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'Report on the Persian Army' [55r] (109/170)
The record is made up of 1 volume (83 folios). It was created in 1900. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
99
N
T here are no regulations in force in regard to the qualifica
tions of officers fcr first appointment or for promotion. “ The
command of regiments is sometimes inherited, sometimes vested
in the hands of infants, and commonly bought and sold.”
Curzon mentions that at the time of his visit to Teheran a child
of 11 years of age (probably Aziz-es-Sultan, favourite of Nasr-
ed-Din Shah) was a field-marshal, and at the royal levee stood
between the Commander-in-Cliief and an octogenarian veteran,
no mean type of the system which prevails through the entire
hierarchy, from general to ensign. Patronage and promotion
in a regiment are in the hands of the colonel, who makes such
a good thing out of the distribution that the goodwill, so to
speak, of his post is a marketable commodity, like that of a
public-house in England, and has to be purchased for a fixed
sum. To obtain higher commands large sums varying from
£200 to £1,000 are paid by the would-be Sartips or Sarhangs.
If the superior ranks are more commonly filled by men of
good family, the lower grades of commissioned officers, from the
Yavar or major downwards, are drawn from the middle and
lower classes and occupy no social position whatever.
About this item
- Content
Report on the Persian Army by Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Philip Picot, Military Attaché and Oriental Secretary, British Legation, Tehran, Persia.
The report is divided into two parts. Part 1 consists of an introductory note, list of works consulted, chapters on general information about Persia and the history of the Persian Army (written by General Albert Houtum-Schindler), and an appendix on military pay, ranks, titles, and decorations. Part 2 consists of eleven chapters on recruitment, infantry, irregular cavalry, regular cavalry (the Cossack Brigade), artillery, miscellaneous irregular bodies, departments of the army, military schools, uniforms and equipment of men, uniform of officers, and decorations, medals, and orders.
The report has a preface written by the author in January 1900 (folio 3).
At the back of the volume is a map of Persia, Afghanistan, and Beluchistan [Baluchistan] (folio 84).
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (83 folios)
- Arrangement
The report has a table of contents (folios 4-5) with reference to the original pagination.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 85; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.
Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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'Report on the Persian Army' [55r] (109/170), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/373, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100076659626.0x00006e> [accessed 25 August 2026]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F111/373
- Title
- 'Report on the Persian Army'
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:83v, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence