With the Persian Expedition

by Martin Henry Donohoe

CHAPTER XIII
THE RACE FOR TABRIZ

A scratch pack for a great adventure—Wagstaff of Persia—Among the Afshars—Guests of the chief—Capture of Zinjan—Peace and profiteering.

On May 21st a small British column left Hamadan for the north-west of Persia. It was anything but a formidable fighting force as far as numerical strength was concerned. It comprised fifteen British officers, one French officer, and about thirty-five British N.C.O's. The whole party was armed with rifles and some also carried swords, infantry or cavalry pattern, which had been dug out of the Ordnance Store at the last moment.

Even as our equipment was varied, so was there certainly something distinctly Quixotic about our saddlery and our chargers. Of the latter, some were a fresh issue by the Remount Department, and ranged from heavy limber horses to light 'Walers. Then there were Persian "Rosinantes," bare-boned and razor-backed. The humble Persian mule and humbler donkey were also impressed into the service of carrying some British officer or sergeant forward on the great adventure.

For adventure it certainly was. Our orders were to march on Zinjan, where a few hundred Turks were said to be holding a post, defeat or disperse them, raise and train Persian levies, and, with these auxiliaries to aid us in the fighting line, push on to Tabriz, and, if possible, dispose of any Turks who might be inclined to dispute our entry into the capital of Azarbaijan. We had a Lewis gun, but no artillery. We had a medical officer, but scant medical and surgical stores; no ambulance or stretchers, but a couple of dhoolies, to each of which a mule was harnessed fore and aft. Baggage and supplies were cut down to a minimum, for the column, if such it could be termed, was to be self-supporting, and to live on the country, not always an easy task in the starving land of Persia.

This British forlorn hope was led by Major Wagstaff of the Indian Army, an officer who had spent years in Persia attached to the South Persia Rifles, and had an intimate knowledge of the Persian as a fighter and as an intriguer. Wagstaff spoke the language of the country with great fluency, and knew all the tribes from Fars to Azarbaijan with the intimacy of an ethnological connoisseur. I remember that he held the Persian in high esteem, believed him to be courageous to a certain extent, honest according to his lights, and altogether possessing the makings of a soldier. But then Wagstaff was born an optimist!

Our route lay due north from Hamadan to Zinjan, where it was intended that we should cut in on the main Tabriz road that runs from Teheran by way of Kasvin. The Turks, too, had been active in this district lately. Small reconnoitring parties of them were said to have made their way down through Azarbaijan to the neighbourhood of Mianeh and Zinjan, in quest of supplies and military information. In a sense they were operating on favourable ground, for a large proportion of the inhabitants of Azarbaijan are of Turkish origin. They belong to the same race as the Turks on the north side of the Araxes (Russian-Persian frontier) who occupy the valley from Julfa to Erivan, and with whom those in Azarbaijan have blood ties.

The Afshari is one of the powerful Turkish tribes known as Kizil Bashis, which settled in Persia in the seventeenth century, and at the present day more than a quarter of the descendants of the Afshari live in Azarbaijan. It was to smash the growing power of these newcomers from across the Persian border that Shah Abbas organized the tribesmen in north-eastern Azarbaijan, who were known as Shahsavans—"Shah loving." But their loyalty did not last long. They soon turned their arms against their royal master, and joined the Russians in the campaign of 1826, forming an enduring alliance with their tribal enemies, whom they ultimately absorbed into their bosom. The Shahsavans are a turbulent crew, well aware of their strength and fighting value, and have from time to time terrorized the Persian Government. In 1912 they revolted in the vicinity of Ardabil, and it took a combined Persian-Russian force of five thousand men and a four months' campaign to suppress them.