CHAPTER ONE OF PERSIA IN GENERAL THE First Volume of my Travels is a journal of my Adventures and Observations from Paris to Ispahan. In this I am going to give you a general Description of Persia, wherein I shall treat of the Nature, Morals, and Manners of the People, and of their Industry, in procuring for themselves all the Necessaries of Life. PERSIA is the greatest Empire in the World, if you consider it according to the Geographical Description given by the Persians; because they represent it to the full Extent of its ancient Boundaries, which are four great Seas: the Black Sea, the Red Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Gulph of Persica; with Six Rivers almost as famous as those Seas, viz. The Euphrates, the Araxes, the Tigris, the Phase, the Oxis, and the Indus., One can scarce more precisely point out the Limits of this vast Kingdom, which is not like the States of petty Sovereigns, whose Frontiers are marked out with a Brook or a Rivulet, or some little Monument of Stone. Persia on every side hath the space of four or five Days journey for its Confines, which is uninhabited, although the Soil is the best in the World in many Places, as on the Eastern and Western Sides. The Persians look upon it to be a signal Token of Grandeur, to leave these Countries, like some spacious Desert, between great and mighty Empires; for this hinders, as they say, Contests about Limits of Dominion, and these uninhabited Tracts of Land, serve for Partition Walls between Kingdoms. These Rivers and Seas which I have set down here, are not at this time the Confines of Persia. Its Extent is mightily shrunk and diminished on the Side of the Red Sea; and Persia has, at present, the Possession of but a few Places in those Coasts. But the Persian Geographers cease not, however, to stretch their Empire out, in their most modern Descriptions, as far as those Boundaries, which it had of old, alledging, that they are still in Right and Fact, the Bounds of their Country; and that they are not to be look'd upon as abridg'd, by reason of the little Revolutions and Changes, which have happened on one or two Sides, because they may recover what they have lost, and they only want a Reign like that of Abas the Great, who liv'd but Threescore Years ago, to carry their Frontiers once more, as far as their ancient Limits. Persia, in the State it was in, when I saw it, reckoning from Georgia, reaches from the 45th Degree of Latitude, which is the farthest Extent on the North side, as far as the 94th Degree along the River Indus, on the Southern Side, and from the 77th Degree of Longitude, towards the Mountains of Ararat, on the West, as far as the hundred and twelfth Degree over against the Indies and Tartag on the East. The greatest Length of it is, from the River Indus to the River Phasis, which is full five hundred and fifty Persian Leagues, or seven hundred and fifty French: This is the Length of Persia; in Breadth, it is less by near three hundred Leagues. The Persians, in naming their Country, make use of one Word, which they indifferently pronounce Iroun, and Iran; an ancient Term invented by the Tartars, from whom the Modern Persians proceed. Their Histories tell you, That in the Time of the Ninth King of Persia, who is call'd Effrasiab, the Empire comprehended, besides what it contains at present, all the Countries between the Caspian Sea and China, on the North and Eastern Sides; and that this Monarch of theirs, divided his unparalleled Empire by the River Oxis, calling that on the West, Iran, and that on the North, Touran, as one would say, on this Side the River, or on that Side the River. These Names of Iran and of Touran, are frequently to be met with in the ancient Histories of Persia; Key Iran, Key Touran, which signifies King of Persia, and King of Tartag, Irandoct, and Tourandoct, which is as much as to say, the Queens of those Countries; and even to this very Day, the King of Persia is call'd Padcha Iran, and the Great Vizier, Iran Aledary, the Pole of Persia. This is the Modern Appellation, the most in Use in that Country. That which they frequently make use of in the Second Place, is, the Term Fars, which is the particular Name of the Province; the Metropolis of which, in ancient Days, was Persepolis, and which gave its Name to all the Empire, because, under the second Race of Kings, it was the chief Province of the Kingdom, and the Seat of its Monarchs. This Word Fars, to signifie Persia, is very ancient; and the Persians still call the Old Language of their Country, which was in use before the Days of Mahometanism, Saboun Fours, the Tongue of Persia. Several learned Men deduce the Etymology of this Term from that of Pherez, which in the Hebrew and Claldaick signifies to divide, because (say they) Cyrus, after his Conquests, divided the Empire of Babylon between the Persians and the Medes; and that Persia was in a manner divided and separated. They might have added likewise, that in the Persian, this Word signifies the same as Fereston to divide. But the Persians don't much care for allowing that Etymology, which gives Babylon the Antiquity of Empire, above themselves, who on the contrary maintain, that Persia is the oldest Seat of Dominion. But be that as it will, the Word Fars signifies a Cavalier in the ancient Persian, as well as in Arabick, from whence they still, in the Modern Tongue, call a Querry, Farasch. And that which makes me believe this Etymology the rather, is, that all the Kingdom, and particularly the Province which bears the Name of Persia, abounds in Horses; and in Persia they are thought to be the best Breed in the World. Xenophon says, that Cyrus was the first who made the Persians good Horsemen, having given the Example to the Nobility, by going always on Horseback, and ordering all People to do so, who could afford it; and it grew at last so common in the Country, that no Body but indigent People ever went on Foot. He adds, to confirm this Relation, that the Children in Persia are taught three Things, to tell Truth, draw a Bow, and mount a Horse. This is really their whole Practice to this very Day, in regard to the third Point. Every Body, even to the Shop-keepers, go on Horseback. Each Person keeps his Saddle-Horse; and there is such plenty of Horses in that Country, that before the last Age, there was no such thing as Infantry in the Persian Armies. All their Troops consisted of Cavalry: And there is no room to doubt, but that it was the constant Custom of the Persians to be always on Horseback, that the Greeks form'd their Fables of Centaurs, of the Sagitary, and of Perseus. The Arabians and the Turks call the Persians, Agem, and Persia, Agemessaan, a Word which imports a Stranger, as likewise a Barbarian. It is to give you to understand, that the Persians, altho' Mahometans, and a Learned and Zealous People, are not descended from the Arabians, the Source of Mahometism, and the Fountain of all Sciences; In the same Sense as the Greeks call'd all the Nations of the World barbarous: And it is in this Sense that the Grand Seignior stiles himself Sultan Alaragh ve Al Agem, to signify all Nations of the World; and that they call the BodyGuard of his Person Agem Oglan, Sons of Barbarians, to signify that they are not Natives of Turky. I will not here make mention of all the other Names, which the ancient Books, and among the rest the Holy Scriptures, give to Persia, some whereof are the Names of Princes, or famous and noted Personages, as that of Elam; others the Names of some Province in the Kingdom of Cuth; and others again are taken from those that were the most powerful Towns in the Country in ancient Times, when there were but very few Towns in all, as the Name of Erec or Arac, which is found in the Tenth of Genesis, a Word which signifies a Town inhabited upon the Banks of a River. The Orientalists, and among the rest the Arabians and the Persians, call to this very Day all Persia, Araken or -Yeraken, the plural Number of Arak; they divide it into two Parts, Arak Arab, and Arak Agem, as who should say, the Towns of the Arabians, and the Towns of the Barbarians; and these Terms are sometimes us'd to distinguish the Lower from the Higher Persia; the last of which stretches it self even up to Indus. In fine, they now give three other Names to the Persian People, to wit, those of Chi a and of Raphesi, when they discourse of their Religion, and that of Kesilback, when they are talking of their Conquests. But I will dwell no longer on this Subject at present, because I shall have occasion to treat of it hereafter. The Persian Geographers divide the Empire into four and twenty Provinces, counting for one of them , a Country which the Turks took from them, and have still in their Possession. They make mention of five hundred and forty four considerable Places, Walled Towns, Cities and Castles and they compute that there is in Persia, some threescore thousand Villages, and forty Millions of Souls. I will likewise hereafter treat of the Mountains, and the Rivers of the Country, of which 1 shall content my self with only saying this at present. There is not in all the World that Country which hath more Mountains, and fewer Rivers. There is not so much as one single River that can carry a Boat into the Heart of the Kingdom, nor serve to transport Goods from one Province to another: Those which I mention'd as giving bounds to the Empire, run strait along upon the Frontiers, without branching themselves out, and carrying Streams into the Body of those Territories. The Country of Persia is dry, barren, mountainous, and but thinly inhabited. I speak in general, the twelfth Part is not inhabited, nor cultivated; and after you have pass'd any great Towns about two Leagues, you will meet never a Mansion-House, nor People in twenty Leagues more. The Western side above all the rest, is the most defective, and wants to be peopl'd and cultivated the most of any, and nothing is to be met with there almost, but large and spacious Deserts. This barrenness proceeds from no other Cause, than the scarcity of Water, there is want of it in most Parts of the whole Kingdom, where they are forc'd to preserve the Rain-Water, or to seek for it very deep in the Entrails of the Earth. For in all the Places where there is good store of Water, the Soil is kindly, fertile, and agreeable: However Persia is in a manner one continu'd Country of Mountains, as I have been saying. There are so many, that the great Provinces are quite full of them, as that which is on the East, and is for that very Reason by them call'd Koubeston, that is to say, a Country of Mountains. It is in Persia that there are the highest Mountains in the Universe. Mount Taurus, which runs athwart the Kingdom, from one End of it to the other, towers up in such pointed Pinacles, that by Reason of their immense Height, the Tops and Summits of them are beyond the reach of the Eye of Man. The loftiest Parts of these Mountains, are the Mounts of Ararat, in Upper Armeni'a; tile Row or Chain of Mountains, which separate Media from Hyrcania, that which is between Hyrcania, and the Country of the Parthians, and particularly Mount Damavend, the Mountains that separate Chaldea from Arabia; those which lie between Persia and Caramenia, where the most famous Place of all is the Mount jaron. One of the great Defects in these Mountains is, that they are all dry and Sun-burnt; I mean generally speaking; for there are some Places where the Mountains are cover'd over entirely with Woods; such is Kourdestan, the greatest part of which is call'd also upon that account Genguella, that is to say, the Woody Country. But for one Woody Mountain that you shall meet with, there are three that bear nothing at all. But as I have just now been referring the Cause of Barrenness of the greater Part of Persia, to the deficiency of Water; and since in the sequel of my Discourse, it may be observ'd, that I say, that the Persians for Moistening Earth, make use of subterraneous Canals in the Earth, that run generally through their Countries, where they stand not in need of Water: I am very willing to explain my self, to avoid all appearance of a Contradiction, because all which I have recited hereupon, as above, is exactly true. The Water is the Cause of Fruitfulness in Persia, in all Places where it is to be had; and there is some, generally speaking, when People will be at the Pains of digging for it; but there are not People enough every where to look after it, and draw up a sufficient Quantity: Hence , the want of People does not proceed from the barrenness of the Soil, but the barrenness of the Soil from the want of People; just in the saine manner as it fares with the greatest part of the Countries of the Ottoman Empire, which, altho' they are of their own selves, and by their Nature the best, and the finest Countries upon the Face of the Earth, are nevertheless as dry as Heaths for want of Hands. As for the Cause of the want of People in these vast Countries, it is very easy to comprehend. It proceeds on one Hand from the unmeasurable Extent of these Monarchies, and on the other from the Arbitrary Government that is exercis'd there. The People who are Conquer'd, not being able to support the being Govern'd by the Caprice of a Foreigner, whereas they were before rul'd by due and constant Laws, flowing regularly from their own Constitution, shake off the Yoke as soon as the Conqueror removes two or three hundred Leagues from them. It was thought advisable, in order to maintain their Conquests, to banish the better Part of them, and to transport the other into distant and different Climates, where they perish'd little by little, like a strange Plant. This is what the Persians have practis'd, as well as the Turks for latter Ages. They have already remark'd in the Indies, which is a Country very Rich, Fruitful, and Populous, the dreadful Effects of this kind of Politicks; for in Proportion, as the Great Mogul extends his Empire, by the Conquest of Indian Kingdoms and Principalities, the People, and at the same time Plenty and Riches, decrease; one mav add to this Political Reason, some other natural ones, for the Depopulation of Persia, and among the rest, these three. First, The unhappy Inclination which the Persians have, to commit that abominable Sin against Nature, with both Sexes. Secondly, The immoderate Luxury of the Country. The Women begin there to have Children betimes, and continue fruitful but a little while; and as soon as they get on the wrong Side of Thirty, they are look'd upon as old and superannuated. The Men likewise begin to visit Women too young, and to such an excess, that though they enjoy several, they have never the more Children for it. There are also a great many Women, who make themselves abortive, and take Remedies against growing Pregnant; because when they have been three or four Months gone with Child, their Husbands take to other Women, holding it for an Act of Turpitude and Indecency, to lie with a Woman gone so far in her Time. The Third Reason is, that within this last Century, a great many Persians, and even entire Families, have gone and settl'd in the Indies. As they are a handsomer, wiser, and more polite People, beyond all Comparison, than the Mahometan Indians, who are descended from the Tartars, in the Country of Tamerlane; they all advance themselves in the Indies. The Courts of the Indian Mahometan Kings are all full of them, particularly that of Colconda and Vijappur. As soon as any of them are well established, they send for their Families and Friends, who go willingly where Fortune invites them, especially into a Country, which is one of the most plentiful in the World, and where Cloaths'and Food are sold cheaper than any where else soever. They are not yet so well advis'd of this in the East, as to forbid the Departure of their Subjects: Every one is at Liberty to go where he pleases, and there is no need of a Pass, they having free Egress out of the Kingdom without it. You will likewise find in the Sequel of this Work, that when the Peasants in some Places, think themselves oppress'd, they will come crying in a Body to the Gates of the Governours, and even to the Gate of the King's Palace, that they will leave the Country, if they are not eas'd. Medieval background and art for this etext courtesy of Return to the Table of Contents. Last Updated on March 24, 2001 by Lisa and Sylvia.