606 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



This feudalism is always very powerful in Iran ; it has deep roots. 

 That is what we wish to show in this study. It would have been 

 easy to cite a much greater number of examples, to conduct the 

 reader to the homes of hundreds of begs, aghas, or khans; but we 

 have judged it futile to enter into such numerous details. A few 

 types are enough to show how Persian feudalism was born, how it 

 traversed the various phases of life of the empire on which it de- 

 pends and, finally, how it is still maintained in our day. You will 

 pardon me for having cited some personal incidents. It has been 

 done to offer some proof of my story, and most of these incidents are 

 of a nature to enable the reader to judge more clearly of the mentality 

 of the people discussed. 



Ile Eousse (Corse), Fehmary i^, 1912. 



