A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the Years 1808 and 1809. James Justinian Morier
day after our landing the Envoy despatched his letters to Jaffer Ali Khan, the acting English agent at Shiraz; and through him to the Prince Hossein Ali Mirza, Governor of Farsistan; to the Prince’s Minister, Nasr Oalah Khan; and to the Prime Minister at Teheran, Mirza Sheffeea. These letters all contained the simple statement, that the writer had arrived as Envoy Extraordinary from the King of Great Britain to the King of Persia, in order to confirm and augment the amity which had so long existed between the two countries.
On the 19th of Oct. we received despatches from Jaffer Ali Khan at Shiraz; which, among the more immediate topics of the correspondence, contained naturally full accounts of the progress of the campaign with the Russians, (the most important object in the existing politics of Persia), and the general sensations which it had excited at Teheran. These details retain of course little interest; it is enough to add, rather as a sketch of national character, that the King, in consequence of his reverses, had distributed alms to the poor, had ordered prayers to be said in the mosques, and the denunciations of vengeance on all unbelievers to be read from the Koran. The military preparations also were hastened at Shiraz (in some measure for a different object); and the Russian prisoners there were ordered to drill the Persian troops, who had been raised and equipped after a Russian manner. The account of this new corps was continued in other letters (which, on the 23d, we received in two days and a half from Shiraz). The Prince was instructed to form a body of able young men, to shave them if they had already beards, and to dress them in the Russian uniform. There was at this time at Shiraz, another body also of seven hundred hardy and active men, (of the Bolouk or Perganah of Noor in Mazanderan), who were in the same manner to be subjected to the discipline of the Russian drill, to lose their beards, to substitute the firelock for the matchlock gun, (which they had been accustomed to use), and to assume the whole dress of the Russian soldiery. Mahomed Zeky Khan and Sheik Roota Khan were appointed their commanders. The Jezaerchi also, the men who use blunderbusses, were to wear the new Russian dress. The French at this time were very anxious to proceed to Shiraz, to drill the new-raised corps; but as the King prevented them in a former instance from sending a Resident to Bushire lest they should have found that the English factory was still in Persia, he now equally prevented their advancing to Shiraz, lest the English in their turn should discover the arrival of their competitors. New gun-carriages after the Russian form were ordered (though those before made after the same pattern broke to pieces at the first fire), and five thousand new firelocks; but as the Prince found great difficulty in procuring the execution of a former order of two thousand only, he had in this instance sent into Laristan for three thousand matchlock guns, and into other provinces for the remainder, to convert them at Shiraz into firelocks, by affixing to the original barrel the new lock. Provisions also, of all sorts, were collecting into magazines at Shiraz. These preparations were hastened by the Prince himself from personal motives. His dexterity in hitting a mark with a gun at full gallop, and in cutting asunder an ass with one blow of his sword had been so much exaggerated, that the King became desirous of witnessing these exploits, and would have sent for his son to court, if the apprehensions at this time of General Malcolm’s return from India with an army had not furnished a seasonable necessity for the Prince’s presence in his own provinces; and he prepared himself therefore, with great zeal, to march to Bender-Abassy, to await there the arrival of the English in the Persian Gulph.
As a specimen of Persian wit, as well as in the relation of a Persian’s proficiency in English, I extract literally, from Jaffer Ali’s letter, the following account of the Prince of Shiraz:—“As he is a great quiz and flatterer, he flattered me much, and I made an equal return to him. Owing to the immense dust that blown all the while upon the road, my face and beard covered with dust, and appearing myself to be white, the Prince therefore sayed to me, that my black beard became with grey hairs in his service; I returned that whoever serves Khadmute Boozurk Whan (His Highness) becomes white-faced for eternity, as the common proverb among the Persians, that when a man serves his master with zeal, he says to his servant ’roo sefeed, white face,’ and on the contrary they say ‘roo seeah, black face:’ ” two very common expressions in the country, denoting severally honour and disgrace.20
It is not an unfair criterion of the new impulse which the Court of Persia had received, to add, that by second orders from Teheran, as they were reported to us, the Princes of the districts were required to adopt in their own persons the Russian uniform. The Prince of Tabriz, Abbas Mirza, had already conformed to the costume; and the Prince at Shiraz, with a hundred of his immediate attendants, was preparing to assume the same garb; and as we learned on the 10th, by other dispatches, already appeared in it. The proposed adoption by Sultan Selim, of the dress of the Nizam Gedid troops, was the signal of revolt to his Janizaries, and the direct cause of his dethronement. The national levity of the Persians counteracts the original rigour of their religious principles, and disposes them, from the mere love of change, to admit the encroachments of European manners, which would rouse to despair and revenge the less volatile character of the Turks, and animate them in defence of their least usage with all the first enthusiasm of their faith.21
Though the conduct of the negociations with Persia had no connexion with the mere change of masters in Bushire, which was effected during our residence on the spot, and there was, therefore, little direct political intercourse between the Envoy and the Nasakchee Bashee, (the Chief Executioner), who superintended those changes: yet as that officer was the ostensible representative of the Government of Shiraz, some communications naturally took place. Before the assumption of the administration of Bushire, (while the Khan’s object was yet unattained), there was in this intercourse little unsatisfactory; but in his later conduct to the mission, there was something of the insolence of newly acquired power; he sent word more than once that he was coming to pay a visit to the Envoy, and as frequently neglected his engagement. At length he arrived, puffing in great haste; and as soon as he had seated himself, he pulled off his black sheep-skin cap, and begun to read a paper which he took from his pocket. The Envoy asked him, if he were reading a firman from the court, which ordered him to sit bald-headed. The reproof startled him, and the Envoy continued; that, representing as he did his Sovereign, he could not permit the Khan to do in his presence an act of disrespect which he would not do before his equals, and much less before his superiors. The Khan immediately put on his cap, and in his shame waved his hand for his attendants to withdraw. Sir Harford also ordered his own Persians to retire, and as the suite were in succession leaving the room the Khan had some leisure to digest the well-timed rebuke.
The notice which the Envoy had been thus obliged to take of an apparent disrespect in the Khan’s conduct was the more necessary, as He had that morning received a letter from the Prince at Shiraz, the form and terms of which required some explanation; and on which, therefore, the Envoy felt himself compelled to remark, that the correspondence during the negociation must be absolutely and in every view independent; and He desired the Khan accordingly to intimate this determination to the Prince’s Minister. The representation was immediately successful; and to the line of conduct thus enforced, both parties adhered throughout their future communications.
When this matter was adjusted, much friendly conversation followed, and the affair of the cap and bald-head was laughed over. The Envoy expressed indeed his wish to render the Khan in his visit as comfortable as possible; but repeated also his resolution to suffer no act of inattention before servants and strangers. The Khan accordingly (though as it was the Ramazan he would not smoke) left us seemingly well pleased.
But in another instance the same want of respect was visible, though the effect probably of ignorance only. On the 30th Oct. he sent a present of some fruit and two horses, one for the Envoy and one for the East India Company’s Assistant Resident. Sir Harford immediately returned that destined for himself, to remind the Khan of the distinction.
On the 8th of Nov. arrived, carried on fourteen mules, the balconah, the customary present to an Embassador. It consisted of the following articles:—
| 50 | Lumps of loaf sugar, |
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35
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