DEPARTURE FROM TEHERAN IN NORTH-EASTERLY DIRECTION
THE COMPONENT MEMBERS OF KARAVAN DESCRIBED
ILL-FEELING OF SHIITES TOWARDS THE SUNNITISH HADJIS
MAZENDRAN
ZIRAB
HEFTEN
TIGERS AND JACKALS
SARI
KARATEPE.
_Beyond the Caspian's iron gates._--Moore.
[ Departure from Teheran in North-easterly Direction]
On the morning of the 28th March, 1863, at an early hour, I proceeded
to our appointed rendezvous, the karavanserai. Those of my friends
whose means permitted them to hire a mule or an ass as far as the
Persian frontiers were ready booted and spurred for their journey;
those who had to toil forwards on foot had on already their jaruk (a
covering for the feet appropriate for infantry), and seemed, with
their date-wood staves in their hands, to await with great impatience
the signal for departure. To my great amazement, I saw that the
wretched clothing which they wore at Teheran was really their city,
that is, their best holiday costume. This they did not use on ordinary
occasions; every one had now substituted his real travelling dress,
consisting of a thousand rags fastened round the loins by a cord.
Yesterday I regarded myself in my clothing as a beggar; to-day, in the
midst of them, I was a king in his royal robes. At last Hadji Bilal
raised his hand for the parting benediction; {21} and hardly had every
one seized his beard to say 'Amen,' when the pedestrians rushed out of
the gate, hastening with rapid strides to get the start of us who were
mounted. Our march was directed towards the north-east from Teheran to
Sari, which we were to reach in eight stations. We turned therefore
towards Djadjerud and Firuzkuh, leaving Taushantepe, the little
hunting-seat of the king, on our left; and were, in an hour, at the
entrance of the mountainous pass where one loses sight of the plain
and city of Teheran. By an irresistible impulse I turned round. The
sun was already, to use an Oriental expression, a lance high; and its
beams illuminated, not Teheran alone, but the distant gilded dome of
Shah Abdul Azim. At this season of the year, Nature in Teheran already
assumes all her green luxuriance; and I must confess that the city,
which the year before had made so disagreeable an impression upon me,
appeared to me now dazzlingly beautiful. This glance of mine was an
adieu to the last outpost of European civilisation. I had now to
confront the extremes of savageness and barbarism. I felt deeply
moved; and that my companions might not remark my emotion, I turned my
horse aside into the mountainous defile.
In the meantime my companions were beginning to recite aloud passages
from the Koran, and to chant telkins (hymns), as is seemly for genuine
pilgrims to do. They excused me from taking part in these, as they
knew that the Roumis (Osmanli) were not so strictly and religiously
educated as the people in Turkestan; and they besides hoped that I
should receive the necessary inspiration by contact with their
society. I followed them at a slow pace, and will {22} now endeavour
to give a description of them, for the double motive that we are to
travel so long together and that they are in reality the most honest
people I shall ever meet with in those parts. There were, then,
[The Component Members of Karavan described]
1. _Hadji Bilal_, from Aksu (Chinese Tartary), and Court Iman of the
Chinese Musselman Governor of the same province: with him were his
adopted sons,
2. _Hadji Isa_, a lad in his sixteenth year; and
3. _Hadji Abdul Kader_, before mentioned, in the company, and so to
say under the protection, of Hadji Bilal. There were besides,
4. _Hadji Yusuf_, a rich Chinese Tartar peasant; with his nephew,
5. _Hadji Ali_, a lad in his tenth year, with little, diminutive,
Kirghish eyes. The last two had eighty ducats for their travelling
expenses, and, therefore, were styled rich; still this was kept a
secret: they hired a horse for joint use, and when one was riding the
other walked.
6. _Hadji Amed_, a poor Mollah, who performed his pilgrimage leaning
upon his beggar's staff. Similar in character and position was
7. _Hadji Hasan_, whose father had died on the journey, and who was
returning home an orphan;
8. _Hadji Yakoub_, a mendicant by profession, a profession inherited
by him from his father;
9. _Hadji Kurban_ (senior), a peasant by birth, who as a knife-grinder
had traversed the whole of Asia, had been as far as Constantinople and
Mecca, had visited upon occasions Thibet and Calcutta, and twice the
Kirghish Steppes, to Orenburg and Taganrok;
10. _Hadji Kurban_, who also had lost his father and brother on the
journey;
{23}
11. _Hadji Said_; and
12. _Hadji Abdur Rahman_, an infirm lad of the age of fourteen years,
whose feet were badly frozen in the snow of Hamadan, and who suffered
fearfully the whole way to Samarcand.
The above-named pilgrims were from Khokand, Yarkend, and Aksu, two
adjacent districts; consequently they were Chinese Tartars, belonging
to the suite of Hadji Bilal, who was besides upon friendly terms with
13. _Hadji Sheikh Sultan Mahmoud_ from Kashgar, a young enthusiastic
Tartar, belonging to the family of a renowned saint, Hazreti Afak,
whose tomb is in Kashgar. The father of my friend Sheikh Sultan
Mahmoud was a poet; Mecca was in imagination his child: after the
sufferings of long years he reached the holy city, where he died. His
son had consequently a double object in his pilgrimage: he proceeded
as pilgrim alike to the tombs of his prophet and his father. With him
were
14. _Hadji Husein_, his relative; and
15. _Hadji Ahmed_, formerly a Chinese soldier belonging to the
regiment Shiiva that bears muskets and consists of Musselmans.
From the Khanat Khokand were
16. _Hadji Salih Khalifed_, candidate for the Ishan, which signifies
the title of Sheikh, consequently belonging to a semi-religious order;
an excellent man of whom we shall have often occasion to speak. He was
attended by his son,
17. _Hadji Abdul Baki_, and his brother
18. _Hadji Abdul Kader_ the _Medjzub_, which means, 'impelled by the
love of God,' and who, whenever he has shouted two thousand times
'Allah,' foams at the mouth and falls into a state of ecstatic
blessedness (Europeans name this state epilepsy).
{24}
19. _Hadji Kari Messud_ (Kari has the same signification in Turkey as
Hafiz, one who knows the whole Koran by heart). He was with his son,
20. _Hadji Gayaseddin_;
21. _Hadji Mirza Ali_; and
22._Hadji Ahrarkuli_; the bags of the two last-named pilgrims still
contained some of their travelling provision in money, and they had a
beast hired between them.
23. _Hadji Nur Mohammed_, a merchant who had been twice to Mecca; but
not on his own account, only as representing another.
[Ill-feeling of Shiites towards the Sunnite Hadjis]
We advanced up the slopes of the chain of the Elburs mountains, which
rose higher and higher. The depression of spirits in which I was, was
remarked by my friends, who did all in their power to comfort me. It
was, however, particularly Hadji Salih who encouraged me with the
assurance that 'they would all feel for me the love of brothers, and
the hope that, by the aid of God, we should soon be at liberty beyond
the limits of the Shiite heretics, and be able to live comfortably in
lands subject to the Sunnite Turkomans, who are followers of the same
faith.' A pleasant prospect certainly, thought I; and I rode more
quickly on in order to mix with the poor travellers who were preceding
us on foot. Half an hour later I came up with them. I noticed how
cheerfully they wended their way; men who had journeyed on foot from
the remotest Turkestan to Mecca, and back again on foot. Whilst many
were singing merry songs, which had great resemblance to those of
Hungary, others were recounting the adventures they had gone through
in the course of their wanderings; a conversation which occasioned
{25} me great pleasure, as it served to make me acquainted with the
modes of thought of those distant tribes, so that at the very moment
of my departure from Teheran I found myself, so to say, in the midst
of Central Asiatic life.
During the daytime it was tolerably warm, but it froze hard in the
early morning hours, particularly in the mountainous districts. I
could not support the cold in my thin clothing on horseback, so I was
forced to dismount to warm myself. I handed my horse over to one of
the pedestrian pilgrims. He gave me his stick in exchange, and so I
accompanied them a long way on foot, hearing the most animated
descriptions of their homes; and when their enthusiasm had been
sufficiently stimulated by reminiscences of the gardens of Mergolan,
Namengan, and Khokand, they all began with one accord to sing a telkin
(hymn), in which I myself took part by screaming out as loud as I was
able, 'Allah, ya Allah!'
Every such approximation to their sentiments and actions on my part
was recounted by the young travellers to the older pilgrims, to the
great delight of the latter, who never ceased repeating 'Hadji Reshid
(my name amongst my companions) is a genuine Dervish; one can make
anything out of him.'
[Mazendran]
After a rather long day's march, on the fourth day we reached
Firuzkuh, which hes rather high, and is approached by a very bad road.
The city is at the foot of a mountain, which is crowned by an ancient
fortification, now in ruins; a city of some importance from the fact
that there the province Arak Adjemi ends, and Mazendran begins. The
next morning our way passed in quite a northerly direction, and we had
scarcely proceeded three or four hours when we {26} reached the mouth
of the great defile, properly called Mazendran, which extends as far
as the shores of the Caspian. Scarcely does the traveller move a few
steps forwards from the karavanserai on the top of the mountain, when
the bare dry district changes, as by enchantment, into a country of
extraordinary richness and luxuriance. One forgets that one is in
Persia, on seeing around everywhere the splendour of those primaeval
forests and that magnificent green. But why linger over Mazendran and
all its beauties, rendered so familiar to us by the masterly sketches
of Frazer, Conolly, and Burnes?
On our passage Mazendran was in its gala attire of spring. Its
witchery made the last spark of trouble disappear from my thoughts. I
reflected no more on the perils of my undertaking, but allowed
imagination to dwell only upon sweet dreams of the regions through
which lay my onward path, visions of the various races of men,
customs, and usages which I was now to see. I must expect to behold,
it is true, scenes a perfect contrast to these; I must anticipate
immense and fearful deserts--plains whose limits are not
distinguishable to the human eye, and where I should have for days
long to suffer from want of water. The enjoyment of that spot was
doubly agreeable, as I was so soon to bid adieu to all sylvan scenes.
Mazendran had its charms even for my companions. Their feelings found
expression in regrets that this lovely Djennet (paradise) should have
become the possession of the heretical Shiites. 'How singular,' said
Hadji Bilal, 'that all the beautiful spots in nature should have
fallen into the hands of the unbelievers! The Prophet had reason to
say, "This world is the prison of the believers, and the paradise of
the unbelievers.'" [Footnote 6]
[Footnote 6: 'Ed dünya sidjn ül mumenin, ve djennet ül kafirin.']
{27}
In proof, he cited Hindoostan, where the 'Inghiliz' reign, the
beauties of Russia which he had seen, and Frenghistan, that had been
described to him as an earthly paradise. Hadji Sultan sought to
console the company by a reference to the mountainous districts that
lie between Oosh (boundaries of Khokand) and Kashgar. He represented
that place to me as far more lovely than Mazendran, but I can hardly
believe it.
[Zirab; Heften; Tigers and Jackals]
At the station Zirab we came to the northern extremity of the
mountainous pass of Mazendran. Here the immense woods begin, which
mark the limits of the shore of the Caspian Sea. We pass along a
causeway made by Shah Abbas, but which is fast decaying. Our night
quarters--we reached them betimes--was Heften, in the middle of a
beautiful forest of boxwood. Our young people started off in quest of
a good spring of water for our tea; but all at once we heard a fearful
cry of distress. They came flying back, and recounted to us that they
had seen animals at the source, which sprang away with long bounds
when they approached them. At first I thought they must be lions, and
I seized a rusty sword, and found, in the direction they had
described, but at a good distance off, two splendid tigers, whose
beautifully-striped forms made themselves visible occasionally from
the thickets. In this forest the peasants told me that there were
numbers of wild beasts, but they very rarely attacked human beings. At
all events, we were not molested by the jackals, who even dread a
stick, but which are here so numerous that we cannot drive them away.
There are jackals throughout {28} all Persia; they are not uncommon
even in Teheran, where their howling is heard in the evenings. But
still, they did not there approach men, as they did here. They
disturbed me the whole night long. I was obliged, in self-defence, to
use both hands and feet to prevent their making off with bread-sack or
a shoe.
[Sari]
The next day we had to reach Sari, the capital of Mazendran. Not far
from the wayside lies Sheikh Tabersi, a place long defended by the
Babis (religious enthusiasts who denied Mohammed and preached
socialism). They made themselves the terror of the neighbourhood. Here
also are beautiful gardens, producing in exuberance crops of oranges
and lemons. Their fruit, tinted with yellow and red, presented an
enchanting contrast with the green of the trees. Sari itself has no
beauty to recommend it, but is said to carry on an important trade. As
we traversed the bazaar of this last Persian city, we received also
the last flood of every possible imprecation and abuse; nor did I
leave their insolence without rebuke, although I judged it better not
to repeat my threatening movements of stick or sword in the centre of
a bazaar and amid hundreds of Shiites.
[Karatepe]
We only remained in Sari long enough to find horses to hire for a
day's journey to the sea-shore. The road passes through many marshes
and morasses. It is impossible to perform the journey here on foot.
From this point there are many ways by which we can reach the shore of
the Caspian, e. g. by Ferahabad (Parabad, as it is called by the
Turkomans), Gez, and Karatepe. We preferred, however, the last route,
because it would lead us to a Sunnite colony, where we were certain of
a hospitable reception, having already had opportunities of becoming
acquainted with many of these colonists at Sari, and having found them
good people.
{29}
After a rest of two days in Sari we started for Karatepe. It was not
until evening, after a laborious journey of nine hours, that we
arrived. Here it is that the Turkomans first become objects of terror.
Piratical hordes of them hide their vessels along the coast, whence
extending their expeditions to a distance of a few leagues into the
interior, they often return to the shore, dragging a Persian or so in
bonds.
{30}