"بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي من إعداد السيد المحترم جورج ناثانييل كورزون، عضو البرلمان." [‎١‎٩‎١] (٧١٤/٢٢٦)

POLITICS AND COMMERCE OF KIIORASAX
191
expects eventually to exercise, sovereignty over the whole of the
Turkoman tribes. Now it is believed that the Persian Yomuts
Weakness aie c l ll ^ e content, if fairly treated, to observe a reason-
Cental aHe alle g ia »ce to the Shah in order to escape the heavier
Govern- taxation of their brethren on the Russian bank of the
Atiek. 1 Every fresh disturbance, however, and still more
any evidence of the powerlessn ess of Persia to check it, provide just
such an excuse for advance as a Power with aggressive intentions
would welcome with avidity; and Persia must be careful that in
this critical region she is not found playing into her opponent's
hand. Had Russia intended at the time to play a forward instead
of a waiting game, she might have easily discovered an opportunity
in the recent disorders. That her secret sympathies were not on
the Persian side, was shown by the remarkable fact that the insur
gent Yomuts were found to be mainly supplied with Russian
breechloading rifles and cartridges.
Iiom the Astrabad province, with its appanage of acute
political problems, we have now crossed into Khorasan proper,
Bujnurd anC ^ ou 1 " faces turned in an easterly direction may
pursue oui inspection of the frontiers. TV^e pass from
the Turkomans to the Kurds, and in the Bujnurd district encounter
the first of the Kurdish communities whose ancestors were trans
planted by fehah Abbas about 1600 a.d . to the mountain border
of Khorasan. I have already in the chapter upon Kuchan described
with much fulness the circumstances under which these military
colonists entered the country, the conditions of their tenure, and
their present relations with the central power; and what I there
said will apply to Bujnurd equally with Kuchan. Whereas
Kuchan, however, is chiefly peopled with Zaferanlu Kurds, it is
the Shahdillu tribe who settled at Bujnurd. and still constitute
the large majority of its inhabitants. Like Kuchan, they are
ruled by a Khan, bearing the title of Ilkhani, who, though ap
pointed by the Shah, is selected usually in hereditary descent
from the reigning family; who collects his own revenues, and
furnishes in return a military contribution to the state, and who
is generally in a superior position to an .ordinary provincial
governor. The cavalry contingent supplied by the Ilkhani of
1 This is confirmed by the latest news (1891), according to which several
hundred Russian Yomuts have crossed into Persian territory, and have voluntarily
become the subjects of the Shah.