'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎190] (225/714)

PERSIA
Persian authority, and were during the year 1888-9 in active
rebellion. Further to the east are the Goklan Turkomans, a more
submissive people, who, in order to escape the hereditary enmity of
the Yomuts, have tranquilly accepted the Persian yoke, pay revenue
to the Shah's exchequer, and provide him with a body of 300
irregular cavalry. 1
The rebellion of the Yomuts began in February 1888, and
was not finally extinguished till March 1889. It appears to have
Rebellion been fomented by, if not to have entirely arisen from.
Persian scandalous misgovemmeiit of the Persian authorities.
^ omuts g 0 serious, however, did the movement become that at
one time 13,000 Persian troops, under the command of the
Governor-General of Khorasan, the Khans of Bujnurdand Kuchan,
and the Prince Governor A Prince of the Royal line who also acted as Governor of a large Iranian province during the Qājār period (1794-1925). of Astrabad, were in the field against
them. Almost incredible stories are related of the cowardice of
the Persian troops, large bodies of 1,000 and 2,000 men being
checked and routed in open daylight by a few scores, or at most
hundreds, of Turkoman horsemen. It is only fair to add that the
Persian soldiers were perhaps as much actuated by discontent as
by cowardice in these discreditable proceedings. At least one-
half of their pay, when it came from Teheran, was pocketed by
the Saif-el-Mulk; and to expect these ill-fed, ill-clothed, and un
paid wretches to fight was perhaps more than human. Savage
acts of violence occurred on both sides, particularly on that of the
Persians, who spared neither the lives of the men nor the honour
of the women who fell into their hands. At length the revolt was
brought to an end by the familiar Persian methods of treachery
and intrigue. Hie clans were induced to turn against each other;
and, finally, the leading Ata Bai chieftain, Haji Nazar Khan, who
had been the life and soul of the rising, was enticed into Persian
territory and killed. The revolt then collapsed. 2
Lpisodes such as this not merely display the lamentable in
capacity of the Central Government, but they can have but one
ulterior consequence—the encouragement of Russian pretensions
on the north. It is well known that that Power claims, and
1 The weakness of the A'strabad Government is shown by the fact that, although
the Goklan Turkomans reside within the nominal borders of theAstrabad province,
their tribute is collected and their levies are commanded by the Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. of Bujnurd.
For information about the Yomut Turkomans, vide Aucher Eloy (1836),
Relations de Voyages, pp. 331-36, and notes by Kazi Syud Ahmed, printed in the
Journal of the R.G.S., vol. xlvi. p. 142 (1876).