CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



at a lower elevation by the hills of Khorassan. 

 The western part of the country is traversed by a 

 series of mountains, running north-west and south- 

 east, and inclosing numerous valleys which can 

 be rendered exceedingly fertile by cultivation. In 

 these districts, the grains and fruits of Southern 

 Europe are cultivated. The central region of 

 Persia forms a depression with a desert surface 

 in which the streams from the surrounding hill- 

 countries disappear. It contains, however, a few 

 depressions which form fertile oases. The northern 

 slope of the Elburz Mountains sloping to the Cas- 

 pian, forms on the margin of that sea a country 

 of wonderful fertility. The forests of Central 

 America are not more luxuriant than Mazanderan 

 and Ghilan, the two Caspian provinces of Persia. 

 They produce rice, sugar, and all the products of 

 the tropics, and more especially silk, which forms 

 one of the chief exports of Persia. Persia has an 

 importance in history much out of proportion with 

 its present population. There is no doubt that 

 in antiquity, and during the middle ages, while 

 irrigation-works still fertilised great tracts of 

 country, Persia supported a great population. A 

 native estimate fixed the population at 200,000,000 ; 

 and the French traveller, Chardin, in the i;th 

 century, thought 40,000,000 not too high a figure. 

 It is only within a few years that careful esti- 

 mates made on the spot have reduced the current 

 estimate to 7,653,600, 1,900,000 nomads, 1,900,000 

 peasants, and the rest townspeople. The same 

 estimate states the population of the chief cities 

 to be as follows : Tabriz, the commercial capital, 

 120,000; Teheran, 100,000; Meshed, 60,000; 

 and Ispahan, 60,000. The population of Persia 

 has been long diminishing, a fact no doubt 

 chiefly due to the invasion of the Turkish races, 

 and long continuance of misrule and extortion 

 by the provincial governors, the neglect of 

 irrigation works, and the consequent recurrence 

 of famines, in a dry country where successful 

 cultivation depends on an artificial supply of 

 water. 



The history of Persia in modern times is chiefly 

 that of the struggle between the native and the 

 invading races, the periods of prosperity gener- 

 ally coinciding with the success of the former. 

 Thus the country flourished under the Sassanian 

 kings from the 3d to the 7th century. The Arab, 

 Mongol, and Turkish invasions followed. Early in 

 the 1 6th century, the Sofi dynasty restored the 

 prosperity of Persia. Shah Abbas the Great, 

 who drove the Turks out of Khorassan, extended 

 toleration to 'the Armenian Christians, whom he 

 induced to settle in the country ; constructed 

 important public works, irrigation canals, and 

 roads, and did all he could to encourage agricul- 

 ture and trade. He established a splendid capital 

 at Ispahan. Nadir Shah (1736-1747), a Turkish 

 adventurer, put an end to the Sofi dynasty. 

 After his death, Persia became really split into 

 a number of independent states until 1795, when 

 another adventurer, a Turkoman of the Kajar 

 race, founded the present dynasty. During this 

 century, Persia has been weakened by wars with 

 Russia. In October 1856, the Persians took 

 possession of Herat, which they were compelled 

 to restore, after a war with England. They have 

 since been engaged in disputes with the Afghans 

 and Belooches, settled by English arbitration, and 

 in the old struggle with the Turkomans, which the 

 278 



advance of the Russians now bids fair to terminate 

 if it be decided that the exigences of European 

 policy do not absolutely require that there should 

 be an artificial desert between the English and 

 Russian possessions in the East. 



Armenia and the Caucasian countries lie be- 

 tween Persia and Asia Minor, bounded on the 

 north by the Caucasus, or rather by the steppe 

 beyond, and on the south by the plains of the 

 Euphrates. Armenia Proper forms part of the 

 great Iranian plateau. It has an elevation of 

 from 5000 to 6000 feet, and is a bare, treeless 

 country, with a cold climate. Georgia is warmer, 

 and the soil is in many places very fertile. 

 Under Russian protection, German colonists have 

 founded settlements in various parts of the 

 country, and good roads have bee"n formed. A 

 railway is now being constructed which will 

 connect the Black Sea and the Caspian. The 

 Armenians are Christians of the Armenian 

 Church ; the Georgians belong to the Greek 

 Church. Mohammedanism prevails in the Cau- 

 casus. The chief town in Armenia is Erzeroum 

 (pop. 40,000) ; and in Georgia, Tiflis (pop. 60,000)1 

 Since the beginning of this century, the Caucasus, 

 Georgia, and part of Armenia have been annexed 

 to Russia, with great advantage to the native 

 populations. 



Asia Minor forms the western extremity of the 

 table-land of Iran. It sinks, as it proceeds west- 

 ward, from an elevation of 4000 to looo feet above 

 the level of the sea, and finally subsides into low 

 and fertile valleys drained by the rivers falling into 

 the ^Egean Sea. In the interior of the peninsula, 

 there are desolate plains and wastes, which never 

 can be cultivated ; but there are also vast tracts of 

 fine agricultural soil, covered with the remains of 

 old and splendid cities, shewing that the country 

 was at one period the abode of a numerous, a 

 prosperous, and highly civilised people. The 

 chief inhabitants of the interior of the table-land 

 are now wandering Turks and Kurds. The Greek 

 population is chiefly confined to the sea-coast. 

 We know little of the peoples inhabiting Asia 

 Minor before the Greeks, but it seems probable 

 that the discoveries made in the plain of Troy 

 by Dr Schliemann will establish the fact, that it 

 has been occupied in succession by races which 

 had made considerable progress in civilisation, 

 long before its colonisation by the Greeks. It 

 was during the Roman epoch that Asi# Minor 

 seems to have reached its highest prosperity. 

 It was then that great roads were constructed 

 throughout the country, that agriculture and trade 

 flourished, and that the great and beautiful cities, 

 to the ruins of which we have just referred, sprang 

 up over the whole country. The religious contro- 

 versies which broke out in the 5th century, and 

 which led to so much strife in the Eastern empire, 

 were the chief cause of the weakness which opened 

 the way for Turkish invasion. After the Crimean 

 war, when the Turks were less carefully watched 

 than they had been by Russia and the other 

 European powers, the last relic of the independ- 

 ent Christian communities in Asia Minor, Zeitun, 

 was destroyed the inhabitants being massacred 

 in a manner which recalls the worst atrocities of 

 Cawnpore. 



Syria and Mesopotamia may be held to include 

 all the countries lying between Armenia and 

 Arabia, Persia and the Mediterranean Sea. Syria 





