‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎221v] (449/722)

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with a flowing cloak. The manners of this race, though less rude than those
of the other tribes of Persia, retain much of the wildness and independence
of their ancestors.
u The diet of the Arabian tribes in Persia is more frugal than that of any
other of the inhabitants of that kingdom. It consists chiefly of dates.
But what others would consider a hardship, habit with them has converted
into an enjoyment; and the Arab deems no food more delightful than that
upon which he lives.
“ The Arabian tribes in Persia possess the power of flying from oppression
when they cannot resist it. The sea is always open to them, and they are
accustomed to that element. Not only the islands of the gulf, but the neigh
bouring territories of Turkey and the opposite coast of Arabia, are inhabited
by their brethren; and these circxrmstances, combined with their original
habits, give a freedom of sentiment and expression to this race of men that
is very striking.
“ Though no country has undergone during the last twenty centuries
more revolutions than the kingdom of Persia, there is, perhaps, none that is
less altered in its condition. The power of the sovereigns and of the satraps
of ancient times; the gorgeous magnificence of the court; the habits of the
people, their division into citizens, martial tribes, and savage mountaineers;
the internal administration and mode of warfare,—have continued essentially
the same; and the Persians, as far as we have the means of judging, are
at the present period not a very different people from what they were in
the time of Darius and of Naushfrwan.
“ Almost all the sovereigns of Persia have been religious, or were at least
punctual observers of the forms of the faith which they professed. This is
essential (even if they were not sincere) to the support of their power; and its
necessity is inculcated from infancy. Lessons of morality are not thought
to be so important. Every monarch of Persia is considered at liberty to
indulge, from his earliest youth, in the grossest sensuality. The boundless
gratification of his passions is deemed a privilege of his condition; and we
may perhaps trace to this, beyond all other causes, that constant change of
dynasties which we meet with in the history of this country. Families are
elevated to power by the efforts of some great and extraordinary man. His
immediate successors, stimulated by his example and by the necessity of
exertion to maintain and extend the dominion that his courage and talents
have acquired, pursue the same path; but their descendants are destroyed by
the fame of their forefathers. Instructed to believe themselves born to rule,
they conceive that they have only to enjoy the power which they inherit.
They give themselves up to the luxury by which they are courted; listen
to the flatterers by whom they are surrounded,—till, enervated and subdued
by a life of indolence and vice, they fall before a popular chief of their own
country, or a foreign enemy.
“ A monarch of Persia acknowledges nothing as obligatory upon him but
the ritual observances of his religion. Mercy, generosity, and justice he
admits to be virtues, but considers them as royal qualities, not duties.
Accustomed to have every look obeyed, and to complete submission to his
authority, he is as impatient of any obstacle to the fulfilment of his desires
as he is insensible to the value of devoted service.
“ There is, perhaps, nothing more difficult than for a monarch of Persia
to continue humane, even if that should be his natural disposition. The
constant habit of directing and witnessing executions must, in the course of