'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎598] (665/714)

698
PERSIA
or tribes, the selection of the individual and the command of the
whole being left to the chief or governor of the area concerned.
Regular Some districts, accordingly, supply far more than their due"
infantry quota; others much . g lamentat . on
when the order for a levy of recruits comes round, the lot of the
Persian serhaz being so supremely unattractive that few would
voluntarily espouse it. As a rule the villagers settle among
themselves the choice of recruits, clubbing together in order to pay
an allowance to the courageous individual (or to his family in his
absence) who is willing to go. This informal payment is known
as I'haneh-wari (i.e. home pay), and varies from 3 to 20 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. a
year, the average being 8 to 10 tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. , or about U. 10^. ; but the
soldier cannot count upon it with certainty, and in many cases it
is not paid at all. Service is for life, unless the soldier can scrape
together sufficient money to buy a discharge from his colonel or
can bribe a substitute to take his place; and the ranks contain on
the one hand, beardless boys of fifteen or sixteen, and, on the other
many greyheaded and toothless old dotards who can scarcely
hobble through the movements on parade. Christians, Jews, and
rarsis, as well as the cultivators of crownlands, are exempt from
military service. Theoretically, out of every three years the
infantry soldier is supposed to spend two on service and one at
lome But if this were so, a far larger number would be found
with the colours than is actually the case. As a matter of fact
considerably more than half the regiments are disbanded; and of
lose that are mobilised, few display more than two thirds of
t eir nominal strength. In the case of each infantry regiment the
latter consists of ten companies, each of 100 officers and men—i.e.
a total of 1,000. Ihe actual strength is ten companies, with an
average^ o seventy each, or a total ot 700. The complement of
o cers is as follows One commanding officer (sometimes sertip =
general sometimes serhang = colonel), two majors (yawar), one
adjutant (ajudan), ten captains (sultan), ten first lieutenants
{naib-i-awal), ten second lieutenants (naib-i-doyum), ten ensigns
{begzadehs), one quartermaster (veMl-bashi-a captain or lieutenant),
one bandmaster (a captain or lieutenant). The non-commissioned
cers o eac i company are : one sergeant, four corporals (sarjuki),
and eight chiefs of tens (on-bashi). \ J »
' f is a table of the nominal pay of the Persian
in antry. While on active service all three allowances are supposed