"تقرير عن الجيش الفارسي جُمع في فرع الاستخبارات لإدارة قائد الإمداد والتموين في الهند من قبل الملازم ج. أ. دوجلاس، فرقة رماة الرماح الثانية في البنغال" [ظ‎‎١‎١‎٥] (٢٢/٢٠)

for the money leaves the State chest in the first place, and it is only because of
the oro-anised peculation of his superiors that, it percolates in such attenuated
driblets, after long periods of time, to the miserable private. Small wonder if,
when the occasion arises, he wreaks a sweet revenge upon his own commanding
officers by showing the white feather.”
The only regular troops worthy of the name in the country are those of tne
Cossack brigade. Of them General Gordon writes : “ There can be no doubt of the
good military spirit of the corps, created and fostered by the Russian officers,
and of the readiness with which the men would spring to obey their Polkovmk
in preference to their sovereign. The men make no great secret of this, and thus
the brigade may well be regarded as a detachment from. the army of the.
Caucasus.”
Though all authorities are agreed as to the utter inefficiency of the
Persian army, yet they are equally agreed that there exists in Persia material
from which under European officers a really efficient fighting body might be .:
formed.
Sir H. Rawlinson said in 1858: fl As an animal, a Persian is the finest creature
in the world ; for an Oriental, he is so certainly. They are fine, muscular men,
and their powers of endurance are quite exceptional.” Again he said in .1879 :
“ There are no people in the world who afford better rough', material for
military purposes than the Persians. I he physique of the men is admirab e,
and their power of endurance is great; the absence of all habits of intemperance
is very important, while the general intelligence and personal courage of the men
is beyond all praise. If the Persian material were placed at the disposal of a
European power who would encourage and take care of the men . and develop
their military instincts, a fine working army, very superior in my opinion to any-^
thing that Turkey could produce, might be obtained in a very short period of
time.”
Sir C. MacGregor said of some regiments he inspected outside Mashad:
“ They are all composed of more, or less fine material. To look at them
without the eye of a soldier was simply to condemn them as a rabble of dirty^.
slouching-looking ragamuffins ; but regarded as food for powder by one who
knows the style of article required, they are by no means to be despised. . 1 hey
are dirty, slouching-looking ragamuffins certainly, but brought into trim by
English officers, they would very soon become fine, soldierly fellows. ...
They are, taken as a general rule, men of fine physique and very hardy muscular,
frames and just the fellows to make into very fine soldiers...... ...God has given
the Shah as fine a body of men as could be wished for, but he does nothing tor
them.”
General Gordon, in a report on a review at Teheran in May 1890 writes
as follows : “ The infantry were all men of a vigorous and hardy type, and 00 e
most promising material for the work of war. Put into good clothing and with but
a few days’ preliminary drill by corps, they seem to have been all at once fired,
with true soldierly spirit, and went past the Shah with a bold bearing and a free
swinging step, as utterly unlike the usual slouching, slovenly Persian infantry
soldiers to be seen in the streets as it is possible to conceive.
Bakhtiari Cavalry.—\v\ the same report he says: I have mentioned
the Bakhtiari Cavalry as bearing the palm at the review. The great su P eri o nt y
of the 11 Iliats ” for military service has been noticed by . all who have
had an opportunity of judging, and I was. much interested in hearing the-
Grand Vazir, the Amin-es-Sultan, say to Sir Henry Drummond Wolff after
the review that he was in favor of 1,000 Bakhtiari cavalry being adde d t0 '
the national force. Undoubtedly the Kashkai, Baharlu, Bakhton and other
Iliats in the country between Isfahan, the Karun river, and the Turkish frontier
beyond would appear to be likely, under an honest system and falr tr ® atr "®"-
to furnish a good hard-hitting fighting force, both horse and foot The organ,
00+;™ cn^v, q fnrrp in the south under British officers would be a fatting