‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎285v] (577/722)

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Tliere is little or nothing to be said in favour of the officers of the Persian
sunay. They are thoroughly ignorant of all military science, and the higher
the rank they hold, the less efficient they seem to be. Nearly all below
the rank of major are entirely without education ; and they have no social
position, such as Europeans would be disposed to accord to them in view of
the rank which they hold in the army. The Persian sarbaz, however,
possesses all the qualities needed to make a good soldier. He is courageous,
intelligent, and sober,—always cheerful and ready for work, obedient, and
possessing powers of endurance of fatigue, only equalled by his endurance
of ill-treatment. He is seldom driven to open resistance by ill-usage ; and,
in the event of his occasionally showing a mutinous spirit in order to
obtain justice, he is satisfied with the mere semblance of redress, and is
ready to return to duty on receiving a few vague promises of better
treatment.
The ‘ etat major ' is composed of the minister of war, two sardars,
several generals of division, and a number of sartips, of whom there are
three classes. The number of officers appointed to it varies frequently,
according to the caprice of the Shah and the minister of war. It gener
ally numbers from 80 to 100, being in excess of what is required for the
army. Some of the officers belonging to it can neither read nor write.
They have few opportunities for illicit exactions ; and this branch of the
service is, therefore, by no means popular.
A regiment of infantry, 1,000 strong, costs the Persian government
about 20,000 tumans, or £8,000, annually.
A regiment of irregular cavalry of the same strength costs about double
that amount.*
Nearly half the annual revenue of Persia is absorbed in the payment of
the Persian army, which costs the Shah 8^ erores of tumans, or about
£1,600,000. Included in the military department, however, are many
princes, khans, and mirzas, employed as civilians and in the provincial
governments, who have really nothing to do with military matters; and
these all draw their pay from the army budget, which is thus made to
appear larger than it actually should be.
The ancient history of Persia occupies an important place in the annals
History of Persia -^ s i a > b 11 " 0 the modern history cannot be said to
commence until the establishment of the Safavian
or Sophi dynasty—about the commencement of the sixteenth century.
A broad chasm of nearly nine centuries separates the modern from the
* Colonel Demoutovitch, a Russian Cossack officer, with three commissioned and five non-com
missioned officers, lias been engaged for the last twelve months in drilling a body of Persian irre
gular horse (nmhajiran), as a bodyguard for the Shah. These officers have a contract for two
years. They have now 600 men under their command, and it is proposed to raise the number to
800 or 1,000. The men are dressed and equipped in imitation of Russian Cossacks, and are
armed with Berdan rifles, swords, and poniards. The rifles (1,000) were presented last year by the
Emperor to the Shah: they yost the Russian government 77 francs a-piece. The swords and
poniards are made in lihran after a Russian model: they are good and cheap,—a sword costing
12j krans, a poniard 7s krans.
This cavalry regiment at its present strength of 600 costs the Persian government about
45,000 tumans annually, which is considerably more than double the amount the same number of
irregular horse womd cost. Each man enrolled for such service in the irregular cavalrv receives 25
tumans a year, with a daily allowance for food for himself and horse when on active duty ; and he
provides his horse and arms himself.