'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎610] (679/714)

PERSIA
Sir H. Eawlinson spoke as follows at the Royal United Service
Institution in 1858 :—
As an animal a Persian is the finest creature in the world, for an
Oriental he is so certainly. They are fine muscular men, and their
powers of endurance are quite exceptional.
And again, in 1879 :—
There are no people in the world who afford better rough material
for military purposes than the Persians. The physique of the men is
admirable, and their power of endurance is great; the absence of all
habits of intemperance is very important, 1 while the general intelligence
and personal courage of the men is beyond all praise. If the Persian
material were placed at the disposal of a European power who would
encourage and take care of the men, and develop their military instincts,
a fine working army, very superior, in my opinion, to anything that
Turkey could produce, might be obtained in a very short period of
time.
With regard to the endurance and marching powers of the
Persian infantry soldier, Sir H. Rawlinson stated that he once
calculated the daily distance travelled in a continuous march of
2,500 miles made by the army of Abbas Mirza, and found that it
averaged 21± miles, a performance which he rightly described as
quite unique in history. J Upon one occasion the men of his own
regiment, being disbanded, reached their homes, which were 154
miles distant, on foot on the third day.
Sir J. Sheil, speaking from an even longer experience, said :—-
Though the Persian never attains the wonderful precision of an
English soldier I doubt if he ever could—he has a very satisfactory
readiness in comprehending and attaining the really essential points
required in a regiment of infantry. A single battalion has a perfect
facility in forming a line, or square, or column, even when unaided by
European officers; but when it comes to be increased to a large body,
and is required to move, then indeed it is chaos ; they settle the
difficulty by not moving at all. 3
' But it is unfortunately not true. Sheil said of the Afshar regiments in
Azerbaijan, that ' both officers and men were the most drunken set of fellows that.
I ever encountered. Drinking is not an uncommon vice in the Persian army ; but
at Urumiah, where wine is abundant, and tolerably good, it passed all bounds.'
(Note C, p. 335.)
2 Sir F. Roberts' famous march from Kabul to Kandahar, a distance of 314
miles, in August 1880, only averaged 15| miles on the marching days
3 Note C to Lady Shell's book, p. 334. Compare also p. 382, where is an
estimate of the Persian soldier almost identical with Rawlinson's.