^ litiiisiiicf yiiASf, ^ (LIMITED.) 30 TO 34, NEW OXFORD STREET. i24l,BROMPTON ROAD,S.W. 48,QUEEN VICTORIA ST, E.C. suBscRiprio]sr One Guinea Per Annum cuid iipwaKis m »* .»/ -'■"M'£ !i*^. V^V''^^^ ■>,* * I if . % » ;? <:J'^ t^,.:^^2 "Mj. ID E THROUGH WESTERN ASIA \Tofnce page 122. Till': Sh\i[ kkitrnim'. -io Tkiikkax. A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA BY CLIVE BIGHAM II WITH ILLUSTRATIONS ILontion MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1897 All rights yeser-jed Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, london and bungay. NOTE The author of the following volume, who had previously served in the Grenadier Guards, held after he made the journey which is here described and until recently the appointment of Honorary Attache to the British Embassy at St. Petersburg. He has now orone out to the seat of war as a correspondent for one of the principal English newspapers, and the publishers have to thank the Hon. T. W. Legh, M.P., for having kindly under- taken to see the book through the press in his absence. May, 1897. CONTENTS PART I ASIA MINOR CHAPTER I PAGE LONDON TO CONSTANTINOPLE I CHAPTER II ANGORA 12 CHAPTER III ANGORA TO SIVAS . 21 CHAPTER IV SIVAS 33 CHAPTER V SIVAS TO ERSINJAN 4I CHAPTER VI ERSINJAN 47 CHAPTER VII ERZERUM 56 CHAPTER VIII ERZERUM TO BAVAZID 66 CHAPTER IX BAVAZID 76 CONTENTS PART II PERSIA NORTH TO SOUTH CHAPTER 1 BAYAZID TO TABREEZ PAGE . 87 CHAPTER II TABREEZ AND ARDABIL ^°I CHAPTER III THE ELBURZ AND CASPIAN LITTORAL lOQ CHAPTER IV ENZELl AND RESHT ^^7 CHAPTER V TEHERAN 122 CHAPTER VI ISPAHAN '^5 CHAPTER VII PERSEPOLIS AND SHIRAZ • • 134 CHAPTER VIII SHIRAZ TO SHUSTER ^43 CHAPTER IX SHUSTER AND DIZFUL ^S^ CHAPTER X DOWN THE KARUN '59 CONTENTS PART III TURKISH ARABIA CHAPTER I PAGE BUSRAH AND THE TIGRIS 167 CHAPTER n BAGHDAD I73 PART IV PERSIA WEST TO EAST CHAPTER I THROUGH KURDISTAN 183 CHAPTER n THROUGH KHORASAN 189 CHAPTER HI MESHED 197 PART V CENTRAL ASIA CHAPTER I RUSSIAN TURKESTAN 205 CHAPTER II TRANSCASPIA AND BOKHARA 212 CHAPTER III SAMARKAND 219 X CONTENTS CHAPTER IV FACE THROUGH FERGHANA 224 CHAPTER V ACROSS THE ALAl INTO CHINA 23 1 CHAPTER VI KASHGAR 239 CHAPTER VII THE TIAN SHAN MOUNTAINS . . 248 CHAPTER VIII ACROSS THE STEPPE 255 CHAPTER IX THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY 262 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ANGORA To face page 19 crusaders' castle at gilisi „ „ 31 bridge on road between sivas and essinjan „ „ 44 street in erzerum „ ,, 57 cemetery and citadel at erzerum , . „ „ 58 jewelled door of the shrine, meshed . ,, „ 98 execution of persian criminal .... „ „ i02 persian infantry „ ,, iio shah's TOWER, IN ENZELI ,, ,, II 8 KAZVIM ROYAL MOSQUE „ ,, I20 THE SHAH RETURNING TO TEHERAN ... „ ,, 122 CHAPPER KHAUEH (pOST HOUSE) ,, ,, 126 THE KAJAR BRIDGE AT ISPAHAN ,, ,, 1 30 PRISON AT TAHUR „ „ 136 RUINS OF PERSEPOLIS „ ,, 138 THE TOMB OF HAFIZ AT SHIRAZ „ ,, 1 40 GOPHERS „ „ 170 MOSQUE OF KAZIMAIM BAGHDAD „ ,, 175 ROCK CARVING AT TAKHT, I BOSTAN ... „ ,, 184 ROCK CARVING OF CYRUS AT TAKHT I BOSTAN . „ ,, 186 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE KIRGHIZ WOMEN AND YURT To face page 2IO CARPET BOOTH IN BOKHARA „ „ 212 BOKHARIOTES ,, „ 2l6 MINARET, BOKHARA ,, „ 2l8 GREAT SQUARE, SAMARKAND „ ,, 2 20 GUR AMIR, OR TOMB OF TAMERLANE, SAMAR- KAND „ ,, 2 22 PAMIR POST ,, „ 224 PALACE OF AMIR AT KHOKAND „ ,, 229 IN THE PAMIRS „ „ 232 KIRGHIZ ON YAK „ „ 236 CUSTOM HOUSE, IRKESTAN ,, „ 237 BAZAR OUTSIDE KASHGAR „ ,, 240 KIRGHESE „ ,, 248 OMSK „ ,, 263 MAPS ASIA MINOR At end of Book WESTERN ASIA , . . . . „ „ PERSIA „ „ THE RAILWAY OF ASIA „ „ PART I AS/A MINOR 1 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA CHAPTER I LONDON TO CONSTANTINOPLE Towards the end of June, 1895, the troubles in Armenia had reached an acute stage. Asia Minor was reported to be closed, and an Irade had been issued by the Sultan forbidding all Europeans from entering the Asiatic provinces of Turkey north of the Lebanon until further orders, that is, until the disturbances were over. These circumstances in- vested a visit to Armenia with the additional charm of apparently insuperable difficulty. Anxious to travel in a country which was playing a leading part in European politics, I resolved to make the attempt. But I hardly realised what the obstacles were until I consulted the few people I knew who happened to be conversant with Turkish affairs, and who all told me that my project was impossible. It was only owing to remarkable good luck that it proved the B 2 4 A RIDE THROUC7H WESTERN ASIA PART i reverse and that I spent my summer in the heart of Armenia. The first thing to consider was the best way of entering Asia Minor, There were four possible routes which represented roughly the four points of the compass. The first was the most direct, across the Bosphorus, and through Anatolia to Erzerum, which is practically the capital of Armenia. Hardly any one had gone this way since Burnaby, and it was considered folly to attempt it, firstly because it necessitated a direct start from Constantinople, where the officials would be on the alert, and secondly because it meant travelling through a most disaffected part of the country, along a line of towns in each of which a powerful Pasha would probably try to prevent my going further. The second route was the ordinary one — by boat to Trebizond, and thence by road to Erzerum. Two British officers anxious to see Armenia had lately made an attempt to get through this way, but at Trebizond they had been politely reshipped for Constantinople, our Consul informing them that it was impossible for them to continue their journey. The third route was by sea to Alexandretta, and thence overland to Diabekr. This way is long, hot, and dangerous. It had, moreover, been tried by the correspondent of a well-known newspaper, who must have been well equipped with money, influence, and knowledge of the country, and he had been arrested and igno- miniously sent back to his starting-point. A further argument against this route was a report that CHAP. I LONDON TO CONSTANTINOPLE 5 cholera was raging in the southern provinces of AnatoHa. The fourth way, recommended by an experienced traveller, was to go to Batum on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, and from there — if it were found impossible to penetrate into Erzerum by the Kars road, where the Turks were on the look-out — to go south by post to Khoi or Tabreez in north-western Persia. From there it would be easy to strike west over the mountains, and slip into the villayet of Bitlis or Van. The objection to this plan was that even given safe arrival in Kurdestan, a foreigner would be an object of suspicion at once, and would run a risk of being imprisoned by the Turks. The natives in those parts are exceptionally lawless, and the journey was longer than any of the others proposed. Practically there was little to choose between the four routes on the score of difficulty. All seemed hopeless, the first one being perhaps the most so. Yet it was by this way that I succeeded in getting into the very centre of Armenia within a month of my leaving London. I had no particular design in choosing this way. It simply occurred to me that there were people in Constantinople who could give me much needed information, and it was in any case the best starting-place, and that was why I decided to go there. I left London on June 22nd, caught the Orient Express at Chalons, and after staying twenty-four hours in Vienna, where I had to deliver some Foreign Office despatches, I set out for Constan- 6 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I tinople, which I reached on the 26th. I spent two days in the city sight-seeing, and then went up to Therapia on the Bosphorus, where the Embassy and most of the British residents live in the summer. I soon discovered that any official application for leave to travel in Asia Minor would be refused, and that my only chance, a poor one at best, was to endeavour to get an ordinary travelling passport, or " tezkereh " such as Ottoman subjects apply for. One day, accompanied by an old Jew interpreter, I found my way to the great rambling police office in Stambul, where these tezkerehs are issued. Here after much struggling and pushing in one dirty room after another, each one full of Mussulman clerks writing on their laps and surrounded by clamouring Turks and Armenians, I managed to o-et a document with some Turkish characters on it, o and the Sultan's signature lithographed at the top. This, the Jew told me, would take me to Angora, to which place there is a single line, and one train daily, the pace of which never exceeds sixteen miles an hour. Still it is quicker than either riding or drivinor. The chances were that I should be sent straight back to Constantinople from Angora, but I thought the attempt at getting further into the country from there worth making. Armed with my tezkereh I set about making preparations for the journey. In this I was helped by Colonel Chermside, our late Military Attache in Turkey, and one of the most travelled and best informed men in the Ottoman Empire. I had CHAP. I LONDON TO CONSTANTINOPLE 7 brought from London, in addition to a few clothes, a Wolseley valise, an old saddle, a pair of canvas saddle bags, an india-rubber bath, a revolver, and a gun, but I had to buy in Constantinople all those things which are necessaries when travelling- in a country where there are neither roads nor inns. In a French shop called the " Economique," I bought two saucepans, a cooking-pot, a kettle, a basin, knives and forks, a few tin cups and canisters, a tea-pot, marmalade, potted meat, tea, brandy, chocolate, curry powder and Keating's powder. In a Greek shop at Galata, I purchased some cartridges, which proved villainous, and in the leather market at Stambul two laroe leather boxes covered with o canvas, which were a great success. These boxes are called khorgines. They have broad straps let into their backs just below the hinges of the lid by which they can be slung together over a horse's pack-saddle, when driving is impossible. In Asia Minor I was able to keep the same cart for my luggage and servant the whole time, but from Bayazid on the borders of Persia the going was all on horseback, and the khorgines were very useful. These preparations occupied nearly a week, and then I was obliged to look out for a servant. This was a difficulty. It is almost impossible to find a Turkish dragoman, that is, a pure Turk who can talk any European language, and will travel as a servant. As yet I knew little Turkish, and it would be hard to make myself understood by a Turk who 8 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i had no knowledge of any but his own tongue. Armenians and Greeks are plentiful enough, but I did not care to take one, for an Armenian would have been a needless source of danger on my travels, and a Greek servant is proverbially dishonest. I decided on a Turk, thinking it better to have a servant I could not understand than one who was a thief, and also because I wanted to learn the Turkish language as quickly as possible. Colonel Chermside again came to my help, and recommended a Turk called Murad. He had been groom to Mr. Block, the first dragoman in the British Embassy, and had travelled with him in Asia Minor. Murad came up to Therapia to see us. He was a solid, hardy-looking man of about forty, dressed in the short blue jacket, baggy trousers, finishing in unbuttoned spats, and voluminous cummerbund which make up the typical Cavass dress. He wore a fez, and in the folds of his belt carried a curved knife, and many things besides. The conversation was conducted by Colonel Cherm- side, as though Murad professed to know " Bir az ingliz," I soon found it only amounted to the words, — " one-and-a-half," " two-and-a-half," " pepper " and "salt." That was all the English I recognised during- the three months he was with me, althouQfh he may have known more than he wished me to think. He had besides an amusing stock of Levan- tine words, a cross between French and Italian, such as "paletot," " baiio," "locanda," "soldatt," and others. I agreed to hire him at ;^4 a month. It CHAP. I LONDON TO CONSTANTINOPLE 9 seemed expensive, but he served me excellently and proved himself worthy of his hire. Not only was he a good groom and a fair vet., but he could cook well, mend my clothes, and wriggle out of every difficulty. Murad engaged, I had to think next of money and horses. Mr. Evans, at that time sub-director of the Regie, the great tobacco monopoly of Turkey, gave me a letter of credit in French and Turkish on the various depots of the institution which are scattered over nearly all the small towns in Asia Minor, and this I found more easily negotiable than any draft I could have got from the Imperial Ottoman Bank, which has comparatively few provincial branches. I took a letter of introduction to the British Consul at Angora, and Colonel Chermside wrote to the Consul at Erzerum telling him of my intended visit, although no one thought at that time that I should get beyond Angora. I deferred buying a horse until I arrived at the latter place. It was the 19th of July before I went back to the hotel at Constantinople preparatory to starting for Angora. I had to wait two days more before Murad obtained his tezkereh. Every day the reports from Armenia grew more exciting, and the murder of Stambulof and the consequent disturbances in Macedonia threatened a collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The Sadr Azam, or Grand Vizier, was said to have issued stringent orders against any Europeans, and particularly Englishmen, entering Asia Minor, and my friends told me I should pro- lo A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I bably be sent back directly I had crossed the Bosphorus, and should be extremely lucky if I reached Angora. But I was proof against all persuasions to wait a little longer, and at last on July 2 1 we started, fully expecting to be back in a few days. Before closing this chapter it may be worth while to describe briefly the country and people I was going to see. Armenia, roughly speaking, comprises the villayets of Erzerum, Bitlis, Van, and Kharput, besides parts of Trebizond, Sivas, and Diarbekr, all in Asia Minor ; the provinces of Kars, Erivan, and Elizabetpol in Caucasia, and the greater part of Azerbajan in Persia. According to tradition, Armenia was the first country inhabited after the Deluge, the first king being Haik, great-grandson of Japhet. In historic times Tigranes the ally of Cyrus and Mithridates were well known Armenian monarchs. In the Middle Ages Tamerlane and subsequently Shah Abbas devastated the country, and the latter carried off many of its inhabitants to colonise Julfa the great Armenian city of Persia, situated near Ispahan. The Armenian people are certainly one of the oldest Aryan races existing, although they now only compose one-seventh of the population of their country, sharing their inheritance with Turks, Kurds, Circassians, Persians, and Russians. There are about six millions of them scattered over the face of the world. Christianity was introduced by St. Jude, but in CHAP. 1 LONDON TO CONSTANTINOPLE ii the sixth century the Armenian Church severed its connection with the Byzantine patriarchs. This rupture was probably detrimental to the Armenians, for now according to Binning {Travels in Persia), "like most Asiatic Christians they do the faith they profess no credit, and their Christianity seems to be quite nominal." They are almost entirely ignorant of their religion. Their Bible and sacred books are written in the ancient tongue which none but the priests understand. Still in secular matters they are a remarkably clever people, excellent linguists, and intelligent traders. But when this is said all is said, and their other characteristics are just those which an Englishman dislikes. Astute and subtle, they possess in Asia a reputation very similar to that enjoyed by the Jews in Europe. Their uncleanly habits, their strong disposition to lying and cowardice, account in part for the hatred cherished for them by the Turks. On the other hand, for centuries they have been the victims of tyrannous oppression, and in our own time their treatment has aroused the indig-na- o tion of Europe. CHAPTER II ANGORA On the morning of July 21 Murad, who had at last got his passport, came round to the hotel just before five, and we engaged two "hammals" (por- ters) to carry the boxes through the tortuous streets of Galata to the Bridoe of Boats. These hammals are an important feature in Constantinople. Many of them are Armenians, and they suffered particularly in the last massacre (September, 1896). They form a sort of guild, and seem quite indifferent to the weight of their load. At the Bridge we found our- selves in a crowd of Greeks, Jews, Armenians and Turks all getting tickets. My ignorance of Turkish caused some trouble over mine. Murad told me exactly what to say, in the paternal tone he adopted to me from the first, but I found it difficult to frame the words. After having secured the tickets and labelled the luggage, we still had to wait nearly an hour before we moved off from the Bridge. The Golden Horn looked beautiful in the early morning sun, glittering and still with the stillness of the dawn. Then all round us ships began to move, CHAP. II ANGORA 13 and the quay woke into life. The fascination of the scene was increased by the magic colours of an eastern sunrise. I shall never forget the deep blue of the Marmora — my last view of the sea until two months later I looked on the dull, gray Caspian. Constantinople, with its white mosques and palaces, its golden minarets and domes backed by a gorgeous sky and sea, is certainly one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and the cosmopolitan stream of life which flows through it adds to its picturesque maornificence. o We were half an hour crossing, and landed at Haidar Pasha, just below Scutari, where the railway terminus is. I was afraid that my tezkereh would be examined or my books and gun annexed by the Douane, but no one seemed to be aggressive, and we slipped unmolested into the little station of the " Chemin de fer d'Anatolie," where we found the train waiting. I got into a first-class carriage thinking it was quite time for an event, but nothing more serious happened than the guard addressing me as " Eccel- lenza," the only European word he knew. Apparently no one travels first-class in Turkey except Govern- ment officials, hence the respect. The train started in a casual fashion at 7. 30, and we were soon among the small villages outside Scutari. The villas of the Ottoman magnates looked pretty through the trees. Crowds of handsome peasants in gay dresses were on the. platform at every station. I had plenty of time to observe them, as the train never halted for less than twenty minutes, although it seldom 14 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I bore off more than one passenger. At Ismid, I again steeled myself to face the Customs, and they really were there this time, but for some unknown reason they passed by my carriage. We proceeded in this leisurely way until the evening, when we reached Eski Sheyr, where the train lies up for the night. Here at last came the dreaded examination of my tezkereh. Directly we got out of the train, we were hustled into a little room, very close and dingy, with a rail across the middle. Behind the rail was a bed and on it lounged a Turkish corporal in the full glory of an authority against which he knew there was no appeal. He wore uniform surmounted by a night-cap. As I came in, this Rhadamanthus fixed his eye on me, and the whole time he was scrutinising the other tezkereh, he was watching me as well. At last the room began to empty. Every one else having passed the ordeal, the corporal put me through my facings. This was made a difficult matter by my ignorance of Turkish, and it ended in the conversation being carried on in Russian, of which we both had a fragmentary knowledge. The corporal began by asking why I was going to Angora. "To see it," I said. But he seemed to think this a very insufficient reason, and taking up my tezkereh, he read it through. "No Englishman is allowed to go to Angora," he said curtly. There was a dead silence after this, and I began to CHAP. II ANGORA 15 feel as if I were condemned to stay at Eski Sheyr for ever. The corporal read the tezkereh through again, meditated, and put it away, saying he would let me know in the morning, whether I might continue my journey. As it was now nine o'clock I suQi'o-ested that he migrht tell me where I could get a dinner and a bed. He produced a Greek friend who kept a "locanda," and I was allowed to leave the station in his company, Murad following behind with a bundle of his personal effects. My boxes remained at the station in custody. The locanda was the dirtiest inn I have ever seen. It consisted of a kitchen which also served as a dining and smoking room, a staircase and two beds in a top passage. We found a Levantine there, a very pleasant fellow, who talked Italian fluently. I asked his advice about my tezkereh, and he said that if I paid the Greek well, and gave the corporal a medjidieh, everything would go smoothly, as the two were in league. This seemed good advice, although, for all I knew, my Italian friend might have been the third party in the alliance. I explained the idea to Murad as well as I could, and he went out to approach the corporal. In half an hour he was back ag-ain. " Shu onbashi guzel adam," (That corporal is a line man) he said as he came in, which I took to mean that the bribe had been accepted. The dinner was oily, but I was too hungry to criticise it, and the Levantine made it pass off well i6 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I by his wonderful stories of opium-sellers. I went to bed in the passage soon after eleven, but the insects made sleep impossible, and I was not sorry when Murad appeared at five and said it was time to start. We gave the innkeeper a medjidieh, about four times too much, and directly we reached the station, the corporal came out of the office, and returned me my tezkereh with a low bow saying he had made a mistake about it. At seven the train started across the great plain of Angora which stretches from Eski Sheyr to Yozgat. This plain has been the battle-ground in turn of the opposing forces of Roman and Persian, of Greek and Turk, and some day may be the Turk will have to face the Russian there. At a wayside station a man in a frock coat and fez, accompanied by an imposing train of attendants, got into a carriage higher up than mine. He was the Vali of the province, and we were lucky not to have been obliged to wait two or three hours for him, for when a Pasha wants the train he orders it, and as there is only one train the other passengers have to wait the Pasha's pleasure. At four o'clock we arrived at Angora, which is built on the side of a hill, and looks very white and pretty from a distance. The whiteness, I heard afterwards, was due to the forethought of the Vali, who had ordered the inhabitants to whitewash all the parts of their houses visible from the railway in order to impress the traveller. It was certainly a good idea, for it gives a spotlessly clean appearance to a town which CHAP. II ANGORA 17 is as dirty as it is interesting. Alexander the Great came here in 330 B.C., just after cutting the Gordian Knot, and the Romans used the place as a military- depot on their great road to the East. But at the present time the fame of Angora centres round its shawls, its camlets and its cats. At the station some fifty soldiers were drawn up in line commanded by quite thirty officers ; this constituted the Vali's guard of honour. The men were fine and tall, and looked healthy, but their arms were wretched and their drill execrable. As a rule the Turkish soldiers are good fighters, and ride well, but the officers are frequently indifferent. At the station Murad got a fly and we drove to a locanda. It was kept by a Greek who talked Italian, and there were several Greek and Armenian traders staying there. Mr. Cumberbatch, the British Consul, now promoted to be Consul-General at Smyrna, was very kind to me from the first, and it was entirely due to him that I got my tezkereh vis^, and was able to proceed to Sivas. In fact British and American consuls in Turkey and Persia are exceptionally hospitable and friendly. They are regarded with great respect in the country because by writing to their embassies they can often get offensive governors displaced or transferred. The first thing to do was to see the authorities, and next day the Consul's dragoman accompanied me to the Vali, Memdouch Pasha, a man of great ability, who had once been, and is now again, a member of the Cabinet at Constantinople. c i8 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i We walked up to the door of the serai, where two sentinels were lolling in a lazy attitude, and after passing through a large hall built of wood, we were shown into the Vali's audience chamber. On going in, I lifted my hand to my hat without taking it off, which I had been told was the projDer salute. The Vali rose from his state chair and shook hands, and directed us to sit down. Then there was a silence until coffee and cigfarettes had been handed round. Meanwhile I had time to observe the Vali. He was a big man with a black beard, and was dressed in a frock coat and fez. He carried on a long conversation with the dragoman in Turkish, the upshot of which was that he would give me a "buyuruldu" or special order to go to Sivas, and would provide an escort if the British Consul would send a written guarantee that I was a bofia fide traveller. We thanked the Vali for the concession, and took our leave, and soon after rode out to Gezireh to report progress to Mr. Cumberbatch. He wrote the required guarantee, and a Chawush, or sergeant of Zaptiehs, was told off to accompany me to Sivas. Sivas is in another province, not under Memdouch Pasha's rule, and as the Vali there was on bad terms with him, it was more than likely that he would send me back in spite of the buyuruldu. The Chawush was sent with me, possibly to make sure that I was neither an agitator nor a newspaper correspondent, but I paid him well and he proved of great use to me. CHAP. II ANGORA 19 I decided to start for Sivas at once, and set about getting some kind of transport. There has been a scheme for the last ten years for continuing the rail- way which now stops at Angora to Erzerum and to Baghdad, by way of Sivas, but it is as far from realisation as ever, owing to the want of enterprise which prevails in Turkey. The road to Sivas is as bad as it can be — in some places a mere track over the rocks. We hired a common country cart called an "araba," furnished with a hood, to carry the baggage. The price as far as Sivas (290 miles) was ^4 i^s. Murad said he could easily sit in the cart, and the next thing to get was a horse for myself I bought a little black four-year-old, which carried me well for 700 miles and more, to Khoi in Persia. He cost me £g, and I sold him for ^5 at Khoi, so he was a good bargain. We bought a dozen bottles of red wine, as the cholera in the country made water drinking dangerous, and also some bread, rice, potatoes, and cooking oil. We trusted to finding chickens and eggs on the road, as it was too hot to make any attempt to store meat. Finally I bought a fez, as at that time it was a protection against attack in the towns. All Government officials and employes, whatever their creed, wear a fez, and a Christian meets with more respect in one than he would in a " shapka " or hat. It is a very hot head-dress, but mine served its purpose as far as Bayazid, where I discarded it for a helmet. The dragoman took me all over Angora. It is more like a Levantine than a Turkish city, for it c 2 20 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I is full of Greek, Italian, and Armenian traders. The bazars are well stocked, but typical Ottoman wares are few. The dragoman lived in a quaint old house, strongly fortified. In one room there was a large silver eikon, and the house was pro- visioned as if for a siege. I spent the night before starting for Sivas with the Consul at Gezireh, and slept in a bed for the last time for a month or more. The next day, July 25, I left the Consulate, attended by a Cavass (an armed Mussulman attendant), and went into Angora to call for Murad at the locanda. Mr. Cumberbatch promised before I went away that he would telegraph my coming to the American Consul at Sivas, and that was but one of the many kindnesses he showed me. I paid my bill at the locanda — a bill by the way is not settled on paper in Turkey, but by word of mouth — and then moved off, the Zaptieh and Cavass in front, next the hotel-keeper, who insisted on escorting me to the gate, and the araba last with Murad and Hassan, its owner, on the front seat, and the baggage inside. CHAPTER III ANGORA TO SIVAS We Started for Sivas along a good road winding over the hills. The heat was intense, and I do not know how I should have borne it if it had not been for a bashluk, or starched linen baby's bonnet, such as the Turkish soldiers wear in the hot season, which protected my head from the sun very effec- tively. My wardrobe consisted of a Norfolk jacket, three pairs of riding breeches, and three flannel shirts, which we got washed in the towns we passed through, Murad mending them when necessary. I had no arms except a revolver in a holster, a 1 2-bore, and a whip. These, with a pair of field- glasses and a compass, made up my equipment. About half- past ten on July 25, we reached a big lake called the Emir Gul, where we halted and lunched under some trees. The keeper of the trees was a Persian, and was very grateful for a bechlik, (ninepence in English money), and a cigarette in exchange for some bread and cucumber. The heat when we resumed our journey was intolerable, the sun now beating on our backs with such power as A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i to burn the skin. Even in latitudes further south I have never experienced such intense heat, and I believe it was exceptional even for Asia Minor. Murad and the Chawush, although they ought to have been used to it, mopped their black heads constantly, murmuring " Sijak, chok sijak " (It is hot, very hot). As we travelled without any halts every day, it was a marvel that none of us fell ill. That first evening we put up at a khan in a village called Tul. Murad bought a chicken for three piastres, and boiled it with some rice, and this with bread and the rough country wine we had brought with us, made up my dinner every night for a month except when I was in the towns. Meat is difficult to get, fruit is dangerous ; vege- tables, except cucumber and rice, are unknown ; but chickens are plentiful, and never cost more than sixpence, sometimes only threepence each. Wine and eggs are both ridiculously cheap, bread is about threepence a pound, and oil, which takes the place of butter in cooking, is twopence a pint. While Murad was getting the dinner ready, two Armenians came up, and began grumbling to me at having been taxed twice that year, ^and being threatened with yet another taxation. I asked if any one had resisted or had been killed, but they had nothing worse to tell than that two of their friends had been imprisoned. They fidgeted about for a long time asking if I was a Christian, finally begged for money, and I was glad to get rid of them with a couple of bechliks. Nearly all the CHAP. Ill ANGORA TO SIVAS 23 inhabitants of this village were Armenians, and although they were extremely dirty, they did not seem to be in want or distress of any kind. My bed was unrolled soon after dinner on a tumbledown balcony, where I slept in my clothes. The mosquitoes and other insects gave me no peace all night, and I blessed the india-rubber bath the next morning. It was a faithful friend throughout, though it suffered severely at Khoi, where the post- master put a knife through it to see what it was made of. This we repaired at Teheran, but the bath never recovered from its wound, and at Kashgar it had to be thrown away. We left Tul the next morning, and started across the hot plain which lies between Angora and Sivas. From one to five in the afternoon the heat was in- describable, and even in the early morning and late evening, it was greater than it ever is in Europe. I talked to the Zaptieh as we rode, making valiant attempts to keep up a conversation in Turkish. He was a Circassian, " Chawush Mahomet Shaiker Chirkess " being his full designation, and he had fought in the war of 1877. His appearance was unprepossessing, a small ruffianly looking man about five feet six high, and very dark and unshaven. He wore a blue tunic with yellow frogs and red facings, his loose trousers were tucked into long boots, and his fez was jammed down on to his head. For the most part, however, he carried his boots in his holster, and wore slippers instead. He was armed with a Snider, a long curved sabre, and two horse 24 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I pistols. He was born in Circassia, he told me, but had immigrated to Turkey some twenty years be- fore. The Circassians are a very proud people, and deeply attached to their religion. They dislike serv- ing in the Russian army on equal terms with Christ- ians, and so they frequently cross the frontier into Turkish territory, and join cavalry regiments there, and of all the Sultan's soldiers they are perhaps the most capable. The Zaptiehs to which my escorts generally belonged are a kind of irregular constabu- lary dispersed over the provinces. They provide their own horses, but are armed and equipped by the State, and often get their food from the peasants for nothing. Mahomet Chirkess was a favourable specimen of his kind, and his knowledge of local affairs helped me a great deal. He asked many questions about " Firengistan," and showed a half- contemptuous incredulity at my answers. His re- plies to my questions about the Turks, however, amazed me quite as much. Meanwhile I got on better than I had expected with Turkish. By the end of a month with the help of Redhouse's pocket dictionary, I had learnt enough words to conduct a simple conversation, and Mahomet endeavoured to teach me how to pronounce correctly, although he was useless on any point of grammar. The second day we crossed the Kizil Irmak, or Red River, the ancient " Halys " and the largest river in Asia Minor, and then entered another barren valley, dry and destitute of all vegetation. At mid- day we met some Armenians travelling in a waggon. CHAP. Ill ANGORA TO SIVAS 25 They were dressed in semi-European clothes, and told us they were travelling to Angora for trade purposes, and had joined themselves into a company as a protection against the brigands in the hills. No Armenian dare carry a weapon in Turkey, so their only method of defence against attack is to go about in large numbers. It is not a diplomatic one, for it irritates their enemies, and gives colour to the tales of conspiracy put forward by the Turks. To describe each day we spent on the road would be tedious, as they were all much alike. We saw little during the first fortnight, the heat preventing us making any excursions from the regular track, Yozgat, a pretty town we reached on July 29, was fairly typical of the other towns we passed. It en- joyed the dignity of being the head of the "sanjak," or district, and the khan was built of stone instead of wood, but in all other respects it was like the others, the smell from the open cess-pool being as overpowering as usual. After we had unloaded at the khan, Murad found a Jew, who could speak Italian, and I went with him to call on the Mutes- sariff, or Governor. He was away in the country tax-gathering, so the Binbashi, or military com- mandant, received me. " Binbashi " literally means head of a thousand — an exaggerated synonym for a Turkish battalion. This Binbashi was an old man of seventy, tall and upright, and with glossy black hair. When we were shown into the room, which looked over orreen fields to the distant mountains, he was saying his prayers — standing up and kneeling 26 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I down on a small square of carpet, and touching the ground with his forehead. Our entrance did not disturb him in the least. He went on calmly to the end, and then examined my buyuruldu while coffee and cigarettes were produced. All the time there was a hubbub outside. The corn dues of the out- lying villages were being sold by auction on the steps of the house, and we had some difficulty in making a way through the excited bidders when we came in. There were four of us in the Binbashi's room — the Binbashi, the chief priest, or Imam, in his robes, the Jew interpreter, and myself. The Binbashi, whose name was Yussuf Bey, finding that I was English, told me that he had been aide-de- camp to the Ferik Williams Pasha in the war of 1854, and asked if he were still alive. Then he began relating some of his experiences during the war, and suggested my going to see a parade of his regiment. I agreed gladly, and after more coffee we were marched off by a satellite to a square where a foot regiment was going through disjointed evolu- tions under a stout officer. The drill was in the German style, with the slow step, but it was in- differently executed. The men were big and healthy, their age averaging about thirty years. The rifles were for the most part Sniders, and wanted cleaning badly ; their appearance was only equalled by the uniforms. The band played Oriental music on ancient European instruments, and there was little connection between the music and the marching. Eastern harmony sounds like the tuning up of an CHAP. HI ANGORA TO SIVAS 27 orchestra to the ordinary European ear, with the drums and cymbals loudest ; but the practised musician recognises many subtle gradations of tone in their monotonous airs, particularly in their sino-inor. After the parade we went to the Regie, and my letter of credit was visd in Turkish. Then more coffee and cigarettes, and my guide led me through a long and crowded bazar, where we were besieged by salesmen offering gimcrack European knicknacks at fancy prices. The bazar did furnish one good thing, however, and that was a mattress, which was far more comfortable underneath my bed than the boxes had been. We left Yozgat on the following day,'"and just outside passed a hot spring in an open marble bath, built fifteen feet down into the earth. Thinking there might be some carving worth looking at, I went down the slippery steps to the edge of the tank, and there came upon a young woman seated and apparently engaged in meditation. Instead of pick- ing up her cloak and veil, which were lying close by, she covered her face with her hair, and began talk- ing. Her subject, as far as I could make out, was the generosity of " Firengis " in general, and of the " Ingiliz " in particular. I asked her what she knew of them, and she answered, " Chok bildim " (I have known much), but she did not offer to explain in what way ; and, on Mahomet Chirkess appearing above, she slipped into the bath like an eel, and our conversation ended abruptly. Mahomet had evi- 28 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I dently heard the end of it, for he said, suddenly : " Are not all Firenoris Eno;lish ? " I explained that there were also Russians, French, and Germans. " Russians are Russians," he said ; "they are not Firengis. I have heard of those other tribes, but we never see them here." And it is a fact that hardly any one travels in this country, except English-speaking people and Levantines. We lunched at a water-mill, and afterwards halted at a small village called Tiftik, where there was a Mussafir Oda, or Guest-room, maintained at the ex- pense of the head of the village. It was a long chamber, with a raised dais at one end, separated from the body of the room by a wooden paling. On this dais were carpets and cushions. A Turk when travelling sleeps on the dais, and his attendants occupy the other part ; but Murad and the Zaptieh preferred to sleep in the verandah, and Hassan would not leave the cart, so I occupied the room alone. After Tiftik, we came to a hamlet called Karamaghara, where there was an ancient wooden mosque. The priest came out and invited us to go in and look at it, but as I had on riding boots which were a nuisance to pull off, I refused. When he was told the reason, he asked what we Firengis did when we went into a " kilissa" (Christian church). I said we took off our hats, but not our boots, whereupon he broke in — "There is but one God. If my lord will do the same as he does in his own mosque, it suffices." CHAP. Ill ANGORA TO SIVAS 29 This ofenerous breadth of view encouraoed me to take off my fez and go in. There was some fine old carving, sentences from tlie Koran blazoned in gold on the walls, and a curiously shaped roof, but that was all, and I think the priest was wrong in saying the mosque had been built 800 years after the Hegira, i.e., about 1422 a.d. The next interesting thing we came across was a Kurdish encampment. It consisted of about eight tents made of rough skins and carpets, pitched any- how, and fenced in with hurdles to keep the cattle off. In the valley were the flocks of sheep and goats which constituted the wealth of the family. The chief, an old man with a white beard, came out of his tent when he saw us, and entreated us to lunch with him. I was taken into his tent, and made to sit down at the top end. Then he sat down a few yards off, and about twenty of the family squatted in a semi-circle about us. Behind hunsr a cur- tain of carpets, screening off the women's apart- ment. We could hear them talking, and see their eyes through the gaps, but they did not appear. The Kurds are handsome, and these men appeared very intelligent, taking great interest in my lunch, especially when Murad produced my knife and fork, a plate and a bottle of wine. Their dis- approval of the last, by the way, w^as undisguised. " Sharab ichyor " (He drinks wine), they growled. The Kurds are far stricter in their observance of the Koran than the Turks, and I wished that Murad had left me wineless. However, nothing worse 30 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I happened than the chief and his elder sons stroking their beards, and ejaculating " Mashallah ! " whenever I put my fork into my mouth, " My father, why does the Firengi eat with a hook?" a little Kurd asked at last, but all the answer he got was a smack from his father, at which he cried bitterly. To console him, I gave him a spoonful of marmalade, which terrified him ; but, fearful of being punished again for bad manners, he seized the spoon and gulped it down like a pill, saying, " Avolla Effendim." He must have liked it all the same, for soon afterwards the father came and asked me what the " tatli " was. I gave him the pot, which he emptied. Murad then cleaned the knife and fork, and shut them with a click into a patent clasp-knife. This put too great a strain on the chief's curiosity, and he asked to see it close. After a careful examination, he remarked oracularly — "In truth only in Firengistan can they make such things of beauty." The horse had been put in the cart by this time,, and after many farewells we started off again. The Kurds are in general far more attractive to the casual observer than the Armenians. In spite of their brigand lives they are more honest and straightforward, and they bear pain with remarkable fortitude. They probably suffer as much, if not more, at the hands of the Government, but their plaints do not reach so far. That evenincf we found the Mutessarif Pasha CHAP. Ill ANGORA TO SIVAS 31 collecting taxes at a small village named Gilisi, where there was an old castle on the hill-top, dating from the time of the Crusaders. These ruined for- tresses are scattered all over the country, and were used by Godfrey de Bouillon and his successors in the Latin Empire as outposts against the Saracens. They very much resemble the castles one sees on the Bosphorus or in Balaclava Harbour, which were built by the Genoese. The Mutessarif was sitting in a long room surrounded by clerks, all busily engaged in the work of assessment. Every one was cross-legged, and they held their papers on their knees. The Pasha welcomed me with a re- mark that it was very hot working in July, which was evident from his appearance. After coffee he sent the Kaimakam up the hill to show me the ruin. The Kaimakam had on a thick coat, and the un- accustomed exercise made him perspire freely. He told me that he had learned French at school in Constantinople, but had forgotten it all, as out here he never had a chance of speaking it. This is usually the case with officials educated at Stambul. Few foreigners passed that way according to the Kaimakam, and he bemoaned his lot with great pathos. The Imam who had accompanied us up the hill, pointed out an old Arabic inscription cut on one of the stones, commemorating the rebuilding of the castle by one Kei Hosro. I offered him some money afterwards " for the poor," but he said, " Mumkin degil " (It is impossible). It was on the score of my religion that he refused the mejidieh, 32 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I but Mahomet told me that if the Kaimakam had not been there, he might not have been so particular. We were now in the villayet of Sivas, and next day passed Yenikhan, which is on the road to Samsun, a big port on the Black Sea. We climbed some rising ground and came in sight of Sivas lying among some trees in the distance. This was the 2nd of August, the ninth day of our journey, and we had travelled nearly 290 miles. Lesser Armenia begins here, and besides the Turkish population, there is a large colony of Circassian whipmakers. An American Consul, a Belgian Consul and his wife, and two missionaries bring up the total of Europeans in Sivas to five. I was glad to have reached the end of the first stage of my journey, and I fancy even the hardy Murad was not sorry. As for Mahomet Chirkess, he said as we rode into the town — " Yoldan sora sheyr chok iyi. Yarim hammam olor ! " (After the road the city is good. To-morrow I shall have a bath !) He certainly needed one. CHAPTER IV SIVAS The city of SIvas lies outside the beaten track, and possesses more of its ancient beauty than either Angora or Erzerum which are in easy communica- tion with the coast, and therefore have been more affected by the advance of time. The country round is supposed to be rich in Hittite remains, but as yet very few discoveries have been made. The Hittites are a forgotten people ; the sites of their cities, and their whole history are as yet very little known, and the few archaeologists who have attempted to supplement their literary researches by excavations have been discouraged by the Turkish Govern- ment. Hamdi Bey, the Curator of the Stambul Museum, and the discoverer of the great Sidon sarcophagi, has opportunities for exploration at Sivas which are denied to Europeans, and it is to be hoped that he will organise some scheme for research which is bound to afford an excellent yield. Sivas is inhabited by Turks, Armenians, and Circassians, all living in different quarters of the town, and Kurds migrating from one encampment D 34 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i to another, pour in from time to time. Other birds of passage are the Levantines and Jews. Seen from the hill, the city is a little Paradise. Built on a cool, sparkling river with gardens on its banks, it forms a wonderful contrast to the burnt-up, barren country which surrounds it. We rode straight to the "afion " or opium khan where we took the best room we could ©et. The furniture consisted of a long wooden settle, a dingy rug, and an old brass pot. The khan was full of Turkish traders, who were sitting in the public room overlooking the street when we came in. They talked little, and smoked a great deal, drinking small cups of Turkish coffee at frequent intervals. This coffee is very good, but far too sweet. None of the traders I saw at Sivas ever seemed to be transacting business in any other fashion than that described. Mahomet and I, accompanied by an Armenian servant from the khan, rode to the Consulate soon after our arrival. Through the street outside ran a picturesque stream used for washing, drinking, and draining indiscriminately. Branching off to the riofht were lono- dark bazars full of Turks and Circassians, sitting cross-legged under their booths waitinof for the customers who never seemed to come. The Consulate was a little house with the American eagle painted on a board over the front gate. Here we were told that the " Consulus Bey " was in camp some six miles out of Sivas, so I started to see him with the Armenian, and Mahomet went back to have his bath. As we rode CHAP. IV SIVAS 35 along the evil-smelling street, Armenians came out and salaamed. Next we passed over a bridge, and saw the Turkish youth of the town bathing in a canal. Hardly any of them could swim, but they were enjoying themselves immensely. The Turk loves the water as much as the Armenian hates it. and that perhaps accounts for the fact that the latter is far less cleanly in his habits all round. Beyond the canal we struck over the fields, planted with cotton, maize and corn, and after riding about five miles, came upon half a troop of Zaptiehs in camp. The Armenian was terrified, and said they were evil men who would rob us, and be twenty miles away the next morning. They shouted to us to stop, and three of them followed until we came in sight of the Consul's camp, when they turned back. The Consul's five tents were pitched in a green valley under some big trees overhanging a stream, about a mile from the Vali's encampment. The Consul, Dr. Jewett, had a dragoman named Monte- santo, a pleasant young Greek, and both of them pressed me to stay with them while I was at Sivas. They had fresh news about the state of the country. The Armenian troubles were being still further complicated by the attitude of the Kurds. The latter were angry with the Government for punish- ing some Armenian families under their protection, and had resolved to avenge the insult on the Vali of Bitlis who had been recalled to Constantinople and was travelling thither via Sivas. Sixty Kurds had lain in wait for him at three different points on the D 2 36 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part 1 road, intending to kill him, but the Vali had been warned and defeated their purpose by keeping his large escort of Turkish cavalry the whole way from Bitlis to Samsun. The feeling against the Porte was very strong, especially among the hill tribes, and that very day the Consul had received a letter from one of the chiefs promising support from the Kurds if the English should land in Asia Minor. The Vali of Sivas, Halil Bey, was unable to obey his orders from Constantinople for fear of the Kurds, and the Consul who had great influence in the city, had managed to secure the liberation of nearly all the Armenian prisoners. Matters were in an extremely unsettled state, and every one was waiting anxiously for the next move in the game. The next day we all rode into Sivas, and Monte- santo took me to see the Vali, who had the reputa- tion of being the most corrupt official in Asia Minor. We knew he had barred the way to two or three English travellers before, and that he was a bitter enemy of Memdouch Pasha, who had allowed me to start from Angora. We were astonished therefore to find him courteous, pleasant, and ready to help me in every way. He said in excellent French that he had ordered an escort of four Zaptiehs, and would give me a new buyuruldu. The room in the Vali's palace where the interview took place had several fine carpets on the floor, and looked more imposing than any official room I had yet seen. The Vali's dragoman and other personal attendants stood near the doorway, with their hands CHAP. IV SIVAS 37 crossed in front and their heads bowed, the ordinary attitude of respect in Turkey. Montesanto and I lifted our hands with a scoop to our fezes as we came in, thereby signifying that we put dust on our heads ; and then HaHl Bey came three steps forward and shook hands. He opened the conversation by asking what I thought of Sivas. I said that it compared favourably with Angora, and that it ought to have a railway. The Vali said he hoped there would soon be one, as Sivas would be the junction of the lines to Samsun, Erzerum, and Baghdad, and this would increase the prosperity of the town. He did not say a word about the Armenians, but warned me against Kurdish brigands on the road to Ersinjan and Erzerum. " Les Kurdes sont assez difficiles pour notre gouvernement," he added. From the Palace we went to the Regie where there was a new Italian director. He had just been moved from Diarbekr where cholera was raging, and did not regret the change. I drew ^lo in liras and mejidiehs, which was quite enough to carry me as far as Erzerum. The money I spent on the road was little enough, as when Hassan had been paid for the araba, six or seven shillings a day sufficed for food, forage, and lodging. Hassan, by the way, had intended to turn back at Sivas, but as he found no freight there for Angora, and was great friends with Murad, he was now willing to come on to Erzerum. Mahomet Chirkess was discontented at receiving nine mejidiehs (about ^i i6s.), but the 38 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i Consul told me it was far more than he had any right to expect, so I let him go away dissatisfied. After leaving the Regie, I went into the bazar with Murad and Montesanto, and we bought some red wine and native jam, both of which were cheap and good. While we were lunching at the khan, an Armenian came to call on me. He sat down on the settle, and asked me in French when I was starting for Erzerum. Before I had time to answer, Murad rushed in, and shouted — " Bir yuzbashi gelor " (A captain is coming). Instantly my Armenian got up and vanished with a " Je retourne a I'instant," but I never saw him again. The yuzbashi was a ruse of Murad's who explained it by saying that if I entertained Arme- nians, I might not get my tezkereh back. I think he was right, and I found from other experiences that statements from individual Armenians were rarely reliable, and generally prefaced requests for money. The only pretty things to be bought in Sivas are the famous " kamchis," or silver riding-whips which the Circassians make very beautifully. But it was impossible for me to get one in time as they are only made to order. After seeing the bazars thoroughly, we went back to the Consul's camp, where we stayed another day before starting for Ersinjan. There was a choice of three roads. The first was by Karahissar, where there are silver mines, the second by Enderes, said to be the prettiest way, and the third a rough track over the mountains. I CHAP. IV SIVAS 39 was given the fullest details about the villages on the road by two old Turks at the post-office. As they differed on the important question as to whether we could get the araba over the mountains, and were agreed that Karahissar was not worth a visit, it ended in my choosing the Enderes road. They made long and wearisome speeches, as we sat in the little close room at the post-office, and at the end of each oration, the Turk who had spoken last, said to a small boy at the door — " Ver cafe effendima" (Give the gendemen some coffee). These two old rascals, we heard later on, had sworn with many others to massacre every European in the villayet rather than have a Christian Governor, their anger having been roused by a report that the " Ingilterranin Padishah" (Queen of England) intended to send out a Pasha herself. All the same they were civil enough to me, apparently for- getting that they were under oath to murder Firengis in general. It is impossible to exaggerate the ignorance and backwardness of the people in this part of the Ottoman Empire. They have managed to stand still for centuries, and there are no roads, no schools, no hospitals, no attempts to do anything for the poor. A lofty contempt for Europeans and their civilisation prevails even among most of the educated Turks, and barely one man in a thousand has a dim idea that perhaps an enlightened and representative government might contribute to his material happiness. The 40 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part one admirable characteristic of the Turks, their devotion to their country, to their traditions and religion, is in itself an obstacle to reform, and it is certain that any changes emanating from the West or the North for the good of the Turkish empire, will be received coldly, even if not with active resistance. CHAPTER V SIVAS TO ERSINJAN We left Sivas early, preceded by two very smart Zaptiehs. I rode " Maimum." (monkey), Murad having so christened my pony — and Hassan and Murad followed in the cart. At Kochissar the Kaimakam asked me to lunch, but as it was thirty- six miles to Zarra the first halting-place, and I had had experience of the interminable length of Turkish meals, I only accepted coffee. We drank it on a balcony looking over the village and out to the mountains beyond. The Kaimakam was very curious about railways. Was it true that one could travel a six hours' journey in a single hour ? When I said a two days' journey could be accomplished in one hour, he piously ejaculated, "God is great!" but I fancy he did not believe it, for he asked me next how the train walked so fast. I started on a laborious explanation of the machinery, but my Turkish and my dictionary both failed me when I got to the piston arrangements, and the Kaimakam smiled at what he thought was my bad lying. He insisted on my taking two more soldiers, and then 42 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I sent a third after me. This brought the escort up to five, and I explained to them as well as I could that I only wanted two of them, and that if five came, the wage would be reduced. But they only smiled and refused to leave me. Zarra is a fortified town with a fosse and battlements built of sand and stone. The khan was dilapidated, but fairly clean, and I passed a comfortable night on the balcony. The lieutenant of police called soon after my arrival, and stayed two hours. He asked me my name, my father's name, my profession, my age, where I had come from, where I lived, and a host of other questions, the answers to which he wrote down painfully in a little notebook. The English names puzzled him, but he would not go until he had got them right. At about 5 a.m. the next morning, the Kaimakam sent to know when I would call on him. Murad replied that although there was nothing I should like better than to see the Kaimakam, I could not call yet, because in Firengistan no one calls on a great man before mid-day. This skilful message saved me an interview as we left Zarra at seven, but it did not save me from having two more Zaptiehs thrust on me, which raised the army to seven. Their presence was rather a nuisance, and I managed to get rid of one because he had come without a rifle, and to send back the two Sivas men with a letter of thanks to the Vali. But even then there were four, or twice as many as were necessary. During this day's journey we got well into the mountains, riding through a succession of beauti- CHAP. V SIVAS TO ERSINJAN 43 ful green valleys overhung by massive rocks, and watered by pretty brawling streams. Every now and then we came to a narrow defile which looked the very place for brigands, but we never saw any. We made slow progress as we constantly came to rivers, the bridges over which were always broken, and Hassan had an evil time getting the araba over. We slept at a Greek village called Daima Tash, and the next day, after two hours' riding, reached Enderes, a well-wooded and picturesque little place, with some fascinating old houses. The Kaimakam, Charvit Bey, sent a mulazam or lieutenant asking us to stay the night, but as it was only eight in the morning, I decided only to make an hour's halt. I was shown into a bare room where the Kaimakam and all the local notables were arranged on cushions. They all got up, and I said in my best Turkish — " May the morning be propitious to Your Excel- lencies." To which the Kaimakam answered pompously — " Bonjour, Monsieur, j'espere bon voyage." His French and my Turkish were about on a par, but he told me that when he was at school at Con- stantinople he could talk fluently. " Ah ! " he said, " There you have civilisation, beautiful palaces, the comforts of Europe, an edu- cated society, a general state of blessedness. Here one never hears news, nor sees a traveller, though it is truly a pretty place, and the Pasha the most generous of princes." Coffee and iced sherbet, pears and grapes were 44 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I brought in by Circassian grooms, dressed in a livery which Charvit Bey said had been made in Constan- tinople, and of which he was evidently very proud. My field-glasses were handed round for inspection among the Imams. The first man looked through them the wrong way, cried " Mashallah ! " and passed them on to his neighbour, who did the same. When the Kaimakam g-ot hold of them he used them rightly and explained their properties to his friends, who did not seem to appreciate his superior know- ledge. He was a tactful man, and did not press us to stay when Murad who had been buying things in the village came in to say the araba was ready. Persian and Turkish officials frequently construe it as an offence if their hospitality is refused, and are deaf to any excuse ; yet sometimes they give invi- tations which they mean to be refused, and a great deal of knowledge of local custom is required to pre- vent sinning against their etiquette. We reached Akvanis that night, and entered the villayet of Erzerum the following day. It is a long narrow province, and stretches along the southern frontier of Transcaucasia to Persia. At Gerdyanis the border village, my Zaptiehs left me with a great many salutations, and good wishes, but an absolute refusal to come any further. At last I persuaded one of them to come to the Kaimakam with me, and through his good offices I procured a mounted guide, armed with an antiquated Snider, and dressed in a torn uniform. He promised to come as far as Meliksherif, which was a great help, as neither . 3>^.{^ -> ~;?r- 'y^ f --t.~ ^Vi - V - , -;v 1S' ^fe s^ CHAP. V SIVAS TO ERSINJAN 45 Hassan nor Murad knew the way. At Meliksherif we saw snow on the peaks of the higher mountains for the first time. The village is situated in a wild cleft between two heights. The only room we could find was very small and dirty, and had no window, so I encamped on the roof. I did not get much sleep, however, for all the dogs ran about on the housetops, which communicated with one another, barking and fighting and making the night rather too lively. When the sun rose all the people on the roofs near mine were getting up, that is putting on the fezzes, turbans, and scarves they had taken off for the night. This constitutes their toilet. We started again early, and for the first ten miles rode through winding gorges, the single Zaptieh whom I had induced to come on, continually shouting, " Perhaps there will be a thing," mean- ing that we might meet brigands. But we only met bullock-carts, the wheels of which squeaked and groaned distressingly, and a captain of cavalry, who told us that the Armenians in Ersinjan were giving great trouble, and that Mahomet Zekki Pasha, the Field-Marshal in command, was bringing in more troops from the surrounding districts. A little further on we met in a deso- late jagged pass a party of ferocious-looking Kurds. Fortunately they were travelling with their women, children, and property, and were too heavily cumbered to attempt to plunder us. The women veiled their faces when we came near, and the men scowled and swaggered. All of them had rifies, 46 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i embossed and ornamented with silver studs, but looking more beautiful than serviceable. Their horses however were pure bred and extremely well turned out. We saluted each other gravely, but no doubt they were cursing their impedimenta, and longing to attack us. From here we proceeded through a more cultivated tract of country to Ersinjan. As we drew near the town we met many Turks coming out after their day's work to their villas which are built outside. They were all very polite, although they stared in amazement at "Fireng-i" clothes. At seven in the evening^ we arrived at the big khan in Ersinjan, having covered the 1 60 miles from Sivas in five days. CHAPTER VI ERSINJAN Ersinjan lies in a valley, and is intolerably hot by day and infested by all sorts of flies and mos- quitoes at night. The neighbouring villages are very pretty, consisting almost entirely of gardens with pavilions built for the harems of the rich merchants. The gardens are laid out in the con- ventional Persian style, that is, in long straight walks edged by rows of dwarf trees thickly planted, and shallow streams intersecting the avenues. There is generally a fountain or tank in the centre of the garden, but no flower-beds. The lodge, or pavilion, can accommodate eight or ten guests besides the permanent harem, and the owners ride out from the city in the long summer afternoons, and entertain each other in their gardens. In Ersinjan itself the long covered bazars well stocked with fruit, cotton, cloth, and silver are a noteworthy feature. But the place is mainly given over to soldiers. There are two infantry and one cavalry barracks, an arsenal, and the Commandant's offices, all well built on European models. Drillino- 48 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I constantly goes on in the two large squares of the town, in one of which stands the picturesque old khan where we stayed. The organisation of the Army Corps, whose chef lieu is at Ersinjan, is excellent, owing to the energy of the Field-Marshal, Mahomet Zekki Pasha, who lives here, and who has worked hard to improve it. The " hammams," reputed very fine, disappointed me. They were low and dark, and quite bare of all ornament. In Persia the baths are far more attractive, as they are lavishly decorated with pictures. But the "Sunnis" (Turks and Arabs of the Mohammedan persuasion) are taught by the Koran that the representation of the human form is unlawful, which narrows the scope of their decorative art, I was much struck in Ersinjan by the apathy of the populace. In the bazars the salesmen sat staring in front of them, repelling rather than attracting customers, and if we were pounced upon as we walked through, it was always by an Armenian. The mental dullness of the Turk is often called " stoicism " and " impassiveness " by his apologists, but it seemed to me to deserve a worse name. The climate and the Koran together have fostered the Turk's inertia to such an extent, that with the exception of the soldiers I did not see a single man in Ersinjan who looked alive. The khan I stayed at was the smaller of the two in the town, but it was far more advanced, possess- ing not only a kitchen but a bagatelle table. Early in the morning I had two callers, Ibrahim Effendi, CHAP. VI ERSINJAN 49 an aide-de-camp of the Marshal's, and Abraham Effendi, a military doctor. Ibrahim was a Circas- sian, and talked Russian, and a very little French. Abraham was a Jew, and talked excellent French, Italian, and Greek. He told me that he came from Salonica, and was a convert to Islam. These two were most kind to me during my stay in Ersinjan, and took me everywhere. We had breakfast to- gether, and went out to call on Hassan Bey, the '* Mir Alai," or Commandant of the town. He received us with enthusiasm, talking Turkish volubly, and showed us over the new barracks, stables, and arsenal. The clean and smart ap- pearance of the soldiers compared favourably with what I saw elsewhere in the East, except in the Transcaspian and Siberian provinces of Russia. The men wore summer uniforms of white drill ; their tunics were buttoned, their side-arms well cleaned, and they carried Martini- Henry rifles. There were two fair bands, and the horses of the cavalry were well cared for, and for Turkey, luxuri- ously stabled. In Erzerum and other towns of the province, things were not nearly as good as here, where the efforts of one capable man showed what efficient and soldierly troops the Turks can make under organised management. Hassan Bey marched me about everywhere hold- ing my hand all the time, and after much sight- seeing we went back to the office, where an orderly brought in coffee. They all praised the Field- Marshal, who was in the country at one of his E 50 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i villas, and said that I must go and see him, as he would be annoyed with them for having let an Englishman go through without his knowledge. After some conversation of a technical nature, we started out again to call on the Mutessarif. The Mutessarif, or Civil Governor, is only a Bey, and occupies rather an anomalous position, for Mahomet Zekki is a first-class Pasha and a Mushir, and as such a very big man. Appa- rently all the civil administration radiates from Erzerum, which is the head of the villayet, while the military orders are issued from Ersinjan, the head-quarters of a command ex- tending over Erzerum, Trebizond, part of Sivas, Kharput, and Bitlis. The army corps contains over 15,000 men. Consequently the Civil Governor's importance is rather dwarfed, and he has to exercise a great deal of tact to keep his position. He re- ceived us in his private room where he was enter- taining the Imams. He promised at once to visa my tezkereh for Erzerum and give me an escort. Then he asked me if I knew Paris, and told me in French that he had been at the Ottoman Embassy there, and that he thought it was the most pleasant city he knew, with the exception of Stambul. He talked a great deal about both places, and I found him a very interesting companion. When we left he said, with a touch of acrimony, that he supposed he should not see me again, as he had heard I was invited to the Marshal's. I knew nothing of it myself, but that same evening an aide-de-camp CHAP. VI ERSINJAN 51 came to the khan with a message from Mahomet Zekki, asking me to lunch next day. We dined with the Binbashi, or Lieutenant-Colonel of the 7th Nishangi, a regiment of light cavalry. In the barrack square on our way there, we heard the band making an excruciating noise ; every instru- ment seemed to be tuned to a different pitch, and there was no conductor. The doctor told us that they were learning some English tunes in my honour, and the first question the Binbashi asked when he received me was if I recognised the tunes ? I said " Chok guzel " (Very beautiful), but dared not commit myself any further. The band went on playing for a good hour, and then the doctor asked me in a whisper if I thought that now would be the time to play the English National Anthem. I got out of it by saying that it ought only to be played for royalty, and the music came to an end. The second part of the entertainment was supplied by the Binbashi and some of his officers letting off rockets and catharine-wheels in the barrack yard. Then they showed us some swords with blades superbly damascened up to the hilts, which were embossed with jewels, and after effusive compliments on both sides we left at about ten o'clock. The next morning, at half-past seven, the araba was loaded and despatched with two Zaptiehs to Sarakaia, our halting place for the night, and I rode off with Ibrahim in a different direction to the Pasha's villa. When we reached the door into the orarden E 2 53 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i several servants ran out, and held our bridles and stirrups while we dismounted, and then Ibrahim led me into an orchard, where I found my host attended by two Imams and two aides-de-camp. Mahomet Zekki Pasha, Mushir of the fourth army corps and one of the most remarkable men in Turkey, is a Circassian by birth, and was trained in the most rigid Mussulman school. His rapid rise to power — he is now only forty — was due almost en- tirely to the influence of his sister, who is one of the Sultan's favourites in the harem at Yildiz Kiosk, and either by wit or luck he has managed never to give offence to the great Palace party at Constantinople. I saw before me a tall, broad-chested man, with finely cut features and dark colouring. He looked younger than his years, his face being smooth and quite without lines. His manner was polished and agreeable, yet underneath there lay the steel of a stubborn will. It is possible that he possesses that indifference to human suffering and death which is characteristic of the Circassian race, but whether any real responsibility for the events at Sassun can be brought home to him it is impossible for me to say. It is certain however that there is much good in his character. He has improved the soldiery under his command, and by suppressing brigandage and encouraging trade, he has reduced his provinces to unprecedented tranquillity. He is popular with the soldiers, and if he is a mistaken man, he is not a narrow one. Before all things the man is ambi- tious, and he is regarded throughout Turkey as a CHAP. VI ERSINJAN 53 possible regenerator of the Ottoman Empire. I only saw him in the Hght of a kindly and courteous host, but I was gready struck by the discernment he showed in every subject we touched upon. We sat in the garden for about five minutes, and then the Marshal got up and led me by the hand through an inner garden up on to the balcony of a pagoda, where we had coffee. The Imams and aides-de-camp followed, and in a few minutes, Ali Shefik Pasha, an old general, and Namuk Bey, the Mutessarif, whom I had met the day before, joined us. Lunch was served in an octagonal room over- looking the garden. We sat at a round table, and the Marshal put Namuk Bey on his right and me on his left. Opposite him was a large dish full of a sort of stew. After saying " Bismillah," the Marshal took a piece of meat out of the dish, ate it, and then took another bit in his fingers and put it into my mouth, which was disconcerting, although I knew that it was a compliment. He repeated this several times during the other courses, which consisted of vegetables, pilaf, stewed meats, pastry, tapioca, and fruit. All had knives and forks, but only we three used them. The drinks were water and iced cream. There was very little conversation during lunch, and I was not sorry when a servant brought in an ewer and basin, a sign that the meal was over. The Marshal Insisted on pouring water over our hands, and then we returned to the balcony, where we talked for some time in Turkish and French. On hearing that I had served in the Foot Guards for 54 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA PART I about three years, he asked me several questions about miHtary organisation in England, and invited me to stay with him a few days and inspect his troops. I was surprised to find that he deplored the Turkish law which prohibits any reunion of the officers. To this he attributed the lack of esprit de corps among them. He showed an open mind on another question, being in favour of the rayahs or Christian subjects of the Sultan, serving in the army with the Mussulmans. The reason he gave was that the Armenians would then be dispersed more equally, and would be better disciplined. " Now they give me very much trouble," he concluded. The old oreneral wandered off into rather tedious stories of the organisation of the Turkish army in the war of 1854, when he had acquired a great admiration for European methods. Altogether, however, it was a most interesting afternoon, and when I took leave of them they both pressed me to stay. The Marshal asked me to write to him, and wanted me to take away a fine wolf-hound pup, but as I had nothing to give him in return, an essential when you accept a present in the East, I was obliged to decline it. At last Ibrahim Effendi, an aide-de-camp, and myself, escorted by two troopers and a Zaptieh, left the villa. We had to cross a very deep stream just before we came up with Hassan, and one of the soldiers was nearly drowned. We slept that night at a lonely khan in the CHAP. VI ERSINJAN 55 mountains. The Zaptiehs did sentry-go up and down outside, and refused admittance to three Kurds on the ground that there was no room, which seemed rather harsh treatment of tired travellers, but Murad said grimly that if they had slept there we should have had all our things stolen. We halted at Mamakhatun in the course of our journey the next day, and saw an interesting old mosque and a " turbet," as a Sunni saint's tomb is called. I dined on a roof infested by cats, one of which ran off with a chicken. The weather was very hot, but the scenery grew more lovely every day, and on August 14 we reached Erzerum about three in the afternoon. CHAPTER VII ERZERUM In 1330 Sir John Mandeville wrote of Erzeruni : Artyroum was formerly a good and prosperous city, but the Turks have greatly wasted it. Thereabouts grows little or no wine or fruit. Whether Sir John ever visited Erzerum is doubt- ful, but the description is fairly accurate, and the decay of the city has steadily continued since that time — 1 20 years before the expulsion of the Christian Emperors from Constantinople — down to the present day. What prosperity the city still possesses is chiefly due to Armenian enterprise, and yet the Armenians have suffered more cruelty in Erzerum than anywhere else. Lying at the junction of the Trebizond, Sivas, Kars, and Tabreez roads, Erzerum has at all times been a pfreat mart on the caravan routes from Constantinople and the Black Sea to Persia, and from Asia Minor to the Caucasus. The Russians have always understood its importance, and they captured it in the war of 1877. The present fortifi- CHAP. VII ERZERUM 57 cations consist of a parapet with high slopes, useless against modern siege guns, and a pestilential ditch which has been responsible for the death of two thousand soldiers in a single season. Yet the city, standing at an altitude of 6,000 feet, and just under the highest peaks of the Agri Dagh range, is naturally healthy. Mandeville alludes to the " many good waters and wells that come from under the earth from the river of Paradise that is called Euphrates, which is a day's journey from the city." The Euphrates, here called Kara Su, runs south near Ilidja, where there are hot springs still fre- quented by the inhabitants for their healing properties. When we were at Erzerum it was the scene of the most important events in Asia Minor, There had been a massacre shortly before, and two others followed not long after. The feeling of excitement and insecurity had reached a crisis. It is perhaps unnecessary to recall in detail the events which are now a matter of general history, but for the benefit of those who have forgotten them it may be well to sum them up briefly. In September, 1894, the massacre of Sassun had taken place, and had been followed by others until the end of the year. The Sultan then appointed a Commission to sit at the various places in the Sassun and Mush districts to inquire into the disturbances. The sittings were held from January 24 to June i, 1895, and were attended by delegates from the European embassies. The Commission itself consisted of three Turkish 58 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i judges, while the cavalry escort of 400 men which accompanied it was commanded by the notorious Tewfik Pasha. The Commission found that the Armenians had revolted, and that no unnecessarily harsh measures had been taken to suppress the insurrection. As I rode into Erzerum I met the Commission coming out. They were driving in carriages, and what with secretaries, clerks, ser- vants, baggage, etc., there must have been sixty vehicles or more. Tewfik was in full dress, and rode a beautiful horse. All his soldiers were well mounted, and better turned out and equipped than the ordinary Turkish dragoon. But the judges, looked careworn and miserable. The class of Turk to which they belonged does not appreciate revolting details, and it was reported that on their first visit to the Sassun pits they had been overwhelmed with disgust. Mr. Shipley, our delegate, and his French and Russian colleagues had gone on by post to Trebizond and Constantinople, but the Commis- sion were travelling by slow stages, tired no doubt of the arduous task of discriminating between con- flicting evidence. And here it should be said that all that was done to convince Europe of the atrocious inhumanity of the crimes committed in the villayets of Kurdestan was entirely due to the zeal of the European delegates. They worked hard and faith- fully to get at the truth in the face of systematic opposition from the official dispensers of justice. When we reached the khan at Erzerum we heard that several Armenians were still in prison, and. CHAP. VII ERZERUM 59 despite the efforts of our Consul, Mr. Graves, there seemed little chance of their being liberated. The Vali, Ismail Hakki Pasha, was a rabid Mohamme- dan, and when I met him a day or two later, he was wearing- Turkish dress, a very unusual thing- for a Governor to do in these days in Asia Minor. I gathered from all I heard that the Russians were considered to hold the key to the position, A short time before, when there had been a riot near the Russian consulate, the Cossack escort had turned out armed only with whips, and had chased the Turkish infantry, who had rifles, out of the street. The local prestige of Russia was increased by this incident, and it was well known that thirty to forty thousand of her troops were massed on the Caucasian frontier. The English, on the other hand, were far away, and " though great in ships, nothing by land," as the general opinion in Turkey runs. The Kurds, however, in spite of it, had just sent a monster petition to the Queen setting forth the ungenerous treatment they had received and offering their alliance. They laid emphasis on the fact that they had always lived on friendly terms with the Arme- nians, many of whom were their slaves, until latterly, when they had been forced by peremptory orders from the Palace to ill-treat and murder them. Now they were told that the Sultan was exculpating himself to the Cabinets of Europe by alleging that the massacre had been wantonly committed by the Kurds ! 6o A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i Therefore [ran the petition], not content with leaving us in ignorance and barbarity by withholding the blessings of education, they have compelled us to do evil deeds, and finally have robbed us of our honour. What amount of truth there was in these state- ments I should be sorry to say, but there was a general feeling among Turks, Armenians and Euro- peans that a great deal depended upon the action of the Kurds, and that they might at any time do something unexpected. Nothing but that masterly inactivity with which the Porte has frequently carried the day, could have triumphed over a situation so difficult as that prevailing when in August, 1895, I arrived at Erzerum. We put up at the khan, where I was soon visited by a Canadian missionary who had lived in the city seventeen years. We had a long and interesting talk, from which I gathered that he was carrying on a hopeless struggle for a cause he loved. In spite of the zeal, the labour, and the money given by wise and energetic men to the work of conversion to Christianity, hardly any real converts are ever made. In Persia it is the same. I remember even meeting a missionary in China, at Kashgar, on the other side of the Pamirs, who had been workinor there ten years, and had not a single convert to show for his pains. One cannot help thinking that some of the money devoted to missions in Persia and Turkey would do more good if it were turned to the more prosaic ends of making roads, or build- ing bridges, schools, and hospitals. The Mussulman CHAP. VII ERZERUM 6i knows that, according to the Koran, he will be eternally damned if he changes his faith. He knows, too, that it means death from the hand of his former co-religionists. So the missionaries work on almost hopeless ground, and often fill up the time by quarrelling among themselves. The American Methodists fiorht with the English Church, the English Church with the Roman Catholic, not for the Mohammedan so much as for the Armenian, professedly a Christian already. The personal character of the missionaries is beyond praise, but their efforts seem to made in a wrong direction. When the missionary, had gone, the Consul's dragoman came round — a pleasant old Armenian, who knew a little English. He told me that it was quite likely I should not be able to go on to Bayazid, as I might "see too much on the way." I was not allowed to visit the prison in Erzerum, probably for the same reason. The Consul asked me to go and stay with him in camp at Ilidja on the Friday after my arrival, so I left Murad in charge at the khan, and spent three pleasant days under canvas. His dragroman meanwhile worked the strings of Turkish officialdom to get Murad and myself permission "pour quitter la Turquie," for the passport system here is as severe in theory as that of Russia, although it is less rigorously carried out. While at Ilidja I rode the winner of the Erzerum Derby, a horse with a history worth recounting. Early in the year, Mr. Graves had bought a 62 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i three-year-old, called Dervish, which he backed to run against any horse in the town. A colonel in a Turkish regiment accepted the bet, and the race was arranged to take place on a flat course of about seven furlong-s outside the town. When the day came the Turk asked for another fortnight, as his horse was not ready. Mr. Graves let him have it ; but, when it had gone by, the colonel again wanted to temporise. Mr. Graves then said that although he was willing to waive the bet, he thought that the race ought to be run without further delay. The day happened to be the Queen's Birthday. All the inhabitants of Erzerum flocked to the racecourse in great excitement, and the Vali had a carriage waiting to take him there if the event should prove propitious to the Turks. On the other side, the Armenian bishops and clergy stayed in the town and prayed on their housetops for the Consul's victory. Mr. Scudamore, the Daily News correspondent, was up on our horse and won easily, the bet was never settled. Mr. Scudamore, by the way, had been in Erzerum some months. He had hidden in the bottom of a carriage all the way from Trebizond and once in Erzerum had defied the Vali to remove him. When his letters were intercepted by the Turks he estab- lished a private post as far as Tiflis, and succeeded in getting his telegrams despatched from there. Although quite young, he has been a war corre- spondent in the Soudan as well as in the Russo- Turkish war. CHAP. VII ERZERUM 63 One day we were visited by the Armenian Bishop, Monsignor Kuchukian, an agreeable and well educated man, who did not seem to share the dislike of his fellow Armenians to the Turkish nation. He condemned the relentless coercion of the Palace and said that unless something- were done to relieve them, the Armenians would soon emigrate in a body to Russia or any country that would receive them, unless Russia annexed Armenia, which event he thought would prove the eventual solution of the problem. The Armenian clergy were living at that time with their lives in their hands, and the dragoman told me that in spite of the protection of his office, he dared not leave the town gate by day nor his house by night, and yet there were as many Armenians as Turks in Erzerum. The predominance of the Turk is again explained by the fact that no Christian subject of the Porte may carry arms, and in addition the Armenians are by birth and education a trading and not a fighting race. In Persia their genius for commerce has full scope, and even in Asia Minor it generally survives oppres- sion. But in Erzerum death, bankruptcy, and con- fiscation have made o"reat ravages in the Armenian trading community. Before leaving Erzerum I had an interview with the Vali. We found him in a little kiosk outside the town playing chess with a general. A military band was playing a deafening tune out- side. He did not get up when I came in, so I 64 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i merely touched my fez, instead of scooping my hand up to it. The only thing to do when a Turk is rude, is to meet him on his own ground. As he did not speak a word, I began to talk to the dragoman. This nettled him — and he roused him- self from his chess to tell a eunuch to bring some coffee. He then asked me where I had come from, although he must have known quite well, as the Sadr Azam had telegraphed my arrival. " Stambul," I said. " And where are you going ? " " Persia." " What route have you chosen ? " " I do not mind what route I go by." "That also matters nothing to me," said the Vali loftily. " What route you choose to go by, that one is open to you." The dragoman then put in that the road by Kars and Erivan was a good one. " Yes, certainly, but full of Armenian beggars and Kurdish brigands," the Vali answered sarcasti- cally. " Why should I not go by Mush and Van ? " I asked. Now the road to Mush was the road to Sassun, and in Sassun lay the evidences of the worst massacres, so I was not surprised to hear the Pasha, in spite of his indifference of a moment before, say hastily — " By that road it is hardly safe for a European to CHAP. VII ERZERUM 65 travel. The brigands are dangerous there, though otherwise the country is peaceable. Any other road is easy, but that one impossible ! " It was settled at last that I should travel by Bayazid, and he promised an escort. The buyuruldu and the Zaptiehs arrived in due course, and on the 21st of August I said good-bye to my kind host, and started for Bayazid. CHAPTER VIII ERZERUM TO BAYAZID As we rode out of Erzerum in the early morning, we passed a cavalry regiment manoeuvring on the plain. The horsemanship of the troopers was sin- gularly ungraceful, and they were riding with such short stirrups that their knees were almost on a level with the cantles of their saddles. A young officer came up and told me that he was teaching them to ride, that they were "ajem" (recruits). As he was on foot, we could not see what his own horsemanship was like, but one could not believe that it was good, when he trained his men to sit so short that they could not possibly use their swords with effect. However when I suggested this he answered lightly. " Oh it makes them all the taller, and they reach further ! " I felt inclined to suggest that they might overreach, but just then the colonel came up on a very fine Arab, and took me about a quarter of a mile across the plain to watch another troop being exercised. Both drill and manoeuvring here were inferior, and the riding poor, according to our ideas. But CHAP. VIII ERZERUM TO BAYAZID 67 the men were a big strong lot, and if well led would prove formidable to any Cossack or Circassian regiments in the Russian service. But the Turkish troops are seldom properly led, and when there is any fighting to be done, a good deal devolves upon the " chawashes " (sergeants). Still behind earth- works the Turk is almost invincible. We climbed the heights that lie to the east of Erzerum, and then passed the outer ring of advanced works which now constitute the main defence of the town against any aggressions from the north. The fortifications are out of date, and the detached redoubts which spread all along the frontier to Ararat are sadly deficient in guns and ammunition. Six new guns sent to Trebizond in 1895 by the War Minister were delayed there three months before the road was repaired enough to admit of their being conveyed to the forts round Erzerum. And it is this lack of roads which has hampered the trade of the city. During six months of the year it is practically snowbound, and the only route kept in anything like order is the military road leading to Kars and the Caucasian frontier. This is due to the Russians, who repair it as much as they can. The other great caravan route from Trebizond by Erzerum to Khoi and Tabreez, which we followed, is barely passable for vehicles even in summer, and in winter even horsemen cannot get along it. The cost of transport is so enormous that miles of corn rot uncut, because the price of carrying it to a market is more than its market value. F 2 ^r■ 68 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I At Hassan Kaleh the weather became sensibly colder. It was here that I met a o-entleman who supplied me with lunch, and gave me his views on the political situation. Like Abraham, the little Jew doctor at Ersinjan, he said that doctors were the only class in Asia Minor with any education, and this was only because the Government recognised the necessity of their having some knowledge of European medicine in order to keep the troops alive. Speaking of the massacres he said that if left alone, Kurds, Turks, and Armenians were equally ready to lead a quiet and inoffensive life. But the slightest attempt at agitation from without was fatal, whether it came from the Porte, or from outsiders who fancied that by stirring up the feel- ings of Europe they could change the constitution of the Ottoman Empire. There was no doubt that for some time before the outbursts of 1894 ^^d 1895 such pernicious agitation had continually taken place. The Armenians are a clever and avaricious people, and certain demagogues among them believe that reform in Armenia would suit the policy of England and Russia and perhaps put power into their own hands. They know that nothing is easier than to rouse the suspicions and wrath of their masters at Constantinople, and they deliberately set themselves to attract the attention of Europe by lighting a fire- brand. That the lighting of it means rape, murder, and every conceivable misery for their own people these agitators do not consider. The Kurds, the doctor went on to tell me, are an CHAP. VIII ERZERUM TO BAYAZID 69 almost barbarous people, with fine instincts of chiv- alry and easily influenced by their religion. They look upon plunder as a lawful profession, and nothing will keep them from it except the fear of retaliation. So they were only too ready to obey the Sultan when he commanded them to pillage infidels, and it was only when they found themselves being made the scapegoats of the Government's crimes that they rebelled against the orders laid upon them. As to the Turks, the doctor said it must be borne in mind that the peasants have no personal enmity to the Armenians. It is the soldiers, worked on by their officers, who exhibit that bitter and relentless fury against another religion which lies dormant in all Mohammedan races. At Yildiz Kiosk they know very well what a force they possess in this blood- thirsty fanaticism, and how easily it can be aroused. It is not surprising that they use such a force when a difficulty comes. Take a typical case according to their lights. They hear that there has been an Armenian agitation : they are anxious to prevent the Great Powers of Europe from annexing any more of the rapidly dwindling Ottoman Empire. An agitation is an excuse for such interference, so the one idea of the Palace officials is to have the rising put down before the news of it reaches Europe. The Valis are commanded to suppress the rising, and that means a massacre. The doctor had come to the conclusion that there were only two things to be done to settle the ques- tion. Either the Turk must rule his provinces in 70 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I his own way, or the European must step in and rule them in his way. If the Turk rules, the old system will drag on : oppression here, petty tyranny there, peculation and immorality everywhere, and now and again a massacre. Perhaps there may be a slow improvement in roads, schools, and civilisation gene- rally, but it will be a long time coming. If the European rules, he will rule after his kind, whether he be Russian or English, on some fixed plan for some definite result. Half measures, such as the appointment of Christian governors, or a mixed police force, can only bring about a worse state of thing^s. The Turk will not submit to dictation from o the Christian unless he is coerced, and he will never tolerate sharing a right with the despised Armenian. If the disastrous condition of Asia Minor is to be remedied, either England must act or she must let Russia act, and quickly. This was the substance of my informant's con- versation. He was a broad-minded man, and his views struck me as interesting and worth con- sideration. At Keupru Keui the road divides, one branch leading to Russia and the other skirting the moun- tains ; beyond, at Delibaba, we came across a regi- ment in camp. The Binbashi said, " They have been ill, very ill, but now they are better," and we found out that cholera had been among the troops. He and his officers were most kind and hospitable. He combined the civil office of Kaimakam with his mili- tary duties, and several peasants were tried in my CHAP. VIII ERZERUM TO BAYAZID 71 presence. The indictment was always the same, failure to pay the imperial taxes, and the excuse the same, bankruptcy. " Effendim, hich para banga yok dut " (My lord, I have no money). Whereupon, without further par- ley, the Kaimakam said briskly, " Git balk " (Go and see), and a sergeant marched the criminal off in a friendly way to the village, where no doubt a glass of arrack worked wonders. The Turkish peasant is as good-natured as he is lazy, and except on compulsion he will hardly ever take the trouble to plough, sow, or reap his field. Consequently a rich and fertile country is rapidly becoming waste, simply from lack of energy. After leaving Delibaba we passed through a magnificent rocky defile. The cliffs were so close together that fifty men could have held the pass. From here we went through several broken ravines until we came to Taar, where we stayed the night. We had great difficulty in getting new Zaptiehs at Taar, but a small bribe enabled us to start sooner than at one time seemed likely. From there we travelled to an Armenian village, where some men came out of their houses and asked what the English were going to do for them. They complained that the Kurds descended on them twice a year and annexed their cattle and horses, but they admitted that no women or children had been carried off, and not a single man killed. It may have been because it was close to Russia, but this village was 72 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I certainly prosperous and happy. At Toprak Kaleh, a frontier post, I was provided with two very fine Zaptiehs belonging to the Kurdish Hamidieh regiment, Bashibazouks, big men dressed in black Circassian uniform, and well mounted. Their Martinis were clean and in good order, not by any means always the case with irregular cavalry. On the way they talked freely, and confessed that they liked the Armenians quite as well as their Turkish officers. They could do the most marvellous tricks at full gallop, throwing up and catching their rifles, checking their horses and turning demi-voltes on their own ground. Our next stopping place was Kara Kilissa, where we were put up in the Kaimakam's office, the khan being full of drunken soldiers. A doctor, six officers, and a police agent came to call soon after our arrival. I gave the police agent my tezkereh, the strange names on which occupied him till the next morning. The others stayed on, drank coffee, and looked curiously at my indiarubber bath, which Murad had filled with water before they came in. After the ordinary compliments the doctor astonished me by saying in French — " J'apprends que vous avez beaucoup cause sur la route avec vos Kurdes ? " " Oui, j'ai cause un peu avec eux," I answered. *' Et de quelle affaire d'importance avez vous cause ? " " Quelle affaire d'importance peut exister entre moi et les Kurdes ? " I asked. CHAP, vm ERZERUM TO BAYAZID 73 This puzzled him for a minute, but he soon put another question. " Pour quelle cause etes vous venu en ce pays-ci ? " " Pour m'amuser." He meditated on this for some time and then asked me if I were much amused ? The others were more civil, if less talkative. They none of them knew a word of Russian, although the object of their presence in the village was to watch the Russians. I saw they were half afraid that I was a spy, but the Vali's seal on my buyuruldu eventually satisfied the police inspector. The officers talked a good deal about the cavalry in the place, and there was something so odd about their repeated refusals to let me see it, that on my way out of the town the next morning I determined to satisfy my curiosity without their leave. So in the morning with the aid of a corporal I rode into the stables, and once there I understood why the officers had been so much against my seeing them. There were a few miserable starved jades in the stalls, and the whole place was filthy. In the barrack rooms the men were sitting- unshaved and unwashed on long wooden settles. Their arms and accoutrements were hanging anyhow on the walls, and were rusty and dirty. Going out of the square I saw two of the officers of the nioht before scowlino^ at me, and when I rejoined Hassan at the end of the street, I found that my Kurdish Zaptiehs had been taken away, and two impenetrable Turks substituted. 74 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i That day we crossed the great plain of Alasgird and sighted Mount Ararat. We met many camel caravans coming out of Persia, but there were hardly any cattle about, as the country here is dry and tree- less, and except on the river bank there is little vegetation. In the evening we reached Diardin, a Kurdish settlement, and our last station before Bay- azid. All the huts in Diardin are built of dried cow-dung, and have no windows. We had no tent, and the night was bitterly cold, so we were obliged to look for a room. It was a difficult matter to find one, and if the Kaimakam had not come to our help we should have been obliged to sleep out. He pro- vided us with a room like the Jews' dungeon in the Tower, only smaller, dirtier, and less airy. The heating arrangements in these Kurdish huts are original. Half of the room is occupied by a mud ledge three feet by four. Underneath this is a hollow cave in which is piled the dung and charcoal used for fuel. This is lighted and the room soon becomes stiflingly hot. They have a similar system in Persia. We were not sorry to leave Diardin, and continue our way to Bayazid. As we drew closer to the huge peak of Ararat, we met a great many " Kizil Bashis" (Red Heads), as the Turks call the Persians. We also overtook two convicts who had been exiled to Persia. When the Sultan wishes to rid Turkey of an evil-doer, he ships him over the Persian frontier, and the Shah returns the compliment. The Russians wisely refuse to harbour the convicts of either CHAP. VIII ERZERUM TO BAYAZID 75 monarch. These two wretches were walking bare- foot, tied together with a rope, and driven along by a mounted Zaptieh. I asked him of what crime they had been guilty, and he answered — " Who knows ? They are wicked men." We saw Bayazid for nearly four hours before we reached it. It is built on the face of a steep cliff, and is about ten miles from both the Russian and Persian frontiers. I had therefore now practically come to the end of my journey in Asia Minor, and was about to enter a perfectly fresh country inhabited by a very different people. CHAPTER IX BAYAZID Bayazid, like Metz, had once the reputation of being a virgin fortress, but it fell to Russia in 1878. Lying as it does high up on the face of a mountain flanked by frowning cliffs, it occupies a position of great natural strength, and if the Russians ever annex it, it will be one of the strongest cities in the world. At present the bastions are as destitute of guns as the barracks are of soldiers. After toiling up a steep zigzag track for some time we at last came to the city gate and found ourselves in the main street. There is no regular bazar, and the place looks mean and sordid. Murad asked some loafers in the square where the khan was, and we were rather startled at being told, " Borda hich khan yok dur " (Here is no khan), as we had no letters of introduction to any one in the place, and had relied on findino^ a decent lod«-inor. When we pushed our inquiries further, we found that there was a khan, but it was a dismal and dirty place, and so I decided to go and ask the Governor if he could not procure me a room in a house. The Mutessarif CHAP. IX BAYAZID n was away collecting taxes, but we were told that the Vekil or deputy w^as at that moment reposing in his garden on the hill. I went there with one of the Zaptiehs, leaving Murad and the other to look for a place for us to sleep in. At the garden door, an ugly black eunuch con- sented to take my buyuruldu to the Vekil, and in a few minutes he came back and showed me into the garden where some twenty Turks were sitting on carpets spread on the grass solemnly smoking. It was a farewell party to the General who was leaving for Ersinjan. The Vekil shook hands with me for full two minutes as if he had never shaken hands before in his life, and wished to make the most of it, and then a carpet was brought for me to sit upon. There are no chairs in Bayazid, and not being an expert in sitting on a carpet I did not know how to avoid turning my back on at least one-third of the company. So I took up a position facing the Vekil and was at once presented to the General who was sitting exactly behind me. I turned round and hoped the evening might be propitious to his nobility, and then we all sat silent staring into vacancy until coffee came, and loosed the Vekil's tongue. He asked me where I had put up. " My servant is even now looking for a house," I said. "There is no need," the Vekil answered. "My lord is the guest of the town." This sounded very gracious, although I did not 78 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i realise what he meant by it, but not wishing to appear ignorant I merely said, "We are very glad, we are delighted, we are grateful to them all," which is the correct form of thanks. The General asked if I had seen Zekki Pasha, and I said that I had lunched with him. After about twenty minutes' conversation I took my leave and rode back to the town. Here I was met by a serious difficulty. The Persian Consul had heard that there was a foreigner in the town, and had at once sent his cavass to offer a lodging. Murad had gladly accepted the offer, and our baggage had been taken to the Persian consulate. In the meantime the Charshi Agassi or Head of the Street, a title borne by the chief merchant, had been ordered by the Vekil to prepare rooms for us in his house. This is what the Vekil had meant by saying that we were the guests of the town. The rooms had been made ready, and the Charshi Agassi came out to welcome us on our return from the Vekil's. At the same moment Murad, who had been watching for me from the roof of the consulate, met me with the news that we were already established there. Selim Effendi, the Charshi, was beginning to convince Murad that he must have made a mistake, and that I was his guest, when the cavass came round the corner, and said that his master was expecting me. We settled the question by proposing to stay one night with the Consul and the other with Selim. I had really only intended to pass one night in Bay- azid, but the situation was so perplexing that I was CHAP. IX BAYAZID 79 glad to get out of it by the expedient of delaying my start for Persia. Both parties were apparently pleased by this decision, and we made our way to the consulate. It was a little house two stories high, with a yard in front planted with shrubs, called a garden by courtesy. Over the door hung a half- obliterated picture of a yellow lion with a female sun rising over his back, the heraldic emblem of the majesty of Persia. The Consul, Mirza Abdul Kassim Khan, was sitting in the garden drinking tea when we arrived. He was a handsome man of about thirty, dressed in a loose dressing-gown, with gilt buttons blazoned with the lion and sun. On his head was a black lambskin fez or kola. He knew a little French as well as Turkish and Persian. Most of the Persians north of Teheran talk both tongues. He was an interesting and agreeable companion, and the arrangements of his household were very curious, so we were well repaid for having exercised a little diplomacy to accept his hospitality. The front part of the house consisted of two rooms divided by a passage. The stables were on the ground floor, and I saw a fire burning in a sort of coal-hole which I believe was the kitchen. We mounted to the rooms on the first floor by means of a ladder outside. The room on the right was the Consul's bedroom, sitting-room, and study, the one on the left was his dining-room and the offices of the consulate. It was here that I slept. The romantic feature of the house was the passage. It 8o A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I led somewhere, where I did not find out, but I guessed to a harem. The cavass, an old man in a greasy coat, was at once the Consul's cousin, deputy, secretary, armed attendant, groom, and I strongly suspect, his cook too. If so, he certainly shone in the last capacity, for we had a very good dinner. When it began to grow dark, we went upstairs and sat in the drawing-room. The Consul talked about my journey. He said the roads were not fit for a cart, and that I should have to hire pack-horses as far as Maku, whence I should be able to travel by post, which in Persia is called "chapper." In that way I should reach Tabreez in two days. He gave me a letter to Timur Pasha Khan the Governor of Maku, and a permit to pass the Persian Customs. While he was talking two of his friends came, one an Armenian schoolmaster, and the other the Turkish director of the Regie. At nine o'clock, when I was feeling very hungry, the cavass brought in a very small woodcock and a cucumber and handed them to the Consul. After eating a little, he held out a morsel in his fingers to me, which I refused, but I took some cucumber to avoid offending him, I thought the dinner was now over as it was past eleven, and I was going out to ask Murad to try and get me some bread when the cavass came in and announced dinner ! We crossed the passage, and found the floor of my bedroom transformed into a table. We sat down cross- legged round the cloth, and had an excellent dinner CHAP. IX BAYAZID which I should have enjoyed but for the cramp I suffered from the unaccustomed position. When the meal was over the cavass made up the Consul's bed in the drawing-room, and I construed that as a sign that I was expected to go to bed too. I learnt afterwards that the Persians always dine very late, generally just before going to bed, but their cooking- is better than the Turkish and they are more tolerant about drinkinof wine. Early in the morning the Head of the Customs appeared, and announced that he was going to over- haul my luggage. Murad, however, only showed him what he thought expedient. As far as I could gather, the object of the examination was to find out whether any arms or ammunition of Turkish manufacture had been smusforled throug-h. At all events they looked very suspiciously at my revolver until an officer certified it to be of English make, when it was returned. About midday the Vekil came to call on me, so he said, but the real object of his visit was to carry on a long and bitter argument with the Consul about the Customs tariff, over the details of which the frontier officials are always quarrelling. Emigrants, immigrants, cattle, horses, goods are all taxed, and there is a great deal of smuggling. The frontier itself, being an uncertain line, is a fruitful subject for disagreements, and the hatred which exists between the Sunnis and the Shiahs intensifies them. The Sunnis, roughly speaking, are all Turks and Arabs, and look upon the Sultan as the present Khalifa, or G 82 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part i successor to the Prophet. The Persians are the Shiahs, and their spiritual head is an invisible "Twelfth Imam" who disappeared down a well about a thousand years ago, and has not been heard of since, although he is supposed to be still alive. Religious authority in Persia resides not in the Shah but in a chief Mollah or priest, who lives at Kerb- ela, a great place of pilgrimage for Persians. For the Shiah rarely goes the " Haj " or pilgrimage to Mecca, where he finds himself in the heart of the Sunnis. After the Customs inspection we went to see the hammam and the mosque, both of them very shabby and dull. The bazar was disappointing too, except for Selim's shop, which was wonderful in the variety of its wares. Murad succeeded in hiring two pack-horses to carry him and the baggage to Maku, our first station, and then we went to Selim's for the night. Sakri Effendi, one of his sons, took me up a hill overhano'inor one side of the town, and from there we watched the Armenians coming in from a festival which they had been celebrating in the country. They were trooping back in long lines, the women and girls in white with their faces half veiled, the men in the European clothes which suit them so badly ; they all seemed quite happy and secure, and none of the Turks hooted or jeered at them ; in fact they all seemed very good friends. Selim provided me with a long, spacious room, well carpeted and cushioned. The walls were hung CHAP. IX BAYAZID 83 with bleached calico, and the place was spotlessly clean. He took me over the house, and showed me his harem, looking towards Mount Ararat. The beds were simply mattresses spread on a divan in the window. We sat here talking for some time, and his children came in and out, girls and boys of all ages and sizes, but the mother or mothers did not appear. I saw women flitting about in the passages, but they always vanished at my approach. It was, however, a great concession, to be taken into his inner apartments at all. At seven I sat down to a banquet of seven- teen courses, all broug-ht in at once on a grisrantic salver. Selim talked a great deal about Con- stantinople. He had never been there, but he knew a Greek Pasha, whom I had met, at the Embassy, and also a member of the firm of Lynch Brothers, who had once passed through Bayazid. About one European came there in the course of a year, so his visit had made a deep impression. Selim said the Armenians were quiet and peaceable, and that the only difficulty the authorities ever had was with the Kurds. An American travelling round the world on a bicycle had just been killed in a Kurdish village near Bayazid by some Kurds, who thought he was a witch. That night was my last in Turkey for some time. The next morning, accompanied by Sakri and two extra smart Zaptiehs, I started over the hills, and arrived at Kilissa Keui about three in the afternoon. G 2 84 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part I This was August 27 th ; we had travelled from one end of Asia Minor to the other in thirty-eight days, twelve of which I had spent in towns on the road. The distance was about 1,040 miles, of which I had ridden 630, my average rate being 28^ miles a day. PART II PERSIA NORTH TO SOUTH CHAPTER I BAYAZID TO TABREEZ There was nothinor abnormal in the condition of Persia when I entered it in August, 1895, so my experiences there were probably very similar to those of other English travellers. Persia is now much more frequented by tourists than it was twenty years ago, although the roads and inns are as primitive as ever. The government, the nobles, the people, and the buildings are probably much the same as in the days of Darius. Yet Persia is an attractive country for the traveller, if only on account of its magnificent past. Its monarchy is the oldest in the world, its language is the oldest exist- ing Aryan tongue, and has given more than any other to the literature of the East, and the ancient Mohammedan life is more faithfully preserved here than in Turkey, India, or even in Arabia. For Turkey, from its close neighbourhood to Europe, has absorbed many European customs, and India has been affected by English rule ; but Persia still holds to the patriarchal way of life that existed more than a thousand years ago. With the exception 88 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part il of Teheran, all the great cities of Persia are in the main untouched by any modern influences, and are deeply interesting on that account. My chief object in going to Persia was not, how- ever, to explore its towns. For some time I had been very anxious to see Afghanistan, and I knew enough of the difficulties in the way to understand that nothing short of an explicit and personal invita- tion from the Amir would make it safe to go there in an open and straightforward fashion. The other alternative was to slip in as best I could, and the only way this could be done was either through Persia or China. Sir Mortimer Durand, who not long since had conducted a special mission to the Amir, was British Minister at the Court of Persia, so I thought the best way of realising my former desipfn on Afghanistan would be to o-q to Teheran first, and find out all that I could from him. At Tabreez, which is on the road from the Turkish frontier to Teheran, I had arranged to meet a friend of mine, Mr. Frank Labouchere, who was coming out via Odessa and Tiflis and who was going to accompany me further East. He had promised to be there by the end of August, and as it was now the 27th, and I had still 150 miles before me, there was no time to lose. I hoped, therefore, that at Kilissa Keui, the Persian frontier village, I should be able to get post- horses at once, and travel south the same night. At the outskirts of the village my Zaptiehs drew rein, and said they must turn back. Murad and I CHAP. I BAYAZID TO TABREEZ 89 felt rather forlorn when they disappeared, as we had neither of us been in Persia before, and there seemed to be nothing in the way of a caravan- serai in Kilissa. "Khan," which means "inn" in Turkey, is "lord " in Persia, and a halting place or inn is called a caravanserai. As far as Teheran we knew that nearly every one spoke a Turkish dialect, so our ignorance of Persian did not frighten us. Yet we did not feel quite happy as we entered our first Persian village. The old man whose pack-horses we had hired from Bayazid was deaf and half idiotic, and only shook his head foolishly when we told him to go to the posting establishment. At last Murad got hold of a villager who said he would go and ask, and he accordingly disappeared through a low door into a tower flankinof a gfarden wall. In a few minutes a Persian officer in an ill-fitting blue frock coat came out and told me that there was a " Chapper Khaneh," but that it was badly horsed, and the post-horses were at that moment grazing on the mountains. However, if I would come in and see the Governor, he would do his best for me. My friend was a curious looking individual, with curled and greasy black hair surmounted by a lambskin kola. He was effusively polite, and his Turkish was more intelligible than the patois the villager had spoken to Murad. He talked darkly of the disturbed state of the country, but said that the general would give me an order. Now, when a Turk says that the country is disturbed, it means a good deal, but the Persian is an inaccurate person, and 90 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part il his Statements have to be freely discounted. It is hard for a beginner to arrive at the truth about anything. The officer was so far right that there had been trouble between the Kurdish brigands and the " Hakims," or Governors of districts, but there was no organised insurrection. All the law and order which do exist in Persia depend on money payments. Either the Hakim pays the brigand chief a fixed sum on condition that he will not make a raid on a certain village, or if the Hakim has a respectable body of troops, the chief pays the Hakim to wink at his raids. Or both of them pay the officer in command of the troops to fight for them or remain neutral, as the case may be. A last case in this system of corruption is payment by the officer for the privilege of not being sent out against the enemy. The officials get along very pleasantly under this system of bribery, but the peasant who has to bear the expense of it naturally suffers a great deal. Yet it is said that the Persian people are happier and more peaceably governed, on the whole, than either the Turks or the Afghans. We climbed up a narrow staircase into the tower, and then went into a small room quite bare of furniture, and found a young Persian sitting on his heels on the floor, saying his prayers. He went through the evolutions of getting up and sitting- down again with marvellous ease. A Mollah, or priest, in a large white turban, was also praying, and in the sfarden outside I could see some women walking about, closely veiled, and laughing noisily. CHAP. I BAYAZID TO TABREEZ 91 In a few minutes the Governor came in. He was a big man, of about fifty, with bright red hair, and was dressed in loose flowing robes, and a turban. This was Timur Pasha Khan, Governor of Owarjuk, and Warden of the Turkish marches, the most powerful man in the north of Persia. He is sub- sidised annually by the Shah to maintain 2,000 cavalry, and is reputed to keep many more in his pay. The troopers I saw were raggedly dressed, and undisciplined, but they rode good horses and were well armed. Timur Pasha, who is very popular with his men, is of marked Tartar type, and his soldiers are nearly all Turks or Kurds, probably worth three times their number of pure-blooded Persians in battle. I ofave him a letter from the Persian Consul at Erzerum, which he read slowly, and then observed ingenuously that it asked him to provide me with post-horses and an escort to Khoi. "The horses shall be sent for," he said, "and you shall choose which you like. About the escort, I can only give you soldiers as far as Kara Aineh, where my province ends. After that you will be in the territory of the Shahzadeh, who rules at Khoi, and he is no friend of mine. Therefore you may have some difficulty in getting from Kara Aineh to Khoi, but it is only eighteen farsakhs, and with a change of horses you can easily do it in one day." (A farsakh, be it said, is the ancient parasang, and equals about four miles.) All the evening we were pestered by applications 92 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ii for brandy, but Murad stolidly denied that we had any, having carefully hidden our last bottle in his waist-belt. We sat talking in the little tower until nearly eight, for one of the secretaries knew Russian, and all of them Turkish, so conversation was possible. They complained bitterly of the dull monotony of their life, and as far as I could make out they had very few occupations or amusements. There was some game ("shikar") in the mountains, but it was too hot to hunt or shoot in summer, and too cold in winter. Even where the climate does not impede, the Persians are not keen sportsmen. Every Persian hunting party in which we took part during our stay in the country was a fiasco. We dined about eleven, an odious custom, when one has to get up at two the next morning. And this small allowance of sleep was destroyed by two caravans of a thousand camels passing my window during the night. Every twentieth camel had a bell, and no sooner had the sound of one died away, than we heard the next. We chose the pack-horses in the dark of the early morning, and by four o'clock were ready to start. We were only able to go at a jog-trot, as the boxes were too heavy for a single horse, and yet could not be put on to two, for they would not balance separately. We took hours to pass the camels, too, when we overtook them as they were tied together in file, and our pack-horses got CHAP. I BAYAZID TO TABREEZ 93 continually entangled. Our escort consisted of four of the Governor's Irregulars, who talked a jargon of Kurdish and Turkish and gave us no help in any way. Altogether it was a dismal day. The country was dull, and I was glad when we got to Kara Aineh, a tumbledown little town of about 200 houses. We stopped at the Post-house, and found that we should have to stay the night there, as there were neither horses nor soldiers available. The Ked-Khoda or head man of the village was away, and no one knew where. His deputy had no soldiers to give me, and said that I could not pos- sibly travel without them, as there were about 150 Kurdish brigands in the hills, who robbed every one who passed that way. This was probably not true, but it was very perplexing, for I was running short of money, and did not want to incur the expense of staying longer in the village. Moreover, Murad was not nearly as much at home among the Shiahs as he had been with the Sunnis, and his red fez made him an object of suspicion. The Persian order, written by Timur Pasha, did not impress the deputy in the least, and as I had a touch of fever and was not very fit, things looked rather black. Also the hovel we were in was absolutely poisonous. I can see the deputy now sitting on his haunches, and discouraging me from going on in the best Turkish he could command. " There is but one thing to do," he said, " and that is to go back to Bayazid and come the other 94 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll way {i.e., by Erivan). Here there are no soldiers, and it is unsafe to go on without them." His tone was irritating, so I produced my English passport, which I knew he could not read, and said : — "This is an order of the Queen of England. It orders all people on the way to help me, and if you do not, you will prepare trouble for yourself I shall go on to-morrow morning, whether there is an escort or not, but it will be better for you if there is one." " It is no good ; it is impossible to get soldiers," said the deputy, going out of the room. I went to sleep, feeling depressed, but at four o'clock next mornino- there were five mounted soldiers at the door, who wanted to know if we were ready to start. The deputy had despatched a message to the Ked-Khoda In the night, and the latter had sent word back that he had heard of the Queen of England, and would provide an escort for her subject. To avoid the trouble of the previous day with the boxes, Murad bought some light Kurdish horgines made of skins, and the things were bundled into them. Then we trotted off at a fair pace, the soldiers in front and on the flank letting off their rifles with a great deal of noise as they galloped along. We passed several parties of Kurds, but they were all badly armed with shot guns and rifles of their own make, and made no attempt to attack us. We changed horses and escort at mid-day, and CHAP. I BAYAZID TO TABREEZ 95 then rode fast through a long defile and over a ridge of hills, to Khoi which we reached at about eight o'clock. We had covered the eighty miles from the frontier in two days, but as we had had long waits for horses and soldiers, and the cumbersome luggage on the first day had hindered us, it is hardly fair to take this journey as a typical example of Persian " chappering." Khoi is a walled town with a fosse, a barbican, and a drawbridge. Its situation at the head of three valleys is beautiful, and for six or seven miles out- side the town there are pretty gardens, a character- istic feature of Persia. The Governor, Menu Chur Mirza, is a prince of the blood, a Shahzadeh, or Shah's son, but the Shahs of Persia have such large families that the distinction is a very general one. This Shahzadeh was courteous and intelligent, and his city, so far as the police arrangements were concerned, was well governed. At the chief caravanserai the door-keeper told us there was no room, so we went on to the Chapper Khaneh where the postmaster and a friend, Mahomet Ali by name, both in blue frock coats and kolahs, came out and offered to take us to a house where we could stay the night. When we reached the house we found that it consisted of a garden with a tank in the middle, and one large room opening on to it by a olass window. As it was a hot nia"ht I settled to sleep in the garden, and Murad, by the light of a lantern, found a good place to unroll my bed under a tree, where I lay down while he got the dinner. 96 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ii The postmaster sat down too, and discussed the local news. While we were talking, Mahomet AH came up and said that the man to whom this garden belonged had come back unexpectedly, and would we go into the next one ? It seemed an odd request, but we agreed, and Murad began to move our things. I was in front, and had just got into the other garden, when Murad rushed in crying out — " Tabanja gitdi ! " (The pistol has gone). He went on to say that a soldier standing at the door had snatched the revolver from him as he was carrying the things across, and had bolted into the street. This was no trifling matter, as revolvers cannot be bought in Persia, and it is unsafe to travel without one. The postmaster took it very coolly, saying that it would be found in the morn- ing. but knowine that unless it were traced at "fc> once 'it would never be seen again, I told one of the Kurds to go to the Prince's palace with the letter I had for him, and to say I was coming myself. The postmaster at once tried to stop him. I had been suspicious of the postmaster before, and now his excitement convinced me that he knew some- thing about the revolver. So I said to the soldier in Turkish — " My friend, unless you now go running to the Prince, you will receive no money for the journey." This acted like a charm. The man ran off CHAP. I BAYAZID TO TABREEZ 97 and Murad and I stood in the doorway with the postmaster cursing us. Nothing came of my appeal to the palace for about fifteen minutes, and then there was a great noise in the street, and a flashing of lights, and my soldier rushed up, crying — " The Prince's chief eunuch is now coming with his farrashes to visit my lord." In a moment the g^arden was blazingr with torches carried by men in red, the farrashes or " carpet- spreaders " of the Prince. The eunuch sat down and began to talk Persian, but when I told him I did not understand it he glided into excellent Turkish. He told me with superb confidence that my revolver should be found immediately, and that the Prince would be glad to see me the next day. He had hardly finished his sentence when in came three soldiers, one of them carrying the revolver. He put it down sullenly, and went out. " He has already been punished," said the eunuch, and when I thanked him, he went on — "In Khoi a thief's business is a poor one, for the Prince is a wise Governor. God keep you ! " and then he and his farrashes filed out, and I had dinner ; but the postmaster had not done with me yet. We sold my horse next day, as we were short of money, and then Mahomet took me round the bazars, which had a very interesting assortment H 98 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ii of wares. Into the mosques I could not go, as the Shiahs are much more fastidious about Christians than the Sunnis ; they were even against showing me the hammam. However, Mahomet managed to get me in, and it was well worth seeing. All round the walls were huge pictures representing scenes from the lives of Rustam and Afrasiab, the great heroes of Persian romance, painted in the most startling colours, and without any attention to per- spective. The attendants all had the palms of their hands and feet, and their finger-nails, dyed with henna, a red cosmetic. The Shahzadeh received me in the afternoon in the garden of his palace. He said that the road to Tabreez was quite safe, but as to the districts out- side his rule, "God alone knows." He advised me to take a caravan ; that is, to hire horses all the way to Tabreez, instead of posting. I told Murad this when I returned from the palace, and he went into the bazar, and made arrangements with an Arab owner of horses to transport ourselves and the luggage to Tabreez. The next morning at six, the hour he was timed to appear, there was no sign of the Arab " chavadar," as a man who lets horses is called in Persia, and I found that the postmaster had threatened to make it hot for him in Tabreez if he went with me. The posting in Persia is farmed out ; the postmaster owned the line, and it meant a loss to him if we went by caravan and not by chapper. Besides threatening the Arab, he had given out in the bazars that no one was to come forward CHAP. I BAYAZID TO TABREEZ 99 to let horses to us. The postmaster is a very big man in a Persian town, and we seemed at his mercy. However, we still had faith in the Shah-zadeh, and, not wishing to bother him again directly, we sent Mahomet Ali to the Chapper Khaneh, where he proclaimed in a loud voice that the Firengi was going to take leave of the Prince. As I had already said good-bye, the postmaster understood the meaning of this, and when Murad sent the two soldiers to fetch the horses from the Arab's house, he offered no opposition. We paid the Arab half his hire to Tabreez, and told him that if he got into trouble through coming with us, the Consul would see him through it. So he was persuaded in spite of his fear of the postmaster, and we left Khoi about one o'clock. We crossed a lono^ ridsfe of hills, and came down a very steep mountain side by a remarkable natural staircase worn in the rock, to the shores of Lake Urumia. The view of this immense inland lake from the top of the col was most lovely in the sun- set. The water is salt and very shallow, and the shores are thick with reeds haunted by wildfowl. We could not make much progress along the lake shore, as the going was very heavy ; and we passed nothing of interest, except a Persian shopkeeper, accompanied by a mysterious lady closely veiled. She was dressed in the long blue cloak, affected by nearly all Persian women, and wore baggy green trousers, fastened in round the ankle. She was of course riding cross-legged. We got into con- H 2 loo A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part il versation with the man, but he was very careful that the lady should not take part in it. At Sofian, the last station before Tabreez, we slept in a really fine house ; the guest-room looking into a marble court, with a fountain and trees. The next day we arrived at Tabreez, and there, at the British consulate, I found Labouchere, who had been before me by about a week. CHAPTER II TABREEZ AND ARDABIL Tabreez, or Tauris, the capital of Azerbajan, has a population of 200,000, and covers more ground than any other city in Persia. What Shiraz is to the south, and Meshed to the east, Tabreez is to the north and west. It is the junction of several im- portant roads, and a great trade emporium. The caravans coming from the sea by way of Trebizond and Erzerum, and from the Caucasus by Tiflis and Erivan are concentrated at Tabreez. Politically, as the residence of the Valiahd, or Crown Prince, it is second only to Teheran in importance while it surpasses the capital in its historical interest. The immense area of ground it covers is due to the number of gardens. Every house has a large garden, but as they are surrounded by high mud walls, the streets are dull except for the bazars, which instead of lying all together as in most towns in the east, are scattered about in the different quarters. The elevation is 4,000 feet above sea- level, and although at the solstice the heat is I02 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA PART II Oppressive, the climate is healthy. The inhabitants speak a Turkish patois, but understand Persian. They are of mixed race, and are very fanatical. The observance of the feast of Muharrem which commemorates the death of Hassan and Huseyn, the two great Shiah martyrs, is celebrated here with more enthusiasm than in any other part of Persia, and the Azerbajan soldiers have the reputation of being fervent and dangerous Mussulmans. Yet the new religion of Persia known as " Babism " has made some way even in Tabreez. There are several notable buildings, first and fore- most the Blue Mosque, built by Jehan Shah in 1440, and perhaps the masterpiece of all Oriental architec- ture. It is now in ruins, but a great part of the fagade with its wonderful blue tiling remains to show what its pristine magnificence must have been. The fine old Ark or Citadel built by Ali Shah was the scene of the Bab's death after the rising of Babism in 1854, and from its summit faithless wives are still flung down into the moat. An execution of this kind took place while we were in the city, and the wretched woman's body lay for a whole day in the ditch below. The commercial prosperity of Tabreez must date back to a very early time, for Mandeville says of it — From that mountain (Ararat) we go to the city of Thaurizo, which was formerly Taxis, a very fair and great city, and one of the best in the world for merchandize, and it is in the land of the Emperor of Persia. Mandeville then goes on to say that the Emperor m}1i\ '^'M''Mi]M||r| il {To face p. I02. Execution of Persian Crimixai.. CHAP. II TABREEZ AND ARDABIL 103 draws a great revenue from the '* marchants " of that city. Trade at the present time is chiefly in cloth, tea, iron, tin, sugar, cotton ; and besides the indigenous population of Persian and Armenian traders, there are many Levantines and Jews, and one or two big English and Russian houses. There is a branch of the Imperial Bank of Persia in Tabreez, the two English managers of which very kindly offered to put us up, and we passed a very pleasant ten days with them, living a civilised life again for a short time. The day before my arrival there had been a bread riot, and a great many Persians had gone to the British Consulate-General to ask for relief from the famine, and protection from the local authorities. It speaks much for the ability and energy of our repre- sentatives that our prestige is as great as it is, for the political importance of Russia is greater. She keeps up a large and imposing staff of secre- taries ; with dragomans and a strong Cossack escort. The proximity of the Trans-Caucasian provinces also makes the transport of Russian goods into Azerbajan an easy matter. Nevertheless English trade is still the larger, and that in spite of the tedious and expensive transport from Trebizond, due to the pro- hibitory duties charged on the Caucasus railway. Our Consul-General, was staying at Nemitabad, a few miles off, as was Prince de Bija, who was temporarily in charge of the Russian consulate, The latter is an accomplished and able man, and I04 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll is looked upon as a rising light in the diplomatic service, which in Russia is amalgamated with the consular corps. He has now been promoted to a diplomatic post at Tiflis. He was very kind to us, giving us letters to his colleague at Ardabil, and telling us much about the shooting in the Elburz mountains. We busied ourselves during our stay in Tabreez with buying fresh horses, as we had settled to caravan, the chapper in Azerbajan being notoriously bad, and in looking out for another servant. Murad was unable to do everything for two of us, and besides he knew no Persian, a drawback as we got further south. We succeeded in getting a young Persian of about twenty-three, who could talk both Persian and Turkish, for five tumans a month (^i). As he was a Shiah we were afraid at one time that he might not get on with Murad, but we were wrong. They became great friends, and with representatives of both sects of Islam in our suite, we were seldom at a loss wherever we halted, for down to Teheran the Persian and Turkish elements are about equal. We had decided not to go straight to Teheran, but to cross the great range of the Elburz mountains and see Ardabil, an ancient Armenian town, and from there to follow the Caspian Littoral to Resht, the chief northern port in Persia, and a great depot of Russian trade. From there we could continue to Teheran by Kazvin. We calculated on arriving there at the end of September, and if I had not been CHAP. II TABREEZ AND ARDABIL 105 laid up by an attack of fever in Resht, we should have been about right in our calculations. We rode out to neighbouring villages during our stay in Tabreez, and found the roads very bad owing to the quantity of holes going down into the " canauts " or underground channels by which water is brought to the city from the mountains. These canauts exist all over Persia, and date back to the most ancient times. Many of them are now blocked up, and in others fish are caught. On September nth we started for Ardabil, the caravan consisting of Labouchere and myself, our two servants, two Persian soldiers, and the owner of the horses. Labouchere had a Paradox and I a sporting Lee-Metford, besides our guns, but as far as Resht we only got snipe and partridges, which were plentiful along the road. The peasants were very pleasant and hospitable, being quite content with one or two shillinO'S for our board and lodorino-. At Sirabwe stayed in a sort of private caravanserai, where we had a pretty little room looking out on to a court with the usual tank surrounded by trees in the middle. There were carpets and cushions on the floor, and on the walls rows of little shelves stacked with, rolls of ladies' gala clothes, and brass and earthenware pots well burnished. There were also a great number of enamelled and painted wooden boxes, fastened with large, ungainly padlocks. The old man who owned the house took us out in the morninor to see the little bazar, which was full of people, and which we photographed with a io6 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll Kodak to the interest and alarm of the inhabitants, who took us for enchanters. On leaving Sirab we got into green country and gradually approached the great chain of the Elburz mountains. This range, starting from the Caucasus, fringes the southern shores of the Caspian, and finally joins the Suleyman range in the north of Afghanistan. Just before reaching Nir, a place close under the peaks of the Elburz, we nearly lost Mahomet and the pack-horses. We always arranged that he should start from the lunching place earlier than we did, as he went at a slower pace. On this particular day we saw nothing of him until ten o'clock at night, as he had missed the road. As he had all our money, clothes, cartridges, and stores, we suspected the worst, and our joy was great when he came in, just as we had given him up. On the fifth day after our departure from Tabreez, we reached Ardabil. The Armenian agent of the Bank came out to meet us, and offered us a lodging in his house, which was in the heart of the bazars. We had only intended to stay one day, but there was some difficulty in getting horses to cross the unfrequented tracks of the Elburz, and our Armenian hosts would not let us go from kind notions of hospitality. Armenian dinners last from about six to midnight — interminable toasts and speeches filling up the time after the substantial meal is disposed of. On the second night of our visit we dined with the Governor, a rich Hakim named Nazmi Sultaneh. To get a reputation for wealth is doubtful policy in CHAP. II TABREEZ AND ARDABIL 107 the East, but Nazmi had hitherto managed to evade tyrannical exactions, and he deserved to be let alone for he is a popular Governor, and does his best for the people. He sent his farrashes with lanterns to bring us to the Palace at about seven o'clock, and on our arrival we were taken into a room where we sat playing chess and backo"ammon until ten when dinner was served. The Hakim took us by the hand and we sat down to a meal, half French, half Persian, the Persian half being the better. The drinks were strong white wine from Shiraz, inferior Russian brandy, and fermented milk. Knives and forks were supplied, but the Persians held their forks in their right hand, as it is a gross breach of manners, and also a backsliding from the principles of the Koran, to eat with the left hand. The chief subject of conversation was Baku, the great Russian oil port on the Caspian. The Governor had just been there on a visit, and he was full of the power, the learning, and the elegance of the Russian nation. Before leaving Ardabil we went to see the old Sheyr, or shrine where the kings of the Sefavi line lie buried. The tomb was built in 1072 a.d. by Sufi ed Din Isak, founder of the dynasty, and was further beautified by his descendants. At the death of Ismael Sufi Shah who introduced the Shiah religion into Persia in the middle of the six- teenth century, the shrine became a royal mausoleum. It has large silver doors plated with thin gold, two io8 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll splendidly carved sandal-wood tomb-lids inlaid with ivory, and cornered with jewelled capitals, set with immense rubies and turquoises. There are some ancient embroidered velvets hung on the walls, and a steel roof with some half obliterated paintings on it. The enamelled tiles on the walls are very vivid in colouring, but commonplace in design. The Sheyr is, however, chiefly famous for its collec- tion of old blue china, and ancient Persian books and manuscripts which we saw through a grating. It was from this shrine that the celebrated " xA.rdabil " carpet came, and although the custodian told us that no more of its treasures were to be sold, the authori- ties are so mercenary that there would probably be little difficulty in purchasing some of them. CHAPTER III THE ELBURZ AND CASPIAN LITTORAL. We had great difficulty In getting together the caravan to cross the Elburz mountains. Persian caravan drivers are the worst class of Persian to have any dealings with, and their dilatory ways are most irritating. We did succeed in making a start on the day we had fixed, but not until very late, and we had to stay the night in a small village just outside Ardabil, and delay our ascent of the mountains until the next morning. We then climbed steadily, and soon left all the Talish tents behind. The Talish are a mixed Turco-Persian race, livinof in large mushroom shaped tents, and like the Kurds, addicted to plunder. At six in the evening we came to a ruined caravanserai, and as the two soldiers told us that we were now at the highest point of the path, and that there was no village for another five hours, we decided to halt here. We slept in the open, and in the early morning it grew very raw and cold. The result was that I caught a chill, which afterwards developed into a fever, and com- pelled me to stay a fortnight in Resht. While we no A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ii were dressing, Murad who had gone down to the stream to wash his frying pan, came running back and shouted, "We are surrounded by brigands! Many of them are on the hills watching us, and they all have Marteens." Marteen is the Turkish for any breech-loading rifle, and is derived presumably from Martini- Henry. We took our field-glasses and climbed up on to the ruined wall of the caravanserai to reconnoitre. There were certainly little groups of horsemen on the heights on either side, all armed with guns of some sort. We slipped down and got out our rifles, providing Mahomet with the spare revolver, of which he seemed very nervous. The two soldiers had meanwhile saddled their horses, and ridden up the two opposite slopes. Labouchere followed one and I the other, while the two servants and Mahomet hastily packed up the things and put the packs on the horses ready for a start. They were quite safe from any long range shots under the walls of the, caravanserai, so we did not mind leaving them. The hillsides were very steep, so that Labouchere and his soldier could not see the men above them, although they could see those above me, and I was in the same case. We signalled to Labouchere what his opponents were doing, and he replied as to the movements of ours. Presendy the brigands began to move downwards, so we picketed our horses, and began to climb straight up over the rocks, until we were at a higher level than they were. In this way CHAP. Ill THE ELBURZ AND CASPIAN LITTORAL iii we outflanked the Talish gentlemen of the road, and they were now in an awkward position, as they were on the exposed slope of the hill, and we had the shelter of the rocks. We shouted to Murad, who had now reached the stream, to stay where he was, and the brigands, suddenly becoming aware that they were between three fires, thought the game hopeless, and called out that they were only out hunting, and thought we might wish to join them — a very sorry deception. Then they rode off with considerable speed, of which we were glad, as we could hardly have fought them. No doubt they were robbers, and they were probably prospecting on the hill to see how we were armed and what were the chances of plunder, and we heard not long afterwards that the next caravan which crossed the mountains by that track was robbed by a party of eight brigands corresponding in description to our friends. The route was in fact a rather dano-erous one, and we had made a mistake in not takine a stronger escort, but a long immunity from attack in Asia Minor had made me over-bold. However, it is doubtful if more Persian soldiers would have been of any use to us. They are little good in an emer- gency, and are often cowards of the worst type, who are never in the least ashamed of their cowardice. We kept along the crest of the ridge and skirted the shoulder of two big mountains with snow peaks. When we had rounded the second bluff, we caueht a distant glimpse of the Caspian, glittering in the sunlight, and after that we began to descend rapidly 112 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part li into a dense forest. The path was winding and overgrown with weeds, and the change of tempera- ture very marked. The sun beat on us fiercely, and the warm miasma which rose from the jungle below all the way to the sea-shore, was heavy and unpleasant, and very fatiguing. The summit of the pass had marked the border of the province of Gilan, and the change in the people and their manner of life was evident in the first village we entered, which lay some six miles down the valley. The houses here are all built with sloping red-tiled roofs, because of the enormous rainfall. In all other parts of Persia the houses have flat roofs. The women are allowed to go about unveiled, but all of them look very unhealthy, as do the children. Fever and ague have a great deal to do with it. The climate is very bad, for not only is the Caspian Sea eighty odd feet below the level of the Mediterranean, but there is a poisonous marsh running along by the coast, the exhalations from which would weaken any people. Wild boar, bear and snakes abound, and it is said that there are panthers and tigers too, although they are rarely seen. The scenery is lovely, recalling the prettiest parts of Devon and the Isle of Wight, until one gets into the jungle proper, when the high, green reeds, and luxuriant undergrowth, make one think of the swamps of Central America. We slept twice in this jungle, and then came to Kerganrut, a quaint walled town, with platformed houses, lying in a hollow. From here we followed a stream CHAP. Ill THE ELBURZ AND CASPIAN LITTORAL 113 which led us on to the long sandy shore of the Caspian. The total area of this immense inland sea is nearly 180,000 square miles. The water is very salt and buoyant, and on the coast there are several naptha springs, the best known being those at Baku. The chief rivers flowing into the Caspian are the Volga, which enters the north-western corner at Astrakhan, the Ural, which forms the boundary of Russia in Asia, the White River, or Sefid Rud, flowing in near Resht, and the Aras which drains the Caucasus. Finally there is the Atrek separating the Persian province of Astrabad from the Turkoman desert, now under Russian rule. The Southern Littoral is the only coast of the Caspian which still belongs to Persia, but it is far more fertile than the other three, and contains strips of country of a widely different character. First comes the sandy sea-shore, not much over a hundred yards wide, abounding in eagles, vultures, herons, and cranes. Salmon from fifteen to twenty pounds are caught by the natives in the little inlets, and lagoons which fringe this shore, and there is also a great catch of sturgeon. The second belt of the Littoral consists of the jungle, which is full of all sorts of game. So much of the marsh as is reclaimed has made good arable land on which wheat, barley, cotton, and maize are grown with some success. Beyond the jungle lies the forest, where giant acacias, walnuts, wild apples, and camel- thorns grow in profusion, interspersed with fig-trees, medlars, mulberry-trees, and beneath all a rank and I 114 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA PART 11 luxuriant undergrowth of weeds. There are many partridges and pheasants, and the air is thick with brilliantly coloured fly-catchers, and butterflies, among which we recognised the spotted footman and the purple emperor. Above the forest, tower the barren mountain tops, generally snow-covered, and inhabited by bears. There are only two harbours on the southern shore, Enzeli and Bundergez, the ports of Resht and Astrabad respectively. They are both bad and uninteresting ports, for the Caspian has a very meagre history. It is known to have been the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire, and Pomponius Mela writes of it — " Ultra Caspium quindam esset ambiguum aliquamdiu fuit," but it is rare to come across a reference to it in the ancient historians. My fever grew worse from sleeping in the pestilential jungle, and I could hardly sit my horse after leaving Kerganrut. But there was nothing to be done but to try and keep on to Enzeli, where we hoped to find a doctor. We still had two soldiers with us, not the heroes of our encounter with the brigands, but two dark-faced Talish, who talked a jargon which Mahomet alone could under- stand. One day as we were riding along the sea- shore watching the mirages which are common on the Caspian, we were met by an officer and a dozen ragged soldiers on horseback. He said that he had heard that we were riding along the shore, and had come to ask us to lunch with him in his village CHAP. Ill THE ELBURZ AND CASPIAN LITTORAL 115 which lay about two miles further on. We accepted his offer, and rode on with him to a little group of wigwams with wattled roofs, the largest of which was his house. There was nothing in it but a couch covered with rugs, and a skin hung up to do duty for a door. The villagers stared at us from behind this skin. They were all pale and wan from ague, and our host said that every child in the place was sick with malaria. While we were lunching, he told us with a great deal of hesitation that we had better not proceed with our journey. We were just on the borders of Kerganrut and Enzeli, and two days ago the Governor of Enzeli, by way of avenging some private injury, had hanged a soldier of the Governor of Kerganrut, and there was now an open feud between the two districts. Until the Governor-General at Resht interfered, no one could safely cross the border. He therefore im- plored us either to turn back or to go to Resht by the inland road, avoiding Enzeli. But we were inclined to suspect exaggeration, and wanted to see Enzeli, so we set off again along the shore. At the end of the first mile the entire escort including our own two soldiers, turned round and galloped off. We had been expecting this and were not taken by surprise. We then went on ahead of the caravan, rifles in hand, and rounding a clump of trees, suddenly came upon a village lying on the opposite side of a stream. Between twenty and thirty villagers were seated on the bank, armed with matchlocks, apparently on the look out for the I 2 ii6 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part il enemy. We had settled to go on as if we knew nothing of any quarrel, so we made for the ford. As we got a footing on the other side, I closed the bolt of my rifle which had come open. Instantly an old villager came up and said — " There is no need of a gun. Sahib ; we are all friends here. With Firengis there is no quarrel." Then they asked us to sit down, and brought us tea. Just then Murad and the horses appeared round the curve which hid the village, and when he saw us in the middle of the group with our horses being held some way off, he naturally thought that we were in difficulties. However, we shouted to him to bring over the pack-horses, and after drinking the tea and giving the headman a kran (/[^d.), which appeared to satisfy him, we went on our way to Enzeli. Close to the town we met the then Governor-General and his suite, gorgeously dressed, going for a picnic. He is a brother of Nasr ed Din, the late Shah. Resht is a miserable place to live in, and there is a saying : " Will you kill him or make him Governor of Resht ? " We got into Enzeli about three o'clock, and hired a long, undecked rowing-boat to take us, horses and all, across the harbour, and on the oppo- site point we found a little Russian hotel, where we put up. CHAPTER IV ENZELI AND RESHT Enzeli is the chief Persian port on the Caspian, although the approach to it is dangerous, and its anchorage exposed. Lying as it does on the direct route from London and St. Petersburg to Teheran and the Gulf, it may some day become of more im- portance than it is at present, but the harbour will have to be materially altered to be of any real value. The town has a population of about 10,000, and lies at the narrow entrance to a lagoon call the Murda, or Dead Water. At this estuary rises a dangerous bar with only three feet of water above it at high tide, and steamers from Baku and Petrovsk are fre- quently unable to enter the port, or even to land passengers by boat. Passing through this channel one gets into the lagoon, which is full of wildfowl and fish. A few caiques and two small launches are the only means of crossing it. South of Enzeli, on the lower shore of the lagoon, there is an- other narrow channel, which ends at a wretched little hamlet called Peribazar, whence there is a chaussie, or driving road to Resht. ii8 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA PART II The Russians have rebuilt this chauss^e between Peribazar and Resht, and are constructing a car- riage road to Teheran. This may be followed by a railway, the only difficulty being the Karzan Pass. Projects have been on foot for years, and latterly a new scheme has been disclosed to connect Baku Resht and Trans-Caspia by a railway along the coast. This would practically turn the South Caspian Littoral into a Russian province, but it would take some considerable time to lay. Enzeli is a pretty red-tiled town, thronged by traders and seamen, many of them Russians. We only stayed there one night, and then crossed the lagoon to Peribazar whence a ramshackle old fly took us to Resht. The road lay through the jungle and it poured with rain the whole way. This gave me a fresh chill, and the fever was worse the next day. At Resht we put up at an inn kept by a Greek called Panidis, and were there fifteen days while I did my best to get well. Resht is renowned for having a higher rainfall than any other city in the world, and its climate is addi- tionally unhealthy on account of the exhalations from the marsh and jungle which surround it. The staple trade is in cotton, maize, and rice, and silk is pro- duced in small quantities. An attempt has been made of late to grow tea, and is believed to have been successful although little is yet known about it. The bazars are covered in, and the place has an European look, although its sanitary condition is worse, I hope, than anything to be seen in Europe. [ To face page 118. Shah's Towkk, in Knzkli. CHAP, IV ENZELI AND RESHT 119 The streets are nearly always knee-deep in mud from the rain, and the combined smell of rotting vegetation and open sewers is atrocious. The total population is estimated at 25,000 and the language generally spoken in the bazars is Persian, although Turkish and Russian are both understood. Some Russian Armenians carry on a brisk trade, which is encouraged and protected by their Consul. British interests are relatively small. Our consulate was too small to house us, so we were left to the tender mercies of Panidis, the most extortionate innkeeper we had ever been brought in contact with. Labouchere succeeded in finding- a doctor, named Mirza Said, a Kurd who had been converted to Christianity in Hamadan, and had gone to England to study medicine. When we met him he was on his way home after some years in a hospital. He was of great use, and successfully pulled me through the fever. When I was better we all three started for Teheran, as Mirza Said's road lay with ours as far as Kazvin. On the fifth day after leaving Resht, we entered the province of Irak Ajemi, the largest in Persia except Khorasan. The country now began to change, and after crossing the Karzan Pass we left the trees altogether, and found ourselves on the vast brown plain of which Persia is mainly composed. The Chapper Khanehs on the road were fairly clean and comfortable. There was always a single room over the gate called the Bala Khoneh, or upper room (balcony), and this was let to us for dining I20 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part li and sleeping. The plan of the Chapper Khaneh is always the same, a square walled enclosure built of mud with a frontage of about thirty feet, the walls risino- to half that heip^ht. On either side of the gate are small rooms meant for the servants and the naib or postmaster.' There are supposed to be about twenty horses in each Chapper Khaneh, but there are seldom more than ten, and these the most wretched sore-backed animals. The official charge for riding post is i^^ krans for each horse per farsakh, that is, about sixpence for every four miles. The average distance of a stage is twenty miles. The record ride from Resht to Teheran (190 miles) is thirty-two hours. On the 15 th of October we crossed the Karzan Pass, and were caught in a snowstorm. The climb up the pass was very steep and rough, but the descent was easy, and we soon arrived at Kazvin, a large town of 25,000 inhabitants, from which there is a carriage road to Teheran. It is a prosperous place, rejoicing in an enlightened Governor. There is a good bazar, although the close proximity of the capital rather dwarfs its trade, and a splendid avenue of trees leads up to the palace. The Governor has not only made the road to Teheran, but has built a mosque with a fine blue and gold enamelled dome ; a stone caravanserai, and a good Mehman Khaneh or guest house, answerinof to an hotel in other countries. Kazvin is famous for its grapes, which are very sweet and small and greatly sought after, as they make most CHAP. IV ENZELI AND RESHT 121 excellent wine. We stayed a day here and having secured a carriage and a cart for the baggage, started for Teheran. The weather was much colder than at Resht, and when we were crossing the plain the next day the wind was very keen. We had some difficulty in changing horses on the road, but at last on the 19th of October we reached Teheran, where we put up at the hotel. The distance from Constantinople was 1,610 miles, of which I had ridden 1,120. We stayed in Teheran over three weeks to settle our plans, and to give me time to pick up my strength. CHAPTER V TEHERAN The population of Teheran is 220,000, 200,000 of whom are called Mussulmans, but they are all sorts, Sunnis, Shiahs, Sufis, and Babis. The re- maining 20,000 are Jews, Armenians, a few Guebres, or fire-worshippers, now much despised, and about 150 Europeans, The English, French, Russians, Austrians, Dutch, and Americans keep up Legations, and the Turks an Embassy. The chief public institutions are the Imperial Bank of Persia, and the Indo-European Telegraph, The clerks of the latter are all English, generally non-com- missioned officers of the Royal Engineers. The Bank is at last beginning to be a success, and exercise an influence on the turnover of money, more especially as it has the mint concession in its hands. The Persian's natural instinct when he has money is to hoard it in specie, but he has now been induced to believe in the value of a bank-note in exchange for silver, and although many rich men of the old school go on storing up the notes as they did the silver, yet a few of the more enlightened CHAP. V TEHERAN 123 have grasped the meaning of interest, and its advantages. The bazars in Teheran lie altogether in the southern quarter of the city, and are stocked with cheap European goods, as well as those which Persia still produces. A tram line runs round them, and this, with a shaky five mile railway to the mosque of Shah Abdul Azim, constitutes the iron roads of the country. The largest building is the Shah's Palace, a stucco erection, with painted gates, and a great deal of brightly-coloured tiling and plaster. The British Minister told us it was hopeless to try and get into Afghanistan without a special invita- tion from the Amir, so we fell back on the project of applying to the Russian War Minister for leave to visit the Trans-Caspian provinces, whence we in- tended to go by the Pamirs into the north-western provinces of China, and then turn north, and come home by the Steppe and the Trans-Siberian railway. This plan once decided upon, we still had to wait a long time for the various permits required. So we settled to spend the time in a trip to Shiraz, across the almost unknown bit of country between that city and Shuster, then down the Karun, and up the Tigris to Baghdad, and so across Kurdistan back to Teheran. We had seen all the sights of Teheran, the Shah's Zoo, where a few very wild lions and tigers are kept in gimcrack cages ; one of his anderuns, or harems, empty, of course ; we had dined with Turks, Russians, and Persians, and had 124 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part II seen the Shah enter his capital in state. We had inspected the bank and the telegraph office, and the town fortifications, built on a model of Vauban's in 1870, and an easy prey to modern artillery; and, lastly, we had wandered into the inner confines of the Imperial Zenana, and had been turned back by two immense black eunuchs armed with sabres. We employed a Persian to teach us something of the language, not a difficult one, and we could soon talk enough for ordinary purposes. In the mean- time Murad had had a bad attack of dysentery, and when he was convalescent, I was obliged with great regret, to part with him and send him back to Constantinople. We engaged a cook called Ali to help Mahomet, but we missed Murad sorely at first for he had been an excellent and faithful servant. At last we left the city of the Kibla-i-Alum (Cynosure of the Universe), as the Persians call the Shah, on November 15, intending to be back there again about the middle of January. CHAPTER VI ISPAHAN The first part of our journey to the south was along a road which is the main hne of communication from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian, so it is un- necessary to say much about it, but the cities which lie along it deserve mention. Subsequently the line of our route was briefly this : After Shiraz we were going to travel in a country inhabited by wandering Baktiati, Laur, and Arab tribes, in which no European had been for some years. From Shuster and Dizful we were going down the Karun, then to Busrah, the chief port of Turkish Arabia, and up the Tigris to Baghdad, across the Zagros Mountains to Khanikin, and through Kurdistan by Kermanshah and Hamadan, back to our startinp^ point Teheran. Cold was not to be expected before we got to Kurdistan, but we prepared for it there, by taking two heavy ulsters lined with sheepskin. Our arms were the same as hitherto, but the chances of attack except on the mountains are as poor as the chances of sport. The road to Shiraz lies across a monotonous 126 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part 11 plain with no game beyond an occasional partridge and snipe. Only once in a gorge just beyond the ruins of Pasargadae we saw at once two pig, thirty gazelle, and a splendid golden-crested eagle. We put up as a rule in the Chapper Khanehs on the road, which were in a very dilapidated condition. Once or twice we had to sleep in open stone courts. It took us seven days to cover the 270 miles to Ispahan as the horses supplied by the post were wretched. It is possible to drive the whole way from Teheran to Kum, 100 miles, but we found the carriage so uncomfortable and expensive that we sent it back after the first day and rode. Just out- side Teheran we passed the mosque of Shah Abdul Azim where the Shah was assassinated five months later. Hard by are the ruins of Rhey, the ancient Rhages mentioned in the Book of Tobit, where Alexander marched in 330 B.C. on his way from Hamadan to the Caspian Gates. There are now only a few mounds and some half obliterated carvings on the rock to mark the city, and the remains are insignificant compared with those at Persepolis and those near Kermanshah. On the third day late at night we reached Kum, where we stayed a day. It is the holy city of Persia, although Meshed is more popular with pilgrims. The population is made up almost entirely of Seyids and_;jMollahs, two classes of great account in the land. The Seyids are the reputed descendants of Mahomet, and are distin- guished in their dress by wearing blue turbans. They follow the ordinary professions but enjoy CHAP. VI ISPAHAN 127 certain privileges and are looked upon as sacred. The Mollahs are the regular priests, and as a badge of office wear a large white turban. They exercise a powerful influence in Persia, for the most part anti- European. The reign of the late Shah, Nasr ed Din was occupied by a continual struggle between the court and the priests. The court headed by the Shah advocated modern views, imbibed from Europe ; the Mollahs backed by the Valiahd, or Crown Prince, were strongly against any change. Kum is their headquarters, and they live in great numbers in the sacred colleges of which the place is largely composed. The saint who gives her name to the shrine which is the centre of worship, is Ma'asuma Fatima, not the daughter of Mahomet, but of Imam Riza, who flourished about 950, and is himself buried at Meshed the other holy city. Mr. Curzon amusingly remarks that he seemed to have a habit of scattering the bodies of his rela- tions all over Persia ! The chief glory of the shrine of the Immaculate Fatima at Kum is that it is "bast" or sanctuary. A criminal taking refuge in it cannot be arrested so long as he is there, and the Shah himself cannot violate this sanctuary. The only way to recapture the criminal is to bribe the Mollahs, who can prevent his getting food, and starve him out. This is one of the few basts left in Persia, the other recognised ones being the henna- dyed tails of the royal horses, a big cannon called the " Pearl " at Teheran, and the shrine at Meshed. The mosque was built in the eighth century, but 128 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part il was restored not long ago by Fath Ali Shah. It has a gilded dome and four marble minarets wonder- fully enamelled in blue and green. Round the capitals are gold leaf inscriptions from the Koran, and the effect of this dazzling decoration in the sunlight is splendid. Most of the Shahs are buried here, but we of course could not get inside the sacred pre- cincts. The inhabitants of Kum have a bad name for turbulence, and are much disliked by Persians at large, as are the people of Kashan, the next town. A Persian proverb says that " A dog of Kashan is better than a noble of Kum, albeit a dog is better than a man of Kashan." However the Kumites were pleasant enough to us, except the postmaster, who kept us waiting for our horses. When we did succeed in getting off we moved along pretty fast. On the road we met an English missionary and his wife going to Yezd. He was riding, but his wife and children were in a " taktaravan " — a long, closed litter, with projecting poles in front and behind, drawn by mules. The other litter used in Persia is called a kejaveh. Two of these are slung on either side of a horse, and the occupant sits cramped up in a little basket with a hood pulled over it. We arrived at Kashan that evening. The place is famous for its silks, its scorpions, and the cowardice of its inhabitants. It is said that they are excused military service on that account. When Nadr Shah disbanded his army on his return from India, there is a story that 30,000 men of Kashan and Ispahan applied for an escort of a hundred CHAP. VI ISPAHAN 129 musketeers to see them safely home. While we were here an old man came Into the courtyard of the Chapper Khaneh and asked us to take an omen out of Sadi, as it would bring us luck. The first thing it brought us was a drunken chapper boy. He was a little Persian, sodden and dazed with opium, and as it was his business to show the road and drive the led horses, we took seven hours to do twenty-five miles. At Kuhrud we saw some silver foxes among the poplars and olives, but could not get near them, and then we descended into the plain in torrents of rain, and had no adventure before arriving at Ispahan on November 14, where we were kindly entertained by the British Consul, Mr. Preese. Ispahan is mentioned by Ptolemy as Aspadana. It was ravaged in the Middle Ages by both Jenghis Khan and Tamerlane, but it revived enough to become the capital of Persia in 1585. As the metropolis of the Sefavi dynasty. It is said to have had a million inhabitants, and to have rivalled London and Pekin in size. In 1722 the Afghans reduced it to ruins, and it never recovered Its old importance. At the present time It Is a very deso- late place, and its population has dwindled to 60,000. The palace is the largest In Persia, and contains the famous hall of forty columns, decorated with some strange wall paintings. The great bridge which spans the Zender Rud, and connects Ispahan with Julfa, the Armenian city, w^as built in the sixteenth century by AH Verdi Khan, one of Shah Abbas's K 130 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ii generals. It is 360 yards long, and has three separate stories, and an arched side walk running out- side the parapet. In the Chahar Bagh, a long boule- vard leading up to the bridge, planted with poplars, there is a royal " Medreseh," or sacred college, with silver doors, witnessing to the ancient mag- nificence of the town. ''Ispahan nisf i Jehan" (Ispahan is half the world), says the proverb, a pathetic one nowadays. Trade is still fairly active. Chintz making, indigo dyeing, the manufacture of copper and silver ware are all carried on. As a commercial city Ispahan ranks highest after Tabreez, and so before Teheran, although its population is much smaller. There is a great deal of life and movement in the bazars, which are crowded all day with camels, horses, don- keys, and people buying and selling. The ham- mering of the coppersmiths is heard on all sides, and in the dyeing bazar there are rows of cloths hung up dripping with indigo. Next day we crossed the Zender Rud and visited Julfa, inhabited by some five or six thousand Armenians, the descendants of a colony founded there three hundred years ago by Shah Abbas. They have an archbishop, a cathedral and a school, and there are besides establishments of the Church Missionary Society, and the Bible Society, where the children can be educated. Until quite recently all the Europeans lived in Julfa, the bank and telegraph officials going across to their work in Ispahan every day, but on the foundation of a CHAP. VI ISPAHAN 131 British Consulate a few years ago, Mr. Preese insisted on living in Ispahan, a wise resolve which has done much to soften Mohammedan prejudice and increase our prestige. There are very few shops in Julfa, and the chief object of interest is the old Cathedral of St. Gregory. He is not our St. Gregory, but another one of the same name — and the frescoes on the church walls deal with the diverse revolting tortures to which he was subjected. They — the pictures — were executed by Italian monks in the seventeenth century, and are fine though grotesque. The altar has a curtain as in the Greek Church, and the bishop sits in the apse. The service is conducted in ancient Armenian, which is not understood by the people. As a rule the priests are uneducated men, and the Catholic and Protestant missionaries devote their time to instruct- ing and converting young Armenians to their own creeds. Mussulman converts are hardly ever made. One girl who " went over " while we were in Ispahan had to flee to the harem of the Prince to avoid being killed by her relatives. In Ispahan, as in many other parts of Persia, the Mohammedans have hitherto believed that all Firengi are like Armenians, and in consequence have looked on them with disfavour. The Armenians foster this idea by using our name on every possible occasion, and it is doubtful whether without this they would enjoy their present immunity from persecution in the Shah's dominion. A Mussulman Mollah talking to an Armenian said : K 2 132 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part il " Are you not thankful that there are Enghsh and other Firengis who hve in Persia and protect you ? Do you not reverence them ? " " Not at all," answered the Armenian ; " we are the holy people of all the Christians, and in the same way that you respect your Seyids, so do all Euro- peans respect and honour us." The most interesting man in Ispahan is its Gov- ernor, the Zil e Sultan (shadow of the kingdom). Though older than the present Shah, he could not succeed to the throne because he was not the son of a royal princess. Years ago, being very able and strong-willed, he collected a body of nearly 40,000 troops at Ispahan, and drilled and armed them well. As he was rich and Governor of the provinces of Ispahan, Pars, Yezd, Baktiari, and Arabistan a fear arose that he was plotting for the throne on his father's death, and pressure was brought to bear on the Shah to deprive him of his offices. He was disgraced and for some time imprisoned in Teheran. Latterly he has been gradually winning back his power, and his loyal conduct at the time of his father's murder in April, 1896, has done much to establish confidence in him. He is one of the strongest governors in the country, and although reported to be severe, has succeeded in carrying out a few local reforms. For one thing he has almost entirely put down highway robbery. At the Shah's death, which occurred just after we reached Bokhara, the Zil e Sultan repressed with a strong hand an insurrection, of the kind which always CHAP. VI ISPAHAN 133 follows a great political change in Persia, and at once telegraphed his submission and homage to his brother. He was then confirmed in all his offices, while the third brother, who was suspected of being lukewarm in his acknowledgment of the new sovereign, was disgraced. CHAPTER VII PERSEPOLIS AND SHIRAZ The next town we came to on our way to Shiraz was Kumeshah, a small place with mud battlements, blue domes, and white pigeon towers, where the dung is collected for the purpose of manuring the melon beds. The bright colouring of this little city was a welcome relief from the bare brown plain through which we had been riding. After passing Yezdikast, a town built on a rock, we came to Abadeh. There the telegraph clerk kindly enter- tained us ; and the Governor of the town, by name Mustashah Nizam, invited us to a "hunt" he was giving in honour of his son, a boy of ten, who bore the rank, or, at any rate, wore the uniform of a colonel. We started about eight in the morning, ridinof our host's horses, and met him with his son, his deputy, and his chaplain, just outside the town. An escort of twenty-five horsemen rode with the party. The pace was slow, and the Governor stopped every now and again to smoke his silver "kalian." We were told that beaters had been sent into the mountains the day before to ring all CHAP. VII PERSEPOLIS AND SHIRAZ 135 the game, and that we should have excellent sport, but another report said that the beaters were in- competent, and as the Governor was unpopular with the country side, the villagers would not help more than they were obliged. However, as far as we could judge, he was a pleasant, good-tempered person, and his son was an amusing little boy. He carried a Martini, of which luckily he could not yet pull the trigger, so we were safe. Nevertheless, he told us that he had already killed 10,000 gazelle. Durinor the ride the best men in the escort grave an exhibition of their skill. Riding in front at full gallop, they flung down a stick on one side of their horses, and caught it as it rebounded on the other. Others shot small birds with their rifles while a third party went through a sham fight, making their horses charge, and cutting at each other's heads with their swords. They after- wards took to firing their rifles into the air, and then throwing them up and catching them. As all the cartridges were ball, we took a vivid interest in the manoeuvres. At last we got well into the hills, and were posted high up among the rocks ; but no game appeared, and the only bag after two hours was an eagle. The Governor did not seem to mind the blank morning much, and led the way down to the valley, where we found luncheon spread on red carpets. There were no spoons or forks, so we ate the rice and pilaf, which the Governor piled up on our plates, with our hands. Luncheon 136 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll over, we started for home, not much impressed by the Persian idea of a hunt. On the way we saw the graves of 200 Babis, who had been massacred at Abadeh at the time of the rebelHon in 1854. The heresy was not rooted out, for to-day nearly every one in the town is a Babi. As we passed through the gates we noticed two pillars, and were told that the late Governor had walled up two brigands in them alive. This inhuman method of execution was very common in Persia at one time, and only the other day five prisoners at Shiraz were buried alive in plaster of Paris. Seventy miles from Abadeh brought us to the plain of Pasargadse, on which there are the ruins of an ancient city, and the tomb of Cyrus. Cyrus built the city on the site of his great victory over Astyages the Mede, and it subsequently became one of the royal cities of the Achaemenian dynasty, whose kinofs were crowned here. Alexander the Great visited it on his return from India in 324 B.C., and found the tomb rifled of its treasures. The ruins cannot compare with those at Persepolis, but they are interesting enough. There is a half ruined wall, a square arch about thirty feet high, a big pillar with a recess like a sentry-box in it, and a cuneiform inscription cut above. On a mound not far off there is a tall slender column, nearly twenty-five feet high. But the sights of the place are the pillar and tomb of Cyrus. The pillar lies away from the road, and is eleven feet high. CHAP. VII PERSEPOLIS AND SHIRAZ 137 It is of hewn stone and is engraved with a pic- ture of a four-winged and crowned king, supposed to be the only authentic portrait of Cyrus in exist- ence. The carving is very fine, only the features are now almost completely worn away. The in- scription is cut in triplicate cuneiform of Persian Susian, and Assyrian, and reads : I am Cyrus, the King, the Achaemenian. The tomb, which is about a quarter of a mile from the pillar, surrounded by a graveyard and a small hamlet, is now used as a mosque. It is a square building of polished marble raised on five gigantic steps, and is about forty feet high. I climbed up to see the inside, which consists of a chamber about ten feet by eight feet. The walls are covered with inscriptions in Arabic, and hung with dirty bits of rag left as offerings by the Persians, who call the place Madr-i-Suleman. At five o'clock we pursued our journey through a rocky defile called the Sangbur. Along the face of the rock, about sixty feet above the stream of the Pol war River, a passage is cut. It is about 200 yards long, and three feet broad. The outer edge is a rock balustrade, beyond which there is a steep precipice. It is a marvellous piece of work, and shows what a pitch of engineering skill the Persians had reached under Cyrus and Darius. The next day the caravan went on before us to Pusa, a village close to the ruins of Persepolis, and Labouchere and I, following it, managed to lose 138 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll our way, and at eight o'clock in the evening found ourselves high up in the mountains under the great rock tombs of the kings. There was a wild wind blowing across the plain beneath, and the grim figures hewn in the rock at the head of the dark mouths of the tombs had a ghastly effect in the darkness. The track we were on suddenly ended, so we left it and struck across the plain. After an hour's wandering we came upon an Arab encampment, and succeeded in getting two of the men to guide us to the Chapper Khaneh. On our way across country we stumbled on the caravan, and so reached the miserable little post-house long after midnight. In the morning we rode off to Persepolis, and certainly the toil of a visit to Persia is amply repaid by the spectacle of the relics of the palace that Cyrus built and Alexander burnt. Imagine an immense platform about fifty feet high and with a frontage of a quarter of a mile, built entirely of huge blocks of hewn stone. The two flights of stone steps which lead up to this terreplein from the ground are so broad and shallow that it is easy to ride down them. On the platform are seven distinct buildings, all in a fair state of preservation. The roofs have gone, and some parts of the walls have fallen in, but the pillars and porticos remain standing, and some of the carvings are as fresh and clear as if the chisel had been used on them but yesterday. Fourteen colossal columns, each nearly eighty feet high, represent the Hall of Xerxes. ::1l: 1. J ^ I if V/ i r CHAP. VII PERSEPOLIS AND SHIRAZ 139 Then there is the Porch of Xerxes, about sixty feet high, flanked by two winged bulls frowning sullenly at the plain below. The Palace of Darius is full of spirited sculptures of hunting scenes and chariot races, interspersed with portraits of the different kings surrounded by attendants. The hall of the Hundred Columns was desolated by an earthquake, and is now only a chaos of fallen shafts, architraves, pillars, and cornices, but it is possible to conjure up a picture of what it must have been in its glory. Everywhere is carved the peculiar winged symbol which represents the god Ormuzd, the divine princi- ple of life, and all round are the cuneiform inscrip- tions which puzzled antiquaries for so long, and were eventually deciphered by Rawlinson. Persepolis was the state palace of the Achsemenian kings, and here were kept the royal treasure and the altars. The kings' summer residence was at fire Ecbatana, and in the winter they lived at Susa. But on great occasions the court always went to Perse- polis. And although much of it was destroyed by Alexander, the altars and treasure remained here up to the overthrow of the Magian faith and the final adoption of Islam in 651 a.d. We slept that night in a queer old town called Zerghun, where our caravanserai was within an ace of being burnt down ; and the next day we arrived at Shiraz. This city is supposed by all Persians to be a sort of terrestrial paradise. There are endless pro- verbs in its praise. " See Shiraz and die." " When Shiraz was Shiraz Cairo was one of its suburbs." Its I40 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll women are adored as the houris of the earth. "If my beloved of Shiraz gains my heart, by the black mole on her cheek I will give away the kingdoms of Samar- kand and Bokhara." Persians are never tired of singing the courtesy of its inhabitants, the excellence of its wine, the purity of its water, the beauty of its scenery, the fame of its poets, and the delights of life there. A casual observer might think the scenery ordinary, the water bad, the women no more beautiful and the men no more polite than the ordinary Persians. On the other hand, the wine is not over-praised, nor are the poets Hafiz and Sadi. But the buildings are in ruins, and the smell in the streets is exceptionally bad even when judged by an eastern standard. The real charm of the place is its verdure, which is enchanting after the barren plain which lies round it. Our stay at Shiraz was made extremely pleasant by the hospitality of the British representative, the Nawab Hyder Ali Khan, a rich prince of Indian extraction. He has a beautiful house with an orange tree garden and a private hammam. The day after our arrival we were taken to see the Rukn-ed- Dowleh, a brother of the late Shah's and Governor of Shiraz and the province of Pars. We rode up to the palace gates where we were received by the farrashes and taken into a big room overlooking a stone court planted with trees. We found the prince sitting alone over coffee. He asked whether we knew Bambai as he called it, and laid stress on the necessity of keeping the English traffic to Shiraz CHAP. VII PERSEPOLIS AND SHIRAZ 141 and not letting it go direct from Shuster to Ispahan. This is the great fear of Shiraz merchants, for the road from their city to Bushire on the coast is a bad one, and a railway is impracticable, because of the " kotals " or mountain ladders. They naturally dislike the idea of an easier route being adopted from the Karun to Ispahan which would damage their trade. As things are, Shiraz enjoys pros- perity, as the prince kept on assuring us. He promised us an escort from his own body-guard to facilitate our journey across Lauristan, and generally did his best for us. The next day we visited the tombs of Sadi and Hafiz, as every one must do, when they visit Shiraz for the first time. Hafiz was born in 13 10 and was a contemporary of Dante's. His tomb lies outside the town in a cemetery and is surrounded by a brass railing. We found an old Seyid sitting there under a little tent mumbling prayers, and after giving him something we went on to Sadi's tomb which is more interesting. His chief work was the Gulistan or Rose Garden, and he is buried in a shrine planted round with his favourite flower. They showed us a very ancient copy of his works beautifully illumin- ated and adorned with old Persian pictures, among which was one of ladies playing polo. The only other building of interest in Shiraz is the Garden of the Throne, a once lovely terraced pavilion, but now in a ruined condition. Some of the mediaeval legends about Shiraz are rather interesting. Herbert says of it : 142 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll Here art magic was first hatched. Here Nimrod for some time lived. Here Cyrus, the most excellent of all heathen princes, was born, and here all but his head, which was sent to Pisigard, was entombed. Here the great Macedonian glutted his avarice and his Bacchism. Here the first Sibylla sang our Saviour's incar- nation. Hence the Magi are thought to have set out towards Bethlehem, and here a series of two hundred kings have swayed their sceptres. Shiraz has been identified by some with the Achsemenian CyropoHs, but there is not much ground for it. The Arab city was founded in 694, and as it was subsequently devastated by both Jenghis and Tamerlane, there is very little of it left. With the Nawab's help we engaged a caravan and a chavadar willing to undertake the long and almost unknown journey to Shuster, and on December 14 we started. CHAPTER VIII SHIRAZ TO SHUSTER The only town of any size which lay on our road to Shuster was Behbehan on the border of the province of Pars, about twenty-five miles from the sea. As it was about half way we decided when we left Shiraz that we would stay one day there for Christmas. Both at Teheran and at Shiraz we had been told that the road was very unsafe, and Mr. Preese at Ispahan had advised us to go by sea from Bushire to Busrah, as he thought the famine then existing" in Pars would make the road even more o than usually difficult for us. Consequently, we felt as we rode through what is really a a wild moun- tainous country that we should only have ourselves to blame if any misfortune occurred. Still we were unwilling to be persuaded against going through Lauristan, because it was unknown to Europeans, and also because we wanted to see the few remaining warlike tribes left in Persia, for the Baktiari and Laurs compare favourably with many others in courage and hardihood. Cyrus's maxim, " Ride, shoot and speak the truth," is, so far as the first two things in it 144 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part li are concerned, practised faithfully in Lauristan, where the men are excellent shots and horsemen. They live a patriarchal life in the mountains, and are intensely loyal to the chiefs of their clan. During our journey we came across Shuls, Koh- gelus, Felli and Mamasenni Laurs, and Pusht-i-Kuh Baktiari, all tribes inhabiting parts of Fars and Arabistan, as well as Lauristan. Beyond Beh- behan we got into the country of the Kab Arabs, Shiahs by adoption, who have migrated from the upper deserts of Arabia. Besides all these there are the Kashkais, a tribe of purely Turkish origin, said to have been brought from Kashgar by Jenghis or Tamerlane. The caravan, collected with great difficulty, con- sisted of five pack horses on which sat the servants and a tall ruffianly looking chavadar who was their owner, two saddle horses for ourselves, and two chargers carrying the escort the Prince has given us. One of these was Hassan Khan, and the other Abdul Bey. Hassan Khan never did anything but admire his black silk trousers, and smoke a gorgeous kalian, but Abdul Bey was more useful, and his enormous ac- quaintance on the road often stood us in good stead. He was a good shot too, and brought down part- ridges with a bullet in a marvellous way. Most of the villages were fortified. Goyum, the best example we saw, resembled an enormous caravanserai. Everything was enclosed in four stone walls, and the single gate was shut at night with clamped doors, and protected still further CHAP. VIII SHIRAZ TO SHUSTER 145 by a drawbridge. Inside, men, women, cattle, horses and chickens were all herded together in a very insanitary fashion, but they seemed quite happy. At Sangur we slept in a cowshed which was cleaned out on purpose, and were an object of great interest to the inhabitants, who had never seen a Firensfi before in their lives. In the morninor the whole village turned out to see us start. Of the hundred and twenty present, twenty at least were quite naked, and the remainder only scantily clothed. The women were unveiled and very plain. This is not wonderful considering that they marry at twelve, and have lived their lives before they are twenty- five. We crossed six rivers that day, and in the evening pitched our tent in a thickly wooded valley. For days after this we never saw a village, although we passed ruined caravanserais and broken bridges built of stone. Nothing is ever repaired in Persia. The people prefer to run up stucco houses and inns, pilfering the material they want from some fine old caravanserai of Shah Abbas's time, which would be good for another three hundred years. The scenery we passed through was beautiful. Above rolling heights and below narrow wooded valleys with rushing streams. The trees were chiefly poplar, willow, and holm oak. On December 19 we arrived at Telespia, where there is a castle on a hill. The huts in the village at its foot are all of baked mud, wattled with straw, and as they L 146 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll looked more than commonly dirty inside we camped out, and in the evening got some plover and snipe. Our chavadar spent half the next day in looking for a pack saddle he declared he had lost in the village, and so we did not get the horses out until late. In consequence we lost our way in the dark on a kotal or mountain ladder we had to descend, and when we reached Basht the caravan was not there. We had the greatest difficulty in getting into the place at all. The people were ex- pecting brigands and took us for a decoy, so they turned out with their rifles. It was a very dark night, the dogs were barking furiously and the most noisome smells were coming up from the river. The conversation between Abdul Bey and the townsmen was rather amusing, so I give as much as I can remember of it. Abdul Bey (knocking at the gate): " Ho ! brother, Ali Khan, great one, how is it ? Come open, lord, Abdul Bey from Shiraz calls you." Voice from within : "I know you not ; no one is here ; begone ! " Abdul Bey : " Listen excellency. Two Franks, friends and great ones, are here travelling to Behbe- han. Let the Governor have news." Voice from within : "I hear not, speak again." (Aside to a friend : " Quick, bastard, bring a gun. May your father burn ! ") Abdul Bey: "Two Franks, peaceful travellers, desire a room for the night. It is I, Abdul Bey, your friend from Shiraz who speaks." CHAP. VIII SHIRAZ TO SHUSTER 147 Pause, and a ^reat noise and bustle inside. Then the door opens suddenly, and eleven men emerge all armed with muzzle loaders at full cock. Then the same voice which had spoken from within is heard speaking with a mixture of suspicion and effusion : " Ah ! my preserver, Abdul Bey, I heard you not ; I did not understand. Much notice be to you." They embrace. The ten remaining men look at us and our rifles with growing respect. Abdul Bey : " Let there be found a lodging place for the two Firengis." The Voice (with a fresh access of mistrust) : " Lodging place there is none. Here we have no room. Let their excellencies proceed ; there is a clean and large village three farsakhs from hence." (There was no village nearer than twenty-five miles.) The Voice now addresses Mahomet, and seeing that he is our servant endeavours to suborn him : " O pilgrim, peace be unto you, from whence art you ? " (Aside, " Certainly a king's son,") Mahomet : " Peace be to you ! From Shiraz I have come." The Voice: "A miracle; my fathers he is from Shiraz. Dismount, pilgrim, and look. There is no room." Mahomet dismounts, and is led off through the darkness. A light appears, and the sound of a kalian being smoked is distinctly heard. L 2 T48 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ii First Firengi : " Mahomet, be quick. Is there a room ? " Mahomet (from the darkness) : " My Lord, no room is found." First Firengi (in desperation, summoning up his broken Persian for an attack on the Governor) : "Ho, bastards, may your fathers burn ! Assuredly when I come to my friend the Governor-General, I will say to him, ' In the town of Basht there is no hospitality. The Governor there is dog- fathered.' " A pause. The Governor's head disappears pre- cipitately from the window above the gate. The travellers ride to the place where we had seen the light, and find an open door with four tall men standing by it, evidently wavering. Four ancient silver coins are produced, and there is an instant change of feeling-. The four tall men in unison : " By the leave of God, command, step forward, enter ! The house is prepared. Let their excellencies carry them- selves inside. O pilgrim. Lord Mahomet, bring hither the horses." It was annoying at the time but funny afterwards, and soon after we were installed, part of the cara- van came in, so we were comparatively happy. The Hakim sent us a very good dinner, but when we called on him in the morning to thank him, we were told that he had gone out to hunt the brigands, and hoped we should speak well of him to the Governor-General. Our next halting place was Dogumbezan, built CHAP. VIII SHIRAZ TO SHUSTER 149 of reed huts with a dirty caravanserai half in ruins. Here we were met with the information that the Governor and all his soldiers had gone out to fight robbers. We were further told that if we stayed the night we could have an escort in the morning, but that if we went on we should be caught and pillaged. So, very foolishly, we stopped, and of course saw nothing of either escort or brigands. However, the people were interesting, and we were able to replenish our stores. On Christmas Eve after struggling across a muddy plain we reached Behbehan, and were put up by the Governor, Muntasser el Mulk, in the Kolah Firengi pavilion. " Kolah firengi " means European hat. The pavilion did not resemble any hat that we knew of, but perhaps its name made the Governor think that it was an appropriate resi- dence for us. It stood in a garden of palm and orange trees, and was an ideal place to stay in at that time of year. The Governor sent us in all our meals, and his attendant priest used to come and drink our whisky, by way of making things fair. Christmas Day we spent hawking with the Governor, who was a most attractive Persian nobleman. He was courteous and hospitable, well educated, and not by any means bigoted about foreigners or religion. His town was clean and prosperous, and although his method of administer- ing justice was eccentric, he was neither tyrannical nor cruel. The hawking procession was an inspiring I50 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll sight. About forty cavalry turned out, all dressed alike for a wonder, and with carbines of the same pattern. The Governor's horses were magnificent Arabs ; his own saddle-cloth blazed with gold em- broidery, and the kalian carried behind him shone with jewels. Red footmen ran in front of him with wands in their hands. We rode in this state about two miles out of the town, where we lunched in a marquee, and then the hawks were unhooded by their keepers and flown at various birds. They were splendid birds, and the best of them struck two black partridges and a hare, but it was more of a spectacle than sport. On the way home we rode by acres of narcissus, and the cavalry gave examples of its skill. In the evening we were entertained by singing and dancing, accompanied by monotonous music. The priest and the Deputy-Governor sat with us for two hours drink- ing tea, wine, whisky, and coffee, and eating pista- chio nuts and sugar cakes. The populace in Behbeban had evidently no idea that we were infidels, for they all greeted us with " Salam Aleykum," a salutation reserved for true believers, and took us into the mosques, an unheard- of privilege for a heretic in Persia. The morning we were going to leave, our chava- dar, who had given us every kind of trouble on the road, said he must have more money. The agree- ment had been that he should receive half his hire at Shiraz and the other half when we arrived at Shuster, so we refused to give him any more until CHAP. VIII SHIRAZ TO SHUSTER 151 he had fulfilled his agreement, and we were in Shuster. Then he said he would not come at all, so we appealed to the Governor. We had only- asked him to reprimand the man so that we should have no more trouble with him, but the Governor saw the affair in a different light, and had him whipped. Consequently we were relieved of him for the rest of the journey, as he provided a deputy to look after his caravan. We had a new escort of four smart Laurs, as the Governor said the country was in a disturbed state. The first part of our way lay over a plain on which there were several Arab encampments. The Kab Arabs live in a patriarchal style, and have immense herds of buffalo, sheep, and goats, which graze on the pastures of the plains, which run down to the river Karun and the sea. This part of the country is in the province of Arabistan, and was then governed by the Nizam es Sultaneh at Shuster. He had also got Lauristan and the Baktiari under his rule, and was consequently one of the greatest powers in Persia. We rode into Shuster on New Year's Eve, having taken seventeen days, including stoppages, to cover the 354 miles from Shiraz. CHAPTER IX SHUSTER AND DIZFUL The name Shuster is said to be derived from the ancient Persian word signifying " pleasant," and the city, although it is not so extravagantly praised as Shiraz, is very fine. It shares with Astrabad the distinction of being the only town in Persia built of stone. A castle overhangs the river, and there is a story of Valerian having been im- prisoned in it after the Roman defeat at Edessa. It is said that he directed the building of the famous bridge and dam at Shuster during his imprisonment. But it is more probable that Varanes, a Roman engineer, devised them. Only twenty-eight of the original forty arches of the bridge now remain standing, and they have been so constantly repaired that there is little of the original surface left. Below this massive structure flows the Karun, a swift current in a broad bed, and in spring time danger- ously swollen by floods. It was a great storm and flood some ten years ago that caused the fissure in the bridge, which exists at the present time. It is of course the Governor's business to keep it in CHAP. IX SHUSTER AND DIZFUL 153 repair out of the revenues of the province, but as this might mean calHng in the services of engineers from Europe, and incurring a great expense, the bridge is Hkely to remain in its present state for some time to come. A ferry inadequately suppHes the deficiency. The other achievement of Varanes — the dam — was intended to turn the waters of the Ab-i-Gerger into the Ab-i-Shuteit, the two branches of the Karun which encircle the town. The building^ was never finished, and there is now very little water in either channel. Owing to the constant silting up of the beds, the Ab-i-Gerger does not become navigable for at least seven miles. We crossed this branch of the river when we entered Shuster by a small but good stone bridge. Under it the water falls in a cascade, and is used for working some corn mills which lie close by. At the end of the bridge we went under a massive archway into a dirty little street hemmed in on either side by high stone houses, and then, turning sharply to the right, mounted the hill to the castle. As we clattered over the drawbridge the Deputy-Governor came out and told us that the Governor-General was away in camp at Dizful, about thirty miles off, and that he hoped we should go out there and visit him. In the meantime the castle was at our service, and here we stayed for two days. We had no lack of guides, for a Persian merchant, who had been in Bombay and spoke excellent English, placed himself at our disposal, and the Armenian secretary 154 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ii of Messrs. Lynch's representative also did his best for us. The bazars in Shuster are very ragged, consisting for the most part of booths pitched round the squares which here take the place of streets. The chief industries are carpets and iron. But the importance of the place is as a trading centre. Several companies export grain, sesame and indigo. The climate is very hot in summer, and every one spends the day in the "serdabs," spacious cellars sunk under the houses at a depth of sixty feet, and ventilated by a broad shaft. In the winter these serdabs are used as store-rooms. The inhabitants of Shuster are extremely fanatical, and all wear the blue turban, which is the outward sign of descent from Mahomet. They are surly and arrogant, and noted for their hatred of Firengis. We had a taste of their prejudices when they refused to wash our dirty linen. If a railway is ever built from Shuster to Kum or Ispahan its importance will be enormously increased, and from its position at the head of the Karun it will oust Shiraz from its higher rank as a mart. Also it must not be forgotten that Shuster is the capital of Arabistan, by far the most fertile province of Persia, and one that if properly cultivated might become a granary of the world. It was our intention to go down the Karun in a steamer, but hearing that there would not be one starting for four or five days, we decided to make an expedition to Dizful to see the Governor and the CHAP. IX SHUSTER AND DIZFUL 155 ruins of Susa, which are very rarely visited. It took us three hours to cross the river, whereas if the bridge had been in repair it would have taken three minutes. We stayed that night at a caravanserai at Govnak, and the next morning some farrashes of the Nizam's met us and escorted us to his tents, which were pitched just outside the town of Dizful. On our way we were taken into the indigo caves where the indigo was being pressed into oblong cakes. It was not an interesting process to watch, and smells, and swarms of flies were exceptionally rife. As soon as we were installed in a tent at the Nizam's encampment, he sent us a black lamb accompanied by an invitation to go and see him. We found him sitting in a small garden with a pavilion. He is a little wizened man of about sixty, and is said to have begun life as a servant in the Grand Vizier's harem. Like many other Persians he has raised himself by his own efforts to positions of great power, alternating with periods of disgrace. He has twice been Governor of Arabistan, but is now in the disgrace stage again. The Governor of Dizful, a Shahzadeh called Muntasser ed Dowleh, and the Hereditary Prince of the Baktiari were with him when we came into the garden. The latter was kept by the Nizam as a hostage for the good behaviour of the tribes. We were promised an escort to accompany us to the Susa ruins the next day, a necessary precaution, as the country is infested by wandering Arabs who hate Europeans visiting their ruins, believing that they come to 156 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll carry off the gold which legend says is buried there. Susa or Shush, as it is called by the Persians, marks the site of three distinct cities. The first and earliest of these was the capital of the Elamite kingdom. It was called Shushinak, and one of its kings was Chedorlaomor, about 2000 B.C. This city was laid waste by Assurbanipal, King of Assyria, in 645 B.C. In 505 B.C. it was rebuilt by Darius the son of Hystaspes (cf. Pliny, " Vetus regia Persarum Dario Hystaspis filio condita "). This palace was destroyed by fire, and another was erected by Artaxerxes II. in 400 B.C., and it was in this one, "at Shushan in the Palace," that Daniel saw the vision of the ram. Here also Esther was beloved by Ahasuerus, now identified with Artaxerxes, and here was situate the great winter residence of the Achsemenian kings. Alexander destroyed Shushan in ^T,T, B.C., finding in its vaults treasure incalculable. Finally the city was rebuilt in 250 a.d. by Sapor the Second, and flourished for some time as the capital of the Sassanian monarchs. But with the decay of the dynasty the city fell into ruins, and nothing now remains of " what was once so stately and so spacious " but a long mound surrounded by hillocks, which is supposed to have been the citadel. Close by flows the river Shauvi, probably the Ulai of Daniel, which ran through the market-place. The Kerkhah or Khoaspes on the west and the Khorates on the east bordered the walls, so the diameter of the city must have been over two miles. To the CHAP. IX SHUSTER AND DIZFUL 157 south lie flat, green plains which may have been the royal deer park where young Cyrus hunted. We climbed up the mound and found fragments of brick and pottery, beautifully coloured, but these, I expect, were only of the Sassanian epoch. The rarer treasures of the older cities lie deeper down. The traces of Dieulafoy's excavations are plainly visible. His chief finds, the friezes of the archers and the lions are now in the Louvre, and are the finest examples of Babylonian enamelling on brick that are known. Near the mound is the reputed tomb of Daniel, an old square mamzadeh built of stone, long ago rifled and allowed to fall into decay. On the river bank is the new and gaudy shrine put up to the saint by the modern faithful. The next day a terrific thunderstorm prevented a lion hunt we had contemplated, and the whole face of the country was changed by torrents of rain. We had great difficulty in making our way back to Dizful across the swamp. In the morning we re- turned to Shuster, and found the Karun very much swollen and rushing past at a great pace. We were glad to find ourselves in the castle again, where at least everything was dry. From the window we watched a herd of buffalo crossing the river. The leader plunged in slowly and heavily, and was carried down stream very rapidly, and the others followed in succession. Finally came the herdsman hanging on to the tail of the last buffalo, where he 158 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ii acted as rudder, and shouted directions to the leader. We stayed one more day, till January 9, in Shuster, as we had to hire some horses to take us to Ahwaz, where we had settled to take Lynch's steamer for Busrah. CHAPTER X DOWN THE KARUN The Karun is the only navigable river in Persia. It rises in the mountains west of Ispahan and emerging from the Baktiari hills north of Shuster, divides there into the two branches of the Gerofer and the Shuteit. These streams reunite at Bund-i- kir fifty miles lower down. Twenty miles further on are the rapids of Ahwaz, which divide the upper and lower rivers. From here its course is very winding to Mohammerah, where it flows into the Shat-el- Arab, and so into the Persian Gulf The distance from Shuster to Mohammerah by water is 210 miles, whereas by road it is only 130, the difference being due to the curves in the Karun. The rate of the current sometimes reaches eight knots, and it rises with a flush to nineteen feet. Ships a hundred feet long, drawing three feet of water, can always get as far as Ahwaz, where the rapids make transhipment necessary. Several suggestions have been made for getting rid of the rocks which form the rapids, but perhaps the best plan would be to make a short canal with two locks. If this were done, the river i6o A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ll would be navigable from the sea to Shuster ; and, as the distance from Shuster to Teheran is only 500 miles as compared with 800 from the present port Bushire, it is hardly necessary to point out the differ- ence Shuster's transformation would make to Persian trade. The journey from Bushire is difficult, and transport is almost entirely by camels, but a good carriage road could be made from Shuster to Kum at a cost of ^8000. It is surprising that the thing has not been done— or, rather, it would be surprising in any other country but Persia, where people are shy of investing capital in any enterprise. The Karun is the ancient Pasitigris, up which Nearchus sailed to join Alexander, and which Alex- ander crossed at Ahwaz by a bridge of boats on his march from Susa to Persepolis. Ahwaz, or Aginis, as it was called, was then a most populous place, and there is a legend that a man could walk on the house- tops from there to Shuster. At the present time it is merely a depot of Lynch's and the Nasir Company, the latter a Persian undertaking which disputes with Lynch the supremacy of the Karun. There are many stone and brick ruins all round, and the re- mains of a canal bed into which the river water was turned for irrigating purposes. We arrived there on the second day after leaving Shuster, as we lost our caravan, as usual, the first night, and wandered about for hours on the bank of the river. We were welcomed at Ahwaz by Messrs, Lynch's agents. On the 14th of January we embarked on the Mai CHAP. X DOWN THE KARUN i6i Amir for Busrah. The river is lined with small Arab villages inhabited by the Bari and Idris clans, branches of the great Kab tribe. We only halted for any length of time at Mohammerah, celebrated for the number of Sabians amono" its inhabitants. O These remarkable people are also to be found at Dizful, at Busrah, and Amarah on the Tigris. Their religion obliges them to live near running water, and they call themselves " Mandayi," or possessors of the living word. One of their peculiarities is to have two names : one their ordinary or everyday name, and the other religious, and only used among themselves. Their language is a Semitic one, akin to Hebrew and Aramaic, and in it is written their holy book, the Sidra Raba. They live very secretly, never attempting to proselytise, and their numbers do not exceed 4000. The men are skilful workers in gold and silver, and make beautiful inlaid boxes, which are very difficult to buy, as the Sabians dis- like selling to strangers. As far as can be ascer- tained, their religion is a worship of St. John the Baptist, from whom they profess to be descended. Baptism is a great feature in their ceremonial, and is constantly administered at weddings and funerals, and on all feast days. This is the reason of their always choosing to live on the banks of a river. It is doubtful whether they are connected with the Sabseans, but certainly the Pole Star enters into their worship. The reticence they preserve about themselves is very extraordinary, and the great part of their tenets is still obscure. They are devout M i62 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ii and upright men, and have lately begun to look on the English with much respect, because our consuls have protected them from the persecution of the Turks in Baghdad and Busrah. I got hold of a small manuscript containing a prdcis of the Sidra Raba, or Book of Order, which purports to be a complete history of the world, written by God and given by him to the first man. The world exists for four periods of a hundred thousand years each. At the end of the first period it was destroyed by fire, at the end of the second by the sword, and at the end of the third by the flood. We are now in the fourth period, of which about sixty thousand years have already passed, and at the end of this term the world will be destroyed by wind. Of the immediate future the book says that Islam will continue for seventy years, and at the end of that time Christianity will become supreme, and will remain so for 400 years, during which time all creeds will be tolerated. Anti-Christ will then appear in Egypt, and the Messiah will rise up in Russia. The last two pages of the manuscript are said to be missing, so what was to happen after the cominof of the Messiah is unknown. The Sabians are probably a very early form of the Christian Church, for they have far more points in common with it than with Islam, and they hate the Mohammedans. The few words of their language I heard were very like Arabic — God is Oloho (Arabic, Allah) ; Jesus, Icho (Arabic, Issu). CHAP. X DOWN THE KARUN 163 The banks of the river below Mohammerah were covered with palm trees and date groves, and as we drew near our goal we saw a crowd of caiques and feluccas on the estuary. We ran into Busrah about three o'clock that day, and were put up at the British consulate. M 2 PART III TURKISH ARABIA CHAPTER I BUSRAH AND THE TIGRIS The stretch of country on which we were now entering is called Irak Arabi, and consists of the two pashalics of Busrah and Baghdad. It is a long narrow strip, not more than 200 miles broad at any point, and nearly 400 miles long. The Arabian or desert frontier runs parallel with the Euphrates, and is about thirty miles south-west of it. Persia lies on the east, and the northern end is bounded by the villayets of Mosul and Zor. The various names which these provinces have borne from time to time are worth enumerating. Irak Arabi was in ancient times called Shumir, the Shinar of the Bible ; then it became Chaldaea or Babylonia, and, under the Romans, Mesopotamia. Its capitals have been in succession, Babylon, Seleucia, Ctesiphon, and Baghdad. Pars was the original Persia, the native country of the Achsemenians. Its capitals were Persepolis and Shiraz. Arabistan is the ancient Elam, subsequently Susiana, capital Susa. Mosul, which lies north of Irak Arabi, is the ancient Accad or Assyria, whose chief town was i68 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part ill Nineveh, near Mosul. Lastly, there is Kurdistan, the ancient Media, the capital of which was Ecbatana, now called Hamadan. Of these five great king- doms of antiquity, two now belong to Turkey, and three to Persia, but once they were united under the rules of Darius, Alexander, and the Seleucians. Busrah itself recalls Venice. It is built on piles, and the little creeks which run into the Shatel Arab form the streets. Along the banks of these canals are built the brick warehouses and villas of the British traders and Turkish officials. To the west lie the bazars, and the Arab, Christian, Jewish, and Sabian quarters. It is Venice without its palaces, and with a profusion of palm trees. The tongue of the people is chiefly Arabic, but Turkish is the official language. Trade is almost entirely in the hands of the English, and there are several larg-e mercantile firms. The Tioris is navigated as far as Baghdad by two steamship companies, one British and the other Turkish, and there is also a certain amount of sailing traffic. The four kinds of boats used are — mehalas, or feluccas, with one large sail ; kalatches, or pig-skin rafts ; bellums, a sort of small gondola, and gophers, which are nothing more than primitive tubs. For some miles up the river there are beautiful gardens, and when they end there is swamp with plenty of snipe and pig. After that the desert. The town itself is fairly clean, and the bazars are airy and well stocked. Neither the palace nor the mosques are worth seeing, and the only good build- CHAP. I BUSRAH AND THE TIGRIS 169 ing is a new military hospital. There are three Turkish cruisers in the Shatel Arab, armed with a few guns, but totally unprovided with ammunition. Their commanders live in terror of the occasional visits of British men-of-war. Our influence in Arabia is in fact all powerful, as troops could at any time be shipped from Bombay to either Busrah, Baghdad, or even Jeddah. During the Armenian troubles in 1895, the Turkish officials in Arabia were afraid of this being done, and the more so, because they are quite aware that English rule would be by no means unpopular with the inhabi- tants of Jeddah or even of Mecca. The Sultan's authority as Sultan amounts to very little, and as Caliph it is nothing in Arabia. If he lost the temporal sovereignty, the Sunnis would quickly secede from his spiritual rule. So it is difficult to see where the Turks could establish their capital if they were turned out of Europe. Mecca is im- possible, for not only would the Sherif of Mecca never brook any rival to his power, but also the means of communication with the rest of the Empire would depend entirely on the goodwill of the owners of the Suez Canal. Baghdad is too close to the Persian and Arabian frontiers, and there the Sultan would lie at the mercy of lukewarm allies and bitter foes. At Damascus he would be in the country of the Nestorians, and at Erzerum in the heart of Armenia. Angora, Csesarea, or Sivas, in Asia Minor, where he could count on the firm support of the Osmanli Turks and their friends, 170 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part hi the Muslim Circassians, would seem to be the only possible places. But the loss of Stambul would practically mean the end of the Ottoman Empire. The British Consul, or Assistant Political Agent at Busrah, belongs to the Political Department of the Indian Government. He is under the direct orders of the Consul-General at Baghdad, who has at his command a gun-boat of the Indian marine and a guard of thirty Sepoys. Besides this there are British mail steamers in Busrah half the week, and very frequently British men-of-war, so that the Vali and his myrmidons are quite outnumbered by us. Still they do their best to make the work of the Steam Navigation Company as difficult as possible, issuing absurd regulations by which the Company are only allowed to run two boats on the river at a time, although there is plenty of traffic for six. After seeing the Sabian quarter we embarked on board the steamer Khalifah for Baorhdad. At Kermah we passed the mouth of the Euphrates and entered the Tigris proper. The river is here about 350 yards wide, but higher up it widens to about a quarter of a mile. The water is muddy, but the current is swift, and it is deep. The Euphrates is still swifter but very shallow, a combination which makes navigation of it impossible. We passed many wretched little villages built of mud huts, the natives of which pursued us along the bank begging for oranges or small coins. The first place of any size was Amarah, a muddy, dirty town with a tall, wooden bazar, and old- CHAP. 1 BUSRAH AND THE TIGRIS 171 fashioned houses with latticed windows, through which the veiled ladies of the harems looked out. We stayed there four hours unloading Man- chester goods, and had to anchor outside all night owing to the darkness. The higher we went the more the flood rose, until we could see nothing but water for miles, and the few Arabs who had not fled to the mountains were camping out on the tops of their almost submerged huts. The river bank was discernible by tall reeds, in which we saw and shot three or four boar. Now and then the bank dis- appeared altogether, and twice the steamer wandered off into the flooded rice fields. Once we steamed over the top of a village and picked up a miserable Arab, who had stayed on top of his hut too long. The people on board were very amusing. They were all Shiah Indians and Persians going on a pilgrimage to Kerbela, and of course sworn foes of the indi- genous Turks and Arabs, who are all Sunnis. They made their own little fires, and spread out their beds on deck, and never moved even when a severe thunderstorm broke over them. As soon as the sun came out again they took off their clothes and hung them up to dry on the mast stays. There were also two Englishmen on the steamer going to conduct some excavations near Babylon. Whether they ever reached their destination is doubtful, as the whole country was under water and they could only have got there in a gopher ; besides which the country was " disturbed." The Arabs had just fought three battles with the Imperial 172 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part hi troops, and had threatened to kill the American whom our two friends were o"oinor to relieve. The Turkish authorities at Baghdad would not provide them with an escort, and the Consul-General refused to sanction their s^oino- without one. On the day before we reached Baghdad we passed the ruins of Seleucia and Ctesiphon. The former was the capital of King Seleucus, one of Alexander the Great's generals, and the latter was the metro- polis of the Parthian kingdom. The only remains are a fine brick arch and a wing of the royal palace, which are in a good state of preservation. We steamed into Baghdad on a Sunday morning, and found it in danger of being flooded. But we were not sorry to get off the boat, as we had taken 140 hours to steam 500 miles, a very slow time. We stayed with Colonel Mocklerat the British Residency for the next five days. CHAPTER II BAGHDAD Baghdad, the Garden of David, was founded by the Caliph Al Mansor, second Prince of the Abbas- side Dynasty in 762 a.d., and it at once became the capital of Islam. Under Harun al Raschid (a.d. 800) it was distinguished for its science as well as for its elegance and splendour, and we are told that Baghdad and Bussorah were rival schools of learning. In 1260 it was taken by the Mongols under Haloko, and again by the Turks in 1640, since when it has been governed from Stambul. The population is now over 200,000 and the city is said to contain 100 mosques and fifty public baths. It lies on the two banks of the Tigris ; on the western shore live the Shiahs, the Persian colony who look after the shrines of Kerbela and Kazimaim, and here is Harun al Raschid's house and the tomb of his favourite wife, Zobeida. On the eastern side are the Sunnis and the Christian traders. The two banks are generally connected by a bridge of boats, but while we were there all the traffic was carried on by means of small launches and gophers, the 174 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part hi bridge having been washed away by the floods. The desert on the northern side of the town was under water, and the western fields had become a swamp and were rapidly sinking out of sight. Every day 3000 men from the garrison were set to work, banking up the outer wall and the counterscarp of the inner ditch. For two days too the populace itself was impressed to labour from dawn to sunset against the flood, it being a custom of the city not to levy taxes but to execute all public works by forced labour. During this time the shops were closed, but on the third day the waters went down a little, and the bazars were opened. We walked through their fine avenues crowded with people and well stocked with shawls, silks, belts, gold and silver cloth, besides many Chaldsean and Assyrian relics. Many of these are genuine, but the Jews and Armenians devote themselves to the work of imita- tion with such clever results that only a connoisseur should risk buying. The finest buildinor on the Turkish or Arab side is the Serai, the Governor's palace, which includes all the Government offices, the law courts, the river customs, and police bureaux. The trade of the place lies chiefly in the hands of three European firms, Lynch, Holtz, and Sassoon. Consulates are maintained by England, Germany, Russia, Persia, France, Austria, America, and Switzerland, the first four of which are the most important. As at Busrah, Turkish is the official, and Arabic the popular tongue. CHAP. II BAGHDAD 175 The finest mosque in Baghdad is that of Kazi- maim, on the Shiah side of the river, where two of the holy Imams are buried. But the great place of interest is Kerbela, a small town lying about sixty miles west of Baghdad. Here are buried Huseyn and Hassan, the two sainted sons of Ali, the Prophet's cousin and successor. Huseyn was killed here by order of the Caliph Omar, and the place is still the real centre of the Shiah religion. " Kerbe- lai," the title given to a man who has made the pilgrimage to Kerbela, is more esteemed in Persia than " Hajji," the pilgrim to Mecca. The great difference between the two sects of Sunnis and Shiahs is that the Shiahs receive Ali as the direct successor of Mahomet and as the second Caliph, while the Sunnis interpose Abu Bekr and Omar, and insist that Ali was only the fourth on the roll. The Sunnis also believe that the Caliphate has descended through the various dynasties of the Ommiades, the Abbassides and the Memluk princes of Egypt, to the Sultan who is now the orthodox Amir el Muminim or Commander of the Faithful. The Shiahs on the other hand maintain that the right line of descent was from Ali through his sons Hassan and Huseyn to the Twelve Holy Imams, the last of whom disappeared in the tenth century. The Shiahs believe that this Imam is still livinef and that he will eventully return as the Mahdi and ricrhtful Messiah of Islam. His coming was predicted by the Prophet in the following passage : 176 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part hi " When you see black banners coming out of Khorasan, go forth and join them, for the Imam of God will be with those banners, and his name is El Mahdi. He will fill the world with equity and justice." Hence the Persians do not look upon the Shah as anything more than their temporal sovereign, and the real power lies in the hands of the Mollahs whose chief lives at Kerbela. The Shiahs all look to Ali and his sons as the heroes of their relis^ion. In Kurdistan there are even some who say that Ali is God (Aliillahis), and among orthodox Persians the greatest religious event of the whole year is the tenth day of Muharrem, the anniversary of the murder of Huseyn by the Caliph Omar. On that day all Persia mourns the martyr and execrates Omar, and no one who has not seen this ceremony can realise to what lengths the usually impassive Oriental can be carried by religious enthusiasm. In Azerbajan, Europeans generally keep to their houses the whole of the tenth Muharrem, as the mob and the soldiers are all in a state of uncontrollable frenzy. I saw the ceremony once at Constantinople, where there is a large Persian colony, and even in the heart of the Sunnis the fervour of the celebrants was intense. The rite took place after sunset in a large open caravanserai known as the Valideh Khan. The Persian ambassador attended as representing the Shah, and except for a few Turkish soldiers and European onlookers, the whole assemblage con- CHAP. II BAGHDAD 177 sisted of Persians. The first part of the celebration was a kind of miracle play, Huseyn and Hassan being presented, with their children, in the chief acts of their lives. But soon the play became a procession, a dreadful sight, which made the few women present faint. First came a group of men leaping, shouting, and brandishing torches ; then lads, stripped to the waist, beating themselves with scourges, which if they did not actually draw blood made hideous weals. After these a palanquin appeared, containing child- ren representing Hassan's orphans, sitting under huge black banners, and followed by Huseyn's white horse with a dove tied to its saddle. Then more torches and lanterns, and turbaned Mollahs chanting passages from the Koran ; and in the rear a ghastly group of men wearing nothing but their breeches, weeping and cutting themselves with knives. Every now and then a fanatic dropped down exhausted by the loss of blood. All the time the spectators kept up loud crying and weeping, and even the Turkish soldiers joined in. One never forgets the spectacle of the flashing torches and bleeding flesh, nor the clashing of the cymbals, and the frenzied lamentations, nor the gruesome smell of sweat and warm blood with which the place reeked. The origin of this worship dates back to pre- Muslim times, and is a mixture of the fire worship of Zoroaster, the sacrifices to Baal, and the mourning for the death of Adonis. A passage in the Vulgate about the worship of N 178 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part hi Baal exactly describes what I saw on the tenth Muharrem : Clamabant ergo voce magna, et incidebant se juxta ritum suum cultris et lanceolis, donee perfunderentur sanguine. To return to Kerbela and its pilgrims. Rever- encing Ali and his sons as they do, it is not wonderful that the Persians prefer to make pilgrim- ages to Kerbela, Mecca being so much further away and given over to the Sunnis, with whom they have little in common. Pilgrimages set out every year from all the big towns in Persia to the number of twenty or thirty, the men often taking their families with them. They move very slowly by day marches to their destination, preceded by a man with a red flag. They stay at Kerbela or Meshed about a month, the richer pilgrims offering gifts at the various shrines, the poorer collecting relics. Then they set out on the long tedious way home again, but with the riofht to bear the title of " Kerbelai," or " Meshedi," and a certainty of eternal salvation. We met many caravans of pilgrims, and they always seemed devout and in earnest about their journey. Their worst hardship is the extravagant demands made by officials on the road in return for a passport. The Persian Consul at Jeddah is said to make ^5000 a year out of them. The walls of all the caravanserais on the road from Baghdad to Teheran are inscribed with " Ya Ali," " Ya Hassan," and long prayers and sentences CHAP. II BAGHDAD 179 from the Koran, executed by passing Hajjis. It is certain that these rival pilgrimages do much to keep up the hatred that exists between the Turks and Persians. Hillah, where the ruins of Babylon are, is within reach of Baghdad, but we could not get there as all the intervening country was under water. While in Baghdad we visited the Vali, Hassan Pasha, a fine old man who talked most beautiful Turkish. We also had tea with Rejeb Pasha, the Field-Marshal commanding the Sixth Army Corps. He told me he had been at school with Mahomet Zekki Pasha, and showed us two regiments drafted from Albania, big bony men and well disciplined, but not so carefully drilled as those at Ersinjan. We got together a caravan to take us to Kerman- shah in Kurdistan, via Khanikin, but we were delayed three days by a hurricane which made it unsafe to cross the flooded desert in a gopher. At last on the 30th of January the wind had sunk enough to allow us to cross. We crammed our- selves and our belongings into three gophers, and after two hours' punting and paddling reached the road, which was little better than a swamp. We passed four of the filthiest towns in the world on this route. In each of them the street was a mass of black fetid mud, into which our horses sank up to the girths. The caravanserais had no doors, and smelt of rotting carcases and vegetables. It rained every day, and we were never dry until we reached the snows of Kurdistan. At Khanikin, the N 2 i8o A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part in last of these terrible Turkish towns, we had to submit to a visit from the Custom House officials. They took a Longman s Magazine and a Statesman s Year-Book away with them, but returned them in a few minutes saying that the head of the office had read them through and that there was nothing illegal in them. They then gave us our permission " pour quitter la Turquie," and next day we re-entered Persia, gradually getting near the foot of the mighty Zagros range which borders the Iranian plateau. PART IV PERSIA WEST TO EAST CHAPTER I THROUGH KURDISTAN Kurdistan is not, strictly speaking, a province. It lies partly in Persia and partly in Turkey, and represents roughly the eastern half of ancient Media, and the western half of Assyria. The Kurds are a very ancient people, speaking a language of their own akin to Persian. They are probably the descendants of the Carduchii or Corducui. Mande- ville says of Kurdistan : In that kingdom of Media are many great hills and little of level ground. Saracens dwell there, and another kind of people called Cordines. The Kurds are scattered far beyond the boundaries of Kurdistan, and their robber reputation has clung to them since the days of Alexander. In religion they are both Shiahs and Sunnis, and there are besides a few Yezeedis or devil worshippers, and Aliillahis already mentioned. They all have, what- ever their creed, a great many odd superstitions, traceable to some extent to the old faith of the Magi. In appearance the men are very handsome, and i84 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part iv the women ruddy and better looking than any we saw in Persia. They all have an inordinate love of finery, and wear brilliant colours and a great many ornaments. The Kurds are hospitable to strangers, loyal to their chieftains, and cleaner in their habits than most Persians. Those who have been trained make excellent soldiers. On our way to Teheran we nearly always stayed with Kurds, although we occasionally came across the northern Baktiari, the Felli Laurs and some migratory Turkish tribes. The women make carpets which are artistic, though -somewhat gaudy, and the men occupy themselves with shooting and pastoral pursuits. Their little huts are decorated inside with rugs, carpets, shining brass bowls, enamelled boxes, and now and then a cheap Russian print. All through Kurdistan we travelled without an escort, our cavass from Baghdad having left us at the frontier. We went by caravan as far as Kermanshah ; from there to Hamadan we tried to chapper, but finding the post very slow, took to a caravan again for the last part of the road. On the third day of our journey we got into deep snow. Luckily it was still hard, and although the air was keen the weather remained good during the whole journey. Considering that it was in the wildest part of Persia and the depth of winter we escaped very easily, nothing worse happening than frost-bitten ears. We passed strings of Haj caravans and corpse caravans going to Kerbela. It is the great wish of all devout Shiahs to be buried C-- .V- < -: V-' *•'*■_?». ^ 1.!?..": :VV, -. Max- -v^^Lsli^-^-s.^vi"'*" ^>3v_-> ■; CHAP. I THROUGH KURDISTAN 185 near the shrine of AH, and the horrid practice of transporting corpses there in batches for burial is resorted to. Some of the rich Persians we met were seated in kejavehs, but they looked miserably cold, and we were better off riding. The early morning and the late evening were the most trying, as when the sun was not up, the cut-up snow on the track refroze, and we had to ride over a bad verglas. Once we had to cross ploughed land frozen to the hardness of iron, and very rough. Here I remember we passed a solitary Persian muffled up to the eyes, with a long- orrim-looking coffin sluno- across his saddle-bow, a sinister figure. Frequently we had to stop to shoot horses which had broken their legs and been left by their owners to die. The nights were spent in little Kurdish huts, where we were almost stifled by the smoke, and lived on partridges which cost us twopence apiece. On February loth we reached Kermanshah, the mountain peaks around us rising to a height of 16,000 feet, and everything wrapped in a glittering garment of snow, a really magnificent sight. We had ridden the 217 miles from Baghdad in eleven days, which was not fast going ; but very fair, con- sidering the state of the road. At Kermanshah we were entertained by the British Agent, a Persian, whose full name and title were Hajji Mirza Abdul Rahim Khan Vekil i Dowlit Ingiliz. He provided us with a comfortable guest-room, and showed us every sort of hospitality. He and his forefathers have represented British interests in Kermanshah i86 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part iv during the last eighty years, and he is as eager over our commercial expansion in Persia as any Englishman could be. Kermanshah is a large clean town, with a popula- tion of about 100,000, mainly Kurds. The bazars are stocked from Ispahan and Baghdad, and the chief industry is in carpets. The only buildings of any interest are the Ark, where the Governor lives ; the barracks, built to hold a thousand men, but now three parts empty ; and the Bagh i Shahzadeh, or Prince's Garden, which is now only a ruin, but which must once have been very beautiful. The day we left, our host took us to see the Takht i Bostan, the most renowned rock carvings in Persia. They date from the time of Darius, and are, in their way, quite as interesting and beautiful as those at Persepolis. The large figures, which have been more exposed, are worn by the wind, rain, and time ; but the smaller ones, which are protected by an archway, are quite clear and very striking. The large reliefs include : (i) A large group of three figures standing ; identified as Darius, his queen, and a conquered king. (2) A figure of Cyrus on horseback, armed with a lance. (3) Two armed men, probably soldiers. (4) Four figures : the god Ormuzd, Darius, a prostrate monarch, and an attendant. The smaller sculptures represent nobles hunting elephants and bears, and the king riding in state with the royal parasol over him, and attended by dancers and musicians. Besides these there are two CHAP. I THROUGH KURDISTAN 187 large winged figures partially restored. It is sup- posed that an Achsemenian city stood on the site of Kermanshah. Not long after we left Kermanshah we passed Behistun, where Semiramis is supposed to have built a city, and then came to Kangavar, a queer little walled town buried in a clump of bleached poplars. The last stage was the worst of all, for we had to cross a pass over 9000 feet high, in deep snow and a tearing wind. Once over the pass a gallop of about twenty miles brought us to Hamadan, the most lofty city in Persia. Here also a Persian was the British representative, and showed us every kindness. As it was the month of Ramazan he could only dine with us, and used to watch us eating luncheon with a hungry eye. We were glad to meet our old friend the doctor from Resht. He told us that he had had an adventurous journey from Kazvin to Hamadan, as all his caravan had sworn to murder him as a renegade from the faith. But he was too many for them, and seemed as happy and energetic as ever. Hamadan is the ancient Ecbatana, and is said to have been built by Dejoces in 750 B.C. It was the capital of Media, and the original city possessed seven distinct enceintes, of which the outer one was coloured white, the next one black, the next purple, the next blue, and the last three orange, silver, and gold respectively. Inside the seventh wall lay the royal palace where Astyages, grand- father of Cyrus, reigned. Ecbatana was the summer, i88 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part iv as Susa was the winter, residence of the Achseme- nian kings. Its population is now about 50,000, composed of Persians, Armenians, Kurds, and Jews. The latter do a good trade in counterfeit relics, and enjoy some prestige through a shrine where Esther and Mordecai are supposed to have been buried. Inside the tomb are two profusely carved wooden sarcophagi, with an inscription stating that it was repaired in 850 a.d. The saints' bodies rest in a vault beneath, but when one looks through the narrow hole in the floor above there is nothing- to be seen in the dim light. However, the tombs are supposed to be the most authentic in Persia, and are venerated by both Jews and Muslims. The town has handsome bazars, but it is dirty and untidy, and considering its great past deficient in interest. We set off over thick snow again, and at Noviran found ourselves in a Turkish-speaking district. At Bagh-i-Shah we caught sight of the enormous peak of Demavend rising straight up behind Teheran. Two days' more hard riding over a stony plain brought us out of the snow region and into the vineyards which surround the capital. We arrived there on the 24th of February, and the British Minister kindly entertained us at the Legation. We had been away loi days, much longer than we had expected, and in that time had travelled 2190 miles, of which we had ridden 1620, so that we were not sorry to rest before resuming our journey east. CHAPTER II THROUGH KHORASAN Before leaving Teheran we had to provide ourselves with two new servants. Mahomet, who had proved such a treasure up till now, was three times drunk on duty, and we had to get rid of him. He was excused from keeping the fast of Ramazan as he had been so long on the road, and so he drank all day with the feasters who were not keeping the fast, and all night with the fasters, who, as soon as gunfire has gone at sunset, sit up all night carousing. The cook, Ali, we had only engaged as far as Teheran, but he was not a loss like Mahomet. At last, after a Qfreat hunt, we found two natives of Teheran, Ibrahim and Ali Mahomet. They were very clever and useful, but their charges were so extortionate that we had to get rid of them at Meshed. Permission had been given us by the Russian Minister of War to visit the Transcaspian Provinces, and we had heard from Pekin that special leave had been granted by the Tsung li Yamen for us to enter China from the Russian I90 A RIDE THROUGH WESTERN ASIA part iv side, and to continue east or north as we pleased. The passports were on their way and overtook us at Meshed. We had letters of introduction to the Governors of Transcaspia and Samarkand, and also to the Russian Resident at Bokhara. However, even with all these papers and permits we had some difficulty in Transcaspia. The first stage of our journey was to Meshed, a great city lying on the Persian border of Afghanistan and Transcaspia. It is 550 miles from Teheran, and separated from it by a dull and uninteresting tract of country. The weather broke too when we had started, and the whole day we had nothing but rain or snow, interspersed with thunderstorms and blizzards. The ereat eastern road of Persia is divided into four nearly equal portions, by the towns of Semnan, Shahrud, and Sebzewar. The first part of our journey was occupied in skirting the southern slopes of the Elburz, which at Astrabad trends northward to the Turcoman desert, and so forms Persia's northern frontier. The small provinces lying between Teheran and Shahrud are at present under the rule of the Governor-General at Astrabad, who is accordingly a very powerful prince. But once in Khorasan, everything is dependent on the Governor- General at Meshed, who has nearly one fourth of the whole Empire under his rule. On the third day after leaving Teheran, we found ourselves under Mount Demavend, the biggest peak in Persia (19,000 feet) and still an active CHAP. II THROUGH KHORASAN 191 volcano. Demavend, or " dwelling of the genii," is a mine of Persian folk-lore. Here Noah's ark rested, so they say ; here lived Jemsheed, Subduer of Devils, and Rustam the Iranian Hercules. Here is buried the giant Zohak, a tyrant and usurper, and the flames of the volcano are said to come out of his mouth. All round are caverns full of enchanted treasures guarded by gnomes. The mountain is very impressive with its great snow peak, and its rocky crags and grassy slopes below. It was our last sight of grass for some time, for that night the snow began to fall and never stopped for long until after we reached Shahrud. We were able to buy lambs and eggs all the way, but no wine, as the country people are much more abstemious than those in the towns. We got on all right as far as Firuzkuh, a pretty little town built into the side of a mountain where the Shah frequently hunts. His preserves extend all along here and from the Caspian jungle to Kish- lak, near the Caspian Gates. This is the name given to the long pass through which Darius fled to Bac- tria, and it probably took its name from the tribe of the Caspii, as it is over 100 miles from the sea. In fact it is only forty miles from Teheran, if we are to believe Arrian who, talking of its distance from Rhages, says : 080V r)/jb€pa:•.■ m. ■'■^Mi,-'. i •:.'« ?^\il^ -.^'i --^M^ ;-.-^.^. ;l*'.r.|*ii'.;*; ■-,r ■:tv; Jkwelled Door of the Shrine, Meshed. Tojacc />g^ i>to3; LonBjm. ndOTL £ New Yoi k T U R U AP G H A 70° , LoncLort £ New York . StnTt/hrds Geog^ Ssiai' Lovdon 60 Stnnfcrdj ffecp^Sstai' Zcndan o ■T"^ Wi \iwnan ff n. £ CLol. c INDEX Abadeh, 134 Abassides, 173, 175 Abbas, Shah, 10, 129, 145 Abdul Azun, Shah, 123, 126 Ab-i-Gerger, R., 153 Ab-i-Shuteil, R., 153 Abraham Effendi, 49 Abu Bekr, 175 Accad, 167 Achjemenian dynasty, 136, 167, 186, 188 Adonis, worship of, 177 Afghan troops, 230 Afghanistan, 123, 208, 216; Amir of, 88 Afghans, 90, 129, 195 Afrasiab, 98, 220 Agi Dagh Mountains, 57 Ahasuerus, 156 Ahmed Din 243 Ahwaz, 158 Akmohnks, 255, 261 Aksu, 211, 253 Akvanis, 44 Alai Mountains, 227 Alasgird, 74 Albania, 179 Alexander the Great, 17, 126, 138, 160, 168, 172, 183, 191, 196, 220 Alexandretta, 4 All, 17s, 185 Ali Mahomet, 189 Ali Shefik, 53 Ali Verdi, 129 Aliillahis, 176 Altai Mountains, 259, 265 Altyn Tagh Range, 234 xAmarah, 170 Amir, of Afghanistan, 88 ; of Bokhara, 216 America, 174 American Methodists, 61 Anatolia, 4 Angora, 6, 14, 19, 169 ; Vali of, 16, 17, V. also Memdouch Pasha Arabia, 169 ; Turkish, 167 Arabistan, 132, 144, 167 Arabs, 125, i6r, 195 Aral Sea, 210, 227 Ararat, Mount, 67, 74 Aras, R., 1 13 Ardabil, 104 Ardeshir, 193 Armenia, 3, 5 ; history of, 10 ; church in, 11 Armenians, 8 ; character of, 11; complain of taxation, 22, 56; relations with Kurds, 59 ; as traders, dT,, 68, Zt,^ 103 Arrian, 191 Arsaces, 193 Artaxerxes, 156 Asia Minor, 3, 6, 9, 24, 169 Askabad, 195, 214 Assurbanipa), 156 Assyria, 136, 167 U 278 INDEX Astrabad, 152, 190, 194 Astrakhan, 1 13 Astyages, 136 Atok Range, 201 Atrek, R., 113 Austria, 174 Azerbajan, 10 1, 104, 176 Baal, worship of, 177 Bab, the, 102 Baber, 209, 221 " Babism," 102 Babylon, 167, 171, 179 Babylonia, 167 Badakshan, 232 Baghdad, 19, 37, 123, 167, 173, 178, 185, 193, 211 Bagh-i-Shah, 188 Baikal, Lake, 263 Baktiari, the, 125, 132, 143, 189 Baku, 107, 113, 117, 213 Balaclava, 31 Bari, 161 Baroghil Pass, 234 "Basht," 148 Bayazid, 61, 65, 76, So Bebehan, 143, 146, 149 Behistan, 187 Bibi Khanum, 222 Binbashi at Yozat, 25 Binning's travels, 1 1 Bitlis, 10, 35, 50 Black Sea, 32 Blanc, 233 Block, Mr., 8 Blue Mosque, the, 102 Bogusty Pass, 248 Bokhara, 140, 190, 194, 20S, 217 Bokhariotes, the, 245 Bombay, 169 Bosphorus, 4, 10, 31 Bunder Abbas, 195 Bundergez, 114 Bund-i-Kir, 159 Bushire, 141, 143, 160 Busrat, 125, 143, 158, 161, 167, 170 Bussorah, 173 Buzurg Plain, 240 CVESAREA, 169 Calcutta, 240 Caliph Al Monsor, 173 Caliph Omar, 175 Canbalu, 222 Carduchii, 183, 191 Caspian, the, 13, in, 113, 125, 196, 208; gates, 123, 191; littoral, 104 Caucasia, 10 170, Caucasus, 56, 101, 103, 113, 206, 231 Cavass dress, 8 Chadirkul, 249, 253 155, Chaldaea, 167 Chalons, 5 Chang Delai, 244 Charvit Bey, 43 Chawushes, 18 Chedorlaomor, 156 Cheliabinsk, 263, 266 Chermside, Colonel, 6, 9 Chikishlar, 213 China, 88, 196, 209, 237 Chinese soldiers, 238, 241, 246 Chirkess, 23-37 Christianity, in Armenia, 11; in Persia, 60 Circassians, 10, 33, 170 Constantinople, 4, 13, 176, 211 Cordines, 183 Cossacks, 67, 258 215, Ctesiphon, 167, 172 Cumberbatch, Mr., 17, 20 Cyropolis, 142 Cyrus, T36, 143, 157, t86, 229 Daima Tash, 43 Damascus, 169, 211 Damghan, T92 Daniel, 157 INDEX 279 Darius, 137, 156, 186, 193 De Bija, Prince, 103 Delhi, 216 Delibaba, 70 Demavend, 188, 190 Diabekr, 4, 10 Diardin, 74 Dieulafoy, 157 Dizful, 125, 157, 154, 191 Dogumbezan, 149 Durand, Sir Mortimer, SS Dushak, 214 Dzungaria, 241 Ebn Haukal, 215 Ecbatana, 139, 168, 187 Edessa, 152 Elam, 167 Elamites, 156 Elburz Mountains, 104, 109, 190, 231 Elias, Mr. Ney, 197 Elizabetpol, 10 Enderes, 43 England, 174 Enzeli, 115 Erivan, 10, 37, 64, 94, loi Ersinjan, 47, 50, 77, 179 Erzerum, 4, 9, 49, 60, 91, 169 ; commission at, 58 ; races, 6t Eshter, 156, 188 Eski Sheyr, 14 Euphrates, R., 57, 170, 234 Evans, Mr., 9 Ears, 132, 140, 143, 167 Fatima Ma'asuma, 127 Felli, the, 144, 183 Ferdusi, 200 Ferghana, 205, 227, 234, 224 Firengistan, 24 Firuzkuh, 191 Foreign Office, 5 France, 174 Galata, 7, 12 Geok, 209 Cerdyanis, 44 Germany, 174 (jczireh, 20 Ghern Haroon, 260 Gihon, R., 234 Gilan, 112 Gilgit, 242 Gilsi, 31 Gobi, Desert of, 231, 241 Godfrey de Bouillon, 31 Golden Horn, 12 Gordet, 257 Govnak, 155 Gowher Shad Mosque, 199 Goyum, 144 Grand Vizier, 9, 69 Graves, Mr., 59, 61 Greeks, 8, 12 Gulistan, the, 141 Gur Amir, 222 Hafiz, 140, 221 Haidar Pasha, 13 Haik, 10, 82 Hajji Mirza, 185 Halil Bey, 36 Haloko, 119, 125, 173, 184, 187 Halys, V. Kizil Hamdi Bey, 33 Han dynasty, 240 Hanhai, the, 235 Harun al Raschid, 173 Hassan, a servant, 28, 37, 54, 68, 73, 102 ; Bey, 49, Pasha, 179 ; Khan, 144 Hazaras, 209 Hazret Afak, 245 Hecatompylos, 193 Hegiri, 29, 175 Herbert, 141 Heret, 175, 193 Hindu Kush, 200, 231 Holtz, Messrs., 174 Huns, the, 210 Huseyn, 102, 175 Hyder Ali, 140 Hystaspes, 156 j8o INDEX Ibrahim, Effendi, 48, 51 ; ser- vant, 189 Idris, 161 Ilidris, 51, 61 Iliokoe, 258 India, 87 Indus R., 231 Ignatief Mountains, 2 1 5 Irade of 1895, 3 Irak, Ajemi, 119; Arabi, 167 Iramau Plateau, 180 Iran, 212 Irkestan, 234, 236 Irkutsk, 263, 267 Irtish, 208, 255, 260 Ismail, Hakki, 59 ; Shan, i Issik Kul, 257 Japhet, 10 Jaxartes, R., 234 Jeddah, 169, 17S Jehangir, 222 Jemsheed, 191 Jenghis Khan, 129, 142, 209, 240 Jewett, Dr., 55 Jews, 185 Julfa, 10, 129 Jude, St., 10 Kaakha, 201, 212, 214 Kab Arabs, 144, 151 Kabul, 2 16 Kandahar, 200 Kangavar, 187 Kara, Aineh, 91 ; Kilissi, Kum, 209 ; Tagh Mountains, 219; Tau Hills, 227 Karahissar, 38 ,- Karakoram, Pass of, 242 Karakul, 215 Karamaghara, 28 Kars, 10, 64 Karum, the, 123, 141, 152, 159 Karzan, 118 ; Pass, 119 Kashan, 128 Kashgar, 23, 60, 230, 234, 238, 239, 241 Kashgaria, 208, 240 Kashgaris, the, 245 Kashkais, the, 144 Kaufman, 235 Kazan, 262, 268 Kazimaim Mosque, 173, 175 Kazvin, 104, 119, 187 Kei Hosro, 31 Kerbela, 171, 173, i75> 178 "Kerbelai," 175 Kerganrut, 112, 114 Kerkhah R., 156 Kermah, 170 Kermanshah, 126, 179, 184 Khalifah, the, 170 Kamkin, 125, 179 Kharput, 10, 50 Khiaban Avenue, 197 Khiva, 208 Khoaspes, v. Kerkhah Khoi, 19, 67, 91, 99; Governor of, 96, 97, 98, 195 Khojend, 226 Khokand, 213, 226 Khorasan, 119, 176, 190, 193, 198 Khorates R., 156 Kihssa Keui, 83 Kirghiz, the, 209, 214, 234,241, 248 Kishlak, 191 Kizil Art Pass, the, 232, 233 Kizil Agyn, 235 Kizil Irmak, 24 Kok Tash, the, 223 Kopal, 259 Koushid Kaleh, 215 Krasnovodsk, 212, 214 Krasnoyarsk, 263 Kuen Lun, 234 Kuldja, 258 Kum, 126 Kumites, the, 12S Kuropatkin, 214 Kushk, 213 INDEX 281 Labouchere, Mr. Frank, 88, no, 119, 137, 250, 256, 269 Lauristan, 141, 143, 151 Laurs, the, 125, 143 Lhassa, 209 " Little Russians," 267 Littoral, the Southern, 113 Lob Nor, 235 Lo?ig/nafi' s Magazi?ie, 180 Louvre, Persian antiquities in, 157 Lynch, Messrs., 83, 154, 160, 174 Macartney, Mr., 239, 241 Macedonia, 9 Madan, 195 Madhi, the, 175, 213 Mahmud Ghuzni, 196, 200 Mahomet Ali, 95 Maku, 80, 82 Mamakhatun, 55 Manchuria, 259, 263 Manchurians, 209 Mandeville, Sir John, 56, 183 Marco Polo, 232 Marghilan, 226 Margiana, v. Merv Marmora, 13 Mecca, 169, 175, 178, 267 Media, 183, 187 Meliksherif, 44 Memdouch Pasha, 17, 102 Memluk Princes, 175 Merv, 209, 214 Meshed, loi, 125, 178, 190 Mesopotamia, 167 Mirza Abubekr, 245 Mirza Khan, 79 Mirza Said, 1 19 Mockler, Colonel, 172 Mohammerah, 159, 162 MoUahs, 126 Mongola, 259 Mongolis, 173, 241 Mont Blanc, 232 Montesanto, 35, 38 Mordecai, x88 Moscow, 263, 269 Mosul, 167 Muftis, 221 Muharrem, Feast of, 102, 176 Munshi Ahmed, 239 Muntasser ed Dowleh, 155 Murad, 9, 12, 15, 30, 37, 42, 62, 80, 88, 29, 99, III, 124 Murda, 117 Murghab R., 215 Mush, 57, 64 Mustashah Nizam, 134 Mutwalla Bashi, 198. Nadr Shah, 128, 193 Namuk Bey, 53 Narin, 242, 247, 255 Nasir Company, 160 Nasr ed Din, 116, 127 Nazmi Sultaneh, 106 Nearchus, 160 Nemitabad, 103 Nerchinsk, 265 Nestorians, the, 169 Nijni Novgorod, 216, 258, 268 Nineveh, 168 Nir, 106 Nisaya, v. Nishapur Nishangi, 51 Nishapur, 195 Nizam es Sultaneh, 151 Noviran, 188 Odessa, 88 Omar el Khayam, 196 Ommiades dynasty, 175 Omsk, 210, 242, 261 Orenburg, 213 Ormuzd, 139, 186 Osh, 213, 223, 256 Osmanli Turks, 209 Ottoman Bank, the, 9 Ottomans, v. Turks Owarjuk, 91 Oxus R., 210, 215, 234. 282 INDEX Pamir, the, 230, 232, 234 Paropramismus Ranges, 231 Parthians, 193 Pasargadae, 136 Pasitigris, 160 Pechili, Gulf of, 264 Pekin, 129, 189, 222, 229 Peribazar, 117 Persepolis, 126, 136, 139, 160, 167 Persia, 17, 44, 174, 208 Persians, 10, 74, 81 Petersburg, St., 117, 269 Petrovosk, 117 Petrovsky, M., 242 Pishpek, 257 Pomponius Mela, 114, 126 Preese, M., 129, 131, 143 Prester, John, 255 Ptolemy, 129, 240 Queen Victoria, 39 Quetchji, 220 Ramazan, 187 Rawlinson, 139 Redhouse's dictionary, 24 Regie, the, 9, 27, 37, 80 Rejeb Pasha, 179 Resht, 105, 113, 114, 120, 187, 213 Rhages, v. Rhey Rhey, 126, 191 Riza Imam, 127 Romans, 17 Rostofzof, Count, 219 Rubaiyat, the, 196 Rufus, Quintus Curtius, 221 Rukn-ed-Dowleh, 140 Russia, 72, 174; army in, 24, 67, 206, 223 ; church in, 207 ; colonisation of, 205 ; its con- victs, 267 Russian Turkestan, 205-211 Russians, 10, 16, 194, 200, 209 Sabians, 161 Sadi, 129, 140 Sadr Azam, v. Grand Vizier Sakri Effendi, 83 Salar es Sultaneh, 197 Salonica, 49 Salt Desert, 193 Sama, 262, 268 Samarkand, 140, 190, 201, 213 Samsun, 32 Sapor, 156 Saracens, 183 Sarakaia, 51 Sarikol, the, 232 Sarts, the, 209, 216, 221 Scudamore, Mr., 62 Scutari, 13 Sebzewar, 190, 194 Sefair dynasty, 107, 129 Seleucus, King, 172 Selucia, 167 Selucians, the, 168 Semipalatinsk, 205, 213, 249, 260 Semiritchinsk, 205, 255 Semnan, 190, 192 Sergiopol, 259 Seyids, 126, 132, 141 Shah, the, 195, 198 Shah Abbas, 10 Shah Zendeh Mosque, 222 Shahrud, 190-192 Shatel Arab, the, 169 Sherif of Mecca, 167 Shiahs, 82, 98, 122, 156, 171 Shinar, 167 Shipley, Mr., 58 Shiraz, 101, 107, 123, 125, 134, 139, i47> 150. 167 Shuls, 144 Shumir, 167 Shush, V. Susa Shushan, 156 Shushinak, 156 Shuster, 123, 141, 150, 159 Siberia, 259, 263 Siberiax, 268 INDEX 283 Siberian Provinces, 49 "Sidra Raba," the, 161 Sihon R., 234 Sin Chiang, 205 Sirab, 105 Sivas, 10, 18, 21, 32, 34, 169 Skobelef, 194, 220, 227 Smyrna, 17 Sofian, 100 Stambul, 6, 31, 64, 170, 173, 216, 240 Stambuloff, 9 " Start," the, 209 Statesman' s Year Booh^ i So Steppe, the, 123, 205, 207, 219, 226, 242, 255, 260 Stretensk, 263 Sufi Din Isak, 107 Sufi Kurgan, 234 Sufis, 122 Suleyman Mountains, 106, 231 Sultan, the, 3, 6, 175 ; as Caliph, 169, 216, 240 Sunnis, 81, 98, 122, 169, 171 Susa, 134, 155, 160, 167 Susiana, 167 Taar, 71 Tabreez, 67, 80, 88, 98, loi, 104, 130 Taiotai of Kashgar, 242-247 Tak Mak, 257 Takht i Bostan, 186 Talish, the, 109, iii, 114 Tamerlane, 10, 129, 209, 220, 222 Tarim Basin, 235 Tartars, 195, 208 Tashkend, 213 Tauris, v. Tabreez Teheran, 79, 88, 125, 130, 184, i88, 191 ; Bank of, 122. Telespia, 145 Tepe, 209 Terckty Pass, 2 48 Tcwfik Pasha, 58 'Iherapia, 6 Tian Shan mountains, 227, 248 Tiflis, 88, loi, 104 Tiftik, 28 Tigranes, 10 Tigris, the, 123, 168 Timur Khan, 80, 91 Tobolsk, 263, 265 Tomsk, 213, 266 Toprak Kaleh, 72 Transcaspia, 118, 214; governor of, 190 Transcaspian Provinces, 49, 189 Transcaspian Railway, 195, 200 'Iranscaucasia, 44, 103 Trans-Siberian Railway, 123, 213, 255 Trebizond, 4, 10, 67, loS, 195 Troiska, 267 Tsi-Tsi-Har, 263 Tsung-Li-Yamen, the, 189 Tul, 23 Tuman R., 245 Turan, 220 Turkestan, 208, 216, 221, 224, 258 Turkey, 17, 87 ; conservatism of, 39, 40; peasantry in, 71 ; sol- diers of, 17, 26, 49 Turkomans, the, 194, 209, 214 Turks, the, 5, 6, 8, 90, 173 ; apathy of, 48 ; Osmanli, 169 Uleg Beg, 220 'Ulemas, 221 Ulukchat, 237 Ural, the, 113, 208, 265 Ust Urt desert, 209 Uzbegs, 195, 209, 221 Valerian, 152 Vali of Bitlis,' 35 Valiahd, the, roi, 127 Valideh Khan, i 76 Van, TO, 64 Varanes, 152 Venice, 168 Vierny, 207, 257 INDEX Vladivostock, 263, 266 Volga R., 113, 262, 269 White River, the, 113 Williams Pasha, 26 Xerxes, 138 Yakub Bey, 240 Yenikhan, 32 Yezd, 128, 152 Yezdikast, 134 Yezeedis, 183 Yildiz Kiosk, 69 Yozat, 16, 25, 27 Zagros Mountains, 125 Zagros range, 180 Zaptiehs, 18, 24 Zarafshan R., 227 Zavia, 41 Zekki Pasha, 45, 48, 50, 55, 70, 179 Zender Kud, 129 Zerghum, 139 Zlatoust, 266 Zobeida, 173 Zohak, 191 Zor, 167 Zoroaster, 177 THE END RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY. t0 J. . ^-»'' '^'^ THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. RErDAPR05l995!> Series 9482 ■Sfh 3 1205 00377 7701 )f4 - ' •■ ,♦•1 -«^>