'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎45r] (94/610)

77
the advance
med to Ktijc
t Khurraml:
4 miles disk
tkeptitsecif.
1 to his arre.
is father Sift
i, and betas
went on f®
rofthereW
n Gorenaitt
hran.
in Ealaristi:
lependenfljt
f the Cossad
Mon, ffto
! gossip afe
ling stetioi
entered tk
reeks after-
io. 50) as
is ceased h
tempoiaii’j
) was the w
n about IS®
his rehp
;I1( 1 joined f'
lalai(NO' 31il
m 5 .I 1 . He^
Gilan, probably at 1 Turkish instigation with the idea of stirring
up trouble against the Russians, and went with Salar Fatih
(No. 61) to Kujur, and thence via Tunakabun to Rasht. He
gained a nucleus of adherents, including Haji Ahmad (No.
70), a well-to-do merchant who provided funds, with his brother
Kerbelax Ibrahim, and Dr. Hashmat. In August the band
repaired to the 2 Jangal, West of Kasma, the centre of the
district of Fumen, 18 miles West of Rasht, accompanied by a
number of riff raff, started an anti-Russian agitation in the
name of the Ittihad-i-Islam (Alliance of Islam) and declared
their intention of expelling the Russians from Gilan.
These activities attracted the attention of the Russians
who urged Hashmat-ud-Dauleh (No. 12), the Governor General
of Gilan to put a stop to them. A party of Shaftls stationed
by him to guard the ford at Passikhan on the Rasht-Kasma
road were attacked by the Jangalls in October and fled to
Rasht, whereupon Zargham-us-Sultaneh (former title of Sardar Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division.
Muqtadir, see No. 78), despatched his brother Shuja'-i-DIvan
with 200 Talish sowars against the band. The Jangalls re
tired to Masuleh and after a little desultory skirmishing and
very thorough looting of the district of Fumen, which served
to embitter the people against the Government and make
them pro-Jangall, Shuja’-i-DIvan returned to Talish. In view
of the ill success of these steps undertaken by Persian
officialdom against the Jangalls, in December the Russians sent
a force of 150 Russian and 50 Persian Cossacks from Rasht to
Fumen, and, prepared to send 300 more from Enzall. The
Russians, however, fared worse than the _ preceding Persian
expedition. They were surprised and cut up at Makalvan, and
lost all their ammunition and equipment. The survivors fled
back to Passikhan and Rasht.
The Jangalls, anticipating trouble, retired to Masuleh,
and when threatened by a Russian punitive expedition on a
1 It is uncertain to what extent the Turks were concerned in the inception ot the
enterprise. The fact however, that Kuchik Khan’s hand seem to have started
well provided with arms and money is suggestive of Turkish assistance, and as
early as January 1916 a Turkish officer was taken prisoner from among the
Jangalls. In 1917-8 they were actively co-operating with Turks and Germans,
took part in the organization for assisting ex-prisoners to escape from C entral
Asia to Persia and employed German and Turkish officers as military instructors.
Five letters were obtained by the British Legation in 1919 which had been written
in 1917-18 to Kuchik Khan from General von Kress, head of the German Military
Mission to the Caucasus, M. Wustrow, German agent at Tabriz, General Khalil
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. who commanded the Turkish army in Mesopotamia, and an unidentified
Turkish agent, which prove him to have been a paid agent of the enemy in his
'hostilities”against the British.
* Whence they came to be known as ‘Jangall,’ plural ‘Jangaliha,' le.; people
>of the forest.