people them, left his "kindred" in the
not distant Ur of the Chaldees, and started on the long march to
Canaan.
Reedy marshes, alive with water-fowl, arable lands, bare buff plains,
brown tents, brown flocks, mat huts, mud and brick villages, groups of
women and children, flights of armed horsemen, alternate rapidly,--the
unchanging features are the posts and wires of the telegraph.
The Tigris in parts is wonderfully tortuous, and at one great bend,
"The Devil's Elbow," a man on foot can walk the distance in less than
an hour which takes the steamer four hours to accomplish. The current
is very strong, and the slow progress is rendered slower at this
season of low water by the frequent occurrence of sand-banks, of which
one is usually made aware by a jolt, a grinding sound, a cessation of
motion, some turns astern, and then full speed ahead, which often
overcomes the obstacle. Some hours' delay and the floats of one
paddle-wheel injured were the most serious disasters brought about;
and in spite of the shallows at this season, the Tigris is a noble
river, and the voyage is truly fascinating. Not that there are many
remarkable objects, but the desert atmosphere and the desert freedom
are in themselves delightful, the dust and _debris_ are the dust and
_debris_ of mighty empires, and there are countless associations with
the earliest past of which we have any records.
Aimarah, a rising Turkish town of about 7000 people, built at a point
where the river turns at a sharp angle to the left, is interesting as
showing what commerce can create even here, in less than twenty years.
A caravan route into Persia was opened and Aimarah does a somewhat
busy trade. Flat-faced brick buildings, with projecting lattice
windows, run a good way along the left bank of the river, which is so
steep and irregular that the crowd which thronged it when the steamer
made fast was shown to great advantage--Osmanlis, Greeks, Persians,
Sabeans, Jews of great height and superb _physique_, known by
much-tasselled turbans, and a predominating Arab element.
We walked down the long, broad, covered bazar, with a broken water
channel in the middle, where there were crowds, solely of men, meat,
game, bread, fruit, grain, lentils, horse-shoes, pack saddles,
Manchester cottons, money-changers, silversmiths, and scribes, and
heard the roar of business, and the thin shouts of boys unaccustomed
to the sight of European women. The crowds pressed and followed,
picking at my clothes, and singing snatches of songs which were not
complimentary. It had not occurred to me that I was violating rigid
custom in appearing in a hat and gauze veil rather than in a _chadar_
and face cloth, but the mistake was made unpleasantly apparent. In
Moslem towns women go about in companies and never walk with men.
We visited an enclosed square, where there are barracks for _zaptiehs_
(gendarmes), the Kadi's court, and the prison, which consists of an
open grating like that of a menagerie, a covered space behind, and
dark cells or dens opening upon it, all better than the hovels of the
peasantry. There were a number of prisoners well clothed, and
apparently well fed, to whom we were an obvious diversion, but the
guards gesticulated, shouted, and brandished their side-arms, making
us at last understand that our presence in front of the grating was
forbidden. After seeing a large barrack yard, and walking, still
pursued by a crowd, round the forlorn outskirts of Aimarah, which
include a Sabean village, we visited the gold and silversmiths' shops
where the Sabeans were working at their craft, of which in this region
they have nearly a monopoly, not only settling temporarily in the
towns, but visiting the Arab encampments on the plains, where they are
always welcome as the makers and repairers of the ornaments with which
the women are loaded. These craftsmen and others of the race whom I
have seen differ greatly from the Arabs in appearance, being white
rather than brown, very white, _i.e._ very pale, with jet-black hair;
large, gentle, intelligent eyes; small, straight noses, and small,
well-formed mouths. The handsome faces of these "Christians of St.
John" are very pleasing in their expression, and there was a dainty
cleanliness about their persons and white clothing significant of
those frequent ablutions of both which are so remarkable a part of
their religion. The children at Aimarah, and generally in the riparian
villages, wear very handsome chased, convex silver links, each as
large as the top of a breakfast cup, to fasten their girdles.
The reedy marshes, the haunts of pelicans and pigs, are left behind at
Aimarah, and tamarisk scrub and liquorice appear on the banks. At
Kut-al-Aimarah, a small military post and an Arab town of sun-dried
bricks on the verge of a high bank above the Tigris, we landed again,
and ragamuffin boys pressed very much upon us, and ragamuffin
_zaptiehs_,[5] grotesquely dressed in clothes of different European
nationalities, pelted them with stones. To take up stones and throw
them at unwelcome visitors is a frequent way of getting rid of them in
the less civilised parts of the East.
A _zaptieh_ station, barracks, with a large and badly-kept parade
ground, a covered bazar well supplied, houses with blank walls, large
_cafes_ with broad matted benches, asafoetida, crowds of men of
superb _physique_, picturesque Arabs on high-bred horses, and a total
invisibility of women, were the salient features of Kut-al-Aimarah.
Big-masted, high-stemmed boats, the broad, turbid Tigris with a great
expanse of yellowish sand on its farther shore, reeds "shaken with the
wind," and a windy sky, heavily overcast, made up the view from the
bank. There were seen for the first time by the new-comers the most
venerable boats in the world, for they were old even when Herodotus
mentions them--_kufas_ or _gophers_, very deep round baskets covered
with bitumen, with incurved tops, and worked by one man with a paddle.
These remarkable tubs are used for the conveyance of passengers,
goods, and even animals.
[Illustration: A GOPHER.]
Before leaving we visited the Arab Khan or Sheikh in his house. He
received us in an upper room of difficult access, carpeted with very
handsome rugs, and with a divan similarly covered, but the walls of
brown mud were not even plastered. His manner was dignified and
courteous, and his expression remarkably shrewd. A number of men
sitting on the floor represented by their haughty aspect and
magnificent _physique_ the royalty of the Ishmaelite descent from
Abraham. This Khan said that his tribe could put 3000 fighting men
into the field, but it was obvious that its independence is broken,
and that these tribal warriors are reckoned as Osmanli irregulars or
Bashi Bazouks. The Khan remarked that "the English do not make good
friends, for," he added, "they back out when difficulties arise."
On board the steamer the condition of the Arabs is much discussed,
and the old residents describe it as steadily growing worse under the
oppression and corruption of the Osmanli officials, who appear to be
doing their best to efface these fine riparian tribes by merciless
exactions coming upon the top of taxation so heavy as to render
agriculture unprofitable, the impositions actually driving thousands
of them to seek a living in the cities and to the Persian shores of
the Gulf, where they exchange a life of hereditary freedom for a
precarious and often scanty subsistence among unpropitious
surroundings. Still, the Arab of the desert is not conquered by the
Turks.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] According to the returns for 1889, the British tonnage entering
the Bushire roadstead was 111,745 out of 118,570 tons, and the imports
from British territory amounted to a value of L744,018 out of
L790,832. The exports from Bushire in the same year amounted to
L535,076, that of opium being largely on the increase. Among other
things exported are pistachio nuts, gum, almonds, madder, wool, and
cotton. Regarding gum, the wars in the Soudan have affected the supply
of it, and Persia is reaping the benefit, large quantities now being
collected from certain shrubs, especially from the wild almond, which
abounds at high altitudes. The drawback is that firewood and charcoal
are becoming consequently dearer and scarcer. The gum exported in 1889
was 7472 cwts., as against 14,918 in 1888, but the value was more than
the same.
The imports into Bushire, as comparing 1889 with 1888, have increased
by L244,186, and the exports by L147,862. The value of the export of
opium, chiefly to China, was L231,521, as against L148,523 in 1888.
[3] "The Karun River," Hon. G. Curzon, M.P., _Proceedings of R.G.S._,
September 1890.
[4] Sir A. H. Layard describes the interior of the domed building as
consisting of two chambers, the outer one empty, and the inner one
containing the Prophet's tomb, built of bricks covered with white
stucco, and enclosed in a wooden case or ark, over which is thrown a
large blue cloth, fringed with yellow tassels, the name of the donor
being inscribed in Hebrew characters upon it.--Layard's _Early
Adventures_, vol. i. p. 214.
[5] A year later in Kurdistan, the _zaptiehs_, all time-expired
soldiers and well set up soldierly men, wore neat, serviceable, dark
blue braided uniforms, and high riding-boots.
LETTER I (_Continued_)
BAGHDAD, _Jan. 5_.
The last day on the Tigris passed as pleasantly as its predecessors.
There was rain in the early morning, then frost which froze the rain
on deck, and at 7 A.M. the mercury in my cabin stood at 28 deg.
In the afternoon the country became more populous, that is, there were
_kraals_ of mat huts at frequent intervals, and groups of tents to
which an external wall of mats gave a certain aspect of permanence.
Increased cultivation accompanied the increased population. In some
places the ground was being scratched with a primitive plough of
unshod wood, or a branch of a tree slightly trimmed, leaving a scar
about two inches deep. These scars, which pass for furrows, are about
ten inches apart, and camel thorn, tamarisk, and other shrubs inimical
to crops stand between them. The seed is now being sown. After it
comes up it grows apace, and in spite of shallow scratches, camel
thorn, and tamarisk the tilth is so luxuriant that the husbandmen
actually turn cattle and sheep into it for two or three weeks, and
then leave it to throw up the ear! They say that there are from
eighteen to thirty-five stalks from each seed in consequence of this
process! The harvest is reaped in April, after which water covers the
land.
Another style of cultivation is adopted for land, of which we saw a
good deal, very low lying, and annually overflowed, usually
surrounding a nucleus of permanent marsh. This land, after the water
dries up, is destitute of vegetation, and presents a smooth, moist
surface full of cracks, which scales off later. No scratching is
needed for this soil. The seed is sown broadcast over it, and such of
it as is not devoured by birds falls into the cracks, and produces an
abundant crop. All this rich alluvial soil is stoneless, but is strewn
from Seleucia to Babylon with fragments of glass, bricks, and pottery.
Artificial mounds also abound, and remains of canals, all denoting
that these fertile plains in ancient days supported a large stationary
population. Of all that once was, this swirling river alone remains,
singing in every eddy and ripple--
"For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever."