exquisite tiles have been constantly described. Decay will leave
little of this beautiful building in a few years. The tiles of the
dome, which can be seen for miles, are falling off, and even in the
halls of instruction and in the grand mosque under the dome, which are
completely lined and roofed by tiles, the making of some of which is a
lost art, one may augur the approach of ruin from the loss or breakage
here and there. In the rooms or cells occupied by the students, who
study either theology or law, there are some very fine windows
executed in the beautiful tracery common to Persia and Kashmir, but
the effect of beauty passing into preventible decay is very mournful.
Isfahan too I barely notice, for the best of all reasons, that I have
not seen it! Though a fourth part of it is in ruins, and its
population is not an eighth of what it was in the days of Shah Abbas,
it is a fairly thriving commercial emporium with an increasing British
trade. Indeed here Russian commercial influence may be said to cease,
and that of England to become paramount. It is the paradise of
Manchester and Glasgow cottons: woollen goods come from Austria and
Germany, glass from Austria, crockery from England, candles and
kerosene represent Russia. Our commercial supremacy in Isfahan cannot
be disputed. I am almost tired of hearing of it. Opium, tobacco,
carpets from the different provinces, and cotton and rice for native
consumption, are the chief exports. Opium is increasingly grown round
the city, and up the course of the Zainderud. Of the 4500 cases
exported, worth L90 a case, three-fourths go to China. Its cultivation
is so profitable and has increased so rapidly to the neglect of food
crops that the Prince Governor has issued an order that one part of
cereals shall be sown for every four of the opium poppy.
The cotton in the bazars, through which one can walk under cover for
between two and three miles, is of the best quality, owing to the
successful measures taken by the calico printers to defeat the roguery
of the cheating manufacturers. All the European necessaries and many
of the luxuries of life are obtainable, and the Isfahan bazars are the
busiest in Persia except those of Tabriz.
It is only fair to this southern capital to say that if one can walk
over two miles under the roofs of its fine bazars, one can ride for
many miles among its ruins, which have desolation without stateliness,
and are chiefly known for the production of the excellent wild
asparagus which is used lavishly on European tables at this season.
The "Persian Versailles," the Palace of Forty Pillars, each pillar
formed of shafts enriched with colour and intricate work, and resting
on a marble lion, the shaking Minarets, the Masjid-i-Shah with its
fine dome of peacock-blue tiles, all falling into premature decay,
remain to attest its former greatness; the other noble palaces,
mosques, caravanserais, and _Medressehs_ are ruinous, the superb
pleasure gardens are overgrown with weeds or are used for vetches and
barley, the tanks are foul or filled up, the splendid plane trees have
been cut down for fuel, or are dragging out a hollow existence--every
one, as elsewhere in Persia, destroys, no one restores. The armoury is
the one exception to the general law of decay.
Yet Isfahan covered an area of twenty-four miles in circumference, and
with its population of 650,000 souls was until the seventeenth century
one of the most magnificent cities of the East. Its destruction last
century by an Afghan conqueror, who perpetrated a fifteen days'
massacre, and the removal of the court to Tihran, have reduced it to a
mere commercial centre, a "distributing point," and as such, its
remains may take a new lease of life. It has a newspaper called the
_Farhang_, which prints little bits of news, chiefly personal. Its
editor moves on European lines so far as to have "interviewed" me!
There are manufactures in Isfahan other than the successful printing
and dyeing of cottons; viz., earthenware, china, brass-work, velvet,
satin, tents, coarse cottons, glass, swords, guns, pistols, jewellery,
writing paper and envelopes, silk brocades, satins, gunpowder,
bookbinding, gold thread, etc.
The plateau on which Isfahan stands, about seventy miles from east to
west and twenty from north to south, and enclosed by high mountains
with a striking outline, lies 5400 feet above the sea. The city has a
most salubrious climate, and is free from great extremes both of heat
and cold. The Zainderud, on whose left bank it is situated, endows
much of the plain with fertility on its way to its undeserved doom in
a partially-explored swamp.
This Christian town, called a suburb, though it is really two and a
half miles from Isfahan, is a well-built and well-peopled nucleus. It
is not mixed up with ruins as Isfahan is. They have a region to
themselves chiefly in the direction of the Kuh Sufi. My impression of
it after a month is that it is clean and comfortable-looking, Mr.
Curzon's is that it is "squalid." I prefer mine!
It is a "city of waters." Streams taken from a higher level of the
Zainderud glide down nearly all its lanes, shaded by pollard
mulberries, ash, elm, and the "sparrow-tongue" willow, which makes the
best firewood, and being "planted by the rivers of water," grows so
fast that it bears lopping annually, and besides affording fuel
supplies the twigs which are used for roofing such rooms as are not
arched.
The houses, some of which are more than three centuries old, are built
of mud bricks, the roofs are usually arched, and the walls are from
three to five feet thick. All possess planted courtyards and
vineyards, and gardens into which channels are led from the streams in
the streets. These streams serve other purposes: continually a group
of Armenian women may be seen washing their clothes in them, while
others are drinking or drawing water just below. The lanes are about
twenty feet wide and have narrow rough causeways on both sides of the
water-channel. It is difficult on horseback to pass a foot passenger
without touching him in some of them.
Great picturesqueness is given to these leafy lanes by the companies
of Armenian women in bright red dresses and pure white robes, slowly
walking through them at all hours of daylight, visions of bright eyes
and rosy cheeks. I have never yet seen a soiled white robe! Long blank
mud walls, low gateways, an occasional row of mean shops, open porches
of churches, dim and cool, and an occasional European on foot or
horseback, and groups of male Armenians, whose dress so closely
approaches the European as to be without interest, and black-robed
priests gliding to the churches are all that is usually to be seen. It
sounds dull, perhaps.
Many of the houses of the rich Armenians, some of which are now let to
Europeans, are extremely beautiful inside, and even those occupied by
the poorer classes, in which a single lofty room can be rented for
twopence a week, are very pretty and appropriate. But no evidence of
wealth is permitted to be seen from the outside. It is only a few
years since the Armenians were subject to many disabilities, and they
have even now need to walk warily lest they give offence. As, for
instance, an Armenian was compelled to ride an ass instead of a horse,
and when that restriction was relaxed, he had to show his inferiority
by dismounting from his horse before entering the gates of Isfahan.
They were not allowed to have bells on their churches, (at Easter I
wished they had none still), but now the _Egglesiah Wang_ (the great
church) has a fine campanile over 100 feet high in its inner court.
The ancient mode of announcing the hours of worship is still
affectionately adhered to, however. It consists of drumming with a
mallet on a board hanging from two posts, and successfully breaks the
sleep of the neighbourhood for the daily service which begins before
daylight.
The Armenians, like the rich Persians, prudently keep to the low
gateways, which, with the absence of windows and all exterior
ornament, give the lanes so mean an aspect, and tend to make one
regard the beauty and even magnificence within with considerable
surprise.
In England a rich man, partly for his own delectation, and partly, if
he be "the architect of his own fortune," to impose his position
ocularly on his poorer neighbours, displays his wealth in all ways and
on most occasions. In Persia his chief pleasure must be to hoard it
and contemplate it, for any unusual display of it in equipages or
furnishings is certain to bring down upon him a "squeeze," at Tihran
in the shape of a visit from the Shah with its inevitable
consequences, and in the Provinces in that of a requisition from the
governor.
For a man to "enlarge his gates" is to court destruction. Poor men
have low gates, which involve stooping, to prevent rich men's servants
from entering their houses on horseback on disagreeable errands.
Christian churches have remarkably low doors elsewhere than in Julfa,
to prevent the Moslems from stabling their cattle in them. Rich men
affect mean entrances in order not to excite the rapacity of
officialism, according to the ancient proverb, "He that exalteth his
gate seeketh destruction" (Proverbs xvii. 19). Only Royal gates and
the gates of officials who represent Royalty are high.
The Armenian merchants have, like the Europeans, their offices in
Isfahan. The rest of the people get their living by the making and
selling of wine, keeping small shops, making watches and jewellery,
carpentering, in which they are very skilful, and market-gardening;
they are thrifty and industrious, and there is very little real
poverty.
The selling of wine does not conduce to the peace of Julfa. A mixture
of sour wine and _arak_, a coarse spirit, is very intoxicating, and
Persians, when they do drink, drink till they are drunk, and the
abominable concealed traffic in liquor with the Moslems of the town is
apt to produce disgraceful brawls.
Wine can be bought for fourpence a quart, but the upper classes make
their own, and it costs less than this. Wines are both red and white,
and one red wine is said to be like good Chianti. The Armenians tipple
and also get drunk, priests included. It is said that some of the jars
used in fermenting are between 200 and 300 years old.
The excellent education given in the C.M.S. schools has had the effect
of stimulating the Armenian schools, and of producing among the young
men a large emigration to India, Batavia, Constantinople, and even
England. Only the dullards as a rule remain in Julfa. Some rise high
in Persian and even in Turkish employment.
The Armenian women are capital housewives and very industrious. In
these warm evenings the poorer women sit outside their houses in
groups knitting. The knitting of socks is a great industry, and a
woman can earn 4s. a month by it, which is enough to live upon.
In Julfa, and it may be partly owing to the presence of a European
community, the Christians have nothing to complain of, and, so far as
I can see, they are on terms of equality with the Persians.
However, Isfahan is full of religious intolerance which can easily be
excited to frenzy, and the arrogance of the _mollahs_ has increased
since the fall from almost regal state of the Zil-i-Sultan, the Shah's
eldest son, into the position of a provincial governor, for he curbed
them somewhat, and now the restraint is removed. However, it is
against the Jews and the _B[=a]bis_, rather than the Christians, that
their hostility is directed.
A few weeks ago some _B[=a]bis_ were peaceably returning to a
neighbouring village, when they were attacked, and seven of their
number were massacred under atrocious circumstances, the remainder
taking refuge for a time in the British Telegraph office. Several of
both sexes who escaped are in concealment here in a room in the
Hospital compound, one of them with a broken jaw.
The hiding of these _B[=a]bis_ has given great umbrage to the bigots
of Isfahan, though the Amir-i-Panj justified it on all grounds, and
about the time I arrived it was said that a thousand city fanatics
purposed to attack the mission premises. But at one of the mosques
there is a _mollah_, who with Gamaliel-like wisdom urged upon them
"that if 300 Moslems were killed nothing would happen, but if a single
European were killed, what then?"[37]
I cannot close this letter without a few words on the Armenian
churches, some of which I visited with Mr. and Dr. Aganoor, and others
with Dr. Bruce. The ceremony representing the washing of the
disciples' feet on the Armenian Holy Thursday was a most magnificent
one as regards the antique splendour and extreme beauty of the
vestments and jewels of the officiating bishop, but the feet, which
are washed in rose-water and anointed, are not, as in Rome, those of
beggars, but of neophytes costumed in pure white. Incense,
embroideries, crowds of white-robed women, and other accessories made
the function an imposing one.
The Cathedral, a part of the Monastery, has a narrow winding approach
and a thick door, for ecclesiastics were not always as safe as they
are now. In the outer court is the campanile before mentioned. The
floor is paved with monumental slabs, and among the graves are those
of several Europeans. Piles of logs look as if the Julfa carpenters
seasoned their wood in this court!
The church is divided by a rail into two compartments. The dome is
rich with beaten gold, and the dado is of very fine tiles, which
produce a striking effect. The embroideries and the carpets, some of
which are worth fabulous sums, are between two and three centuries
old. The vestments and ornaments of the priests are very fine, and
suggest the attire of the Aaronic priesthood.
It is a striking building, and the amount of gold and colour, toned
into a certain harmony by time, produces a gorgeous effect. The outer
compartment has a singular interest, for 230 years ago its walls were
decorated with religious paintings, on a large scale, of events in
Bible history, from the creation downwards. Some are copies, others
original, and they are attributed to Italian artists. They are well
worth careful study as representing the conceptions which found favour
among the Armenian Christians of that day. They are terribly
realistic, but are certainly instructive, especially the illustrations
of the miracles and parables.
In one of the latter a man with a huge beam sticking out of one eye is
represented as looking superciliously with the other at a man with an
insignificant spike projecting. The death of Dives is a horrible
representation. His soul, in the likeness of a very small nude
figure, is represented as escaping from the top of his head, and is
being escorted to the entrance of the lower regions by a flight of
small black devils. The idea of the soul emerging from the top of the
head is evidently borrowed from the Moslems.
Our Lord is, I think, everywhere depicted as short, dark, and
dark-haired, with eyebrows much curved, and a very long upper lip,
without beauty or dignity, an ordinary Oriental workman.
_The_ picture of the Cathedral is an enormous canvas, representing the
day when "before Him shall be gathered all nations." The three persons
of the Trinity are there, and saints and angels are portrayed as
worshipping, or as enjoying somewhat earthly but perfectly innocent
delights.
In this the conception is analogous to those celebrated circular
pictures in which the Buddhistic future is unrolled, and which I last
saw in the monasteries of Lesser Tibet. The upper or heavenly part is
insignificant and very small, while the torments of the lost in the
lower part are on a very large scale, and both the devils and the nude
human sufferers in every phase of anguish have the appearance of life
size. The ingenuity of torment, however, is not nearly so great, nor
are the scenes so revolting as those which Oriental imagination has
depicted in the Buddhist hells. A huge mythical monster represents the
mouth of hell, and into his flaming and smoking jaws the impenitent
are falling. Does any modern Armenian believe that any of those whose
bones lie under the huge blocks of stone in the cemetery in the red
desert at the foot of Kuh Sufi have passed into "this place of
torment"?
The other church which claims one's interest, though not used for
worship, is that of St. George, the hero of the fraudulent contract
in bacon, as well as of the dragon fight, to whom the Armenians as
well as ourselves render singular honour.
This church is a great place for "miracles" of healing, and cells for
the sick who come from a distance are freely provided. In a covered
court are some large stones in a group, one of them evidently the
capital of a column. Two of them have cavities at the top, and the
sick kneel before them, and as the voluble women who were there told
us, "they first pray to God and then to the stones," and finally pour
water into these cavities and drink it. The cure is either
instantaneous or occurs at any time within fifteen days, and in every
case the patient hears the voice of St. George telling him to go home
when it is complete.
These stones, according to the legend told by the women and popularly
believed by the uneducated, took it into their heads to come from
Etchmiadzin in Armenia, the residence of the _Catholicos_, in one
night, and deposited themselves where the church now stands. Seven
times they were taken into Faraidan, eighty miles from Julfa, and as
often returned, and their manifest predilection was at last rewarded
by a rest of centuries. There were a number of sick people waiting for
healing, for which of course fees are bestowed.
The Armenians, especially the women, pay great attention to the
externals of their religion. Some of its claims are very severe, such
as the daily service before daylight, winter and summer, and the long
fasts, which they keep with surprising loyalty, _i.e._ among the poor
in towns and in the villages. For at least one-sixth of the year they
are debarred from the use of meat or even eggs, and are permitted only
vegetable oils, fruits, vegetables, and grain. Spirits and wine,
however, are not prohibited.
I really believe that their passionate attachment to their venerable
church, the oldest of all national churches, is fostered by those
among them who have ceased to believe its doctrines, as a necessity of
national existence. I doubt very much whether the "Reformed"
congregations, which have been gathered out here and elsewhere, would
survive the withdrawal of foreign aid. Rather, I think, they would
revert to the original type.
Superstitions without number are mixed up with their beliefs, and are
countenanced by the priests. The _meron_ or holy oil used in baptism
and for other purposes has the stamp of charlatanism upon it. It is
made in Etchmiadzin.
Rose leaves are collected in an immense vat, which is filled with
water, and at a set time the monks and nuns form a circle round it,
and repeat prayers till "fermentation" begins. They claim that the
so-called fermentation is a miracle due to the prayers offered. Oil,
probably attar of roses, rises to the surface, and this precious
_meron_ is sent to the Armenian churches throughout the world about
once in four or five years. In Persia those who bear it are received
with an _istikbal_ or procession of welcome.
It is used not only in baptism and other rites but at the annual
ceremony of washing the Cross at Christmas, when some of it is poured
into the water and is drunk by the worshippers. In the villages they
make a paste by mixing this water and oil with earth, which is made
into balls and kept in the houses for "luck." If a dog licks a bowl or
other vessel, and thus renders it unclean, rubbing it round with one
of these balls restores it to purity.
At a village in Faraidan there is an ancient New Testament, reputed to
be of the sixth century. To this MS. people come on pilgrimage from
all quarters, even from Fars, Tihran, and Armenia, to be healed of
their diseases, and they make offerings to it, and practically render
it worship.
To go and pray on a newly-made grave is a remedy for childlessness
much resorted to by childless wives. When two boys fight, and one of
them is hurt, or when any one is injured by a dog or by a tree
falling, they wash the damaged person in water, and then throw the
water over the boy, dog, or tree which has been the cause of the
injury, believing that in this way the mischief is transferred.
When any one is ill of fright and the cause is not known, the nuns
come to the house, and pour wax into a basin of boiling water, noting
the form it takes, such as a snake, a dog, or a frog. In a case lately
they went out and killed a snake, for the thing whose form the wax
takes ought to be killed; but as this might often be difficult or
unsuitable, they compromise the matter by throwing the water (not
boiling, I hope) over the nearest dog or toad, or anything else which
is supposed to be the culprit.
On the first Monday in Lent the women wash their knitting needles for
luck in a stream which runs through Julfa. The children educated in
the Mission schools laugh at these and many other superstitions.
The dress of the Armenian women is very showy, but too much of a
_huddle_. Red is the dominant colour, a carnation red with white
patterns sprawling over it, They wear coloured trousers concealed by a
long skirt. The visible under-garment is a long, "shaped" dress of
Turkey red. Over this is worn a somewhat scanty gown of red and white
cotton, open in front, and very short-waisted, and over this a plain
red pelisse or outer garment, often quilted, open in front, gashed up
the sides, and falling below the knees. Of course this costume is
liable to many modifications in the way of material, and embroidered
jackets, heavily trimmed with jewellery and the like. As fashion is
unchanging the acquisition and hoarding of garments are carried to a
great extent.
There are two marked features of Armenian dress, one, the massive
silver girdle made of heavy chased-silver links four inches long by
two deep, often antique and always of antique design, which falls much
below the waist in front, and is used to confine the ends of the white
sheet which envelops an Armenian woman out of doors, so that it may
hang evenly all round. The other is a skull-cap of embroidered silk or
cloth, placed well back on the head above the many hanging plaits in
which the hair is worn, with a black velvet coronet in front, from
which among the richer women rows of coins depend. This, which is very
becoming to the brilliant complexion and comely face below it, is in
its turn covered by a half handkerchief, and over this is gracefully
worn, when not gracelessly clutched, a _chadar_ or drapery of printed
cambric or muslin. A white band bound across the chin up to the lips
suggests a broken jaw, and the _tout ensemble_ of the various
wrappings of the head a perennial toothache.
I. L. B.
FOOTNOTE:
[37] I have written nothing about this fast-increasing sect of the
_B[=a]bis_, partly because being a secret sect, I doubt whether the
doctrines which are suffered to leak out form really any part of its
esoteric teaching, and partly because those Europeans who have studied
the _B[=a]bis_ most candidly are diametrically opposed in their views
of their tenets and practice, some holding that their aspirations are
after a purer life, while others, and I think a majority, believe that
their teachings are subversive of morality and of the purity of
domestic life.
LETTER XIV
JULFA, _April 30_.
You will be tired of Julfa though I am not. I fully expected to have
left it a fortnight ago, but unavoidable delays have occurred. My
caravan and servants started this morning, and I leave myself in a few
hours.
Upon my horse I have bestowed the suggestive name of _Screw_. He is
fairly well-bred, big-headed, big-eared, small-bodied, bright bay,
fine-coated, slightly flat-footed, and with his fore hoofs split in
several places from the coronet nearly to the shoe. He is an undoubted
_yabu_, and has carried loads for many a day. He has a long stride,
shies badly, walks very fast, canters easily, and at present shows no
tendency to tumble down.[38]
I have had pleasant rides alone, crossing the definite dividing line
between the desert and the oasis of cultivation and irrigation,
watching the daily development of the various crops and the brief life
of the wild flowers, creeping through the green fields on the narrow
margins of irrigating ditches, down to the Pul-i-Kaj[=u], and
returning to the green lanes of Julfa by the bright waters of the
Zainderud crimsoning in the setting sun.