'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎590v] (1201/1486)

2
PERSIA.
Population
and extent.
Race and
language.
Cereals.
Azarbaijan is a very large province, extending 275 miles in its
greatest length from north to south, amd 240 miles in its greatest
width from east to west. Its area is about 43,500 square miles,
and the population is estimated at 2,000,000. It is almost impos
sible to "et an exact estimate of population, but the above is a
fairly true estimate. Azarbaijan is certainly much more thick y
peopled, especially in its western half, than any other part of
6 The population is composed of various and often hostile
elements. The chief portion of the population belongs to diffe
rent tribes of Turkish race, speaking a Turk! tongue veiy similar
in character to that spoken by the Turkish tribes in the Trans-
Caucasus province of Russia. It differs considerably from that
spoken by the Turks in Constantinople, as it does also from the
Turki spoken in Bokhara and further eastward; but peisons
speaking the Azarbaijan dialect have this advantage that, as theii^
dialect is an intermediate one between the different dialects of
Turkish, they can make themselves understood either in Constan
tinople or Bokhara, which is a great advantage to thein as tiauers
and carriers of goods. The remainder of the population, that is
not of Turkish race, consists of Kurds numbering about 450,000 ;
Persians, and Christians of two races, Nestorians or Assyrians,
and Armenians, about 44,000 of the former and 28,8 ( JO of the
latter, making a total Christian population of 72,M)0. There are
ak-o a few Jews, and 120 Europeans and Americans of various
nationalities.
Besides Turki, which is the language of the great majority of
the population, Persian is the official language, and is spoken by
all the upper classes and those engaged in trade. Kermanji, or
Kurdish, is the language of the Kurds; Talysh, an old Persian
dialect, which differs as much from modern Persian that the
people speaking it cannot he understood by other Persians, is
spoken near the Caspain Sea coast and in some villages scattered
about the province; Syriac, or Assyrian, is spoken by the
Nestorians—it is a Semitic tongue nearly allied to the Aramaic of
the book of Daniel; and, finally, Armenian by the Armenian
portion of the population.
Azarbaijan may uc cunsiuereu tne granary of Persia; the soil
is most fruitful, and the water supply for irrigation, without which
little can be grown in the east, is abundant. It is watered by