Kermanshah

“ Before we think of establishing ourselves in Persia, one of us must go to Kermanshah, and ask leave of the Prince to appoint us to a good country; and when once we have got out of the pasha's reach, I will perform that service, and return to you in time to prevent strife with the other wandering tribes. ”

“ Some of the Khorassan squadrons of cavalry were, however, directed to march to Azerbaeejan; and the prince of Kermanshah received orders to bring up the whole disposable force of his province and a body of horsemen from Looristan, making together a corps of twelve thousand men. The ruling weakness of Fetteh Ali Shah was an extreme unwillingness to part with money. ”

“ We rode home through the silent streets of Kermanshah, the only light being our farnooses, or cylindrical lamps, made of copper and calico, something in the fashion of a Chinese lantern; and the full moon.
We met no one in the streets, which were deserted save by the dogs, and the whole town seemed sunk in sleep. The [116] Persian is an early bird, going to bed at nine, and rising at four or half-past four. It is very difficult to break oneself of this habit of early rising on returning to Europe. ”

“ We have heard that the Emperor of Russia has conferred some honours on the family of this Pasha, who are Armenian Christians, in Teflis. Things are beginning to look unsettled in Persia. Contentions have already arisen between the Prince of Kermanshah and the Prince of Hamadan, which seems to be but the precursor of a general state of confusion on the death of the Shah; and doubtless amidst all these commotions the Lord will move on his way, and the day of his coming advance. Oh, may we all labouring abundantly in patience, wait for that day, that when it does come we may be found watching. ”

“ On Pierson’s return to Hamadan, I gladly prepared to start with him for Kermanshah. My traps were not numerous—a folding-table, four chairs, a tressel bedstead, and two bullock-trunks, formed one load; and my bedding in a case, made of carpet, bound with leather, and surmounted by my head-man, another; my groom was perched on a third, sitting on the clothing of the two horses, and carrying their head and heel ropes and the stable spade, with which their bed of “pane” (dried horse-dung) is prepared at night, and the copper bucket for watering them. ”

“ Kermanshah is decidedly the cheapest place in all cheap Persia. Bread was selling at seven pounds for twopence; mutton, seven pounds for fourteenpence, or twopence a pound; and other things in proportion. It costs here threepence a day to keep a horse (1867) .
The day after our arrival Pierson went to visit the Imād-u-dowlet, uncle (?) of the king, and Governor of the province. He is a man of very large fortune, and is liked as a Governor, being stern, but generally just, his wealth putting him above any wish to oppress the little people. ”

“ It is a mistake to suppose that there is no Kūrdish literature. Many of the popular Persian poets have been translated into Kūrdish, and there are also books relating to the religious mysteries of the Ali-Illāhis in the hands of the Dersimlis to the north and of the Gurāns of Kermānshāh to the south. The New Testament in Kurdish was printed at Constantinople in 1857. ”

“ These dervishes, amongst the Persians of all classes, have a great reputation for sanctity. The rich help them liberally, and even the very poor will not turn a deaf ear to their request for aid. One of them chattered away like a magpie, recounting adventures which were not always of the kind one is prone to associate with the austerity of a Religious Order. They had come on foot from Meshed in Eastern Persia to Teheran, Hamadan, and Kermanshah, and were now bound for Kerbela and the Shi'ite holy places in the vicinity of Bagdad. ”

“ The face of God's world is open to every one, and if man is ill-treated in one spot, he will take himself where better treatment is to be found." In short, we settled, and returned to our former habits and occupations.
'As the prince had expected, so it happened. A very short time after our arrival an officer from the pasha appeared at Kermanshah, bearing a letter, making a formal demand, that my father, with the whole of his tribe, should be sent back to his territory; and stating all the circumstances relative to our flight. ”

“ They all pull, and, from the severe nature of the Persian bit, are hard-mouthed, till they have been ridden on the snaffle for some months. Many have a tendency to shy, but no other vices; they stand fourteen and a half to fifteen hands, and cost from five hundred to two thousand kerans.
The real Arabs, which come from Baghdad and the frontier, in the Kermanshah Province, are too well known to need description, and are all that the heart could desire, save as to size. They stand thirteen three to fourteen two, seldom more, and cost from five hundred kerans up to anything. ”

“ The same gentleman told me that the plague in Tabreez was much worse the second than the first time. Kermanshah is absolutely destroyed, and the governor, a grandson of the king, is reported to have collected from the property of the dead five lacs of piasters. In Kourdistan, also, they say it has been dreadful. In Saggas, Banah, and Sulemania, he says the desolation is shocking. How wonderful God’s visitations on these nations are; it makes the soul that the Lord has appointed to be in the midst of them often say, Lord, let thy kingdom come ”

“ Feth Ali has not imitated the barbarity of the former practice, or the injustice of the latter: several of his sons who have arrived at manhood occupy high posts in the empire, and are training in the art of government under experienced ministers, to whose guidance the king consigns them. The king's eldest son, Mohammed Ali Mirza, is invested with the government of Kermanshah. The condition of his mother, who is a Georgian slave, or perhaps the partiality of his father for another son, has excluded him from the throne. ”

“ In the Feizabad quarter, which is remote from the bazaars, are the {106} houses of the wealthy classes, with their immense courtyards, high walls, and beautifully kept gardens. By contrast, the houses of the poor look despicably mean, being simply a collection of mud hovels into which the light of day penetrates with difficulty.
The rain overtook us afresh at Kermanshah, and we had to stay there for three days weatherbound. The Hussars and the remainder of the column bivouacked on a hill near the British Consulate. ”

“ Many of its inhabitants are nomadic Kurds and Lurs who pay little taxes. The plains are well watered and very fertile, while the hills are covered with rich pastures which support large flocks of sheep and goats. The sheep provide a great part of the meat supply of Teheran. The province also produces much wheat and barley, and could supply great quantities for export if the means of transport were better.
Kermanshah (Kermisin of Arab geographers) , the capital of the province, is situated at an elevation of 5100 ft., in 34° 19′ N., and 46° 59′ E., about 220 m. from Bagdad, and 250 m. ”

“ But fortune favoured us, and we saw none but shepherds, belonging to Cûrdish tribes, who occupied part of the country that we travelled over.
'When we had reached a place of safety, my father rode forwards to Kermanshah, the seat of government of a powerful prince, one of the king of Persia's sons, in order to claim his protection, and to receive his permission to occupy one of the pasturages situated within the Persian territory. We waited for his return with great anxiety, for in the meanwhile we were liable to an attack from both Turks and Persians ”

“ At that time the Imād-u-dowlet had become the actual freeholder of the whole of the Kermanshah valley, and his wealth was immense in money and flocks and herds. But the inevitable evil day arrived. The Shah recalled him to Teheran, and the squeezing process [119] commenced; large sums of money were wrung from him, and the royal treasury correspondingly enriched. It is always so in Persia; a man is allowed to quietly enrich himself, but when he has achieved immense wealth he becomes a mark for oppression in his turn. To use the common expression of the country, “He is ripe ”

“ It had invaded even the Museiyib road, which is the direct road from Kerbelâ to Baghdâd, and we, together with all other travellers, had to make a long détour through the desert. The other travellers were mainly Persian pilgrims, men, women and children riding on mules in panniers. It is the ardent wish of every pious Persian to make the pilgrimage to Kerbelâ once during his lifetime, and still more does he desire to make it once again after his death, that his body may lie in earth hallowed by the vicinity of Ḥussein’s grave. ”

“ This is the fashion in which thousands of Persian Moslems (Shiahs or "Sectaries") have been conveyed for ages for final burial at Kerbela, the holiest place of the Shiahs, an easy journey from Baghdad, where rest the ashes of Ali, regarded as scarcely second to Mohammed, and of Houssein and Hassan his sons, whose "martyrdom" is annually commemorated by a Passion Play which is acted in every town and village in Persia. To make a pilgrimage to Kerbela, or to rest finally in its holy dust, or both, 36 constitutes the ambition of every Shiah. ”

“ Since then it has formed an integral part of the Turkish administration of Irak. The enormous influx of pilgrims naturally creates a brisk trade in Kerbela and the towns along the route from Persia to that place and beyond to Nejef. The population of Kerbela, necessarily fluctuating, is estimated at something over 60,000, of whom the principal part are Shi’ites, chiefly Persians, with a goodly mixture of British Indians. No Jews or Christians are allowed to reside there. ”

“ Kerbela is a place of pilgrimage of the Shi’ite Moslems, and is only less sacred to them than Meshed ‘Ali and Mecca. Some 200,000 pilgrims from the Shi’ite portions of Islam are said to journey annually to Kerbela, many of them carrying the bones of their relatives to be buried in its sacred soil, or bringing their sick and aged to die there in the odour of sanctity. The mullahs, who fix the burial fees, derive an enormous revenue from the faithful. Formerly Kerbela was a self-governing hierarchy and constituted an inviolable sanctuary for criminals ”

“ Kerbela, in the pashalik of Bagdad, is a Turkish fortified place, containing the tomb of Hossein, the brother of Hassan, and son of Ali, the great saint of the Shiah, or Persian form of the Mohammedan religion. Not only do an immense number of Persians habitually reside there, but every one who has the power strives to retire there in his latter days, that he may lay his bones in the neighborhood of the golden dome which covers the ashes of Hossein. ”

“ Finding his position there to be untenable, he retreated still further to the country of his own tribe, while his rival advanced to Ispahan, where he received the submission of nearly all the chief cities of Persia. The ablest of Kereem's officers, Sheikh Ali, was sent in pursuit of the Kajar chief. The fidelity of the commander to whom that chieftain had confided the care of the pass leading into Mazenderan, was corrupted; and, as no further retreat was open to him, he found himself under the necessity of fighting. ”

“ He occupied the city of Kermān, then a flourishing commercial town, half-way between the Persian Gulf and the province of Khorasan. Aga Mahommed besieged it with a large army Capture of Kermān. in 1795, and, after a stout resistance, the gates were opened through treachery. For three hours the gallant young warrior fought in the streets with determined valour, but in vain. When he saw that all hope was gone he, with only three followers, fought his way through the Kajar host and escaped to Bam-Narmashir, the most eastern district of the province of Kermān on the borders of Seistan. ”

“ KERMAN, capital of the above province, situated in 30° 17′ N., 56° 59′ E., at an elevation of 6100 ft. Its population is estimated at 60,000, including about 2000 Zoroastrians, 100 Jews, and a few Shikarpuri Indians. Kerman has post and telegraph offices (Indo-European Telegraph Department) , British and Russian consulates, and an agency of the Imperial bank of Persia. The neighbouring districts produce little grain and have to get their supplies for four or five months of the year from districts far away. ”

“ Yonder steed under thee is what I am seeking and I call upon thee to tell me how thou camest by it." "Know," replied Kanmakan, "that this steed was being carried to my uncle King Sasan in the company of a certain old woman, attended by ten slaves, when thou fellest upon her and tookest the horse from her; and I have a debt of blood against this old woman for the sake of my grandfather King Omar ben Ennuman and my uncle King Sherkan." "Out on thee!" said Kehrdash. "Who is thy father, O thou that hast no (known) mother?" ”

“ In point of population, Kerman was formerly the second city in Persia. Owing to the scarcity of timber, almost all the houses have arched roofs. The place and the surrounding scenery have a dreary aspect, which is the effect of the absence of trees, the little cultivation, and the few villages which the plain possesses. ”

“ When Kehrdash saw his feats of arms, he knew that he was stout of heart and concluded that he was the phœnix of the champions and heroes of the age: so he feared death and said to Kanmakan, “I give thee thy life and pardon thee the blood of my comrades, for I have compassion on thee by reason of thy fair youth. So take what thou wilt of the cattle and go thy ways, for life is better for thee [than death] .” “Thou lackest not of the generosity of the noble,” [7] replied Kanmakan; “but leave this talk and flee for thy life and reck not of blame nor think to get back the booty ”