'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎246] (285/714)

246
PERSIA
distance I accomplished in the comfortable time of nine days,
doing an average of sixty miles a day, but in reality combining
days of seventy miles with shorter spans. This is slow rather
than speedy travelling for Persia; 1 and I afterwards became easily
habituated to journeys of seventy-five to eighty miles in the day.
Telegraph officials and residents in the country seldom do less, and
frequently more. The post which goes through from Meshed to
Teheran without stopping, but with first claim upon.the horses at
each station, covers the distance in from five to six days. Dr.
Wills reports having ridden from Isfahan to Teberan, about 280
miles, in thirty-nine and a half hours; 2 whilst officers travelling
by day alone and resting at night have accomplished 120 miles
between dawn and leaving the saddle.
Quick riding is indeed an accomplishment for which the Persians
have always been famous, and notable records in which have-been
Speed of achieved even by their kings. Abbas the Great, 300 years
locomo- ago, rode from Shiraz to Yezd in twentv-eierht and a half
^ 10n 11 • Til
hours, the Astronomer Royal being commanded to take the
time. Malcolm gives the distance as eighty-nine farsakhs, or 303
miles; :i but, though modern measurements have reduced it to 220
miles, it was still no mean performance. Agha Mohammed Khan,
the founder of the reigning dynasty, fleeing to Mazanderan on the
death of Kerim Khan Zend, rode from Shiraz to Isfahan—a
distance, by whatever route, of not much under 300 miles—in less
than three days. Fath Ali Shah, his nephew, upon succeeding to
the throne, rode from Shiraz to Teheran, a distance of at least 550
miles, in six days. Fraser mentions the case of a Persian, Agha
Bahram, who kept the best horses in the country, and who once on
the same Arab horse rode from Shiraz to Teheran in six days, rested
three days, rode back in five days, rested nine days, and performed
the journey a third time in seven days. 4 But the most remarkable,
because the most sustained performance of which I have ever read
was that of the dragoman who, in 1804, rode from Constantinople
1 And yet I find a French officer {Notes de Voyage (Vuti Hussard, par le Comte
de Sabran, p. 225) who, having accomplished the journey in the same leisurely
time in 1888, writes a book to say that General Maclean expressed himself as
stupefied with his astonishing performance, and told him that an English officer,
who had done the journey in ten days, had fallen seriously ill in consequence ! Sir
H. Eawlinson once rode it in six.
Persia as It Is, p. 296. 8 IHstory of Persia, vol. i. p- 345.
4 A Winter's Journey, vol. ii. p. 319.