PERSIA 



and salt marshes. Towards the 

 E. the arable land is constantly 

 menaced by shifting sands. Further 

 to the E. again, enormous saline 

 deserts, as the Dasht-i-Kavir or 

 Great Salt Desert of Khorassan, 

 occupy extensive spaces. 



Persia is not a land of large 

 rivers, and those which drain the 

 W. and S.W. uplands tend to 

 grow less toward the S. The 

 largest are the Karkheh, the 

 Karun, and Jarahi, flowing from 

 the mountains of Kurdistan and 

 Luristan to the Shatt-el-Arab, at 

 the head of the Persian Gulf. The 

 Karun is the only navigable river. 

 S. of it is the river Tab, which has 

 partially formed the Delta of 

 Arabistan, a fertile and extensive 

 alluvial plain. Of those water- 

 courses which flow into the Cas- 

 pian, the largest is the Kizil-Uzen, 

 draining an area of 25,000 sq. m. 

 Climate and Products 



Most of the level country in 

 Persia is comprised in the two 

 great provinces of Kerman and 

 Khorassan. The uplands are sub- 

 divided into nine other provinces, 

 which have for their nucleus Irak- 

 Ajemi, the political centre of the 

 state, which contains Teheran and 

 Ispahan, the new capital and the 

 old. The climate generally pre- 

 vailing is one of great aridity com- 

 bined with excessive heat, although 

 on some of the uplands extreme 

 cold prevails. But between the 

 mountain ranges and the Caspian 

 there is an abundance of rainfall. 

 The Persian Gulf seaboard, how- 

 ever, is sultry and unhealthy. 



In consequence of the general 

 aridity, trees and large shrubs are 

 infrequent, except on the rainy 

 slopes adjacent to the border seas. 

 Date palm cultivation has made 

 great strides along the shores of 

 the Persian Gulf ; cedars, oaks, 

 beech, and box flourish extensively 

 on the N. slopes of the Elburz 

 range. Food products include the 

 cereals wheat, barley, and millet, 

 and milk, which is usually taken 

 curdled or fermented, but rarely 

 pure. The lowlands yield silk, 

 cotton, olives, opium, and tobacco, 

 the trade in the last two being so 

 profitable that ground needed for 

 foodstuffs is given to these crops. 

 The higher ground is pastoral 

 country, from whose sheep and 

 goats is gained the wool for the 

 celebrated carpets. 



In the N., lions, jackaLs, leopards, 

 and cheetah are hunted ; the bus- 

 tard is found almost everywhere. 

 There are pearl fisheries in the 

 Persian Gulf. Mules, camels, and 

 small horses are reared. Deposits 

 of coal and iron in the Elburz, 

 copper, lead, and other metallic 

 ores in Kerman, copper and tur- 



Persia. Map oJ the country showing its strategic situation in relation to the 

 Persian Gulf and the Bagdad and Turkistan Railways 



quoise in Khorassan, and rock salt 

 near the gulf are known, but have 

 been but little exploited. Petroleum 

 in 1921 was being obtained in 

 increasing quantity, and was sent 

 by pipe line to Abadan. The chief 

 exports are petroleum, opium, 

 fruit, animals, raw cotton, rice, 

 wool, and carpets. 



Cotton goods and sugar form 

 the bulk of the imports. Most of 

 the trade is with the countries of 

 the British Empire and Russia. 

 There are six great trade routes, 

 Enzeli-Teheran, Kazvin-Hama- 

 din, Julfa-Tabriz, Astara-Ardebil, 

 Ashabad - Meshedisar. Railways 

 connect Teheran-Shah Abdul-azim, 

 Julf a Tabriz, Pine-bazar-Resht, 

 Bushire Borazjan. Roads suitable 

 for wheeled traffic join Tabriz- 

 Julfa, Teheran-Kom, Teheran- 

 Resht, Kazvin-Hamadan, Meshed- 

 Askabad, Kom-Sultanabad, Ispa- 

 han-Shiraz, Ispahan-Ahwaz. 



into districts, cities, and their de- 

 pendencies, and towns. Govern- 

 ment in Persia, as it has been aptly 

 put, " may be said to consist for 

 the most part of an interchange of 

 presents." Every official has to 

 purchase his appointment and to 

 pay for its continuance by an 

 annual gift. Lowness of birth and 

 station is no bar to promotion, the 

 capacity to pay being sufficient to 

 procure a post for anyone. 

 Attempts at Reform 

 The bureaucracy of Persia is con- 

 fused and without system. An 

 enormous staff of civil servants 

 exists whose duties are not pro- 

 perly apportioned. Few of them are 

 paid, and they are supposed to 

 remunerate themselves by extor- 

 tion. In modern Persia many re- 

 forms have been effected, including 

 the institution of a letter post, the 



Shia Mahomedans, one-tenth as 

 many adhere to the Sunni sect, 



telegraph, newspapers, banks, 

 higher education, and something, 

 Three-quarters of the people are too, in the way of road making. 



HISTORY. The first inhabitants 

 of the country in historical times 

 appear to have been of Sumerian 

 stock, but at a later date an Aryan 

 race descended upon Iran, who, 

 in the course of time, conquered 

 the aborigines and laid the foun- 

 dation of an Aryan kingdom. On 

 the fall of the Assyrian Empire 

 this Aryan people, known as the 

 Medes, became the heirs of ita poli- 

 tical power, and to a great extent 



the rest are Jews, Armenians, and 

 Nestorians. 



GOVERNMENT. The government 

 of Persia is an absolute monarchy 

 in the strictest sense of the term, 

 but the shah is no longer a reli- 

 gious leader. The empire is divided 

 into provinces ruled by governors- 

 general directly responsible to the 

 Crown, and these are again divided 



