FEUDALISM IN PERSIA DE MORGAN. 593 



In summer the villagers and townsmen go to the mountains with 

 their herds. The khan is established in a cool place, where he re- 

 ceives with the most perfect affability, for he is a very politic man 

 through his contact with the Russians. 



In winter there comes to live at Maku not only the khan, but a 

 crowd of his friends, who, like himself, carry the title of khans. 

 They own a good number of villages, and, with their chief, hold a 

 small court. It is the khan who treats with the Persian Government 

 for all his family on questions of rent, and his friends are heard with 

 him. It is likewise the khan who in his domains and those of his 

 family levies the troops necessar}'^ for guarding the frontiers on the 

 Turkish side and to prevent the Kurds of the vicinity of Bayazid 

 from making raids on his territory. One of his family generally 

 commands this small army, but when circumstances are urgent the 

 khan hmiself conducts the operations. 



The Persian Government has always considered the khans of Maku 

 as the valuable guardians of its frontiers. Thus, in the twentieth 

 centur}^, and in one of the Provinces most submissive to the royal 

 administration, Azerbijan, we see this khannat enjoy all the preroga- 

 tives of feudalism, have his vassals, his troops, and administer them 

 himself, with the consent of the Persian Government. 



But this seignoir who, often crossing the Araxes River, takes the 

 road for Tiflis, very rarely goes to Taurus. Who knows, after all, 

 whether the friendship of the viceroy of Azerbijan will not become 

 so pressing that, held by the most cordial hospitality, he will never 

 revere his small dependencies? He prefers now to maintain from 

 afar equally valuable relations. 



It is quite otherwise among certain Kurd tribes of Mukri. Those 

 who have preserved most of their liberties attain it only against the 

 will of the kings of Persia. In many cases the Persians have punished 

 them with the greatest severity. 



I shall not speak of the khans and aghas of Gherrus, of the 

 valleys of Djaghatu and Tatau, of those of Sakkis, of Bahnech, 

 of Saudj-Bulaq.^ They are to-day just as the provincial seigniors 

 were in France during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI; 

 that is, great land proprietors deprived of all their feudal rights. I 

 shall speak only of two small tribes, those of the Mameches and the 

 Menghurs, irreconcilable enemies inhabiting the valley of Kialvi,^ 

 tributary of the Tigris, on the frontiers of Turkey, who are per- 

 mitted to support themselves and to live according to the customs of 

 their fathers. 



1 These districts formed part formerly of the Madai country where the Assyrians often 

 came on expeditions. The cuneiform tests teach us that they found there a great many 

 small principalities. The country was then in the same social conditions as at the 

 present day. 



2 Le zab of cuneiform texts. 



44863°— SM 1913 38 



