Persia Revisited

by Sir Thomas Edward Gordon

The farming system which is applied to the Customs in Persia continues to cause considerable loss to the State. An extension of the same direct control as is exercised in the Telegraph Department would show most favourable results. Under the present short-sighted system the interests of all the contractors lie in suppressing correct information and giving misleading statistics, so that the annual bidding may be kept low. But notwithstanding this, the truth leaks out to indicate that trade in Persia is increasing. There are now signs of practical advice at Tehran, to consider the establishment of a properly constituted Persian control Board of Customs, by which a well-organized service, under the central authority, may be maintained, and a considerable increase of revenue secured. It may be said that all merchants in Persia benefit by the farming system, for under it they can arrange to have their goods passed on payment of a lump sum, and with but the merest show of examination of invoices. In this manner they manage to get consignments through the Customs at less than the fixed tariff. On a late rumour of a foreign control of the Customs being likely, the Russian Armenian merchants engaged in trade in the North frankly represented the fact of arrangements being made with the authorities at the ports, to take less than the treaty 5 per cent. on exports and imports, and they urged that the custom was of such old date and long continuance as to make it a fully recognised right. They stated that their trade was established on this basis, and they protested against any change. There can be no doubt that the same custom prevails in the South, and all along the frontier. As the farming contracts are much subdivided, competition operates to reduce rates, so as to induce change of trade routes. Thus, I heard of a merchant in Central Persia, whose communications are with the South, asking a contractor in the North for a quotation of his terms, so as to make it advantageous for him to send his goods that way. In the matter of contraband articles, the farming system lends itself to encourage the passing of what the State forbids, as the middlemen and their servants are tempted to make as much money as possible during the short time of their annual contract engagements. In a country like Persia, where pride of arms prevails to keep up the habit of carrying them, there is a steady demand for modern breech-loading rifles. The Government is alive to the necessity of preventing the importation of firearms, and from time to time seizures are made of consignments smuggled under the guise of merchandise. With a large nomad and semi-nomad population of warlike and predatory instincts, almost every man of whom lays by money most diligently, bit by bit, for the purchase of a breechloader and cartridges, it is obvious that the interests of Government call for the strongest check to the foreign trade in arms; but it may be taken for granted that so long as the Customs are farmed out on the present system the supply will be passed in to meet the demand. The favourite weapon is the Martini-Henry, and there are many thousands in the possession of the nomads and villagers. This rifle, as the Peabody-Martini, was first introduced into the country during the late Turko-Russian War, when, being the Turkish army weapon, it fell by thousands into the hands of Russian soldiers, who sold them to the Persian sutlers and pedlars allowed to accompany the troops. The Persians had shown their usual energy and enterprise abroad by becoming camp-traders with the Russian forces engaged on active service in Asia Minor, and they sent the captured arms, which they purchased in large numbers, over the border into Persia, where they fetched good prices. A profitable trade in cartridges followed the introduction of the new rifle, and judging by the well-filled belts and bandoliers which I saw on the North-western frontier (Kurdistan and Azerbaijan), the business appears to be a well established one. In the course of time and trade this rifle found its way South to the fighting Bakhtiaris, Lurs, and Arabs, and the general vote in its favour brought about a supply of 'trade' Martini-Henry arms imported by way of the Persian Gulf, so that now in Persia what is known as the 'Marteen' has become the popular arm in private possession. The 'Remington' has its possessors and admirers among the Karun Arab tribes, who get their arms from Baghdad and Turkish sources. There is a brisk trade in ammunition for the breechloader, and so keen is the desire to secure and supplement the supply that solid-drawn brass cartridge-cases, which admit of being used over and over again, with boxes of caps and sets of reloading apparatus, are now in brisk demand.

At Kasvin our eyes were refreshed with the sight of the excellently-equipped Indo-European telegraph line, which comes in there from Tabriz and the North, and passes on to Tehran and India. This line, with its wires carried on tall iron standard posts stretching far in a dominating manner over the country, seems to stand forth as a strong witness to the effectual command and control exercised by the Shah's Government at the present time. On the first establishment of this line there was much conjecture as to the great risk of continued interruption from the mischief of man; and failure to complete the land working at the outset dissatisfied commercial men in England, so that to maintain certain communication the Red Sea cable was laid. But new land lines were erected which worked equally well as the cable, and the firm insistence by the Persian Government on heavy damages for all malicious injury gradually developed the perfect security which comes from local interests demanding the fullest protection. The service by this line is now as certain and quick as that of the ocean cable; in fact, I think the average speed of messages between London and Calcutta is greater viâ Tehran than viâ Suez. There was an interesting race last year between the companies to communicate to India the result of the Derby, and it was won in a way by the cable line. The messages were simultaneously despatched from Epsom, that by Tehran reaching Bombay five seconds before the other, but as the name of the winning horse only was given correctly, Karachi, six hundred miles distant, had to be asked for a repetition of the names of the second and third horses. The cable telegram gave the three names accurately. Had Karachi been agreed upon as the point of arrival for India, instead of Bombay, the Indo-European would have won this telegraph race.

CHAPTER III.

—Kasvin grapes
—Persian wine
—Vineyards in Persia
—Wine manufacture
—Mount Demavend
—Afshar volcanic region
—Quicksilver and gold
—Tehran water-supply
—Village quarrels
—Vendetta
—Tehran tramways
—Bread riots
—Mint and copper coin.

The grape harvest was being gathered at Kasvin as we passed through. The place is well known for its extensive vineyards and fine fruit-gardens. Its golden grapes have a wide reputation, and these, with the white species, also grown there, are in steady demand for wine manufacture, which is carried on in the town, notwithstanding the greatly disproportionate number of Moullas among the inhabitants. Large quantities of the grapes are also sent to Tehran for wine purposes there. Persia keeps up the character for strong wine which it had 600 B.C., when the Scythian invaders took to it so eagerly as to establish the saying, 'As drunk as a Scythian.' It was said that these hard-headed, deep-drinking, wild warriors were always thirsting for 'another skinful,' and were ever ready to declare that the last was always the best. Eighteen hundred years later, Hafiz, the merry poet, sang aloud the praises of Shiraz wine, which to this day bears a high reputation in Persia, a reputation which was royally good in the traditional bygone time long before Cyrus, when it appears to have been highly appreciated in the festivities of Glorious Jamshed, the founder of Persepolis. The poet Omar Khayyam, in moralizing over the ruins of the fallen splendour of that famous place, speaks in Fitzgerald's 'Rubaiyat':

'They say the lion and the lizard keep
The Court where Jamshed gloried and drank deep.'

The Persian poet-historian Firdausi ascribes to Jamshed the discovery of wine in his leisure from kingly duties and scientific pursuits, for to him is attributed the invention of many useful arts, and the introduction of the solar year for measurement of time, the first day of which, when the sun enters Aries, he ordered to be celebrated by a splendid festival. It is called Nauroz, or New Year's Day, and is still the greatest festival in Persia. This single institution of former days, under a different religion and system of measuring time, has triumphed over the introduction of Mohammedanism, and is observed with as much joy and festivity now as it was by the ancient inhabitants of Persia.

According to Moulla Akbar's manuscripts, quoted in Malcolm's 'History of Persia,' Jamshed was immoderately fond of grapes, and desired to preserve some which were placed in a large vessel and lodged in a vault for future use. When the vessel was opened, the grapes had fermented, and their juice in this state was so acid that the King believed it must be poisonous. He had some other vessels filled with the juice, and 'Poison' written upon each; these were placed in his room. It happened that one of his favourite ladies was afflicted with nervous headaches, the pain of which distracted her so much that she desired death, and observing a vessel with 'Poison' written on it, she took it and swallowed its contents. The wine, for such it had become, overpowered the lady, who fell down in a sound sleep, and awoke much refreshed. Delighted with the remedy, she repeated the doses so often that the King's 'poison' was all drunk. He soon discovered this, and forced the lady to confess what she had done. A quantity of wine was then made, and Jamshed and all his Court drank of the new beverage, which, from the circumstance that led to its discovery, is to this day known in Persia as zahr-i-khûsh, or the pleasing poison. After that the manufacture of wine became a regular industry, and spread from Shiraz, where it originated. At the present time the process of manufacture is similar to what it was then, in that the grape-juice is collected in large Ali-Baba-like jars and buried in the ground. Alexander the Great is said to have followed the festive example of his royal predecessor, and to have drunk deep in the majestic halls of Persepolis. It has been supposed by some that he caused the splendid palaces there to be set on fire in a drunken freak.

As a pendant to the story of a lady's discovery, in the time of Jamshed, of wine as an efficacious cure for nervous headache, another is told which ascribes to a lady the withdrawal of a royal decree against the sale and use of wine. The Shah Hussein, on his accession to the throne in 1694, displayed his religious zeal by forbidding the sale of wine, and he ordered the destruction of all the stock of it that was in the royal cellars at Ispahan. But his grandmother, by feigning herself ill, and wholly dependent upon wine for cure, not only prevailed upon him to revoke the decree, but also persuaded him to drink some in pure regard to herself, with the result that he fell away from priestly influence and became a tippler. Unfortunately for the nation, this grandmother's guidance led Shah Hussein to ruin by wine and women, and dragged him down to the deep degradation of surrendering Persia to the cruel tyranny of the Afghan occupation.

Wood being scarce in Persia, and poles, stakes, and sticks for upright and lateral support not being easily procurable, the mode of culture of the vine has come to be by planting in deep broad trenches, with high sloping banks, up and over which the stems and branches run and fall. The trenches are made to lie so as to allow of the bank-slopes having the best exposure. This is the system followed on the flat, but in hilly ground, by means of careful trimming and the assistance of piled stones, the plants are made to develop strong standard stems, with bunchy, bushy tops. I was particularly struck a few years ago with the neat, well-tended vineyards at the village of Imâm-Zadeh-Ismail, in the hills about forty miles north-west of Persepolis. Almost the whole of the village lands were laid out in vineyards, well walled and beautifully kept. The vines looked as if they were tended by those who understood their culture well, and they appeared to thrive wonderfully on the light soil of the place. Surprising energy had been shown in clearing the ground, which was naturally stony; and there was abundant evidence of much patient labour in the garden-like enclosures. Vineyards occupied all the flat ground on which the village stood, and they extended up the slopes. Hillside clearing was going on all around for further planting of vines, which were seen to flourish there. Raisins are largely made there, and I was told by my Kashkai conductor (for I was well off the beaten track and required a guide), who seemed to know what he was talking about, that the fresh grapes were used for wine, but not in the village. The religious character of the chief inhabitants of the village, who are sheikhs, and guardians of the Holy Shrine of the mausoleum of the Imam-Zadeh-Ismail, which lies within its limits, prevents the preparation there of the forbidden fermented juice of the grape. The shrine is endowed with the village lands rent free, and all these lands are devoted to vine cultivation. The vineyards at Shiraz have been greatly extended of late years, and particular attention is now paid to the cultivation of the Kholar grape, as the best suited for wine. This grape takes its name from the village of Kholar, which is within a few miles of the town. Tabriz, Hamadan, Isfahan, and Shiraz produce the best wine in Persia. Red and white are made at all these places; the white wine of Hamadan is a sort of strong sauterne, and some of it has quite a delicate flavour; Isfahan produces a wine of a port character, and the best shiraz is sometimes like new madeira. All these wines resemble in strength those that are now made in Australia. Something is wanting in the mode of manufacture to make the wine capable of improvement with keeping, and also of bearing transport. The advent of the Russian road will probably lead to the development of Kasvin's large area of fruitful vines, and the success which has attended vineyard industry at Derbend, on the Caspian, may encourage similar enterprise there.