'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎186] (221/714)

186
PEHSIA
larly occupied, without permission, by abody of Cossacks, and for some
time held by them in force. It was in 1G68, we learn from the omni
scient Chardin, 1 that the Cossacks of South Russia, being instigated
by the Grand Duke of Muscovy to attack Persia in revenge for a
slight which had been put upon his embassy by Shah Abbas
the (xreat, invaded Mazanderan and sacked his capital, Ferahabad.
Thereupon, intending to winter in Persia, they entrenched them
selves on the ' peninsula of Mionne Kelle, or Middle-sized Horn, a
tongue of land that runs forward into the Caspian Sea about ten or
eleven leagues, and abounds in harts, Avild boars, wild goats, and
other sorts of wild venison," The Persians promptly attacked
them, and, bolder or more fortunate than their nineteenth-century
descendants, succeeded in ousting the intruders, who, however, took
refuge in Ashurada, and remained there for a time.
Nor is this the only occasion upon which Russian forerunners
have appeared upon the scene, or have been within measurable
Peter the distance of seizing Astrabad. Fifty years later, in 1722-3,
Great Peter the Great, who had a very shrewd notion of the
proper strategical positions to be occupied, and who, although his
alleged will be apocryphal, entertained very clearly defined ideas
of a Central Asian dominion, taking advantage of the disordered
condition of Persia consequent upon the Afghan invasion in T722,
and utilising as his plea the robbery and slaughter of a number of
his subjects in Persian towns near the border, prepared to invade
the country from the north. This project was never carried out
in its entirety ; although the Russian army, led by himself, advanced
in 1 722 as far as Derbend. The submission of Gilan and surrender
of Baku in the following year were, however, sufficient to extort
from the young Shah, Tahmasp II., who was endeavouring to make
headway against the Afghan usurpers, a treaty, ceding to Russia
Derbend and Baku with their dependencies, and the entire provinces
of Gilan, Mazanderan, and Astrabad ; in return for which magnifi
cent donation—which by the way the young Shah was hardly in a
position at the time to make—the Russian army was to drive the
Afghans out of the country. 2 The Russians occupied Gilan for a
1 Coronation of King Solyman III. (printed as a supplement to his Travels')
pp. 152-154.
- The treaty was dated September 3, 1723. Its terms are given by Hanway,
Historical Account of British Trade over the Caspian, vol. iii. p. 181. For a more
minute account of the Russian occupation, vide a later chapter of this volume,