Correspondence and Papers on Persia [‎48r] (85/107)

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case, though perhaps not to the same extent as the more
ancient races which preceded the Mahommedan
invasion—without the existence of these internal
resources being discovered and turned to account.
That the regions, however, which are contained
within the present limits of the Persian Empire,
can never have been possessed of any great natural
wealth, is evident from the traces which exist of the mode
of life of its more ancient inhabitants, which shews that
their position hardly differed from those of the present
day, as far as the degree of material comfort attained by
them. They must, to all appearance, have lived in the
same mud villages, and travelled by the same miserable
paths which still constitute the sole means of communica
tion ; and if the remains of magnificent ruins are to be
seen here and there, as in the case of Persepolis, these
are not to be interpreted as the signs of a general con
dition of prosperity on the part of the inhabitants of the
country at the period of their construction very greatly
exceeding that of the present day, but rather as proofs of
the greater despotic power of its rulers, who could thus
accumulate round themselves, and expend upon their own
personal gratification, the wealth extracted from the
country which should have been applied to the benefit of
the community. The existence of these remains, however,
proves that in those days the sums thus accumulated were
made use of in a more civilized and refined manner than
under the present regime, under which they are mostly
squandered in ways for which no return is visible, or
hoarded for purposes of barbaric display.
29. There is another point to be taken into considera
tion in a comparison of the region at present distin-
Ancient guished as constituting the Persian Empire,
i eram. that contained in more ancient times
within the limits implied by the same designation, and
that is, that the ancient Empire of Persia included almost
the whole of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia down to the
mouth of the Euphrates, a great part of which even now is
some of the most productive country in the world, and
the whole of which, previous to the influx of the Arabs,
and its subsequent subjugation to all the vagaries and
venality of Turkish rule, was famous for the richness of
its resources ; w hereas the present Persia includes, for the
most part, an area within which, for obvious reasons, the
extent of cultivable land constitutes only a percentage
upon the whole area, while a very great part of it is swal
lowed up in a huge desert which is absolutely valueless
for all purposes of production.
Towards the south and west, indeed, the country
assumes a more promising aspect, but both these quaiters
are inhabited principally by unsettled and warlike tiibes,
whose existence is rather an element of menace to the
public security than of access to the national prosperity,
in spite of the superior advantages of the districts in
w T hich they are found.
30. The population of the Persian Empire comprises,
as is the case with most Asiatic countries, races of every
variety of origin. Taking the three
Principal Races, great divisions into which the area over
their distribu- Empire extends has been
roughly divided in paragraph 1 of this
Memorandum, it may be remaike
that:—
(1) The Northern Division contains races mainly of
Tartar or Turkish origin. _
(2) The Western Division contains those of Turkish
or Arab descent, besides various distinct and semi inde
pendent tribes, such as the Kurds, Bakhtiaris, Luis, and
numerous others, whose presence among the other in
habitants, as well as the inaccessible natuie of the it