Vol. XXXIX, No. 4 



WASHINGTON 



April, 1921 



• 



THE 



NATDONAL 



GEOGRAPHIC 



MAGAZINE 



• 



COPYRIGHT. 1 92 1. BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. WASHINGTON. D C. 



MODERN PERSIA AND ITS CAPITAL 



And an Account of an Ascent of Mount Demavend, 



the Persian Olympus 



By F. L. Bi 



RD 



For five years American college instructor in Teherai 



A LONG series of catastrophes has 



/\ failed to bring to a final anti- 

 X JL climax the Persian chapter in the 

 ■world's historic record. The crushing 

 impacts of Greek, Roman. Arab, Mongol, 

 and Russian armies could never quite re- 

 move the epic charm from the story of 

 Persia and her people ; and now another 

 world upheaval renews a waning interest 

 in the trend of her affairs. 



Babylon, Assyria, and Chaldea rose to 

 power in rapid sequence, served their 

 day of world dominion, weakened, and 

 quickly disappeared. Persia, following 

 in their footsteps, elevated southwestern 

 Asia to still higher eminence as the center 

 of civilization and empire ; struggled with 

 Greece for European hegemony ; disinte- 

 grated ; but maintained its entity, through 

 a diverse ebb and flood of fortune, down 

 to the present day. 



Darius would fail to recognize as his 

 mighty empire the narrow limits of mod- 

 ern Iran, its borders now far withdrawn 

 from the waters of the Oxus and the In- 

 dus, from the shores of the Mediterra- 

 nean and the widespread Mesopotamian 

 plains ; but the nucleus still is there in 

 territory, race, language, and customs. 



PERSIA IS THREE TIMES THE SIZE OE 

 FRANCE 



Persia of today includes within a terri- 

 tory still three times the size of France 



ancient Media, mountainous Parthia, and 

 the province of Fars, whence sprang her 

 first great dynasty. Such monuments to 

 the glory of the great kings as the ruined 

 capitals of Susa, Persepolis, and Ekba- 

 tana still stand on Persian soil (see map, 

 page 4i8) ; 



The majority of the present inhabitants, 

 although tinged with the blood of Greek, 

 Arab, Turk, and Mongol conquerors, are 

 the lineal descendants of the original 

 Iranian, or Aryan, population, and speak 

 a language which has for its basic ele- 

 ment the ancient Persian tongue. 



The Mohammedanism of their Arab 

 conquerors penetrated to the foundations 

 of Persian life, and the ravages of Turk 

 and Mongol often threatened their very 

 existence, yet their national characteris- 

 tics and culture have time and again tri- 

 umphed over their oppressors. 



Time after time, as the centuries 

 passed, Persia has drawn together her 

 scattered provinces and with surprising 

 virility, renewed now and again by the 

 infusion of foreign blood, has forced 

 back the contracting circle of encroaching 

 enemies ; but during the last century the 

 increasing power of her neighbors, com- 

 bined with her own decay, has definitely 

 turned the scale against her and she has 

 drawn behind her last barriers — the 

 mountains and deserts which doublv 

 guard the western portion of the Iranian 



