"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [ظ‎‎٢‎٧‎٩] (٧٢٢/٥٦٥)

512
Paragraph 5 of the memorandum is inexact. The lashkarnavis has either
odven wilfully wrong information, or else he has counted merely the strength
of the regiments when sent to Tihran for garrison duty. He has left out
several regiments, which only rarely come to Tihran. The total number of
men enrolled and drilled (as far as Persian drill goes) may be taken at
53 000, and the number of organised battalions at 70.
' 6 Por the actual numbers present with the colours of each embodied
reo-iment at least 10 percent., or thereabouts, should be deducted from the
above figures on account of men who have bribed their officers for per
mission to stay at home. _ , r ,
7 The regiments contained m the first ot the above lists, and not in the
second, have either never been embodied at all, or so many years have elapsed
since their last embodiment, that they may be considered as nonexistent.
Cavalry *
8. It is specially difficult to arrive at a correct estimate of the number
of irregular cavalry. Even the term irregular, applied as it is in India and
elsewhere to perfectly organised troops, conveys a false impression, the Persian
irregular cavalry being mere levies of armed horsemen without instruction
or organisation of any kind. Of late years, however, a few regiments of
semi-regular cavalry have been established and more or less drilled. Of
these, the best are the two regiments organised on the model of the Russian
Cossacks, and drilled by Russian Cossack officers. Besides these, there is
a reo-iment styled f Nasir/ towards the cost of which the amount of the salary
of the late Sipah Salar (18,000 tumans per annum) has been appropriated.
There are two other regiments called ‘Mansur' and ‘ Nasrat/ a small regi
ment of Kurd-u- Turk, and another of the Zil-us-Sultanat's,--all more or less
drilled. The numbers of these troops are approximately as follows
Nominal.
Actual.
2 regiments of Cossacks, 350 each
1 regiment of Nasir
1 regiment of Mansur
1 regiment of Nasrat
1 regiment of Kiird-u-Turk
1 regiment of Zil-us-Sultanat’s
...
700
1,000
1,000
800
300
300
700
600
600
500
200
300
Total
...
?4,500
?3,300
9. Besides the above, there are the Sawar-i-Mahajirf (some 800 horse
men in all) belonging to the Lankoran districts ceded to Russia, who serve
permanently in small detachments in different parts of the country. I hey,
however, as well as the irregular levies of armed horsemen referred to above,
should perhaps more appropriately be styled mounted gens d'armes than
cavalry. In ordinary times they act solely as police for supporting the
authority of the governors, keeping down highway robbery, enforcing the
collection of revenue, &c. In war time no doubt a large number might be
* The best part of Colonel Smith’s memorandum is that which deals with the cavalry ; hut he
has made no allusion to the tribal levies, which, under certain circumstances, might bring the
Persian cavalry up to 50,000 men or more.
f ‘ Mahajir ’ means ‘ one who abandons or quits his own country.’