Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎37r] (73/690)

A
k
conquering Khflif^otaJ© lit SUSa fi and ^ interview with the
r r-^
^ Sxw -^Crf ^tec
f^CI
vv
I
ftf i ^At3L>c^^_<
y
—"
'T^Ar-J^Ce^s
fj~
?v_>*
^ L
i<J~v^r ryJA~S^?J\^
J ^~
aU ^
-
<0 -r c,/ ^ < -£ lyy^ ' CctCL.
parasangs JloO miles); or excuse the travelled Captain Mignan
for confounding the sandstone ridge behind the town with the ruins
ot the ancient city, which he said extended for ten or twelve miles
and m the opinion of the inhabitants, for a journey of two months©
Ihe halcyon days of the old Aginis came to an end with the rebellion
against the Khalifa of the African negroes who had been imported
to Jabour m the sugar plantations. The revolt was suppressed ; but
the city and its surroundings never recovered, and fell into deeper
and more forlorn decay, until the emigrant Ka’b Arabs turned their
nomad steps m this direction, and reared their clay hovels amid the
piles of debris that still mark the ancient site. Evidence of a yet
earlier period and of a dead religion, as well as a vanished splendour
exists in the sandstone ridge above mentioned, where may be seen
hollow excavations high up in the rock, hewn in the olden days of
the fire-worshippers for the exposure of the dead, and in some of
which bones were actually discovered by Lieutenant Selby’s party.
In the mountain cliffs near Shuster have been found similar rock
lowers of Silence.
Ahwaz played a memorable but an even less distinguished part
than ^lohammerah in the incidents of 1857. After the occupation _ .
of ^ ktter^lace, three^stcamers, the Comet, Planet, and Aeeyria, v. ^ J V'C
7 th thrcc m en, and three gunboats in tow, were detached • dl , ' TA A
to pursue the retreatmg force^up the river to Ahwa z . A SW the ^
^Persian Infantry, jeveu thouound strong, with a large force of 'tiJj-' h-ov'f ^
cavalry, tos found encamped -u^aa-the right bank; a garrison of k ‘° ^ ^
hve—hundred men held the town and fort upon the opposite shore.
iSo sooner did the English prepare to land than the garrison
ecamped, while simultaneously the defending army melted into the
desert. Ihe dissolution was not less complete than when the miraqe
so common on the neighbouring Chaldtean plains, wastes on approach
into thin air. It is true^bat the Persian Commander-in-Chief by
paying the Grand Vizier a bribe of £ 8 , 000 , or at the rate of about
£1 tor every man who ran away, received a sword of honour from
the khan. But no historian will be disposed to speak harshly of so
su perla tive a sample of Eastern equity.
r- > V
r
/ (\
u
dsScl
U.oJU*L* / 3/,Z
jgjL ^ /<f "
(( a— . ' - „ . . jr n
P-kJ7TV
? e ^ J
r C4rr <^l
•e- \-
'd-tJt
f-e
. (j r } / , rxr cLA CC^rJjrtt^ /vtTv^ ^ >
otze /> K ^ ^
^Vr y^JT/vr ^
- • • L <xy C'H-fiA/r t-fi- 1 / / f 1 hi^AryilZ
A-^Cj
, 0-^f>
CU-