‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎304r] (614/722)

the less said about their earnestness and integrity the better. So lonff as
governorships are obtained by bribery (taaruf), and regarded as opportunities
ot making perquisites (mudakhil), there can be no hope of effectual improve
ment from within. No Persian placeman, whether governor of a province
or naib of some petty district, has any assurance that bribery or intrigue
at head-quarters will not oust him tomorrow ; so he makes what he can
while he has time, on the familiar Pastern principle of converting power into
money. Ihe men who have done most for Persia, whose names are held in
grateful lemembrance to this day, and whose works stand as memorials of
them and earn them the blessings of hundreds of travellers (including here
and there a stray European), have been men of local estate and influence,
such as the Mushir of Shiraz or the Vakil Elected representative or attorney, acting in legal matters such as contracting marriage, inheritance, or business; a high-ranking legal official; could also refer to a custodian or administrator. -ud-daulat of Karman, the hered-
itary grandees of a province, whom the central authority was fain to
leave undisturbed till their death gave an opportunity of breaking the
family influence. The spirit which prompted these men exists still in the
country, if it were encouraged by permanence of office. ' One meets with
Persian officials who are able to govern. Patch All Khan, of Lar, is one
example ; the Zil-us-Suitan is another. Isfahan and Yazd are well admin
istered ; yet it is quite uncertain how long the prince will retain these
provinces, let alone the rest of his wide dominions. Even now, perhaps,
the signs of disfavour have begun to appear. The evil effects upon the
country of this uncertain tenure of office are much intensified, of course,
in a famine. No governor, who holds his place merely by favour, dare
grant any remission on account of perished crops. It will be a long time
before Ears recovers from the late famine. The province wants careful
nursing; and is not in the least likely to get any. For the rest, as to
isolated acts of misgovernment, such as taking away the subject’s wife,
or appropriating the produce of his orchard or date-grove, I doubt if
they are so numerous as to constitute in themselves a grievous check upon
the happiness of the people in general. In fact, the state of Persia
might be sensibly improved, if the one fault of niggardliness at head-quarters
could be overcome. The Shah has good intentions; but he grudges to
spend his savings. Hence the neglect to pay the levies sent against the
Kurds in Azarbaijan, and the consequent sacking of Persian villages by
the hungry troops. But even as it is, in spite of niggardliness, mis
government, and famine, the progress male by Persia within the last ten
years is unmistakable. The roads are safer than they have ever been; a
postal route has been established from Karman to Bandar Abbas ; telegraph
lines have been laid from Karman to Isfahan, from Tihran to Mashhad
eastwai’d, and to the Caspian northward; and in Arabistan the cultivation
of the poppy has greatly increased. The trade of Karman, Yazd, and
Isfahan has gone on growing ; Sistan and western Baluchistan have
been reduced to order ; the capital has been greatly improved, and new
roads have been made connecting it with the Caspian. Possibly a
railway will be made some day from Tihran to Kasvin ; though it is said
that one of the princes has been cutting into the young embankment for
clay wherewith to bake bricks for his country-house. If peaceable gov
ernment continues as at present, the natural tendency to the accumula
tion of wealth, with its concomitant advantages, may be trusted to over
come all drawbacks and defects in Persia, as in most countries of the world.
It is not certain, however, that Persia will always be left free to develop
herself after her own fashion. The shadow of Russia hangs over her
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