'Report on the Persian Army' [‎62r] (123/170)

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in the world who afford better rough material for military
purposes than the Persians.” And Sir C. MacGregor echoes
this feeling when ho says, “They arc, taken as a general rule,
of fine physique and very hardy muscular frames, and just the
fellows to make fine soldiers.” General Sir Thomas Gordon also
considered them promising material.
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 word Persian as here
implied is a misnomer. He would reserve such praise for the
Turk and tribal soldier only, to the exclusion of the Persians.
The character, loyalty, courage, and physique of the Turk
are proverbial, and history has shown that he has in him the
makings of a soldier of quality. Should it ever be the good
fortune of Russia to extend her frontier, so as to include
Azerbaijan, and to raise any Turk infantry, she will find a
raw material at hand with which any soldier would be glad
to cast his lot.
The Persian as a soldier is held of little account in his own
country. The experience of the Russian officer of the Cossack
biigade, quoted in Chapter IV, on The Cossack Brigade,
would appear to more than endorse this view.
The Persian is useful for policing the country and in serving
in districts distasteful to the Turk.
As regards the officers of the Persian army, Curzon says,
“ Of the Persian officer as a class no one has ever been found to
speak except in terms of contempt.” This remark may bo
perfectly true of the purely Persian officer, and others who
have deteriorated in the capital, but it will be only doing
justice to the large number of junior officers of the Turk,
Kurd, and Lur regiments, as also of the irregular cavalry, to
express dissent with this view. They are, it is true, com-
temptible from the point of view of training, but are good
soldiers by nature and carry considerable weight with their
men.
During the Kurdish troubles of 1880-81, when Sheik
Obeidullah was ravaging Kurdistan, it took the Persian
Government three months to assemble and equip 20,000 men
at Tehran for operations against that chief.
The administration of the army would appear to be in
much the same state in 1890 as in 1880, and this may be taken
for the utmost the Government could compass in the same
period of time at the present moment.
Barracks are provided in Tehran in the Ark, or royal
enclosure for the Shah’s guards, and in the outlying quarters of
the town for the ordinary infantry garrison.
The accommodation, though good, is insufficient, but the
system is well suited to the wants of the men, many of whom,
as already explained, gain a living in the bazaars and find it
convenient to live near their work.
Similar arrangements are made in the chief garrison towns.
When any large additions to the ordinary garrison take place,
the men either go into tents or find quarters for themselves in
the caravansarais, etc.
Power of
mobilisation
of the
Persian
Army.
Barracks.