affected by rich Persians in Tihran, or the humbler beast of burden,
is not forgotten by the traders in the great saddlery bazar. Rich
_charvadars_ take great pride in the "outfit" of their mules, and do
not grudge twenty _tumans_ upon it. Hence are to be seen elaborate
headstalls, breastplates, and straps for bells, of showy embroidery,
and leather stitched completely over with turquoise beads and
cowries--the latter a favourite adornment--while cowried headstalls
are also ornamented with rows of woollen tassels dyed with beautiful
vegetable dyes. In this bazar too are found _khurjins_--the great
leather or carpet saddle-bags without which it is inconvenient to
travel--small leather portmanteaus for strapping behind the saddles of
those who travel _chapar_, _i.e._ post,--cylindrical cases over two
feet long which are attached in front of the saddle--decorated
holsters, the multifarious gear required for the travelling
pipe-bearers, the deep leather belts which are worn by _chapar_
riders, the leathern water-bottles which are slung on the saddles, the
courier bags, and a number of other articles of necessity or luxury
which are regarded as essential by the Persian traveller.
In most of the bazars the shops are packed to the ceiling with foreign
goods. It looks as if there were cottons and woollen cloth for the
clothing of all Persia. I saw scarcely any rough woollen goods or
shoddy. The Persian wears superfine, smooth, costly cloth, chiefly
black and fawn, stiff in texture, and with a dull shine upon it. The
best comes exclusively from Austria, a slightly inferior quality from
Germany, and such cloth fabrics as are worn by Europeans from England
and Russia.
The European cottons, which are slowly but surely displacing the heavy
durable native goods, either undyed, or dyed at Isfahan with madder,
saffron, and indigo, are of colours and patterns suited to native
taste, white and canary yellow designs on a red ground predominating,
and are both of Russian and English make, and the rivalry which
extends from the Indian frontier, through Central Asia, is at
fever-heat in the cotton bazars of Tihran. It does not appear that at
present either side can claim the advantage.
In a search for writing paper, thread, tapes, and what are known as
"small wares," I never saw anything that was not Russian. The cheap
things, such as oil lamps, _samovars_, coarse coloured prints of the
Russian Imperial family in tawdry frames, lacquered tin boxes, fitted
work-boxes, glass teacups, china tea-pots, tawdry lacquered trays,
glass brooches, bead necklaces, looking-glasses, and a number of other
things which are coming into use at least in the south-west and the
western portions of the Empire, are almost exclusively Russian, as is
natural, for the low price at which they are sold would leave no
margin of profit on such imports from a more distant country.
A stroll through the Tihran bazars shows the observer something of the
extent and rapidity with which Europe is ruining the artistic taste of
Asia. Masses of rubbish, atrocious in colouring and hideous in form,
the principle of shoddy carried into all articles along with the
quintessence of vulgarity which is pretence, goods of nominal utility
which will not stand a week's wear, the refuse of European markets--in
art Philistinism, in most else "Brummagem," without a quality of
beauty or solidity to recommend them--are training the tastes and
changing the habits of the people.
One squarish bazar, much resorted to for glass and hardware and what
the Americans call "assorted notions," is crammed with Austrian glass,
kerosene lamps of all sizes in hundreds, chandeliers, etc. The amount
of glass exhibited there for sale is extraordinary, and not less
remarkable is the glut of cheap hardware and worthless _bijouterie_.
It is the Lowther Arcade put down in Tihran.
Kerosene and candles may be called a Russian monopoly, and Russia has
completely driven French sugar from the markets. In the foreign town,
as it may be called, there are two or three French shops, an American
shop for "notions," and a German chemist.
The European quarter is in the northern part of Tihran, and is close
to vacant and airy spaces. There are the Turkish Embassy, and the
Legations of England, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Belgium,
Austria, and America, and a Dutch Consulate-General, each with its
Persian _gholams_ who perform escort duty. Their large and shady
compounds, brightened by their national flags, and the stir and
circumstance which surround them, are among the features of the city.
The finest of all the Legation enclosures is that of England, which is
beautifully wooded and watered. The reception-rooms and hall of the
Minister's residence are very handsome, and a Byzantine clock tower
gives the building a striking air of distinction. The grounds contain
several detached houses, occupied by the secretaries and others.
A very distinct part of the foreign quarter is that occupied by the
large and handsome buildings of the American Presbyterian Mission,
which consist of a church occupied at stated hours by a congregation
of the Reformed Armenian Church, and in which in the afternoons of
Sundays Dr. Potter, the senior missionary, reads the English Liturgy
and preaches an English sermon for the benefit of the English-speaking
residents, very fine boarding-schools for Armenian girls and boys, and
the houses of the missionaries--three clerical, one medical, and
several ladies, one of whom is an M.D.
Outside this fine enclosure is a Medical Missionary Dispensary, and
last year, in a good situation at a considerable distance, a very fine
medical missionary hospital was completed. The boys' and girls'
schools are of a very high class. To my thinking the pupils are too
much Europeanised in dress and habits; but I understand that this is
at the desire of the Armenian parents. The missionaries are not
allowed to receive Moslem pupils; but besides Armenians they educate
Jewish youths, some of whom have become Christians, and a few Guebres
or Zoroastrians.
I do not think that the capital is a hopeful place for missionary
work. The presence of Europeans of various creeds and nationalities
complicates matters, and the fine, perhaps too fine, mission buildings
in proximity to the houses of wealthy foreigners are at so great a
distance from the Moslem and Jewish quarters, that persons who might
desire to make inquiries concerning the Christian faith must be
deterred both by the space to be traversed and the conspicuousness of
visiting a mission compound in such a position. The members of the
mission church last year were altogether Armenians. The education and
training given in the schools are admirable.
Indications of the changes which we consider improvements abound in
Tihran. There are many roads accessible to wheeled vehicles. There are
hackney carriages. A tramway carrying thousands of passengers weekly
has been laid down from the _Maidan_ or central square to one of the
southern gates. There are real streets paved with cobble stones, and
bordered with definite sidewalks, young trees, and shops. There is a
railroad about four miles long, from the city to the village of Sheikh
Abdul Azim. There are lamp-posts and fittings, though the light is
somewhat of a failure. There is an organised city police, in smart
black uniforms with violet facings, under the command of Count
Monteforte, an Italian. Soldiers in Europeanised uniforms abound, some
of them, the "Persian Cossacks," in full Russian uniforms; and
military bands instructed by a French bandmaster play European airs,
not always easily recognisable, for the pleasure of the polyglot
public.
All ordinary business can be transacted at the Imperial Bank, which,
having acquired the branches and business of the New Oriental Bank,
bids fair to reign supreme in the commercial world of Persia, the
Shah, who has hitherto kept his hoards under his own eye, having set
an example of confidence by becoming a depositor.
European tailors, dressmakers, and milliners render a resort to Europe
unnecessary. There are at least two hotels where a European may exist.
About five hundred European carriages, many of them Russian, with
showy Russian horses harnessed _a la Russe_, dash about the streets
with little regard to pedestrians, though an accident, if a European
were the offender, might lead to a riot. The carriages of the many
Legations are recognisable by their outriders, handsomely-dressed
_gholams_.
But even the European quarter and its newish road, on which are many
of the Legations, some of the foreign shops, and the fine compound and
handsome buildings of the Imperial Bank, has a Persian admixture. Some
of the stately houses of official and rich Persians are there, easily
recognisable by their low closed gateways and general air of
seclusion. Many of these possess exquisite gardens, with fountains and
tanks, and all the arrangements for the out-of-doors life which
Persians love. In the early spring afternoons the great sight of the
road outside the British Legation is the crowd of equestrians, or
rather of the horses they ride. However much the style of street,
furniture, tastes, art, and costume have been influenced by Europe,
fortunately for picturesque effect the Persian, even in the capital,
retains the Persian saddle and equipments.
From later observation I am inclined to think very highly of the
hardiness and stamina of the Persian horse, though at the time of my
visit to Tihran I doubted both. Such showy, magnificent-looking
animals, broken to a carriage which shows them to the best advantage,
fine-legged, though not at the expense of strength, small-eared,
small-mouthed, with flowing wavy manes, "necks clothed with thunder,"
dilated nostrils showing the carmine interior, and a look of scorn and
high breeding, I never saw elsewhere. The tail, which in obedience to
fashion we mutilate and abridge, is allowed in Persia its full
development, and except in the case of the Shah's white horses, when
it is dyed magenta, is perfectly beautiful, held far from the body
like a flag. The arched neck, haughty bearing, and easy handling which
Easterns love are given by very sharp bits; and a crowd of these
beautiful animals pawing the ground, prancing, caracoling, walking
with a gait as though the earth were too vulgar for their touch, or
flashing past at a gallop, all groomed to perfection and superbly
caparisoned, ridden by men who know how to ride, and who are in
sympathy with their animals, is one of the fascinations of Tihran.
Creeping along by the side-walk is often seen a handsome pacing
saddle-mule, or large white ass, nearly always led, carrying a Persian
lady attended by servants--a shapeless black bundle, with what one
supposes to be the outline of a hand clutching the enshrouding black
silk sheet tightly over her latticed white mask: so completely
enveloped that only a yellow shoe without a heel, and a glimpse of a
violet trouser can be seen above the short stirrups.
Another piece of Orientalism unaffected by Western influence is the
music performed daily at sunset in the upper stories of some of the
highly-decorated tiled gateways which lead into and out of the
principal squares. This is evoked from drums, fifes, cymbals, and huge
horns, and as the latter overpower all the former, the effect is much
like that of the braying of the colossal silver horns from the roofs
of the Tibetan _lamaserais_. Many people suppose that this daily
homage to the setting sun is a relic of the ancient fire or sun
worship.
Two great squares, one of them with a tank in the middle with a big
gun at each corner, artillery barracks on three sides, and a number of
smooth-bore twenty-four-pounder guns on the fourth, are among the
features of Tihran. In this great _Maidan_ there are always soldiers
in multifarious uniforms lounging, people waiting for the tram-cars,
and Royal footmen, whose grotesque costumes border on the ridiculous.
They are indeed a fitting accompaniment to the Royal horses with their
magenta tails and spots, for they wear red coats with ballet-dancer
skirts and green facings, green knee-breeches, white stockings, and
tall stiff erections resembling a fool's cap on the head, topped by
crests suggestive of nothing but a cock's comb.
A gateway much ornamented leads from the artillery square, or _Maidan
Topkhaneh_, by a short road shaded with trees to the Citadel or Ark,
which is an immense enclosure, rather mangy and unprepossessing in its
exterior, which contains the palace of the Shah, the arsenal, certain
public offices, the royal colleges, etc. Over the gateway floats
rather grandly the Royal standard, bearing the Lion and the Sun in
yellow on a green ground.
The Shah's palace is very magnificent, and the shady gardens,
beautifully kept, with their fountains and tanks of pale blue tiles,
through which clear water constantly moves, are worthy of a Royal
residence. From the outside above the high wall the chief feature is a
very lofty pavilion, brilliantly and elaborately painted, with walls
inclining inwards, and culminating in two high towers. This striking
structure contains the _andarun_ or _haram_ of the sovereign and his
private apartments.
This hasty sketch exhausts those features of Tihran which naturally
arrest the stranger's attention. There is no splendour about it
externally, but there is splendour within it, and possibly few
European residences can exceed in taste and magnificence the palaces
of the Minister of Justice (the _Muschir-u-Dowleh_), the
_Naib-es-Sultan_, the _Zil-es-Sultan_, and a few others, though I
regret that much of the furniture has been imported from Europe, as it
vexes the eye more or less with its incongruity of form and colouring.
The current of European influence, which is affecting externals in
Tihran, is not likely now to be stemmed. Eastern civilisation is
doomed, and the transition period is not beautiful, whatever the
outcome may be.
So much for what is within the walls. That which is outside deserves a
passing notice as the environment of the capital. The sole grandeur of
the situation lies in the near neighbourhood of the Shimran
mountains--a huge wall, white or brown according to the season, with
some irrigated planting near its base, which is spotted with villages
and the _yailaks_ not only of the numerous Legations but of rich
Europeans and Persians. Otherwise the tameless barbarism of a desert,
which man has slashed, tunnelled, delved, and heaped, lies outside the
city walls, deformed by the long lines of _kanaats_--some choked,
others still serviceable--by which the city is supplied with water
from the mountains, their shafts illustrating the Scriptural
expression "ruinous heaps." In the glare of the summer sun, with the
mercury ranging from 95 deg. to 110 deg. in the shade, and with the heated
atmosphere quivering over the burning earth, these wastes are
abandoned to carcasses and the vultures which fatten on them, and
travelling is done at night, when a breeze from the Shimran range
sends the thermometer down from 10 deg. to 15 deg.
Curving to the south-west of Tihran, the mountains end in a bare
ridge, around the base of which, according to many archaeologists, lie
vestiges of the ancient city of Rhages, known in later days as Rhei.
A tomb of brick with angular surfaces, sacred to the memory of an
ancient and romantic attachment, remains of fortifications, and the
Parsee cemetery on a ledge overlooking these remains, break the
monotony of the waste in that direction.
This cemetery, or "Tower of Silence," a white splash on the brown
hillside, is visible from afar. The truncated cones which in many
places mark seats of the ancient Zoroastrian worship have been
mentioned here and there, but it is only in Tihran and Yezd that the
descendants of the ancient fire-worshippers are found in such numbers
as to be able to give prominence to their ancient rites of sepulture.
Probably throughout Persia their number does not exceed 8000. Their
head resides in Tihran. They bear a good character for uprightness,
and except in Yezd, where they weave rich stuffs, they are chiefly
agriculturists. They worship firelight and the sun on the principles
symbolised by both, they never use tobacco, and it is impolite to
smoke in their presence because of the sacredness of fire.
Their belief has been, and is, that to bury the dead in the earth is
to pollute it; and one among the reasons of the persecution of the
early Christians by the Zoroastrians was their abhorrence of the
desecration of the ground produced by the modes of Christian burial.
This "Tower of Silence" near Tihran is a large round edifice of
whitewashed mud and stone. On the top of it, a few feet below the
circular parapet, the dead are laid to be devoured by birds and
consumed by exposure to the elements. The destiny of the spirit is
supposed to be indicated by the eye which is first devoured by the
fowls of the air, the right eye signifying bliss.
In a northern direction, to which the eye always turns to be refreshed
by the purity of the icy cone of Demavend, or to watch the rosy light
deepening into purple on the heights of Shimran, are palaces and
country seats in numbers, with a mass of irrigated plantations
extending for twenty miles, from Van[=e]k on the east to Kamarani[=e]h
on the west. These are reached by passing through the Shimran gate,
the most beautiful of the outer gates, tiled all over with yellow,
black, blue, and green tiles in conventional designs, and with an
immense coloured mosaic over the gateway representing Rust[=e]m,
Persia's great mythical hero, conquering some of his enemies.
On the slopes of the hills are palaces and hunting seats of the Shah,
beginning with the imposing mass of the Kasr-i-Kaj[=a]r, on a low
height, surrounded by majestic groves, in which are enormous tanks.
Palaces and hunting seats of ministers and wealthy men succeed each
other rapidly, a perfect seclusion having been obtained for each by
the rapid growth of poplars and planes, each dwelling carrying out in
its very marked individuality a deference to Persian custom, and each
if possible using running water as a means of decoration. Many of
these palaces are princely, and realise some of the descriptions in
the _Arabian Nights_, with the beauty of their decorated architecture,
the deep shade of their large demesnes, the cool plash of falling
water, the songs of nightingales, and the scent of roses--sensuous
Paradises in which the Persian finds the summer all too short.
Beyond this enchanting region, and much higher up on the mountain
slopes, are the hunting grounds of the Shah and his sons, well stocked
with game and rigidly preserved; for the Shah is a keen sportsman, and
is said to prefer a free life under canvas and the pleasures of the
chase to the splendid conventionalities of the Court of Tihran.
The two roads and the many tracks which centre in the capital after
scoring the desert for many miles around it, are a feature of the
landscape not to be overlooked, the Meshed, Resht, Bushire, and Tabriz
roads being the most important, except the route from Baghdad by
Kirmanshah and Hamadan, which in summer can be travelled by caravans
in twenty-eight days, and by which many bulky articles of value, such
as pianos, carriages, and valuable furniture, find their way to
Tihran.[26]
These are some of the features of the environments of Tihran. A
traveller writing ten years hence may probably have to tell that the
city has extended to its walls, that Western influence is nearly
dominant in externals, and possibly that the _concessionaires_ who for
years have been hanging about the Palace in alternations of hope and
despondency have made something of their concessions, and that goods
reach the capital in another way than on the backs of animals.
FOOTNOTES:
[25] A volume of travels in Persia would scarcely be complete without
some slight notice of the northern capital; but for detailed modern
accounts of it the reader should consult various other books,
especially Dr. Wills' and Mr. Benjamin's, if he has not already done
so.
[26] There are _only_ two roads, properly so called, in Persia, though
in the summer wheeled carriages with some assistance can get from
place to place over several of the tracks. These two are the road from
Kum to the capital, formerly described, and one from Kasvin to the
capital, both under 100 miles in length. Goods are everywhere carried
on the backs of animals.
The distance between Bushire and Tihran is 698 miles.
The summer freight per ton is L14 1 8
The winter do. 20 2 0
The distance between Tihran and Resht on the Caspian is 211 miles.
The summer freight per ton is L4 0 5-4/5
The winter do. 8 0 11-3/5
From the Caspian to the Persian Gulf the summer
freight per ton is L18 2 3
The winter do. 28 3 4
inclusive of some insignificant charges.
The time taken for the transit of goods between Bushire and Tihran is
forty-two days, and between Resht and Tihran twelve days.
The cost per ton by rail, if taken at Indian rates, between the Gulf
and the Caspian, would be L3:11:10.
On these figures the promoters of railway enterprise in Persia build
their hopes.
LETTER IX
BRITISH LEGATION, TIHRAN, _March 18_.
Three weeks have passed quickly by since that terrible ride from
Husseinabad. The snow is vanishing from the Shimran hills, the spring
has come, and I am about to leave the unbounded kindness and
hospitality of this house on a long and difficult journey. It is very
pleasant to go away carrying no memories but those of kindness,
received not only from Europeans and Americans, but from Persians,
including the Amin-es-Sultan and the Muschir-u-Dowleh.
It is impossible to bear away other than pleasant impressions of
Tihran society. Kindness received personally always sways one's
impressions of the people among whom one is thrown, and even if I had
any unfavourable criticisms to make I should not make them.
Society, or rather I should say the European population, is divided
into classes and knots. There are the eleven American missionaries,
whose duties and interests lie apart from those of the rest of the
community, the diplomatic body, which has a monopoly of political
interests, the large staff of the Indo-European telegraph, married and
single, with Colonel Wells at its head, and the mercantile class, in
which the manager and _employes_ of the Imperial Bank may be included.
Outside of these recognised classes there is a shifting body of
passing travellers, civil and military, and would-be _concessionaires_
and adventurers, besides a few Europeans in Persian employment.
From four to five hundred Europeans is a large foreign settlement, and
it is a motley one, very various in its elements, "and in their
idiosyncrasies, combinations, rivalries, and projects is to be found
an inexhaustible fund of local gossip," writes Mr. Curzon in one of
his recent brilliant letters to the _Times_, "as well as almost the
sole source of non-political interest."
Outside of the diplomatic circle the relations of England and Russia
with each other and with the Shah afford a topic of ceaseless
interest. England is just now considered to be in the ascendant, so
far as her diplomacy is concerned, but few people doubt that Russian
policy will eventually triumph, and that North Persia at least will be
"absorbed."