'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎63] (104/748)

FROM ISFAHAN TO SHIRAZ
63
have always been kept a number of sacred fish. Two centuries
ago the sanctity of these creatures was indicated, as Chardin and
Dr. Fryer acquaint us, by 4 their Noses and Finns being hung with
Gold Rings; besides these here were Ducks devoted to as foppish
a Maintenance. 5 The declining fervour or the more practical
temper of modern times may be variously held accountable for the
disappearance of these evidences of distinction, but the fish still
remain. The tomb of the saint reposes behind a brass trellis or
grating beneath the blue-tiled dome.
On the further side of Kumisheh extends a level plain, fringed
by mountains on the left or eastern side, which was the scene of
Battle -field a fought in 1835 between the army of Mohammed
of 1835 Shah, commanded by Sir H. Lindsay-Bethune, and the
combined forces of two of his uncles, the Firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). Firma (previously
Governor-General of Fars) and his brother. Hasan Ali Mirza (the
Shuja-es-Sultaneh), who, upon the death of old Fath Ali Shah,
combined to dispute the succession of their nephew to the throne.
The royal forces consisted only of two regiments of regular infantry,
some cavalry, and twenty guns—less than 4,000 men in all. The
pretenders had a much larger army, but were deficient in artillery,
in which Lindsay (or Linji, as the Persians called him) had a de
cided advantage. A mist separated the two forces, who are said
to have been unaware of each other's propinquity until the Arme
nian wife of Colouel Shee, serving in the Shah's army, heard a
shot fired in the opposite camp. Bethune then took the enemy by
surprise, and aided by his guns, which battered down the walls of
a deserted village in which they had stationed themselves, soon put
them to flight. Marching rapidly upon Shiraz, he there took
prisoner the two claimants and sent them captive to Teheran. The
rebellion was thus crushed at the outset.
Several villages are passed in the hollow of the plain on the
right hand, and eventually the hamlet of Kishara is reached lying
Maksud ^ a, depression at a little distance off the road. Here is
B eggi a village and the chapar-Mianeh^ but the stage takes its
name from the walled village of Maksud Beggi (a little farther on
and nearer the eastern valley-wall), which itself, according to
Chardin, was named from 4 the late Lord Steward of Persia,' to
whom it owed its elevation. On the next stage to Yezdikhast, a
distance of twenty-five miles, I only passed one place on the way.
This was Aminabad, the Abode of Trust or Safety, originally erected