A TALK ABOUT PERSIA AND ITS WOMEN 



By Ella C. Sykes 



Author of ''Through Persia on a Side;-saddi.e," "Story-book of the 

 Shah," ''Persia and Its Peopi^e " 



With Photographs by H, R. Sykes 



PERSIA is one of the oldest empires 

 in existence. It has been a king- 

 dom for 25 centuries — ever since 

 Cyrus the Great, about 550 B. C, con- 

 quered Media and united that country to 

 his under the name of Persia. It has 

 had many glorious episodes in its long 

 history; has produced the great teacher 

 Zoroaster; such world-famous poets as 

 Firdawsi, Omar Khayyam, Saadi, and 

 Hafiz, and such great soldiers and rulers 

 as Darius I, Shapur I, and Shah Abbas. 



Again and again the empire has been a 

 prey to anarchy; again and again con- 

 quering hosts have swept through the 

 country, Alexander the Great having 

 many a successor, the most destructive 

 conqueror being Chinghiz Khan with his 

 hordes of savage Mongols — a leader who 

 boasted that he had slain thirteen millions 

 of his fellow-creatures ! 



At the present day, though shorn of 

 its former dimensions, Persia is more 

 than three times the size of France, yet 

 it has only nine and a half millions of 

 inhabitants — 15 to a square mile. As 

 the population of the whole country is 

 not equal to that of London, New York, 

 and Paris combined, none will be aston- 

 ished to learn that it is. possible to travel 

 for days at a time without coming across 

 a village or even a human being. 



The center of the country is a great 

 plateau, rising from 2,000 to 6,000 feet, 

 and crossed by frequent chains of moun- 

 tains, while a loft}^ mountain barrier 

 bounds it on the north and south. 



The climate on this plateau is a fine 

 one — dry and bracing, cold in winter and 

 often intensely hot in summer. When 

 living in the southeast, the writer's home 

 was at a height of 5,600 feet, and in 

 order to escape the summer heat she 

 camped at an altitude of 11,000 feet 



among the running streams and bush 

 herbage at the foot of a snow-capped 

 range. The Lut or desert, once an in- 

 land sea, occupies the center of Persia, 

 cutting off the north from the south and 

 the east from the west, and thus render- 

 ing communication difficult. In fact, it 

 helps to make transport so costly that the 

 different districts and ])rincipal towns are 

 practically isolated, and cannot depend 

 upon other parts of the country, even in 

 such a case as that of famine. 



There are great differences of climate 

 in the kingdom, the low-lying, feverish 

 district round the Caspian, with its dense 

 forests and 50 inches of rainfall, being 

 in complete contrast to the arid uplands, 

 where as a rule not a tree or a blade of 

 grass is to be seen save on the irrigated 

 ground round a village. 



Again, on the shores of the Persian 

 Gulf, the moist heat during summer is 

 well-nigh intolerable to Europeans, and 

 the groves of date-palms that constitute 

 the wealth as well as the staple food of 

 the inhabitants are only possible where 

 there is irrigation, so rainless is this tor- 

 rid region. 



inade:ouate: transportation methods 



In the whole Persian Empire there are 

 only six miles of railway, and of roads 

 only four, their total length amounting 

 to under 800 miles. There is only one 

 navigable river, the Karun, that flows 

 into the head of the Persian Gulf, and 

 on this sea the so-called ports are merely 

 open roadsteads, at which cargo cannot 

 l)e landed in stormy weather. 



The merchandise of Persia is prac- 

 tically carried on the backs of camels, 

 mules, and donkeys, a slow and expen- 

 sive mode of transport, and the traveler 

 usually rides through the country follow- 



