Coll 28/85 ‘Persia. Relations with H.M.G. Anglo-Persian Oil Company.’ [‎114v] (230/380)

Mules loaded with lengths of small pipe
spring” at the side of a cliff. Before the advent of the Anglo-Persian
Company, a small volume of oil had flowed from this spring—probably
for many centuries—into a stream alongside, where it was held up by a
few ancient dams, the oil being skimmed from the surface of the pool thus
formed and taken away for sale or barter. It was used for burning purposes
or for the healing of sores—both in man and beaSt. The bitumen which
was deposited from the oil was used for the caulking of boats on the
Rivers Tigris, Euphrates and Karun. There is no doubt that the oil was
obtained from this source for the perpetual fires of the Temple in question—
one of great fame in the time of the Sassanian Kings—and led to its ereftion
at this particular spot.^/
It may be here mentioned that these oil springs are of common
occurrence throughout the va$t range of mountains and hills extending from
the Caucasus on theNorth-WeSt of Persia to the Indian frontier on the South-
EaSt, and there is little doubt that this supply of liquid fuel and the supposed
divine influences of fire had a good deal to do with the origin and spread
for many centuries of the ZoroaStrian religion—the home of which lay
chiefly in the line of this great oil belt. In any case the name of Maidan-
i-Naftun which was given to this valley by the ZoroaStrians has proved
prophetic, for in a few years that desolate spot in the Baktiari Mountains—
almost depopulated since the downfall of the Sassanian Dynasty—has become
a busy hive of industry and famous all the world over as one of the most
prolific, if not the most prolific, of the oil fields yet discovered. This
connexion between these subterranean sources of supply of mineral oil and
the foundation of the ZoroaStrian religion is one of the moSt extraordinary
incidents in the history of the religions of the world.
* * * *
The task of moving the drilling equipment to Maidan-i-Naftun was a
moSt arduous one. Looking back to-day from the present high State of
development of the Persian Oil Fields, with a railway, good roads, fleets of
motor-cars, a fine hospital with a large Staff of doflors and nurses, comfort
able dwelling-houses and clubs, workshops, wireless telegraphy, telephones,
and eleflric light and power, it is difficult to appreciate what the pioneers
had to endure. The country was mountainous and exceedingly difficult.