CHAP. XV.
TABRIZ.

The road across the plain towards Tabriz is very fine; and on each side of it we saw numerous ploughs. Four oxen were employed to each; for the soil is here hard, and turned with more difficulty. The implement itself, however, appeared more ponderous than any that we had seen before. About three miles from Tabriz the road is intersected by hills of a sandy and stony soil. Here we were met by an officer deputed from the Prince to greet our arrival. He was accompanied by ten or fifteen men, and preceded by a led horse. As soon as our party perceived their approach, it was ridiculous enough to see how every one put on any the smallest piece of finery that he possessed, in order to strike the others with respect. The Mirza alighted from his mule and mounted a horse; and when we met, all the flattery and compliments were repeated with the same sincerity as before on our road to Teheran. They talked of themselves and their government with singular complacency, and of the Russians with the utmost contempt. The officer who came to meet us said, “they fear us like dogs; we have every thing better than they have; they will never dare to shew their faces again.”

Tabriz first appears between the angle of the bases of two hills, and then opens to the view by degrees. In the season in which we saw it, it formed a pretty object; as the constant monotony of the mud-walls and mud-brick houses was hid by the rich foliage of the trees, which are interspersed throughout the city. Close to the walls, near the Teheran gate, is the complete ruin of a mosque, but still sufficiently preserved to shew how fine a structure it must once have been. It was built about six hundred years ago, by Shah Shem Ghuzan, (the successor of Shah Mahomed Khodabendeh, whose tomb has been described at Sultaniéh,) but it has been destroyed by an earthquake within thirty years. The inhabitants extol the fruitfulness of the territory, and the salubrity of the air of Tabriz. Its very name, according to the Persian etymology, indicates the excellence of its situation, for it is composed of Tab a fever, and riz fled.40 They complain, however, (though as of their only inconvenience) of frequent and violent earthquakes, which they attribute to the volcanoes in the district, which throw out smoke but no flame. The smoke is so mephitical, that it kills immediately a dog or fowl placed over it. The volcanoes are particularly to the East, in mountains of a red and copper-like appearance, announcing much mineral matter. The climate of Tabriz is subject also to much thunder, lightning, and rain.

Tabriz is no more the magnificent city described by Chardin: all its large buildings have been destroyed by earthquakes. I rode round the walls, and estimated the circumference at three miles. Three of the gates are ornamented with pillars, inlaid with green-lacquered bricks, and look very respectable; the other five are very small and mean. The walls are very weak, and here and there renewed with mud-bricks baked in the sun. The whole town is surrounded by gardens, which the Persians call Meewa-khonéh, or fruit-houses. One of these, to the West, belonging to Hajee Khan Mahomed, is very extensive, and planted entirely with fruit-trees, excepting one row of poplars; the only other wood indeed which I saw at Tabriz, and that of which all the timber-work of their houses is constructed. There are thousands therefore planted on the borders of every stream about the city. The abundance of fruit in the season was already evident, by the state of the gardens, and particularly of the apricot trees. In the spaces between the lines, were mounds of earths in rows, on which vines were extended on an angle of about 60°, and irrigated by water introduced through channels formed by the bases of the mounds.

To the N. W. of the city is a very extensive burial place; over the whole of which are strewed black blocks of stone or granite, carved in the manner which I have frequently described, and mostly without an inscription, though some bore the Arabic character. To the S. W. of the town are some more of these ancient tombs, one of which is of the red stone, evidently cut from the adjacent mountains; the others are of a black marble, which takes a fine polish, but which is now no longer used, nor could I learn even the situation of the quarries. One of the stones measured eight feet and a half in length, and two feet and a half in breadth; and covered probably some very distinguished hero: near it is a small mosque.

The transparent or rather diaphanous substance, with beautiful veins, (which is called the marble of Tabriz, and which I have described in some of the public buildings at Shiraz and Ispahan) is not procured near the city or taken from a quarry, but is said to be rather a petrifaction found in large quantities, and in immense blocks, on the borders of the lake Shahee, near the town of Meraughéh. It takes the finest polish, and is employed in baths, in the wainscoting of rooms, in tomb-stones, and in every other purpose where ornamental marble is necessary.

There are twelve public baths, some of which are handsome; and there is a bazar, which extends the length of the city, but it is mean and dirty. Tabriz has no mosques of any particular merit: on entering indeed there is the large ruin already mentioned; and to the S. W. of the city (enclosed in the Ark or fort of Ali Shah, which contains the barracks and magazines) are the remains of another, now converted into a look-out house. This is a conspicuous, but very unseemly object, and to me seemed of little use, and from its height to be the most exposed either to the shock of an earthquake, or to an attack from a battery. The danger of earthquakes has taught the inhabitants of Tabriz to build their houses generally as low as possible; and to employ more wood than brick and plaster, in their construction. For the same reason the bazars have only wooden roofs, and are not arched as those in the better cities of Persia. Yet I am told that in earthquakes, the domed buildings (particularly the Hummum Khan, the largest in Tabriz) have invariably stood; where others, the strongest walls, have been rent asunder.

Tabriz had declined to an insignificant place, when about four years ago the present Prince, Abbas Mirza, the Heir Apparent of the crown, was appointed to the government of Aderbigian, and made it his capital. When we visited his city, he had resided there four years, and had guarded the frontiers of Persia against the Russians. During that time he had repaired and beautified the walls, had made a new Maidan, and erected some new buildings. Indeed, before, there was no place fit for his habitation; and all the great men attached to his court have since been obliged to build houses for their own accommodation.

The Prince is said by the Persians to possess every quality, that can grace a mortal; and (as there are many circumstances in his character, which his countrymen would never think of inventing) I am inclined to believe them. They were related to me by the Hakim or Governor of the city, at whose house I lodged during my residence at Tabriz. Some time ago, three of the Prince’s children died; his Vizir appeared before him with a mournful face; the Prince observed him, and inquired the reason: the Vizir hesitated, “Speak,” said the Prince, “is there any public disaster? have the Russians been successful? have they taken any more country from us?” “No,” answered the Minister, “it is not that; your children are sick:” “What of that?” asked the Prince; “But very sick indeed,” continued the Vizir: “Perhaps then they are dead,” interrupted the Father. His Minister confessed the truth. “Dead!” said the Prince, “why should I grieve? the state has lost nothing by them; had I lost three of my good servants, had three useful officers died, then indeed I should have grieved: but my children were babes, and God knows whether, if they had grown up to man’s estate, they would have proved good servants to their country.”

The Prince is remarkable also for the plainness of his dress; he never wears any thing more than a coat of common Kerbas (a strong cotton cloth) and a plain shawl round his waist. Whenever he sees any officers of his court in fine laced or brocade clothes, he asks them, “What is the use of all this finery. Instead of this gold and tinsel, why not buy yourself a good horse, a good sword, a good gun; this frippery belongs to women, not to one, who calls himself a man and a soldier.” He inspects himself all the detail of his troops, their arms, horses, and accoutrements, adopting those that appear to him fit for use, and rejecting those that are below his standard. The Governor of the city, who related these traits to me, had in his house at the time two hundred muskets, which the Prince refused out of two thousand, that had been sent to him from Teheran, having himself examined every single gun, and tried every lock. He is said also to be extremely liberal to his troops, and to give all his money among them.

When I asked the Governor, if Messrs. Jouannin and Nerciat, of the French Embassy, (who had arrived a few days before us, and whom I overtook at Tabriz) had as yet departed, he replied that they were gone. When he came back to me in the evening, he told me that they were not. He added, that on appearing before the Prince in the morning, he had related my question and his own answer; on which the Prince exclaimed, “You told him that they were gone! How could you tell him such a falsehood; I will not allow any of my servants to speak an untruth—Go and tell him that they are not gone.” It appeared that the Governor had been really mistaken in his first report.

The Governor talked also of his Prince’s horsemanship, and skill in the chase, which were unequalled. He told me that at full gallop the Prince could shoot a deer with a single ball, or with the arrow from his bow, hit a bird on the wing. He combines indeed the three great qualities of the ancient Persians, which Xenophon enumerates, riding, shooting with the bow, and speaking truth. His countrymen however are, in general, less severe in their estimate of the requisites of a great character, and are content to omit the last trait of excellence; but they never praise any one without placing in the foremost of his virtues his horsemanship; in which alone perhaps they possess any national pride. I once in fact was in some danger of a serious dispute, by hazarding a doubt, that the Turks rode better than the Persians. It is quite ridiculous to hear them boast of their own feats on horseback, and despise the cavalry of every other nation. They always said, “Perhaps your infantry may surpass ours; but our horsemen are the first in the world; nothing can stand before their activity and impetuosity.” In fact, they have courage—one of the first qualities of a horseman; they ride without the least apprehension over any country, climb the most dangerous steeps over rock and shrub; and keep their way in defiance of every obstacle of ground. They have also a firm seat, and that on a saddle which, among an hundred different sorts, would be called the least commodious. But that is all; they understand nothing of a fine hand, nor indeed with their bridles can they learn; for they use only a strong snaffle, fastened to the rein by an immense ring on each side, which they place indifferently in the strongest or weakest mouths: nor do they know how to spare their horses and save them unnecessary fatigue; for their pace is either a gallop on the full stretch, or a walk. As a nation, as fit stuff for soldiers, I know of no better materials. The Persian possesses the true qualities of the soldier; active, inured to labour, careless of life, admiring bravery, and indeed (as the chief object of their ambition) aspiring to the appellation of resheed or courageous.

The greater part of the Prince’s horse were sent out at this season into different districts, where grass is the most plentiful; and there were said to be only three thousand men in garrison at Tabriz. The amount of the general force under the government of the Prince, according to the information of his Prime Minister, is as follows:—

The troops under these descriptions are composed principally of men furnished in different quotas in lieu of rent by the villages, but paid, clothed, and fed by the Prince. But besides this number actually enrolled, each man has also a substitute, who is similarly instructed in the use of arms, ready to supply his place if he should be cut off in battle, or prevented by any other accident.

Mirza Bozurk, first Minister to the Prince, appeared to me by far the most superior man whom I saw in Persia. I brought a present to him from the Envoy, which, however, he advised me to offer to the Prince in my own name, as it was not the custom in their country to pay a visit empty-handed to a person of rank. I resisted this, because, in the first place, I saw no necessity for the visit at any rate, as I was merely a passenger through the province, and had no business at the court. I mention this trait of liberality, because it is so singular in his nation. He talked much of the state of improvement in which the Prince’s administration had brought the province of Aderbigian; never speaking of his own counsels or co-operation, to which so much is due, but always referring the whole merit to the talents of his Prince. He said, that within one year they had brought their artillery to a state of perfection which might rival that of their enemies the Russians; that their infantry had now learned the perfect use of arms; and that, by the acknowledgment of the Russians themselves, the Persian soldiers were now a match for them. He added, that no pains had been spared to acquire a knowledge of military tactics, and the theory of fortification, which they had gleaned from French and Russian books, translated by the Prince’s order into Persian. The Minister said, that the Prince was the only person in Persia who had a complete set of charts, besides drawings of every instrument and weapon used by Europeans in war. He told me that they had discovered in Aderbigian mines of iron and brass, which, entirely by their own ingenuity, they made productive; but that they still laboured under the greatest inconvenience from the want of proper artists and miners, and could not therefore derive the full profit which they might otherwise expect, or as yet reduce the price of their produce. According to the Minister, better guns are now cast at Tabriz than at Ispahan; and they had invented also a small kind of artillery, which was sufficiently light to be carried by mules keeping pace with the march of their cavalry over mountains and difficult passes.

When I offered to procure from England any books and other necessaries to facilitate their operations and give new light to those subjects upon which they were imperfectly informed; the Minister replied, that nothing in the world could afford greater satisfaction to the Prince and himself; but he added, “there is only one thing which England will keep from our knowledge, as she has done from every other nation, the art of building ships.” I assured him that England would furnish Persia not with instructions only, but with masters, as she had done for Turkey and Russia. He answered, “all this may be very true; but there is still an art which she possesses in matters of navigation which she will never disclose to any nation. If it be not so, how is it possible,” he continued, “that her ships should be so superior to all others, and that none have ever yet been able to defeat her in any combat at sea.” I answered, that her superiority consisted not in the ships, but, by the blessing of God, in the men that were in them; that, in fact, in building ships we were equalled, if not exceeded, by the French; and that the superiority could not rest in the vessels, since a considerable proportion of our navy consisted of prizes taken in battle. The Minister, however, was unconvinced, and continued to believe that there was some secret in our naval architecture on which our success depended. At our parting visit the Minister added, that the Prince was anxious to have some insight into the history of England, and desired me to bring with me on my return some book on the subject. He wished me also to procure for him histories of France and Russia, in order to compare them with those which he had already got; for, said he, “the English being known ever to tell the truth, and the French and Russians to be less scrupulous, the Prince will not be satisfied with what he has learnt, until He hears it confirmed by an English pen.”

During our residence at his capital, the Prince received intelligence of the discovery of a lead mine in the territory of Khalcal, fourteen fursungs from Tabriz, in the direction in which they had found mines of saltpetre and copper. As a specimen, a large piece of ore, almost pure and free from earth, was produced. At Bakouba there is a mine of sulphur. The district of Khalcal alone furnishes to the revenue of Aderbigian fifty thousand tomauns; the whole of that revenue was stated to me at seven hundred thousand; but whatever may be the correctness of this account which I received from a Persian, the province is certainly the choicest part of Persia that we saw.

The population of Tabriz is to all appearance much exaggerated; I was told indeed that it contained fifty thousand houses, and two hundred and fifty thousand persons. There are about two hundred Armenian families, who live in a Mahalé or parish by themselves. Tabriz manufactures a great number of silk stuffs, which are much used.

During our stay at Tabriz the Prince spent a day in the garden of Hajee Khan Mahomed. Whenever he wishes to shew any mark of attention, he sends to let the person know that he will be his guest on such a day. This sort of visit, however, generally costs the entertainer a large sum (in this instance two thousand tomauns) as the Prince is followed by his whole household. When he alights from his horse, shawls and gold stuffs are strewed on the ground, over which he walks: a part of the ceremony which is called the Pai-endaz.

28th. I dined with Mirza Hassan, son of the first Minister, Mirza Bozurk. There were a number of young and pleasant men, who would have enlivened any company; but they seemed to vie with each other in the marvellous. As a specimen; a Derveish had told one, that he was in his room when a shock of an earthquake threw him on the floor, where he lay for a long time in a trance; and on recovering, found himself, to his great surprise, extended in the court-yard, close under his apartment: a second shock having projected him senseless out of the window. Of slight-of-hand they recounted the most wonderful feats; and to all this, they swear by each other’s heads, eyes, sons, and fathers. The surest prognostic, indeed, of a falsehood is the number of emphatic oaths by which it is preceded. The Persians are called, with sufficient propriety, the Frenchmen of the East; they are indeed a talkative, complimentary, and insincere people, yet in manners agreeable and enlivening.

A description of the etiquettes of the court, or even of private life, in Persia, would be a work of endless and trifling minutiæ. They are such however, and so well recognised, and so easily observed and imitated by every class from their youth, and indeed (in the government under which they live) so strongly mark the gradations of rank, that no person, even of the meanest condition, is ignorant of his proper situation, and of the several etiquettes attached to it. In the education of a young man of family, the principal feature is the course of instruction which he receives in the forms and phrases of society. For that purpose, from the earliest age of the pupil, masters attend who teach the modes of salutation, and the appropriate compliments to superiors and inferiors. They also instruct him, where to sit on entering a Mujlis (or assembly); of whom he has the right of precedence, &c. and greater importance is assigned to this knowledge than almost to any thing else. Nothing marks this more strongly than the forms which gradually ascend in a regular scale from the peasant to the King. The first Minister appears under the same discipline of humiliation before his Majesty, as the Rayat, before the Ket Khoda of his village; and it is somewhat ridiculous to see that man, who sat in state in his Dewan, surrounded by a numerous circle of obsequious attendants, performing the next moment, in his turn, all the offices of one of those attendants before the King. In Persia, and I believe generally over the East, a son never sits down in the presence of his father. Thus the King’s sons always stand before him, and are regarded only as the first of his servants. Prince Abbas Mirza, who is Governor of Aderbigian, and Heir Apparent of the crown, when he repairs to the court of his father, appears there like any one of the other sons, with the single advantage of taking the precedence of the rest.

The King is never approached by his subjects without frequent inclinations of the body; and when the person introduced to his presence has reached a certain distance, he waits until the King orders him to proceed; upon which he leaves his shoes, and walks forwards with a respectful step to a second spot, until His Majesty again directs him to advance. No one ever sits before the King except relations of Kings, Poets, learned and Holy Men, and Embassadors: His Ministers and Officers of State are never admitted to the privilege. The place of honour is on the left. When an inferior visits a superior, he sits at a distance, and not on the same musnud. He places himself on the Nummud (the long carpet that skirts the room); nor even there, till he is desired: and, in approaching his superior, he is very careful to cover himself with his outer-coat, and to sit down directly on his heels, so that his feet are completely hidden. When a servant comes before his master, he makes an inclination of his body; and, when he goes away, he walks backwards until he reaches the door, where he makes another inclination.

There is as much etiquette in smoking as in sitting. No inferior calls for his kaleoon, until the superior has given the lead. No one can smoke before the King; and only particular persons before the Princes.

I had some conversation with a native of Mazanderan, who extolled the virtues of his countrymen, and complained of the ill-conduct of their rulers, in equal proportion. He himself had been despoiled of his property, and reduced almost to beggary; but, as he added, many from his province had gone to India, and by their abilities on a more favourable ground, had realized fortunes.

He told me that there were two entrances into Mazanderan; one, by the Pile Rud-bar, the road through which leads off the bridge over which we crossed the Kizzil Ozan; and the other, by the way of Resht on the borders of the sea. The Jungle, or wild woodland, is so impenetrable, that, according to his illustration, an arrow discharged from a bow cannot force it, but strikes on the exterior reeds. The Pile Rud-bar is perhaps the ancient Fauces Hyrcaniæ; and the accounts of Olearius, and other modern travellers, as well as the intelligence that I received, confirm the original tremendous descriptions. I had been told at Teheran, that men are stationed at different intervals to give notice to travellers of the approach of others in an opposite direction; for in the narrowest part two mules cannot pass, nor can they turn back. I was further told at Tabriz, that the great causeway built by Shah Abbas, is falling into total decay; and in some places is so much ruined, that though mules and horses may still travel upon it, camels can no longer be used. The avenues therefore to Mazanderan might be successfully guarded by twenty expert fusileers, against any force that could be brought. The people indeed had frequently petitioned their government to repair the causeway; but it has been the policy of the court to leave it in its present state, that in case of any necessity the King might retire there in safety, and defend himself in the inaccessible fastnesses which the condition of the province thus opposes to an enemy.

The vessels which navigate the Caspian, are (according to the same authority) very rude and ill-built, being planks put together without any caulking to their seams; the people are therefore obliged incessantly to bail the water off in buckets; for they have not learnt the use of pumps, a knowledge indeed to which alone he attributed the superiority of the Russian vessels.

He told me that the people of Ghilan have a language of their own, distinct from both the Persian and the Turkish, and bearing indeed no affinity to either; although, on questioning him further on the subject, I found that they had no books written in that language, and that it was merely a Patois, or corrupted Persian, which the common people spoke.

In continuing our conversation, he mentioned that near the town of Ashreff, on the West of Asterabad, is a tribe of people called Goudar, in number about one hundred houses, or five hundred souls, who inhabit the wild country in the neighbourhood. If my Mazanderan informer may be credited, they are of no religion; and in the intercourse of the sexes, appears to descend low into savage life. A man feeling an inclination for a woman, asks her mother’s leave to carry her out into the woods, where he passes two or three days with her; and then either lives with her himself, or returns her to her mother. Their principal food is the flesh of the wild hog, of which there are vast numbers in the district. These hogs are killed by the children of the tribe, who are exercised almost from the time that they can walk, in the bow and the matchlock, and are described, in consequence, as never erring shots.

From him too I received an account of their more celebrated neighbours the Turcomans, the confines of whose territory are close to Asterabad. They are Sunnis, and in consequence execrated by the Persians, who call them Giaours or Infidels. They live in tribes or eels, being subject to no particular master. Each tribe has, indeed, a nominal chief chosen by themselves, but possessing no further authority among them than that of settling differences, and arranging their civil economy. As a people, they have no fixed habitations; but carry about the tents in which they live, and which the Persians call Kara Khader, black tents. Their general characteristics are those common to all wandering nations; great hospitality within their own boundaries, and universal depredation abroad. The Turcomans make incursions into Persia; frequently crossing the wide intervening desert of sand, and surprising and carrying away from the centre of towns and villages men, women, and children. They, even now, extend their inroads as far as Koom, Kashan, Langarood, Nusserabad; and the ruined villages about Koom were destroyed by them. These Raids, which are called Chappow, are performed on horseback by parties of twenty or thirty with incredible speed and activity. Their horses (renowned over the East for swiftness and hardiness) support them admirably in these expeditions, as like their riders they undergo immense fatigue with a very small portion of food. They are, therefore, bought by the neighbouring nations at vast prices; which, (with the sale among other tribes of their captives, and of their camels, sheep, &c.) supply the chief source of the Turcoman’s wealth, and accumulate immense sums in ready money. The captives lead a wretched life: if young, they are sent into the interior to tend the cattle; but when they grow old and unfit for service, they are killed by their masters; who comfort their consciences by placing the skin of the deceased at the threshold of their door, in the belief that he approaches Paradise in proportion as his skin gets pierced with holes and worn out. On the other hand, their hospitality, the theme of so many pens, is not exaggerated. A stranger, laden with gold and precious stones, who claims protection at the tent of a Turcoman is sure to find it. He remains there as long as he pleases, his person and his property are in perfect safety, and, when he is desirous to depart, he is escorted by one of the tribe, which alone is a sufficient protection to him through the whole of their own district, and through every other kindred people. Caravans thus travel from Asterabad to Astrachan without molestation, and in the full security of the property which they convey. Turcomania is said to be extremely populous, but wholly uncultivated. The people feel not the want of corn, and are content therefore to live upon the flesh of horses, camels, and sheep, and on the milk of mares and camels. They excavate a large hole in the ground, in which they make a fire; and, placing the meat in the embers, cover it up until it be baked. To the Northward of Turcomania are the Kamchauks, who inhabit a desert, and are reported to be most ferocious and warlike, and hitherto unconquered. All these inhabit the Eastern borders of the Caspian Sea, called by the Persians Dereea-Kulzum.41 The Persians are at present at peace with the Turcomans, although they are still equally liable to be surprised by their Chappow parties. In the time even of Shah Abbas these depredations were carried to an inconceivable extent. Aga Mahomed Khan, the late King, made several attempts against them without any profit; and particularly indeed against the Kamchauks, where he met with a defeat. In former times the Turcomans used to make their attacks on the coasts of Ghilan and Mazanderan in boats. Now they are not so depredatory; because the country is more inaccessible, and the people, according to my informer, are more dextrous in their matchlock guns and bows; so much, indeed, are they improved, that, in the true Persian style, he added, “Twenty men of Mazanderan will beat one thousand Turcomans.”

We recommenced our journey on the 1st of June; and on that day waited upon Mirza Bozurk to pay our respects to him on leaving Tabriz. He told us that we were now departing at a most lucky hour, for that this had been the morning fixed some time ago by the astrologers as the most fortunate for the Prince to leave his capital, preparatory to his usual summer campaign. He informed us, among other news, (that had just reached him from Constantinople) that the Turks had defeated the Russians, and had taken so many prisoners that they were selling them in the bazars at Constantinople.

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