Gulf of Persia

“ Persia proper was a table-land, lying between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, with deep valleys and rapid rivers. It was such a country, with such a climate, as required a constant struggle by mankind for existence. Thus was produced a vigorous race, a race of our own blood, Aryans, that had one great wave of emigration to the West, peopling Europe, and a later wave into India. The Persians were quick, keen-witted, lovers of art and poetry, filled with energy and courage, and having a very high regard for truth. ”

“ Persia was originally a small province on the Persian Gulf, still known as Fars. But Persia Proper included, besides the sandy plain on the gulf, a mountainous plateau north of it, and was bounded by Media on the north, by Carmania on the east, by the Persian Gulf on the south, and by Elam on the west. Its people were of the Aryan race, and at first subject to the Medes. They revolted under Cyrus the Great, and became the controlling power in the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar's dominion. ”

“ Persia was a small, rocky, hilly, arid country about three hundred miles long by two hundred and fifty wide, situated south of Media, having the Persian Gulf as its southern boundary, the Zagros Mountains on the west separating it from Babylonia, and a great and almost impassable desert on the east, so that it was easily defended. Its population was composed of hardy, warlike, and religious people, condemned to poverty and incessant toil by the difficulty of getting a living on sterile and unproductive hills, except in a few favored localities. ”

“ The Persian Gulf had long been a scene of British trade and political enterprise to which the inertia of its rulers rendered Persia susceptible; and its position as a possible Russian outlet to the sea on the flank of our communications with India had produced some rivalry for Persian favours. The advent of a third comer in the shape of the Germans, with their plans for a Germanized Turkish Empire controlling the Berlin-Baghdad route, changed the rivalry into co-operation; and an attack on the Turks at the head of the Persian Gulf was an obvious reply to the Turkish campaign in the Caucasus. ”

“ We ourselves, our small dog “Pip” in a cage, and our canaries—almost unknown in Persia—and seventy-two tiny “avadavats” (bought at Kurrachee for three rupees) , left in a boat for Sheif, on an estuary of the gulf, thus avoiding the Macheelah plain, a dreadful march of mud and water, and shortening the journey to Shiraz by two stages. ”

“ Beyond the great river,—Persia, India, and China, form the southern 'Oriens.' Persia is properly to be conceived as reaching from the Persian Gulf to the mountain chains which flank and feed the Indus; and is the true vital power of the East in the days of Marathon: but it has no influence on Christian history except through Arabia; while, of the northern Asiatic tribes, Mede, Bactrian, Parthian, and Scythian, changing into Turk and Tartar, we need take no heed until they invade us in our own historic territory. ”

“ Persia proper, the country which has supplied the race which has evinced such a remarkable vitality and historic continuity, may be described as a vast plateau from 3500 to 6000 feet in altitude, extending on the east into Afghanistan, on the north-west into Armenia, and overlooking the Caspian to the north, and the Persian Gulf and the vast levels of Mesopotamia to the south and south-west. ”

“ Its influence, extending for centuries over Western and Southern Asia—from the frontiers of Affghanistan to the Levant, from the Persian Gulf to the shores of the Ægean Sea—was potent in modifying a vast population, destined to give birth to many civilised States. From its loins proceeded the empire of Persia,—which was, in fact, in all respects only a modification of the empire which it supplanted ”

“ The prevailing winds throughout Persia and the Persian Gulf are the north-west and south-east owing partly to the position of the Black Sea and Mediterranean and of the Arabian Sea, and partly to the bearing of the axes of the great mountain chains. ”

“ Which way soever the traveller directs his course, whether he lands on the parched shore of the Persian Gulf, or braves the scorching sky of the plains of Babylonia, or comes from the wet and temperate borders of the Caspian Sea; before reaches the centre of the kingdom, he has to climb the most elevated rocks by narrow roads bordered with precipices ”

“ Persia might still join Russia, but we have operated more than once with fatal effect upon her vulnerable heel, the Gulf. Her strength has been wasted by famine; her exchequer is empty; and the chivalry of the Desert, her Iliyát or Bedawi, have been crushed by the contact of a so-called Regular Army. The Afghans would still flock to enrol under the banners of the North, but they would be met by their hereditary foe, the Sikh. ”

“ General Malcolm was despatched to the Persian Gulf in the year 1808; but on being requested to address himself to the prince-governor of Fars, and not to advance nearer to the capital, he at once returned to India to receive instructions from the Governor-General as to the measures which it would be necessary to adopt for the purpose of compelling the Persian Government to adhere to its treaty engagements. At the same time that General Malcolm had been sent to Persia from the Government of India, an ambassador had been despatched to that country direct from the court of St. ”

“ Cattle and game abound in the country, and the river Kur and the Caspian Sea supply fish of fresh water and of the ocean. The vineyards of Khakheti yield the best wine of Asia, and at a price so moderate as to bring it within the reach of the poorest people. Such a country might well excite the cupidity of its powerful neighbours, and accordingly we find it passing under the protection of one of these after another. Shah Ismail of Persia compelled the Czar of Georgia to pay him tribute and to send him hostages. ”

“ All the more should a talented race like the Persians, situated to begin with in a far less remote position than Japan, and therefore more favourably for the acquisition of foreign ways, be able to emulate, and even in a short time surpass, the marvellous success attained by the little Islanders of the Far East.
It is grit that is at present lacking in Persia. The country has a wavering policy that is extremely injurious to her interests. One cannot fail to compare her to a good old ship in a dangerous sea. The men at her helm are perplexed, and cannot quite see a clear way of steering. ”

“ One of the principal things which strike the traveller in Persia, especially on nearing a big city, is the literal myriads of curious conical heaps, with a pit in the centre, that one notices running across the plains in long, interminable rows, generally towards the mountains. These are the kanats, the astounding aqueducts with which dried-up Persia is bored in all directions underground, the canals that lead fresh water from the distant springs to the cities, to the villages, and to irrigate the fields. ”

“ But a semi-barbarous government was not all at once to be brought to observe the customs that are the fruit of many centuries of civilization; and on more than one occasion it has been found necessary to threaten the Ministers of the Shah with the withdrawal of all intercourse with them, in the event of the repetition of certain outbreaks of needless cruelty. On the whole, however, the intercourse between Persia and European nations has been highly beneficial to that country. ”

“ Persian prestige required the subjugation and absorption of a country which, though belonging geographically to Africa, was politically and commercially an integral part of that Western Asia over which Persia claimed a complete and absolute supremacy.
The march upon Egypt implied and required the occupation of the Mediterranean seaboard. No armies of any considerable size have ever attempted to traverse the almost waterless desert which separates the Lower Euphrates valley from the delta of the Nile. ”

“ During the last two thousand years, whose history we possess, Persia has been repeatedly overrun by foreign conquerors, and the sequel of each conquest has been the same, namely, that the influence of climate and of luxurious Persian habits has relaxed the energies and the original virtues of the invaders, and disposed them in turn to fall victims to another conquering people. ”

“ Climate or want of confidence produces indolence there, but here and elsewhere out of Persia they show themselves to be active, energetic, and very intelligent. They are in great numbers at all the censes of trade in the adjoining countries—at Constantinople, Damascus, Aleppo, Baghdad, Tiflis, Askhabad, and other towns. Most of the new buildings in Tiflis were built by Persians, and thousands were engaged in the construction of the Trans-Caspian Railway. ”

“ The Russian general at length agreed to evacuate the province of Azerbaeejan, with the exception of Khoi, on the receipt of six and a half crores of tomans, or 3,250,000£., and the 50,000 tomans wanted to complete this sum were supplied by Prince Abbass Meerza.
The Persian Government held that the original occupation by Russia of the district of Gokcheh constituted an act of aggression, and that, therefore, Persia was entitled to receive from Great Britain a subsidy for the whole period of the war. ”

“ No truth is more plainly written on the page of universal history than that a foreign race loses its distinguishing qualities unless continually reinforced by recruits from its native land. The last complete invasion of Persia occurred sufficiently long ago to admit of time having softened down the enthusiasm and the energy of the conquerors. The races who at present inhabit Persia have become habituated to the climate, and are as much the growth of the soil as are the castor-oil plant and the pomegranate. ”

“ We followed the course of a small brook, which wound through barren valleys and ravines; not a single village lay on our road; and with the exception of some little mills and the ruins of a mosque, I saw no more buildings in Persia. Persia is, on the whole, very thinly populated, on account of the scarcity of water. No country in the world has more mountains, and fewer rivers, than Persia. The air is, on this account, very dry and hot.
The valley in which Arax is situated is large, and the extraordinary formation of the mountains and rocks renders it very picturesque. ”

“ The mendicants often sit in groups of twos or threes, and while the one makes an eloquent and touching appeal to the feelings of the passers-by, the others emphasize it by the words "Illahi amen!"—"Oh, God! amen!" ***** Within the last thirty years an expensive and flourishingtrade has sprung up between Persia and various European nations. Cotton, silkworms, silk, wool and other raw produce, are exported to England, France, and Russia, and in return Persia receives manufactured goods and articles of luxury from Europe. ”

“ Tahmasp, the son of Hussein, who was sent by his father to endeavour to raise an army at Kasveen, the native seat of the Sefaveeans, besought from thence the armed assistance of the Czar of Russia for ridding Persia of the Affghans. The proposal suited the views of Peter, whose capacious mind was already occupied with the scheme of making the Caspian Sea a Russian lake, and of endeavouring to attract to that country the transport of the commodities sent to Europe from Asia. ”

“ The country extending from the eastern shore of the Black Sea to the borders of Persia on the one hand, and from the frontier of Turkey to the foot of the mountains of Circassia on the other, is one of the very fairest portions of the earth. ”

“ The conquests of Phoenicia, Cyprus, Egypt, and the Greek islands were undertaken, it is probable, mainly with this object; and these parts of the Empire were always valued chiefly as possessing skilled seamen, vessels, and dockyards, from which the Great King could draw an almost inexhaustible supply of war-ships and transports. Persia at times had the complete command of the Mediterranean Sea, and bore undisputed sway in the Levant during almost the whole period of her existence as an empire. ”

“ The silver, next in value and endurance, of which were the arms and breast, stands for Persia. Centuries ago Persia was the great Power of the earth. At one time it would seem as if she never would decay or ever have a rival; but her day came, and she has dwindled down to the little kingdom and monarchy—the Persia of to-day. Her power is gone, she is consumptive, and will soon disappear as a separate kingdom. ”

“ France has also lately increased her interest in Persia, and Germany has now entered the field of enterprise there in the practical manner of improving the road from Khani Kin, on the Turkish frontier, to Tehran, connecting it with a road from Baghdad. ”

“ These were promptly sent into Karabagh, and they were encountered by the forces of the crown-prince at a spot called Khansheen, where, after an obstinate struggle, success attended the arms of Persia; the Russian soldiers being obliged to retreat in confusion. The Persian irregular troops were then spread over different parts of the country of Georgia, for the purpose of laying it waste, and the Persian commander returned towards the Araxes. ”

“ By the fall of Abbassabad and Sirdarabad, Erivan was now isolated, and it was the only post wanting to secure to the Russians the possession of the portion of Persia which lay to the south of the river Araxes. Up to this point of the campaign, the Russian commanders had owed their successes more to the supineness of the Shah and to the discontent of some of his subjects, than to any military talent or any remarkable energy displayed by themselves. ”