'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎173v] (351/610)

tribe in Kujiir, P 8 i and Kalardasht, in the west of Mazandaran,
were sent primarily to over-awe the original inhabitants. Turki,
Kurd! and Lakk tribes were transplanted by Nadir Shah to
the Kasvin province within easy reach of Tehran probably in
order to break their power in their own country.
The tribes were assigned the role of furnishing military con
tingents of “ sarbaz ” (foot soldiers) and “sowars” for the
“fauj” (regiment) of the district, which was recruited on a
local territorial system, and in return land was allotted to them
free and they were exempted from paying the ordinary
“ maliat ” (land-tax) to the State.
Their profession was soldiering, they were migratory between
“ yailaq ” and “qishlaq” and few tribesmen were engaged in
agriculture, which was left to the original inhabitants (“ra’ayat,”
“ tat,” or “ gil ”) who provided the pay of the soldiers.
Frori? the commencement of the reign of Nasir-ud-Dln Shah
through the latte'r part of the 19th century Russia became too
powerful for the Persian Army any longer to offer armed opposi
tion to her advance along the Northern frontiers of Persia, while
in the south, after the lesson of 1856-7, the Shah had learned
not to provoke Great Britain by further aggression on Afghanis
tan. Peace consequently reigned on the frontiers while inter-,
nally the country was no longer, as in the 18th century, dis
turbed by civil wars, so that few calls were made on the Persian
Army. The decline was accelerated in the reign of Muzaffar-ud-
I)In Shah, until, since the revolution, the old regular army has
entirely passed away. As a result of this decay of the army
these tribes ceased to be engaged in military pursuits and,
severed from their own country, they have for the most part
lost their tribal instincts and organization. The majority are
no longer migratory between ‘ summer ’ and ‘ winter ’ quarters
and have settled down to agriculture, in several cases inter
married with their neighbours and become assimilated to them,
especially in Mazandaran, where the change of climate caused a
rapid decrease in their numbers and the tribesmen are now for
the most part indistinguishable from the Mazandaranis in their
physique and unhealthy appearance. In the Turk! districts
there is no means of distinguishing the “II” from the
“Ra’ayat” as both are Turki, and in other parts their
original language, which they still employ among themselves,
is often the only indication of the presence of an alien tribe.
The land allotted to the tribe has in most cases been appro
priated by the chiefs and is now held by them as their own
property with right of sale and purchase. The feudal power of
these hereditary officers (sahibmansab) or heads (sarkardch)
of tribes is perhaps even more excessive than in the case of other