Read Ebook: A Journey through Persia Armenia and Asia Minor to Constantinople in the Years 1808 and 1809 In Which is Included Some Account of the Proceedings of His Majesty's Mission under Sir Harford Jones Bart. K. C. to the Court of Persia by Morier James Justinian

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JOURNEY

THROUGH

PERSIA,

ARMENIA, AND ASIA MINOR,

CONSTANTINOPLE,

IN THE YEARS 1808 AND 1809;

IN WHICH IS INCLUDED,

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF HIS MAJESTY'S MISSION, UNDER SIR HARFORD JONES, BART. K. C.

BY JAMES MORIER, ESQ.

HIS MAJESTY'S SECRETARY OF EMBASSY TO THE COURT OF PERSIA.

A PLATE OF INSCRIPTIONS; AND THREE MAPS;

PREFACE

Imperfect as my journal may be, it will, I hope, be found sufficiently comprehensive to serve as a link in the chain of information on Persia, until something more satisfactory shall be produced; and it claims no other merit than that of having been written on the very spots, and under the immediate circumstances, which I have attempted to describe. Having confined myself, with very few exceptions, to the relation of what I saw and heard, it will be found unadulterated by partiality to any particular system, and unbiassed by the writings and dissertations of other men. Written in the midst of a thousand cares, it claims every species of indulgence.

I should be wanting in gratitude, if I did not here express the obligations which I owe to my fellow traveller, MIRZA ABUL HASSAN, the late Persian Envoy Extraordinary, for much information on subjects relating to his own country, and for all the facilities of acquiring his language, which his communicative and amiable disposition afforded me. As this personage was distinguished, during his stay in England, by attentions more marked and continued than, perhaps, were ever paid to any foreigner, I have conceived that I should not trespass too much on the patience of my readers by inserting a sketch of his life; I feel at least that it will prove very acceptable to those who have shown him, as a stranger, so much friendship and hospitality.

In my narrative I have confined myself to relate our proceedings from the time we left Bombay to my arrival at Constantinople. The sea voyages, from England to India, and from Constantinople to England, are too well known to require any thing more to be written about them.

The engravings that are inserted are made from drawings which I took on the spot; they are done in a slight manner, and therefore are more intended to give general ideas, than to enter into any nicety of detail.

I am indebted to Messrs. JUKES and BRUCE, of the Bombay service, for the information which they furnished me whilst I was in Persia, and I have not failed to make my acknowledgments, wherever such information has been inserted.

But I must, in particular, express my gratitude to Mr. ROBERT HARRY INGLIS, for the kindness with which he offered to correct and arrange my memoranda, and prepare my journals for the press.

I beg leave to repeat that this volume is meant merely as provisional, and that I am far from entertaining the presumption that it will class with the valuable pages of CHARDIN, LE BRUN, HANWAY, NIEBUHR, or OLIVIER. It is to be expected, that the extensive communication that will be opened with Persia, in consequence of our late political transactions with its court, will throw the whole extent of that very interesting part of the globe under our cognizance; and that, among other subjects of inquiry, its numerous antiquities, which have as yet been but imperfectly explored, will throw new lights upon its ancient history, manners, religion, and language.

INTRODUCTION.

The history of Persia from the death of NADIR SHAH to the accession of the present King, comprehending a period of fifty-one years, presents little else than a catalogue of the names of tyrants and usurpers, and a succession of murders, treacheries and scenes of misery.

On the 13th of March, 1779, KERIM KHAN died a natural death, an extraordinary occurrence in the modern history of Persia, having reigned from nineteen to thirty years. From the fall of MAHOMED HASSAN KHAN the better epoch, his conqueror lived nineteen years, with almost undisputed authority.

After his death all was again in confusion; and the kingdom presented a renewal of blood and usurpation. It is scarcely necessary to state the short-lived struggles of his successors: their very names have ceased to interest us. It is sufficient therefore to add, that his sons and brothers, and other relatives, attacked each other for fourteen years after his death; till the fortunes of the whole family were finally overwhelmed in the defeat of LOOLF ALI KHAN, the last and greatest of these claimants; and the dominion was transferred, in the year 1794, to his conqueror, AGA MAHOMED KHAN, of the present royal race of Persia.

PLATES.

DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.

ERRATA.

JOURNEY THROUGH PERSIA,

&c. &c. &c.

BOMBAY TO BUSHIRE.

DEPARTURE FROM BOMBAY--LAND OF GUZERAT--COAST OF MEKRAN--BALOUCHES--ENTRANCE OF THE GULPH OF PERSIA--IMAUM OF MUSCAT: HIS FLEET--SOUNDINGS IN THE GULPH--BUSHIRE--VISIT OF THE SHEIK--LANDING IN PERSIA.

On Sunday, the 18th. Capt. CORBETT read prayers to the ship's company on the quarter-deck. The scene struck me as more simple and more impressive than any that, for a long time, I had witnessed. The cleanliness of the ship, the attention of the sailors, the beauty of the day, all conspired to heighten the solemnity of the service, and I felt persuaded that the prayers, offered up to God by such men and in such a manner, would be favourably accepted.

Their rocky summits, split and rent, Form'd turret, dome, and battlement, Or seem'd fantastically set With cupola or minaret, Wild crests as pagod ever deck'd Or mosque of eastern architect.

The strong south wind, with which we were now favoured, was at this season considered extraordinary. It blew so strong that the Nereide, with every sail set, went ten and eleven knots. It is accompanied with much haze, not indeed to be compared to that which came with the hot wind from off the shore, though in the same manner it warped the furniture and slackened the rigging.

On our arrival at the Factory, we closed our dispatches for Europe, and then completed a day full of entertainment, by an excellent dinner.

HISTORY OF THE SHEIK OF BUSHIRE.

HISTORY OF BUSHIRE--SHEIK NASR--THE NASAKCHEE BASHEE, THE CHIEF EXECUTIONER DISPATCHED FROM SHIRAZ AGAINST THE SHEIK ABDULLAH RESOUL; VISITS THE ENVOY: VISIT RETURNED--DIFFICULTIES OF THE SHEIK--HIS SEIZURE--CONSTERNATION OF THE TOWN--PRECAUTIONS OF THE ENVOY--EXPLANATION OF THE NASAKCHEE BASHEE--SUCCESSOR OF THE SHEIK, MAHOMED NEBEE KHAN--ASSUMPTION OF THE GOVERNMENT BY THE NASAKCHEE BASHEE--MAHOMMED JAFFER APPOINTED PROVISIONALLY; DISGRACED; RESTORED--RECEIVES A KALAAT--CEREMONY--FATE OF THE LATE SHEIK OF BUSHIRE.

In a few days MAHOMED JAFFER paid us a visit, in appearance perfectly unconscious of the indignities which he had suffered. But the habitual despotism which the people are born to witness, familiarises them so much to every act of violence which may be inflicted on themselves or on others, that they view all events with equal indifference, and go in and out of prison, are bastinadoed, fined, and exposed to every ignominy, with an apathy which nothing but custom and fatalism could produce.

RESIDENCE OF THE MISSION AT BUSHIRE.

When visited by a superior, the Persian rises hastily and meets his guest nearly at the door of the apartment: on the entrance of an equal, he just raises himself from his seat, and stands nearly erect; but to an inferior he makes the motion only of rising. When a great man is speaking, the style of respect in Persia is not quite so servile as that in India. In listening the Indians join their hands together, place them on their breast, and making inclinations of the body sit mute. A visit is much less luxurious in Persia than in Turkey. Instead of the sophas and the easy pillows of Turkey, the visitor in Persia is seated on a carpet or mat without any soft support on either side, or any thing except his hands, or the accidental assistance of a wall, to relieve the galling posture of his legs. The misery of that posture in its politest form can scarcely be understood by description: you are required to sit upon your heels, as they are tucked up under your hams after the fashion of a camel. To us, this refinement was impossible; and we thought that we had attained much merit in sitting cross-legged as tailors. In the presence of his superiors a Persian sits upon his heels, but only cross-legged before his equals, and in any manner whatever before his inferiors. To an English frame and inexperience, the length of time during which the Persian will thus sit untired on his heels, is most extraordinary; sometimes for half a day, frequently even sleeping. They never think of changing their positions, and like other Orientals consider our locomotion to be as extraordinary as we can regard their quiescence. When they see us walking to and fro, sitting down, getting up, and moving in every direction, often have they fancied that Europeans are tormented by some evil spirit, or that such is our mode of saying our prayers.

Before the close of our visit, it was settled that the Khan should send in the course of that evening the letters with which he had been charged to the Envoy, and that on the morrow he should come to a personal conference, and open his verbal communications.

RESIDENCE OF THE MISSION AT BUSHIRE.

It has been often contested, whether the pearl in the live oyster is as hard as it appears in the market; or whether it acquires its consistence by exposure. I was assured by a gentleman that he had opened the shell immediately, and when the fish was still alive, had found the pearl already hard and formed. He had frequently also cut the pearl in two, and ascertained it to be equally hard throughout, in layers like the coats of an onion. But Sir HARFORD JONES, who has had much knowledge of the fishery, informs me, that it is easy by pressing the pearl between the fingers, when first taken out of the shell, to feel that it has not yet attained its ultimate consistency. A very short exposure, however, to the air gives the hardness. The two opinions are easily reconcileable by supposing, either a misconception in language of the relative term hard, or by admitting that there may be an original difference in the character of the two species, the yellow and the white pearl; while the identity of the specimen, on which either observation has been formed, has not been noted.

The fish itself is fine eating; nor, indeed in this respect is there any difference between the common and the pearl oyster. The seed pearls, which are very indifferent, are arranged round the lips of the oyster, as if they were inlaid by the hand of an artist. The large pearl is nearly in the centre of the shell, and in the middle of the fish.

The fishermen always augur a good season of the pearl, when there have been plentiful rains; and so accurately has experience taught them, that when corn is very cheap they increase their demands for fishing. The connexion is so well ascertained, that the prices paid to the fishermen are, in fact, always raised, when there have been great rains.

On the southern bank of the inlet is a long range of rocks, which, though now two or three miles distant, may at one time have been washed by the sea. In digging for water, the people of the peninsula have sunk wells to the depth of thirty fathoms; and before they could reach the spring they have been obliged to perforate three layers of a soft stone composed of sand and shells. Generally of the whole soil, sand is the principal ingredient.

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