The Seyyids were naturally furious; and they were able to pull strings at Teheran till Mejid-es-Sultaneh was exiled. He only escaped confiscation of his property by executing a hurried deed of gift of the whole of it, in legally binding form, to an English merchant at Tabriz. He trusted absolutely, and justifiably, to that man’s verbal promise that the income should be paid over to him, and the capital restored if ever the original owner were in a position to claim it again.
As for trial, or any pretence of justice, even for a man in this position, there was none. Such things are mere empty[{216}] words to a ruler who on another occasion invited a prominent Kurdish chief to a conference, swearing on the Koran that, if he came, he should leave Tabriz in safety and honour. The Kurd (Jaffar Agha by name) came on that assurance. He had his conference and started home, loaded with honours and decorations. One hundred yards from the gate of Tabriz he was called back for a last word. He returned fearlessly; entered the reception room—and was shot dead from behind a grating. So the Shah kept faith with a man who trusted to his honour.
Under such rule, government broke down utterly and absolutely in Persia; and the Turks took the opportunity of carrying out the aggression mentioned in the previous chapter, and occupying the strip of frontier they had long coveted. Not content with this, they encouraged a system of open raids over the whole district of Urmi, with the avowed intention of showing the Persians “you cannot control or bridle these Kurds, and so you had better let us do it, for we can.” The writer was in Urmi at the time; living, as an Englishman does in these lands, in personal sanctuary. To shoot an Englishman is too dangerous an amusement (fascinating though it admittedly is) for any gentleman to indulge in—unless the temptation is very great indeed. The experience was interesting; for what one saw was anarchy, apparently with no power of redemption. Vis consili expers the Government of Persia had always been; and when at last it fell under the weight of its own corruption, there was no force left to set up any fresh rule at all. Folk had been accustomed to look to the Hukumet for everything; and when it was gone they lacked the political instinct to set up anything to take its place.
The strangest rumours circulated: such as the statement that a caravan of five hundred camels had arrived in Tabriz from Russia, loaded with nothing but tanzimat (reform); or that “Enjuman Effendi” (Monsieur Parliament) had been appointed governor of the land by the Shah, and that he was a very great man and had very many wives. The collapse of the central Government did not, however, affect daily life in the villages; except that the raiding bands of[{217}] Kurds walked about the countryside rather more at their ease than was the case normally.
In one instance a party of twelve robbers marked down a village some thirty miles from the frontier; looted it, and insolently drove their plunder along the high roads to their own home again. They made no attempt at concealment or even hurry; and ten miles per diem being about the limit that a sheep can be taken comfortably, the process must have occupied three days at the least. It is true that the Turkish Governor, on hearing of the exploit, did insist on the return of the animals, greatly to the disgust of the raiders. However, they did not go quite without profit; for finding that the beasts had got to go back, they took the precaution of shearing them first!
At the time, we were endeavouring to give the local “Nestorian” clergy a week’s instruction in matters pastoral and devotional. As part of the course, we ordered the whole gathering to write a sermon on the text, “As lambs in the midst of wolves.” We could not help feeling a profane sympathy with the teaching propounded in one of the discourses;—that undoubtedly Christians were lambs, as Scripture said; but that what was most needful under the circumstances was that they should develop the teeth and claws of wolves! The doctrine received practical support from an incident that occurred before the week ended, when two of the deacons present announced, “By your leave, Rabbi, we must go.”
“And wherefore, O deacon?”
“Because our village is being attacked by Kurds, Rabbi; and it is needful for us to go and help beat them.”
Leave was given readily enough; but when was a respectable “retreat” interrupted by such an incident before?
As for the official who was called Governor of Urmi, he sat in the walled town, and did nothing. Once he expressed a general hope that things would go better in the near future; because he had hired a murderer to assassinate Bedr Ismail Agha, the man who was doing most of the raiding at the time. But even the rôle of First Murderer in the Government[{218}] troupe was bungled; a gratuitous bit of mismanagement, for there was plenty of talent for the part.