The French Embassador was already dismissed; and in a few days the King sent an order to the remainder of the legation to quit Teheran immediately. The people were then as inveterate against the French as they had before been disposed to court them. When Messrs. Jouannin and Nerciat prepared to obey this order, and were leaving the city, the mule-drivers (hired by the King for the conveyance of their baggage, and sent forwards in the usual form) stopped at the gate, and cutting the lading from their beasts, threw every thing upon the ground, and ran off. One of the Frenchmen struck a mule-driver in the breast with his dagger.
On the 29th Mirza Abul Hassan, brother-in-law to the Ameen-ed-Doulah, and nephew to the late Prime Minister Hajee Ibrahim, was appointed as Envoy Extraordinary from the King of Persia to accompany me to England. The particulars of his history, which, I learned on good authority, may afford some lights on the internal administration of his country, and will at least be acceptable to those who were interested by his appearance at the Court of London.
Mirza Abul Hassan was born at Shiraz in the year of the Hejera 1190, or 1776 of the Christian Æra. He was the second son of Mirza Mahomed Ali, a man famous in Persia as an accomplished scholar, and who was one of the Chief Secretaries and Mirzas of the celebrated Nadir Shah. His father’s services had nearly been requited by an ignominious and cruel death, when the hand of Providence interposed for his safety, to strike with more severity the head of his atrocious master. Nadir Shah, in one of those paroxysms of cruelty so common to him during the latter years of his life, ordered that Mirza Mahomed Ali should be burnt alive, together with two Hindoos, who also had incurred his displeasure. The unfortunate Mirza, on hearing his sentence, remonstrated with the tyrant, entreating him that he might at least be permitted to die alone; and that his last moments might not be polluted by the society of men, who were of a different faith from his own, and on whom he had been taught to look with a religious abhorrence. To this the Shah consented, remitting his death until the next morning, whilst the Hindoos suffered in that same hour. That very night Nadir Shah was assassinated in his tent, and Mirza Mahomed Ali was saved.
The family of Mirza Abul Hassan rose to its greatest power during the reign of Aga Mohamed Shah, predecessor to the present King. The Mirza’s father died in the service of Kerim Khan; his uncle Hajee Ibrahim Khan (uncle by his mother’s side) attained the post of Prime Vizier, whilst himself and the other branches of his family enjoyed the greatest share in the administration of the affairs of the state. It was somewhat before the death of Aga Mohamed Shah, that Hajee Ibrahim bestowed his daughter in marriage on his nephew, after a long and singular courtship. A sister of his wife’s is married to Mahomed Taki Mirza, one of the King’s sons; and a second to the Ameen-ed-Doulah, the second Vizier.
The family, however, was not always prosperous; after some time the King ordered Hajee Ibrahim to be put to death, his relations to be seized, his wives to be sold, and his property to be confiscated. His nephews of course partook of the disaster: one was deprived of his sight, and remains to this day at Shiraz; the youngest, then twenty years of age, died under the bastinado; and the second, Mirza Abul Hassan, who was then the Governor of Shooster, was dragged to the capital as a prisoner. The circumstances of his seizure and escape from death are better described in his own words. He told me, “I was asleep when the King’s officers entered into my room: they seized me, stripped me of my clothes, and, tying my hands behind my back, dragged me to Koom, where the King then was; treating me during the march with all the rigour and intemperance that generally befals a man in disgrace. The moment I reached Koom, the King pronounced the order for my execution: I was already on my knees, my neck was made bare, and the executioner had unsheathed his sword to sever my head from my body, when the hand of the Almighty interposed, and a messenger in great haste announced my reprieve. I was indebted for my life to a man who had known me from my boyhood, and who had long cherished me as his son. This worthy man, by name Mirza Reza Kouli, the moment he heard the sentence of death passed upon me, threw himself at the feet of the King, and, pleading my youth and inoffensiveness, entreated that I might be pardoned. The King yielded to his entreaties; my pardon was announced; and I still live to praise the Almighty for his great goodness and commiseration towards me.”
After his providential escape Mirza Abul Hassan, (fearing that the King might repent of his lenity towards him) fled from his country, although he had received his Majesty’s order to go to Shiraz, and to remain there: he left Persia with the determination of never more returning, until the disgraces of his family had been obliterated, and until the wrath of the King against him had entirely subsided. He fled first to Shooster, the city in which he had so recently been all-powerful; and there he experienced the hospitality for which the Arabs are so justly renowned. As his administration had been lenient and temperate he found a host of friends ready to relieve him; and on quitting Shooster, miserable and destitute of even the common necessaries of life, the inhabitants came to him in a crowd and forced seven thousand piastres upon him. From Shooster he went to Bussora, he then crossed through the heart of Arabia, frequently obliged to proceed on foot, for want of an animal to carry him, until he reached Mecca. On this journey he visited Deriyéh, the capital of Abdul Assiz, the then chief of the Wahabees. From Mecca he went to Medina; and having performed all the devotions of a pilgrim he returned to Bussora. At Bussora he learnt that the King was still inveterate against his family; and, finding an English ship on the point of sailing for India, he embarked on board of her, and shortly after reached Calcutta, at the time when the Marquis Wellesley was Governor-General of India. From Calcutta he went to Moorshedabad, then to Hyderabad, Poonah, and Bombay; having remained altogether about two years and a half in India. At Bombay he received a firman from the King to return to Persia; by which he was assured of the King’s forgiveness, and of his having been received into favour. He obeyed the firman, and ever since has enjoyed the royal protection. He has not, indeed, occupied any specific post under government, but has been the Homme d’Affaires to his brother-in-law the Ameen-ed-Doulah, second Vizier and Lord Treasurer, by which means he has been continually in active and useful life, until he was nominated the King of Persia’s Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of England.
CHAP. XIII.
TEHERAN.
I. TEHERAN—THE KING’S HAREM—FAMILY—PALACE OF THE TAKHT-A-CADJAR—PRODUCTIONS OF PERSIA—MANUFACTURES—CLIMATE OF TEHERAN—UNHEALTHINESS—FAITH IN HAFIZ—PERSIAN MEDICINE—SUPERSTITIONS—ENVIRONS OF TEHERAN—MOUNTAIN DEMAWEND—RUINS OF REY—ANCIENT PERSIA—GUEBRES.—II. RANKS IN PERSIA—GOVERNMENT—REVENUE—LANDED PROPERTY—ROYAL TREASURE—COINAGE—ESTABLISHMENTS OF THE CROWN—POPULATION OF PERSIA—TRIBES—MILITARY SERVICE—BODY-GUARDS—GUARDS OF THE CITY—PERSIAN DRESSES—CHARACTER.
Teheran, the present capital of Persia, is situated, as I ascertained by a meridional observation, in lat. 35°. 40´. It is in circumference between four and a half and five miles, if we might judge from the length of our ride round the walls, which indeed occupied an hour and a half: but from this we must deduct something for the deviations necessary from the intervention of the gardens, and the slaughter-houses. There are six gates, inlaid with coloured bricks and with figures of tigers and other beasts in rude mosaic: their entrance is lofty and domed; and they are certainly better than those that we had then seen in any of the fortified places of Persia. To the N. W. are separate towers. We saw two pieces of artillery, one apparently a mortar, the other a long gun. The ditch in some parts had fallen in, and was there supported by brick work.