3IO THE BASIN OF EASTERN PERSIA AND SISTAN. 
the province is such that the city of Tabriz (p. 521) now numbers a population of 
nearly 200,000 and is the connnercial metropolis of Persia, while the province 
(p. 517) contains 2,000,000 inhabitants, or from 25 to 40 per square mile, according 
to the estimate which is put upon its area. Ruins are found in many parts of 
Azerbaijan, but the}- do not give the impression of a countr)- whose population and 
resources have steadily declined, but rather of a countr}' which has suffered and recov- 
ered. If war and calamit}- are the chief causes of depopulation and the fall of 
nations, why has Tabriz lasted so steadily, and why is Azerbaijan so prosperous and 
populous ? 
A comparison of the four provinces of Khorasan, Azerbaijan, Kirman, and 
Sistan is suggestive. Khorasan (Curzon, pp. 180, 514) has suffered from war more 
severely than any other province of Persia. Its northern portion, where the rain- 
fall is greatest and where also the greatest amount of fighting has taken place, is 
to-day one of the most prosperous portions of Persia. It contains abundant niins, 
but they are by no means the impressive features which they are farther south. 
The southern and drier part of the province is full of niius and has suffered great 
depopulation. Azerbaijan, which (Curzon, p. 514) has suffered from war more 
than any province except Khorasan, is the most prosperous and thickly popu- 
lated part of Persia. The relative abundance of its water-supply renders its future 
hopeful. Sistan has suffered from wars, but less severely than the two preceding 
provinces. Nevertheless, it has been depopulated to a far greater extent. Its 
extreme aridity renders recovery well-nigh impossible, except along the Helmund. 
Kirman (Sykes, p. 60) lies so remote behind its barrier of deserts and mountains 
that it has suffered from war much less than an}' of the three preceding provinces. 
Yet its ruined cities and its appearance of hopeless depopulation are almost as great 
as in Sistan. If war and misgovemment are the cause of the depopulation of 
Persia, it is remarkable that the two provinces which have suffered most from war 
and not less from misgovemment should now be most prosperous and least depop- 
ulated ; while the two which suffered less from war and no more from misgovem- 
ment have been fearfully and, it would seem, irreparably depopulated. It is also 
significant that the regions which have suffered the greatest ruin are those where 
water is least abimdant and a decrease in the supply would most quickh- be felt. 
Wars and misgovemment do not seem to necessarily cause depopulation, nor has 
that process gone on most rapidly where war has been most pre\'alent. 
(d) The density of the population of Iran. — It is often asserted that with proper 
methods of irrigation Persia might support a much larger population, and the 
Persians are taken to task for not utilizing their resources. The Persians, as Hol- 
dich (p. 374) says of the Afghans, " have from time immemorial been great practical 
irrigation engineers. Ever>' acre of rich soil is made to yield its abundance by means 
of ever)' drop of water that can be extracted from overground or underground sources. 
It would be rash to say that the cultivable area of Afghanistan could be largely 
increased." Goldsmid, who knew Persia from end to end, was of the same opinion 
in regard to that coinitry, as he shows (r, p. 186) when he speaks of "the precari- 
ousness of cultivation (in Persia as a whole), even where to many travelers fertility 
has appeared undeniable and of considerable extent." 
