THE PERSIA OF TODAY.* THE sick man of Europe has
his fellow in Asia, and while all Europe is concerned in the keeping alive of the one, it rests between two Powers whether the illness of the other is to end in convalescence, to linger on hopelessly, or to take a rapid course. How deplorably weak and rotten Persia is to-day, Mr. Curzon tells us with unfaltering candour. He has devoted two large volumes to the subject, he has mastered the literature of innumerable travellers, and has himself seen a great deal of the country ; and he has not allowed imagina- tion to influence his descriptions, or to bias his deductions from hard facts. There is no enthusiasm about him. Again and again, were it not for the intrinsic value of such a dis- passionate account, we should quarrel with Mr. Curzon on this singular lack of enthusiasm. But, as we have said, he is dispas- sionate and careful, and we are grateful. The ancient Persian love of truth, alas! has crumbled away into dust like its monu- ments ; indeed, no greater liar than the modern Persian exists, and the national incapacity for telling the truth seems to have communicated itself to a long succession of European travellers, whose conflicting accounts of the size and splendour of Persian cities, contradictory measurements, and glaring inconsistencies in narrative, compel Mr. Curzon to raise his hands in astonishment. But though Mr. Carson is free from the somewhat questionable imagination of even the traveller of the early part of the present century, he is never dull; every page is worth reading, and his accuracy and detail, his quickness of observation, and the clearness of his style will convince many readers that they have at last made acquaintance with a reliable account of Persia, and realised something of the nature of the country, the people, and the life of the Persian traveller.
Let us glance at Mr. Curzon's tour. His Persian travels proper my be said to have begun at Ashlrabad, on the frontier between Transcaspia and Khorasan. The first object of interest was the Ilkhomi of Kuchan, whom former travellers have made known to the English as a great drunkard, he having been generally drunk, or recovering from an orgie, when seen by them. Grodekoff, the Russian General who went in disguise to the Amir to obtain supplies for Skobeleff's army, though he kept his host drunk during the time of his visit, could not take away his wits, and this Kurdish barbarian proved to be a striking exception to the rule, "drunk and incapable." Mr. Curzon, though he could not contradict the drunkenness of the Ilkhtsni, testifies to his dignity and intelli- gence. The llkhani rules over those Kurds whom a former Shah transported from the North-Western Highlands to Kliorastni to protect his frontier. After leaving Kitchen, Mr. Curzon made an attempt to penetrate the rnysterions Kelat, and his account of the unsuccessful attempt makes an admir- able study of Persian, and, we may add, Oriental wiliness in general. Starting early in the morning he had entered Derbend-i-Jaur, and had actually ridden under the main arch of the gate of Argawan Shah (which defends the narrowest part of the defile) before he was detected by one of the garri- son, who roused his sleepy companions to prevent the entry of an impertinent Englishman. Violent at first, the soldiers became friendly on hearing Mr. Carson's desire to do every- thing in form. They told him that, had he been a Russian they would have shot him as he passed under the gate; but this slight and somewhat imaginative threat is only to be regarded as a preface to the sequel of the adventure. A • Persia anti the Persian Question. 13y the Ken, G. N. Curzon, M.P. 2 vols. London Longmene, Groan, snil 0e, messenger sent to the Khan of Kelat returned with the intimation that that potentate wished the traveller to tele- graph for leave to the Governor-General of Meshed, to which place, be it remembered, our traveller was bound. A scribe was then aroused from an opium sleep to write the missive. The traveller's Persian servant returned, however, with the news that the telegram was refused, on the ground that the wire from Kelat to Meshed was broken. A mounted emissary from the Khan now appeared, and fully sustained the Persian character for veracity :— " First he repeated that the wire was broken ; but when I replied that if that were the case it was unlikely that the Khan would himself have invited me to use it, he shifted his position, and said that the wire, though not broken, was trailing upon the ground. Upon my rejoining that communication was not thereby interrupted, he was ready with the counter-plea that the Khan had meant ins to telegraph not to Meshed, but to Teheran. As there was no wire to Teheran from Kelat except by Meshed, this falsehood was easily exposed ; but I confess I was scarcely prepared for the fourth, which immediately replaced it, viz., that the Khan had meant ins to telegraph neither to Teheran nor to Meshed, but from, Meshed on my return thither."
Whereupon Mr. Curzon resigned the contest with so accom- plished a gentleman, and insisted on a categorical "yes" or "no" to his request.
Kelat was recognised by Nadir Shah as a natural strong- hold, and he proposed to make a treasure-house of it, as Basil Batatzes says in 1728. Kelat is a plateau defended by a circle of mountains, quite precipitous on their external sides, The extent is twenty miles by five to seven in breadth, an area of nearly 150 square miles. Its military value, except as a menace to Transcaspia, according to Mr. Curzon, is small, though we can understand its being useful as a magazine. Our readers may take it, however, that the strategical value of Kelat would depend on the man who held it, and the mobility of his troops. When Mr. Curzon reached Meshed, he beard not the least curious development of the Derbend-i-Argawan Shah affair. The Governor-General, who was greatly excited, had been in- formed by the Khan that the new British Vice-Oonsul had appeared at Kelat with an armed retinue, had tried to force a passage, and had drawn his sword on the guard, who, need- less to add, had courageously expelled the intruder. Meshed, the Province of Khorasan, and Seistan have each a chapter to themselves of some importance, for Khorasan has long dangled temptingly in the view of the Russian. From Meshed the traveller went to Teheran, to which he devotes a consider- able space, followed by chapters on the Northern Provinces, the Shah and his Ministers, the Government, and a general discussion on institutions and reforms.
On the Shah and his government Mr. Curzon has brought to bear all his powers of observation and political analysis. The fate of Persia depends on the will of the Shah ; and the present head of the Kajar dynasty, not by any means an old one, be it said, is, according to Oriental standards, an enlightened and mild Monarch, and so far has shown a dis- tinct capacity for ruling, and true sagacity in keeping Persia safe in her extremely hazardous position. That his position on the throne is a strong one was proved by his first visit to England in the face of a storm of national prej adice, and the fact of his coming again. This, too, is the more striking from the attitude which some still preserve towards the Kajars, they being usurpers, though indeed it is not the custom for Asiatie dynasties to endure for more than, say, three generations. The Kajar race have, however, a remark- able power of reproduction,—" a genius for paternity," Mr. Curzon euphemistically terms it,—and this, while it is the curse of the country, which swarms with princelings, shows an inherent vigour. Those sons of the Shah likely to figure by character or virtue of their inheritance, and the Ministers, are all sketched for us by Mr. Curzon, whose volumes really constitute a most circumstantial guide to past and present politics. Government is, of course, hopelessly corrupt ; the wonder is that a Monarchy so entirely administered by means of bribes, peculation, and the right of might does not " topple down. But a system so universally adopted and so thoroughly understood works well when all are fatalists, interested in its preservation, and all contribute or receive something of the plums and pears of life. It resembles an intricate machine entirely consisting of cogwheels of every conceivable difference in size. All revolve, and so slowly that any stoppage can soon be remedied. The Shah is pro- bably, from force of circumstances, the only disinterested man in Persia. A man of some character, he has practi- cally nothing else to exist for, and even he must feel, and certainly shows, how completely the tyranny of lethargic habit and immemorial custom ties his hands. Such ideas as those of roads are only just dawning on the Persian intelligence. Perhaps the want of proper and speedy communication might be an advantage in certain contingencies, however. The line of railway most likely to be profitable, Mr. Curzon thinks, should be by way of IYIohammerah, Burujird, and Teheran. Such a line, in his opinion, would tap a fairly prosperous country, and, moreover, enable the pilgrims to reach with comparative ease the five shrines of Kum, Kerbela, Meshed Ali, Samara, and Mecca. The other short railways, often suggested, such as Teheran to Meshed, Bushire to Teheran, and Baghdad to Teheran, have none of them, in his opinion, claims sufficiently good to recom- mend them. The connection of Seistan with the Bela- chistan Railway might be extended, were such connection ever made, into a system of trans-Persian communication that would place India and Persia in such touch with each other as might radically alter Persian and Indian politics. But the project, the writer declares, is too nebulous for him to consider. He has, too, many objections to urge against the Euphrates Valley Railway. Finally, Mr. Curzon puts forward the trans-Persian line of, say, Baghdad, Kerman- shah, Burujird, Ispahan, Yezd, and Kerman, which could be connected with the Indian railways, as indicated in the reference to the Seistan project, and if brought into touch with Europe by means of the Asia-Minor railroads, would enable us to deposit a soldier "not merely at Kurrachi, but on the Afghan frontier itself, and at the probable theatre of war." A connection with the Mediterranean is more likely to be effected through Asia Minor than by the Levant, though this preference lays the project open to a serious objection.
Not the least interesting portions of Mr. Curzon's Persia are the chapters which describe, with his habitual care and accuracy, the Great Ruins, the South-Western Provinces and the Lure, the Karim River, and Shuster,—a part of Persia, indeed, that might some day furnish the Shah's sturdiest defenders, could be attract them. Persia and the Persian Question is the most recent as it is a most honest and faithful attempt of an Englishman to put before his country- men what he conceives to be the true bearings of probably the next point for settlement by force.
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