Persia Revisited | Page 9

a supply of tobacco before the concession
came into force. This was regarded by the poor as proof of the coming
rise in price, and they therefore hailed the Moullas as their deliverers
from the threatened calamity of dear tobacco.
The only public debt of Persia is that of a loan contracted in order to
pay the compensation for cancelment of this concession, and the
expenses which had been incurred; but the sale by the Government of
the foreign export (part of the cancelled concession) very nearly
provides for the loan. The Société de 'Tombac' of Constantinople,
which bought the monopoly of export, has had difficulties to contend
with, caused by a Persian combination to buy from the cultivators and
sell to the foreign agents. A prominent Moulla was named as interested
in this business, which was in reality at direct variance with the
principles on which the priesthood had declared the original concession
to be 'unlawful.' This interference with the free trade conditions
existing when the Constantinople company made its contract led to a
dispute, which ended with a fresh agreement, in which there is said to
be a stipulation that, should the Persian Tobacco Régie in its original
form be revived at any time, French subjects are to have the first offer.
After disposing of the Tobacco Régie, the triumphant Moullas desired
to extend their prohibition to all foreign enterprise in Persia, and they
pronounced against the English Bank, which was doing its work quietly,
and without detriment to the business of others. But the Shah gave
them clearly to understand that their pretensions would be permitted no
further, and that they were to cease from troubling. They then made an
attempt to establish the impression of their power in a visible sign on
all men, by commanding discontinuance of the Persian fashion of
shaving the chin, so that the beard should be worn in accordance with
Mohammedan custom. Again they talked of organizing coercion gangs,
to enforce the order on the barbers, under threat of wrecking their shops.
At this time a foreign diplomat, during an audience of the Shah, on
being asked by his Majesty, according to his wont, what news there
was in the European quarter of the town, mentioned this latest phase of
Moulla agitation as tending to unsettle men's minds. The Shah passed

his hand lightly over his shaven chin, and said, with a touch of humour
and royal assurance: 'See, I shave; let them talk; they can do nothing.'
It is wrong to suppose that the people of Persia are dead to all desire for
progress, and that their religion is a bar to such desire. It is not so.
Many of the Moullas, it is true, are opposed to education and progress.
One frankly said of the people in reference to education, 'They will
read the Koran for themselves, and what will be left for us to do?' The
country is advancing in general improvement, slowly, but yet moving
forward; not standing still or sliding back, as some say. The Moulla
struggles in 1891-92 to gain the upper hand produced a feeling of
unquiet, and the most was made of all grievances, so as to fan the
flames of discontent. Pestilent priests paraded the country, and did their
utmost to excite religious fanaticism against the Government. These
agitators spoke so loudly and rashly that the ire of the old religious
leaders, the higher Moullas, men of learning and tranquil temper, who
had not joined the party of retrogression, was roused. The knowledge of
this emboldened the sober-minded to speak out against the arrogance
and conceit of the new self-elected leaders. Open expression of opinion
led to the criticism, 'These priests will next desire to rule over us.' The
Nomads, who have always declined to be priest-ridden, also showed
that they were ready to resist any attempts to establish a religious
supremacy in temporal affairs; and then, by judicious management of
rival jealousies and conflicting interests, the Shah succeeded in his
policy of complete assertion of the royal power. It may be that the
Moullas were made to understand that, just as the Chief Priest had risen
at a great assembly before Nadir Shah, and advised him to confine
himself to temporal affairs, and not to interfere in matters of religion,
so similar sound advice in the reverse order was given for their
guidance.

CHAPTER II
--The late Shah's long reign --His camp life --Habits --Appearance
--Persian Telegraph Intelligence Department --Farming the revenues
--Condition of the people --The shoe question --The customs

--Importation of arms --Martini-Henry rifles --Indo-European telegraph
Nasr-ed-din Shah was the two hundred and fifty-fourth Sovereign who
had successively ascended the throne of Persia. He succeeded his father,
Mahomed Shah, on September 10, 1848, and would have entered on his
jubilee,