'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎449] (508/714)

THE GOVERNMENT
449
to say that they can be counted on the fingers of the two hands.
The same applies to the mosques, which, with a few exceptions in
the great cities, are dilapidated and crumbling to ruin; to the
madressehs, or religious colleges, whose exterior of itself would
invite no students ; to the abandoned palaces and deserted o-ardens
in whose unsightly decay the dignity of the reigning monarch
appears to find avengeful solace at the expense of his predecessors.
It anywhere a fine modern caravanserai A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers). , or a road which shows
signs of labour, or a new bridge be encountered, it is almost certain
to have been the work of some private individual, who, whether
minister or merchant, defrayed the cost out of his own pocket,
and thought thereby to gain the grateful prayers of pilgrims
or to enhance his personal reputation. The productions of this
somewhat spurious public spirit are the only structures that modern
Persia can show, to compare with the superb and almost indestruc
tible relics of the Sefavean rule. About the neglect of roads and
railroads I shall speak hereafter. But of all illustrations of the
dearth of administrative energy, resulting from a system where
every man is squeezing his neighbour and being squeezed by some
body else, perhaps the most significant is the indifference that has
hitherto been displayed to the mineral resources of Persia, which
three centuries of travellers have pronounced to be exceptionally
rich, but which, until the formation of an English company a year
ago, no systematic or scientific effort has been made to explore or
to utilise.
. Amon g ^e features of public life in Persia that most quickly
strike the stranger's eye, and that indirectly arise from the same
retainers C0ndlfcl0Ils ' is the enormous number of attendants and
e amers ^ retainers that swarm round a minister, or official of anv
description. In the case of a functionary of rank or position, these
vary in number from 60 to 500. Benjamin says that the Prime
Minister in his time kept 3,000. Now, the theory of social and
ceremonial etiquette that prevails in Persia, and indeed throughout
the East,^ is to some extent responsible for this phenomenon
personal importance being, to a large extent, estimated by the
public show which it can make, and by the staff of servants whom
on occasions it can parade. But it is the institution of mudakhil
and of illicit pickings and stealings that is the root of the evil. If
the governor or minister were bound to pay salaries to the whole of
this servile crew their ranks would speedily dwindle. The bulk of
VOL. I.
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