111850 PERSIA BRIGADIER-GENERAL SIR PERCY SYKES K.C.T.E., C.B., C.M.G. AUTHOR OF <A HISTORY OF PERSIA* OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS Oxford University Press London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai Humphrey Milford Publisher to the UNIVERSITY THIS little volume, containing a sketch of Persian history, was written with the idea of it forming part of a composite work on Arabia, Syria, Iraq, and Persia. That scheme having been abandoned, Arabia has recently been published, its author being the well-known authority Mr. D. G. Hogarth, and Persia now follows. I have found it extremely difficult to compress such a vast subject into less than two hundred pages, and this must be my answer to those who may complain of omissions. P. M. S. THE ATHENAEUM, 30 March, 1922. CONTENTS PAGE 1. THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE i 2. THE FOUNDATION OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE . 6 3. THE PERSIAN EMPIRE AND HELLAS . .11 4. THE CONQUEST OF THE PERSIAN EMPIRE BY ALEXANDER THE GREAT 20 5. THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE 26 6. THE SASANIAN DYNASTY 31 7. PERSIA AS A PROVINCE OF THE CALIPHATE . 41 8. THE SELJUKS 48 ' 9. THE MONGOL AVALANCHE . .55 10. TAMERLANE 65 ix. THE SAFAVI DYNASTY 71 12. THE OVERTHROW OF THE SAFAVI DYNASTY BY THE AFGHANS 82 13. AFGHAN DOMINATION IN PERSIA ... 89 14. THE NAPOLEON OF ASIA . .93 15. THE ZAND DYNASTY 101 16. THE KAJAR DYNASTY AND INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPE 105 17. PERSIA AND AFGHANISTAN 119 18. THE ENVELOPMENT AND AWAKENING OF PERSIA 133 19. THE CONSTITUTIONAL MOVEMENT IN PERSIA AND ITS FAILURE I4a 20. PERSIA AND THE GREAT WAR, 1914-16 . 154 21. PERSIA AND THE GREAT WAR, 1917-18 . 161 22. PERSIA AFTER THE ARMISTICE . i 71 INDEX rfo MAP OF PERSIA at end. The Country and the People THE Persian Empire occupies the western and larger part of the Iranian plateau, which is situated between the Indus on the east and the Tigris and Euphrates on the west. Its altitude is considerable. Shiraz and Kerman in the south, Isfahan in the centre, and Kermanshah and Hamadan in the west all lie above 5,000 feet. In the north the altitude of Tabriz is over 4,000 feet and that of Teheran (the capital) and Meshed over 3,000 feet. The area of the country is enormous. The traveller who would pass from east to west in the north would traverse some 1,200 miles. From north to south the distance would average 600 to 700 miles. The snow and rainfall are scanty, averaging ten inches in the north and five inches in the south. On the other hand, in the provinces bordering the Caspian Sea, the rainfall is very heavy. On the plateau the climate is intensely dry, with hot days and cold nights. In the Caspian provinces the heavy rainfall creates a moist, malarious, and most unhealthy dimate. In the narrow strip of country bordering the Persian Gulf the climate, except dose to the sea, is intensely hot and dry. So scanty is the rainfall in view of the power of the sun that, but for the high ranges, the country would be a desert. A glance at the map will show that Persia is a mountainous country, and the snowfall on the high 1832-17 B 2 The Country and the People winter and ranges is preserved from melting during the in the In provides irrigation water for the crops spring. Persia there is unlimited land, but very little water, and the higher the range the larger the population it supports by means of its life-giving water. To take a -brief survey of the mountain ranges, their most noticeable fact is the regularity of trend from south- east to north-west. The traveller from Mesopotamia who follows the historical route via Kermanshah and Hamadan to Teheran, close to ancient Rhages, crosses range after range of mountains the classical Zagros at right angles. Near Hamadan he sees the celebrated Mount Alvand rising to over 12,000 feet. At Teheran the Elburz range separates the plateau from the Caspian provinces, throwing up the stupendous peak of Demavand which dominates the capital at an elevation of over 19,000 feet. Moving westwards, at the extreme north-west- corner of Persia, historical Ararat rises to over 17,000 feet. These great ranges have isolated the country from the sea, and at no time have the inhabitants of Persia been seafarers. The heart of the country is a desert. I have crossed it in various parts and found stage after stage of hard gravel tracks to be succeeded by square miles covered with sand dunes. Where water has flowed down from the ranges, there is Kavir, salty ground dangerous to cross, covered with a white efflorescence or again with yellow slime. Water is very scarce and either salt or bitter : so that, apart from the risk of losing the way or being overwhelmed by one of the terrible storms which spare neither man or beast, there is much sickness among travellers owing to bad water and scanty food supplies. The Country and the People 3 The rivers of Persia are of little importance. It. is possible to ride from north to south and from east to west, almost without 'crossing a river. Indeed from the Indus to the Shatt-al-Arab no important river reaches the sea. In the north the river, termed the Sufid Rud in its lower reaches, is the longest in Persia. In the south-west, the Karun is the only navigable river of Persia, and that for merely a short distance. The Persian plateau is covered with steppe vegetation. This signifies that, instead of grass, there are stunted bushes growing several feet apart from one another and not covering the ground. Between them, in the spring, blades of afford for and grass scanty grazing sheep goats ; the bushes serve as camel grazing and fuel. The hills are bare, except for a very few stunted trees. There is, however, a large forest of dwarf oak in the Zagros range. The Caspian provinces are covered with forests, but they are not scientifically preserved and, near the coast, have been ruthlessly felled or burned. The country is washed by the Persian Gulf on its south-west coast. This landlocked body of water is entered from the Arabian Sea at the Straits of Hormuz which are only thirty-five miles wide. The traveller then steams for seven hundred miles up the gulf, which is always hot, passing along a sunburnt coast close inland Bandar Abbas and backed by serrated ranges ; Bushire, the ports, have no harbours, and ships have to lie a long way off shore. Few parts of the sea were more remote, but the Great War has transformed the position, and thousands of British and Indian troops have used what was the only route to Mesopotamia. There is yet another side to the Persian Gulf that may justly claim our B 2 4 The Country and the People interest, for its waters probably witnessed the first feeble, timid attempts of man to navigate salt water. The Caspian Sea washes Persian provinces in the north. There the harbours are potentially good, as there are extensive lagoons which ensure complete protection, once the bar be crossed. In the case of Enzeli, the chief port, expenditure is needed to cut a channel across the bar, but at Bandar Gaz, at the south-east corner, there is an ample depth of water. Cultivation is generally carried on by irrigation, although in the north and west there are rain-fed crops of wheat and these are the main barley ; crops, barley being the staple horse food. Rice, maize, millet, beans, cotton, opium, lucerne, and tobacco are also main crops. Persia is especially rich in fruit. Pears, apples, quinces, apricots, plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries, figs, pomegranates, almonds, pistachios, grapes, and melons grow best on the the and lime are confined to plateau ; date-palm, orange the low-lying districts, which mainly, but not entirely, border the Persian Gulf. It is part of my theme to show how deeply Persia has influenced Europe. We owe to her the peach the word is derived from the Latin fersica the orange, the lime, the pistachio nut, and possibly the vine. Of flowers, the jasmine, lilac, and narcissus not only come from Persia but have retained their Persian names, as have most of the fruits enumerated above. The fauna of Persia include tigers, which abound in the jungles of the north, while a few lions are perhaps still left in the thickets of the Ab-i-Diz and elsewhere in Arabistan. Bears are not uncommon. Wolves, leopards, hyenas, lynxes, foxes, and jackals exist in considerable The Country and the People 5 numbers. Stags and roebucks roam the forests of the Caspian provinces and the fallow deer is found in the Zagros. The most common quarry is the wild sheep and ibex the in the hiUs and the gazelle in the plains. The wild boar is extremely abundant, but is rarely shot, as its flesh cannot be eaten. The wild ass is found near the salt swamps, but is somewhat rare. There is no Census in Persia, and consequently estimates as to the population cannot daim accuracy. The general opinion is that the estimate of ten millions errs on the side of liberality. The population is sedentary and nomadic, the latter perhaps aggregating one-quarter. The large majority of the sedentary population is agricultural, living in villages and hamlets scattered all over the face of the country.