'Report on the Persian Army' [‎58r] (115/170)

Notes.
It was decided to call regiments by their numbers, but this
is not done. They are known by their old appellations, territorial
or otherwise.
The regular infantry is divided into Azerbaijani and
Iraki regiments. The origin of this denomination is to bo
found in the history of the Persian army in the beginning of
the century, when Abbas Mirza’s army was called by the name
of the province where its troops were recruited. All other
troops were known as Iraki, regardless of the place of
recruitment. The appellation was more administrative than
territorial and is so now, the Azerbaijan regiments drawing
their pay from Azerbaijan, the Iraki from their separate
provinces.
It is extremely difficult to arrive at any accurate notion of
approximate effective strength of the infantry—that is to say,
of the number of men borne on the rolls of the regiments and
having actual existence.
The following are the numbers given by various writers,
under the headings nominal, effective, and strength under
arms:—
Nominal.
Actual or
Effective.
Strength under arms.
Colonel Smith (1883)
Mr. Herbert (1886)
Curzon (1891)
Colonel Picot (1899)
64.500
63,700
78.500
35,400
25,000
35,000
18,000 to 20,000
26,100 Effective 1 l !
13,000
13,600
The nominal strength recorded by Colonel Picot for 1899 is
that given him by the Paymaster-General (Vazir-i-Lashkar) and
tallies with the official Sal Nameh (year book for 1899-1900).
In regard to the actual or effective strength, the present
writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. thinks that the foregoing figures may bo very mislead
ing, for although it is more than probable that the effec
tive is under 3,5,000 men, experience has shown that, given
time and a fairly liberal expenditure of money, the owners of
regiments are almost invariably able to bring up their numbers
to a figure closely approaching to the nominal strength. For
instance, when the Firman A Persian word meaning a royal order or decree issued by a sovereign, used notably in the Ottoman Empire (sometimes written ‘phirmaund’). Firma was Commander-in-Chief in
1897, embodiment for service at the capital was ordered of
the Ardebil and Meschkin regiment, which had not been under
arms for fifteen years ; yet in the course of six months it presented
itself at Teheran with its complement of officers and men
almost complete. As this is by no means an isolated instance
of the practical working of the Bounitcheh system of recruit
ment, it may be safely concluded that, under favourable
circumstances and a more flourishing state of the exchequer, a
fair proportion (possibly two-thirds) of the nominal strength
Estimatea of
nominal,
effective, ami
strength
under arms.