'Report on the Persian Army' [‎37v] (74/170)

04
shows the length of the camel’s step Xvhen ambling under
different loads, and the distance the animal ambles in an hour
(from Colombari):—
Weight
of
load.
Steps per minute.
Length
of
step.
Distance
done per
hour.
batmans.
0Q
£
centim.
inches.
Q
_o
miles.
Ambling with a full load ....
120
780
80
80
32
3-840
2-370
„ „ zamburek
75
487
90
110
44
5-940
3GG6
load.
Ambling with only rider and
30
195
100
130
52
7-800
4-814
saddle.
For quite ten years, from 1838 to the end of the Shah’s
reign in 1848, no progressive work was done in the army. The
unsuccessful issue of the expedition to Herat had done much to
cool the Shah’s ardour for military matters, and bad state of
health prevented his taking any active part in soldiering. The
army, as well as all other State departments, was left in charge
of the P rime Minister, Hajji Mirza Akassi, whose nepotism and
avarice, and absurd cranks and fads, caused disorder and
great confusion in all departments. Next to filling his
coffers with tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. his principal mania was that of making
cannon, arms, and other war material. The arsenals were
unceasingly at work, and the money of the treasury was use
lessly spent in unserviceable weapons and munitions. Colom
bari, who seems to have been a partisan of the Hajji, considered
the arms manufactured in Persia as good as those of France,
but Flandin gives the following account:—
“ Hajji Mirza Akassi, an ignorant Mulla, without any knowledge of mili
tary art, greatly contributed to the decline of the artillery. He fancied himself
a scientific artilleryman, and had taken the whole department of artillery into
his own hands. At the arsenal he at first employed German and Russian
foremen, who not only did not possess the requisite knowledge for directing
the works, but were also continually interrupted and hampered by his absurd
fads and capricious innovations. The foremen were also much persecuted by
the native workmen, who were jealous. These foremen gradually left, and
when we were in Teheran the arsenal was exclusively directed by a Persian
who had passed a few months in England, and thought himself quite a man
of science, ihe arsenal was in a pitiful state. Ignorance reigned supreme,
and inexperience was met with every step. The cannon which they cast
were very r defective. Very often the casting was not properly done, and
even when it succeeded the result was a cannon which could only have a very
shoit life. In order to show how little reliance should be placed in (he
Persian artillery i need merely say that the most important operation in the
manufacture of cannon, to wit the casting, is the one the Persians are most
ignoiant of. In this art they are much more backward than the 3 r think.
I hey do not follow the modern system of boring the pieces after casting, but
cast the piece hollow with the bore ready made. This causes the bore to be
irregular, and makes straight shooting impossible. The operation of casting