'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia: About 1889-1890' [‎682v] (1385/1486)

562
JOURNAL O* THE SOCIETY OF ARTS.
[May 10, 1889.
ing, and how, in my opinion, those benefits
may most readily and practically be obtained.
The first consideration that presents itself
regarding the Karun is the fact that, from its
source to its mouth, it is a purely Persian river.
There is thus no complication of interests
arising from partial or joint sovereignty.
Until it reaches the tidal estuary of the Shat-
el-Arab, which forms the boundary between
Turkey and Persia, and is a water highway
common to both countries, the Karun lies
entirely within the Shah’s dominions, of
which it is, in fact, the only navigable
river. The Euphrates and Tigris, on the
other hand, flow throughout their course
through Turkish territory. Persia’s claim to
both banks of the Karun down to the Shat-el-
Arab was for many years challenged by
Turkey on the ground that the present bed of
the river, near its mouth, was not the original
one. This contention, however, was over
ruled, and Persia’s claim to the whole course
of the river established by arbitration nearly
fifty years ago. The opening or closing of
the river to navigation is consequently a ques
tion of purely domestic Persian policy, entirely
within the Shah’s prerogative, and not de
pendent, like the navigation of the Danube,
for instance, on international agreement.
This fact, although essentially a political one,
must be borne in mind in considering the
commercial aspects of the Karun, with which
alone we are now concerned.
Owing to the nature of our climate, we are
in the habit in this country of regarding a
river, from a utilitarian point of view, as a
natural drain for carrying off superfluous
water rather than as a means of supplying
that great necessary of life. In the extremely
dry climate of Persia the reverse holds good.
It is as a means of water supply and irriga
tion, rather than as a drain, that a river is
there regarded. The other great practical
use to which rivers are put in the East, as in
the West, is as highways for navigation.
From a commercial point of view this latter
consideration is naturally the most prominent,
if not the most important. It should not,
however, be taken too exclusively into account.
In the case of the Karun, the Tigris, the
Euphrates, and the other branches of the
same great river system, their capabilities in
respect of irrigation are of even greater
ultimate importance than their more im
mediate adaptability to the requirements of
navigation. It is, however, this latter aspect
of the subject with which, while not forgetting
the other, we are now more especially con
cerned.
Regarded, therefore, simply as a navigable
highway and means of communication, let us
first see what kind of a highway the Karun is,
or is capable «f becoming, and then glance at
the regions to which it leads, and the re
sources which its opening may help to develop.
As a highway, the Karun may be said to
begin at the town of Shushter, whence, having
already issued from the mountains, it flows in
a generally placid course across the great
alluvial plain of Ram Hormuz towards the
head of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Shushter (probably
Shah Shatra, or City of the King) was founded,
or at all events greatly added to, by Shapur,
the conqueror of the Roman Emperor Valerian,
whose captured treasure he expended in erect
ing, about the year A.D. 260 , the great en
gineering works by which the waters of the
Karun at Shushter are still controlled. In a
recent communication to the Bombay branch
of the Royal Asiatic Society, Mr. Jeevanjee
Jamshe<3jee Modi quotes an interesting
passage from the “Shahnameh,” in which
Ferdousi, the great Persian epic poet of the
10 th century, describes the building of the
bridge and dam at Shushter by Baranush
(Varanus), a Roman prisoner taken at the
battle of Edessa, to w-hom Shapur promised
his freedom as a reward for the successful
application of his engineering skill. By
means of a dam at Shushter, called the
Band - i - Mizan, a few yards above the
bridge and band of Baranush, which are
still standing, the waters of the Karun
are partially diverted to the left into an
artificial navigable canal called the Ab-i-
Gargar. Thirty-two miles below Shushter the
canal rejoins the main branch of the Kanin at
Bend-i-Kir, where also it is joined by the
partly navigable affluent of the Diz or Dizful
river, which passes the large town of Dizful
nearly 70 miles above the confluence. Between
Shushter and Bend-i-Kir, the Ab-i-Gargar
canal, which has evidently been constructed
for navigation as well as irrigation, is still well
suited for the former purpose. Native boats
are used on it to some extent at the present
day. Throughout the year there is a sufficient
depth of water for the free passage of suitable
river steamers. Unlike such rivers as the
Indus, whose shifting channels greatly impede
the navigation, the bed of the Ab-i-Gargar,
and, in fact, of the whole course of the Kanin,
is well-defined and permanent. At Ahwaz,
24 miles below Bend-i-Kir—that is to say,