"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [ظ‎‎٢‎٢‎٣] (٧٢٢/٤٥٣)

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kingdom ; but they cannot be deemed exempt from that vice, though it is
corrected by their pride and violence. Arrogant from birth, and surrounded
from infancy by devoted dependents, their minds are habituated to overrate
their own pretensions and depreciate those of others. When inflamed with
passion, they in an instant lose all that courtly manner which they are accus
tomed to assume, and give way to the most ungovernable rage. They sel
dom suffer from the bold imprudence of the language which they use on
these occasions, as they can always plead in excuse the habits of the rude
class to which they belong ; and the consideration they demand upon this
ground is hardly ever refused, even by the monarch himself, if he has
been the object of their intemperance. The character of these military nobles
may be said to change with the state of their country. When that is settled
for any long period, they lose a great deal of their native honesty and vio
lence. Educated at the capital, where in youth they are generally kept as
ho stages for the good conduct of their fathers, and compelled to constant
attendance on the king after they have attained manhood, they become in time
courtiers, and are not, except in being more haughty, materially different
from the other nobles and principal officers of the country. We can neither
praise them nor any other of the higher ranks in Persia for their strictness
in either moral or religious duties. To the former, they do not even pre
tend to give much attention; and though they are careful as to the observ
ance of”all the forms of the latter, they often appear indifferent as to the
substance, and are in the habit of discussing the tenets and dogmas of their
faith with a freedom that sometimes borders upon impiety.
“ The character of the Iliat,* or men who continue to dwell in tents, is
very opposite to that of the inhabitants. They have the virtues and vices
of their condition,—are sincere, hospitable, and brave j but lude, violent,
and rapacious. They are not in need of falsehood and deceit, and therefore
not much in the habit of practising them. But if they have fewer vices
than the citizens of Persia, it is evidently the absence of temptation and
the ignorance of luxury and refinement, which give them all the superiority
theylooast; for it is remarked that they never settle in towns, or enter them
as victors, without exceeding the inhabitants in every species of profligacy.
« The females of Persia, who dwell in towns, are usually placed in the
situation of slaves, and have, therefore, many of those qualities which belong
to that condition. The different shades of character of a race, who can hardly
be said to have any influence in the community, is of little importance ; and if
it were otherwise, we cannot have sufficient information on the subject to
form any correct judgment upon it. If common report is to be credited, or
if we grant our belief to the tales of Persian writers, the art and inge
nuity of the women of that country are very often successful in eluding
the jealous vigilance of their domestic tyrants. Of the females of the
wandering tribes we have already spoken. They enjoy a fair portion of
liberty ; and if they are inferior to the natives of cities in beauty of person
and softness of manner, they are superior to them in industry, in chastity,
and many other virtues. We meet, indeed, with frequent examples among
this class of an elevation of sentiment and an heroic courage, which nothing
but the freedom of their condition could inspire.
“ In speaking generally of the inhabitants of Persia, we may describe
them as a handsome, active, and robust race of men, of lively imagination,
S
s