'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎271] (342/748)

THE SOUTH-WESTERN PROVINCES
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occur in the provinces to which my survey of the Persian dominions
has now brought me. Here are to be found at once the most
interesting, the most original, and the least generally known, of the
subjects of the Shah.
Before I proceed to their examination, let me premise that
nomad life everywhere in Persia (and, indeed, wherever I have seen
General ^ tlie Bedouin of Arabia and the Turkoman of the Desert
character- presenting much the same characteristics) exhibits certain
common features which are predicable of it, independently
of race and politics. These are features, firstly, of organisation,
and secondly, of character. Tribal and clan feeling is very strong.
A patriarchal form of government, i.e. deference to elders or headmen,
successively of the household or tent, of the village or camp, of the
clan, and of the tribe, is universal. Obedience and loyalty are ob
served within these limits, but not outside them. Taxation is only
successfully exacted by a Government that employs this machinery ;
and the intrusion of a civil revenue officer would be a perilous ex
periment. A military contribution is commonly exacted by the
State, its selection and equipment being left to the chief. The
semi-independence thus created renders the nomad tribes very
sensitive of restraint and prone to rebellion, the more so as Govern
ment interference has never in Persia presented itself to them
except in the guise of mean and odious interference with their
cherished privileges, of ready-lipped perfidy, or of heartless extor
tion. Undeniable virtues of character are balanced in them by
frank and unrepented vices. They are hospitable, domestic, simple-
minded, innocent of the foul debaucheries of the city Persian. On
the other hand, they are rough, ignorant, aud sometimes fierce,
they glory in plunder, 1 and are, in many cases, adroit thieves.
Little practical religion is known to them but that of blood, which
vents itself in family feuds, pursued with unslaked ferocity till
1 Many amusing stories are related of the hereditary taste for plunder of the
nomad Asiatic tribes. Malcolm took one of their chiefs to India in 1801, and
asked him what he thought of Calcutta. His eyes glistened, and he replied,
* What a noble place to plunder I' This reminds one of the anecdote of the
Frenchman, who, when conducted to the polished granite tomb-chamber in the
heart of the Great Pyramid, exclaimed, 'Quel joli emplacement pour un billard!'
A similar story is related of an Uzbeg chief, who, hearing Begi Jan of Bokhara
dilate upon the sweets of Paradise, asked him if there was any chapau, or
raiding, there. 4 No/ was the answer. ' Ah, then,' he said, ' Paradise won't do
for me/