Persia: The Awakening East 



373 



siderable and many of the bazaar mer- 

 chants are rich men, judged even by the 

 standard of New York and London. 



There are still a few good curios to be 

 picked up in the bazaars; but a majority 

 of the articles exposed for sale are man- 

 ufactured in Europe, while most of the 

 native rugs and carpets show the regret- 

 table influence of European patterns and 

 aniline dyes. It is unfortunately true 

 that throughout the East today the 

 machine-made products of the unbe- 

 liever are everywhere crowding out the 

 fabrics of the old hand worker. Indeed, 

 many famous Oriental industries are fast 

 disappearing, and the native craftsmen 

 work only for export to the European 

 market, while their compatriots prefer 

 the cheaper if less esthetic patterns of 

 the Occident. Thus the fine cloths once 

 manufactured in Resht and Kashan have 

 given way before the products of Man- 

 chester and Odessa. Even the coarse 

 canvas-like stuff, the universal dress of 

 the poorer classes in Persia, which was 

 once woven during the winter months on 

 crude native looms, now comes in 

 greater part from the Yankee mills of 

 Connecticut, while New York and Bir- 

 mingham are as familiar names today in 

 the bazaars of Teheran as were once 

 those of Bokhara and Bagdad. 



A whole quarter of the bazaars of 

 Teheran is given over to the sale of 

 European goods, usually of the cheapest 

 and shoddiest description. At one time 

 most of these shops were supplied with 

 English wares, but of late years the Rus- 

 sians have secured for themselves a 

 lion's share of the general trade of 

 northern Persia. 



DEMANDS FOR A CONSTITUTION 



The strong nationalistic spirit that 

 marks the new era in Persian affairs is 

 one of the most interesting features of 

 the present movement in Persia. It is 

 not among the frock-coated European 

 dandies of the court that we must look 

 for the men who are now taking the 

 leading part in the new agitation for re- 

 form. Manv of the constitutionalistic 



leaders wear the flowing robes and white 

 turban of the Mohammedan priesthood. 

 Recently the Liberal Parliament by an 

 overwhelming majority voted to sup- 

 press the publication of a Teheran news- 

 paper which had dared to propose the 

 substitution of a new civil code modeled 

 on European lines for the old common 

 law based on the precepts of the Koran. 

 One of the chief causes of popular com- 

 plaint against the leaders of the Court 

 party is their subserviency to foreign in- 

 fluences and their unpatriotic policy of 

 importing foreign officials into Persia, 

 notably in the case of the customs ad- 

 ministration. 



The Mutjehids, or religious law- 

 givers, at one time started in a body for 

 the sacred city of Kerbela as a protest 

 against the fashion in which their advice 

 and demands were ignored by the Court 

 party, and had already proceeded for 

 some distance on their way before the 

 latter were constrained to relent. In the 

 meanwhile the Liberal leaders in Tehe- 

 ran, fearing the vengeance of the troops 

 in the pay of the government, had taken 

 refuge in the compound of the British 

 legation, where, according to treaty 

 rights, they were safe against arrest or 

 persecution. It was reported at the time 

 that no less than 13,000 inhabitants of 

 Teheran had thus thrown themselves on 

 the mercy of a foreign government. 



Alarmed by this determined though 

 pacific resistance, and by the sympathetic 

 attitude of a large part of the population, 

 the late Shah's advisers at last decided to 

 yield, and a manifesto was issued in the 

 name of Muzaffar-ed-Din calling for a 

 duma, or popular assembly. The docu- 

 ment summoning the first Persian Par- 

 liament was worded as follows : 



"The Shah, since his accession to the 

 throne, has always had the intention to 

 introduce real and efficient reforms in 

 all the departments of the state, so as to 

 further the well-being of his people. For 

 this purpose His Majesty has now de- 

 cided that a national council shall be 

 formed at Teheran, composed of repre- 

 sentatives of the Kajar princes (the 



