PERSIA 



67 



points of law, winch is based upon the Koran 

 anil its commentaries, to mollahs and mushteheds. 

 The punishments commonly inflicted are fines, flog- 

 ging (the bastinado), and death, either liy decapi- 

 tation, stabbing, or torture. The principal Hakim 

 en governors of provinces are chosen for the most 

 part from among the ineml>ers of the royal family. 

 As a rule life and property are much more secure 

 than is generally supposed. The revenue is derived 

 from ( 1 ) a tax on the gross produce of land 2o per 

 cent, may be taken as the average assessment ; ( 2 ) 

 duties on cattle and flocks in case of goats, sheep, 

 i ami cows, 8 per cent, on value of wool and butter 

 yielded; (3) customs dues; and (4) duties on pro- 

 visions brought to market. It will thus be seen 

 that the direct taxation falls almost exclusively on 

 the land and its cultivators. In theory these are 

 the taxes authorised by the government, but in 

 practice a frightful system of briliery and extortion 

 prevails. The wealthy and influential escape the 

 rapacity of the provincial governors, but as much 

 as possible is taken from the hard-working peasants. 

 It is believed that the irregular exactions amount 

 to a sum equal to the legal assessments, and that 

 not a |x>nny nf the money so extorted is applied to 

 public purposes. The annual revenue in 1800-97 

 may be stated at from 1,600,000 to 1,775,000. 



Elementary education is very generally diffused 

 among all classes. There are a large number of 

 colleges where students are instructed in religion 

 and Persian and Arabian literature. Among a con- 

 siderable section of the upper classes it is asserted 

 that the Mohammedan religion is losing ite hold, 

 and that unbelief is widely prevalent. 



Po'iticnl Divisions, <kc. From the earliest times 

 down to the present century Persia was divided 

 into seven or eight great divisions ; but alxmt the 

 time when it was attempted to introduce European 

 civilisation into the country, and discipline into 

 the army, the country was anew divided into 

 twenty live provinces. There are many interest- 

 ing ruins of ancient, populous, and celebrated cities 



in Persia e.g. Persepolig (q.v.), and Istakhr, 

 Khages or Rhe, Shalipur, Tus, Merv, Shushan, 

 Hamadan, &c. 



y". 



.1 ;//(//. The standing army, according to the 

 ri'' "nt army laws, consists of 200,000 men, but the 

 majority of these exist only on paper. The regular 

 army is really composed of about 30,000 infantry 

 and 1000 artillery, while there are about 10,000 

 irregular cavalry, a few thousand irregular infantry, 

 and the guards. The officers in the Persian army 

 an- for the most part ignorant and inefficient, but 

 I In? soldiers are obedient, sober, intelligent, and 

 capable of enduring great fatigue. The irregular 

 cavalry, which forms the bravest portion of the 

 Persian army, is equal to the Cossacks in the 

 Russian army, and much superior to the Turkish 

 Buhi-BazouKs. 



According to the Shah Nameh of 

 Kirdausi, the history of Persia begins some thou- 

 sands of years before the Christian era. Little 

 - been done towards extracting the grains of 

 rical truth that may be contained in the mass 

 of fable that constitutes the native Persian annals, 

 and as yet we must rest contented with the account^ 

 derived from Creek writers. The north-western 

 |>art of Iran, anciently called Media (q.v.), was, at 

 the earliiwt period known to the Greeks, a part of 

 vrian empire, but tile Medes revolted, and 

 in 70s M.C., under Dejoces, established an empire 

 which sulxlncil both that of Assyria and their 

 own kindred tribes of Persis. About 537 the 

 IVrsiaiis under Cyrus (q.v.) the Kai-Khnsru 

 of the Persians relx-Mod, subdued their former 

 masters, the Medes (who from this time be- 

 came amalgamated with them), and established 

 " mighty empire, which included, besides Persia, 



as far as the Oxus and Indus, Asia Minor, Syria, 

 Palestine, and Mesopotamia. His son, Cambyses, 

 a most ferocious and bloodthirsty tyrant (529-522), 

 subdued Tyre, Cyprus, and Egypt. After the brief 

 rule of the usurper Smerdis (522 521), Darius I. 

 (q.v., surnamed Hystaspes the Gushtasp of the 

 Persians 521-485) mounted the throne. He was 

 a politic and energetic prince, and succeeded in 

 firmly establishing his dynasty, and adding Thrace 

 and Macedonia to his empire ; but his two attempts 

 to subdue Greece were completely foiled, the first 

 by the Thracians, and the second by the Athenians 

 at Marathon (490). His son, Xerxes I. (485-465), 

 renewed the attempt to subdue the Greek states, 

 and, though at first successful, was compelled by 

 the defeats of Salamis and Plataea to limit himself 

 to a defensive warfare, which exhausted the re- 

 sources of his kingdom. His son, Artaxerxes I. 

 (465-425), surnamed Longimanus (the Bahman of 

 the Persians, better known as Ardesbir Dira/dust), 

 was a valiant prince, but he was unable to stay the 

 decadence of Persia, which had now commenced. 

 He, however, crushed a formidable rebellion in 

 Egypt, though his wars with the Greeks and lonians 

 were unsuccessful. The empire now became a prey 

 to intestine dissensions, which continued (luring 

 the reigns of his successors, Xerxes II., Sogdianus, 

 Darius II., Artaxerxes II., and Artaxerxes III. 

 Darius III. Codomannus (336-329), the last of the 

 dynasty, was compelled to yield his throne to 

 Alexander the Great (known as Iskander or 

 Secunder by the Persians), who reconquered all 

 the former provinces of Persia, and founded a vast 

 empire, which at his death, in 324, was divided into 

 four parts, Persia along with Syria falling to the 

 share of the Seleucidu 1 , and its old dependency, 

 Egypt, to the Ptolemies. 



The Seleucidte soon lost Bactria (now Balkh), 

 which became independent under a series of 

 Greek sovereigns; and about 246 Parthia (q.v. ; 

 now Northern Khorassan) also rebelled under 

 Arsaces I., who founded the dynasty of the 

 Arsacidn?, under whom the greater part of 

 Persia was wrested from the Greeks, and main- 

 tained against both the Greeks and Romans. The 

 Greek empire of Bactria, which is said to have 

 included a great part of India, was overthrown by 

 an intlux of nomad tribes from Turkestan ( 160- 

 140); and these invaders having been driven out 

 by the Parthians, Bactria was added to their 

 empire (138). But the dynasty of the Arsacida 1 , 

 which maintained itself for four hundred and fifty 

 years, was brought to an end by a Persian named 

 Ardashir Babegan, who managed to gain possession 

 of Fars, Kernian, and nearly the whole of Irak, 

 before Arduan, the Parthian king, took the field 

 against him. At last a great battle was fought 

 (218 A.D.) on the plain ofHormuz, in which the 

 Persians were completely victorious. Babegan was 

 now hailed as Ardashir (Artaxerxes), King of 

 Persia, and 'Shahan Shah, 'or king of kings, his 

 dynasty being named Sassaiiidee from his grand- 

 father Sassan. The Sassanian kings raised Persia 

 to a height of power and prosperity such as it 

 never l>efore attained, and more than once im- 

 perilled the existence of the eastern empire. The 

 most notable kings of the dynasty were Sliahpur 

 I. or Sapor (240-273), who routed the Romans, 

 and took the Emperor Valerian captive at Edessa ; 

 bis grandson, Shahpur II., who also maintained an 

 equal conflict with the Romans ; and Chosroes I. 

 and II. (q.v.), the latter of whom was ultimately 

 crushed by Heraclius (q.v.) in 628. 



The last Sassanian king, Yezdigerd (Yazdajird), 

 was driven from the throne, after a great battle 

 at Nahavend (639), by the Arabs, who now 

 began to extend their dominion in all directions ; 

 and from this period may be dated the gradual 



