"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [ظ‎‎٢‎٧‎٠] (٧٢٢/٥٤٧)

494
Cf The cavalry receive no pay, and furnish their own horses, arras, and
equipments, but look to plunder. Commanded by their ‘ ocontihars/ the
practice is permanently kept up, villages being assigned for their support.
The royal guard are regulars (ghulam-i-pfsh-khidmat and ghulam-i-shah),
and are well mounted and armed.
“Artillery, horse and camel.—The horse artillery is organised on the
English system ; cameT f zamburaks/ Horse, 3 regiments, each of 8 troops
or batteries, with 162 officers, 3,258 non-commissioned officers and gunners,
and 4,368 horses. Also a reserve of 3 batteries, 600 men and horses.
Total—4,000 men, 5,000 horses, and 162 guns. Each battery, 5 guns and
1 howitzer; the heavy batteries, 12 and 24 howitzers; the light of 9, 6,
or 3, with 12 howitzers. Each battery has 9 wagons, a rocket-carriage,
and a spare gun-carriage.
“The guns are worked by mounted detachments, 8 horses for each, 12 or
9 prs. or 24 howitzers, and 6 for the others. Guns and carriages, all
on English models, and very serviceable; also English weights and mea
sures. And the Practical Gunner is their guide.
“The zamburakchis consist of 4 companies, each of 50 men. Each man
mounted on a camel, and carries his zamburak fixed in front of the wooden
saddle. The piece resembles a short musquetoon with a stock and flintlocks,
carrying a ball of 13 oz., the whole weighing 75 lbs. Total load, including
driver and ammunition, 450 lbs.
“ The artillery is the most efficient arm, and is kept tolerably comfortable.
Their pay is one-third higher than infantry; and the officers rank a grade
higher.
“There are several well-stored arsenals. Tib ran is the most important,
including a foundry, gun-carriage and small-arm manufactory, labo
ratory, &c.
“ The material of the Persian army is excellent. The men are tall, power
ful, active, and intelligent, sober and temperate, capable of great endurance,
and not deficient in courage, but generally averse to discipline, inclined to be
mutinous, notorious liars, and incorrigible plunderers.
“The arms, equipments, horses, and guns, are good. Horses, either for
cavalry or baggage. The prices of horses for artillery or cavalry, from 20
to 40 tumans (£10 to 20); strong yabiis, from 8 to 12 tumans. Camels
for artillery, 10 to 15 tumans, their ordinary load being about 120 Tabrizi
maunds, or 6 cwt.
“ The king's bodyguard consists of 12,000 men, taken indiscriminately
from the tribes or from the population of the cities, but principally from
Mazandaran and the tribes connected with the king’s own race. They
have their families and homes at Tihran and in the neighbouring villages,
and are ready at every call. They are divided into bodies of three thousand
men, and do duty by turns in the king’s palace, called the ( arg.’ They are
called kashakchis, or guards; and every such body has a sar kashakchi, or
head of the guard, who always attends when his corps is on duty; and on
the relief of the guard, a mirza belonging to the corps reads over every
man s name, and in case of non-attendance the defaulter receives punish
ment. Hiese sar kashakchis are men of so much family and distinction,
that one of the king’s own sons enjoys the dignity. The kashakchis are
distributed in all parts of the palace, and are always seen on guard on the