,illustration3 ,,yezdi ,,types4 ,the numbers are from the left4 #a4 ,a qan'at maker4 ,this is the man who digs the tunnels by which the water is brought from the base of the hills to the towns in the plain4 ,the leather bag on his arm is a bucket4 #b4 ,a ,parsi raiyat1 or agriculturist1 with his spade4 #c4 ,a porter4 #d4 ,a charvadar 7muleteer7 from ,lristn4 ,these very big men often come to ,yezd with caravans4 #e4 ,a ,jew1 who is divining from his book for the charvadar4 ,the ,jew has his boy with him4 #f4 ,an oil-seller4 ,he carries the oil in gourds4 #g4 ,a darvish1 or religious mendicant4 #h4 ,an ,arab4 ,these are sometimes seen in ,yezd1 but like the ,lari charvadar they do not really belong to the town4 ,,five ,,years ,,in ,a ,,persian ,,town ,,by ,,napier ,,malcolm ,,new ,,york ,e4 ,p4 ,,dutton ,,and ,,company #aije ,printed in ,great ,britain4 ,,preface ,i feel that this short sketch of a ,persian town needs an apology4 ,it will not improbably be mistaken for a book of travel4 ,stopping five years in one place is not travelling1 and the experience of such a stay is not a traveller's experience4 ,the descriptions that will be found in this volume refer to a very small area1 and consequently a good deal of minute work has been attempted that would have been out of place in the painting of a larger sphere4 ,then1 again1 this is not a book upon mission work4 ,there is comparatively little about the very interesting work which is being carried on in ,yezd by the ,church ,missionary ,society1 but there is a great deal about the circumstances under which missionaries work1 for the book is really a description of a ,persian town from the missionary point of view4 ,this will explain why certain details1 such as the dress and food of the people1 are left out altogether2 for1 although there may be some connection between these things and the kind of way in which missionary work ought to be conducted1 it is not at present apparent to the writer4 ,on the other hand1 the general effects of house1 street1 and desert1 which meet the ,yezdi's eye at every turn1 have been rather elaborately described1 for scenery and scenic surroundings have much effect on character1 and the study of character is essential in missionary work4 ,in most of the descriptions ,i have taken special care to preserve the true proportion between good and evil1 so far as ,i have been able to estimate it in the thing described4 ,i have specially done this in the necessarily incomplete sketches which ,i have drawn of the ,yezdi's character and religious beliefs4 ,but in dealing with the ,persian ,government ,i have consciously deviated from this practice4 ,consequently1 ,i must ask the reader to regard all references to the ,government as going no further than the actual statements4 ,i have also1 as far as possible1 avoided alluding to political problems2 for1 in a country like ,persia1 for a man engaged in serious missionary work abstention from politics is almost a sine qua non4 ,it will1 perhaps1 be felt by some that more ought to be made of the points in common between ,islam and ,christianity4 ,the fact is that when people come to the missionary they do not want to find agreement but disagreement1 and consequently the missionary gets to think not so much of what they know as of what they do not know4 ,so a missionary writer is1 perhaps1 inclined to pass over common points1 whatever religion he is writing about4 ,in the case of ,islam there are really not many to note1 and in support of this statement ,i may relate a story told by an officer of ,indian troops4 ,one day a ,mohammedan1 in the course of a conversation1 said to him3 8,of course1 ,sahib1 your religion and ours are very near together4 ,your ,christ is one of our prophets40 ,my friend replied3 8,what do you mean8 ,of course ,christ is one of your prophets1 but to us ,he is more than a prophet2 ,he is the ,son of ,god and the pattern of our lives4 ,besides there is hardly a single practical point where ,mohammedans and ,christians are not entirely at issue40 ,the man looked up and said3 8,sahib1 you have read the ,quran1 and you have read your ,bible4 ,i always make that remark to ,christians3 ,i made it to a padre the other day3 and they almost always say1 #8,very true2 ,mohammedanism has a great deal in common with ,christianity4' ,well1 ,sahib1 when they say that1 ,i know that they have not read the ,quran and they have not read their ,bibles40 ,my best thanks are due to ,miss ,,mary ,,bird1 whose name is well known both in ,persia and to all interested in that country1 for the valuable assistance that she has given me out of the wide and unique experience that she possesses on the subjects handled in my book4 ,i am also very grateful to the ,rev4 ,g4 ,,furness ,,smith for several valuable suggestions4 ,i am indebted to the ,rev4 ,c4 ,h4 ,,stileman and to ,mr ,,paul ,,peter for some of the photographs illustrating the book4 ,the coloured prints and the picture of the ,school are from drawings by a native artist1 ,,mirza ,,abu',l ,,qasim4 ,,contents ,,page ,,chapter ,i ,the ,yezd district--,desert--,water supply--,villages--,the town of ,yezd--,gardens--,streets--,houses--,fur niture--,cleanliness--,undurability of buildings--,built for heat--,hill villages--,effect of surroundings on intellect and character #a-ce ,,chapter ,,ii ,isolation and insularity--,the town the geographical and political unit--,extension of citizenship to strangers--,bigotry--,oppression and persecution of ,parsis--,improvement in their position--,position of ,jews--,fanaticism largely non-religious--,position of ,european colony #cf-ei ,,chapter ,,iii ,persian ,mohammedanism--,mohammed--,founding of ,islam--,shiahs and ,sunnis--,laxity distinguished from infidelity--,central doctrines of ,islam--,the ,divine ,unity--,the prophethood--,behi view of the prophethood--,the ,bb--,the ,behullah--,behism--,its prospects--,islam--,predestination--,rep entance--,savbs--,eating with unbelievers--,charge of pantheism--,effect of ,islam on character #fj-aad ,,chapter ,,iv ,results of ,islam--,untruthfulness--,superstitions- -,pilgrimages-- ,divining--,jins and ,dvs--,the evil eye--,trivial commandments-- ,entertainments--,islam includes rather than controls the life--,two purposes better than one--,ceremonial uncleanness #aae-ace ,,chapter ,v ,character of the ,yezdi--,systematised inconsistency--,loyalty to causes and individuals--,unreliability of evidence--,shame--,humour--,disregard of time--,language--,lack of initiative--,courage--,the ,yezdi soldier--,etiquette and manners--,triviality--,pride--,kindlines s and cruelty--,dishonesty--,difficulty in obtaining anything--,tendency to fatalism--,latent strength of ,persian character--,family ties--,the jus paternum--,religious liberty--,open-handedness-- ,summary #acf-ahg ,,chapter ,,vi ,difficulties in dealing with enquirers--,language--,argument-- ,parabolic interpretations--,distrust of evidence--,ignorance-- ,attachment to ,islam as representing whole scheme of life--,the problem of converts--,industrial missions--,employment by missionaries--,helpful points--,readiness for religious discussion--,quickness in grasping single points--,yezdi wants distinctive and systematic teaching--,and a concrete example--,difficulties in accepting converts--,tests #ahh-baf ,,chapter ,,vii ,getting into touch with the natives--,the missionary's style of life--,visiting and receiving visitors--,philanthropic work--,poor relief--,school work--,medical work #bag-bee ,,conclusion #bef ,,glossary #bfe ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,,yezdi ,,types ,frontispiece ,,hujjatabad1 ,,the ,,first ,,stage ,,from ,,yezd ,to face p4 #f ,,sweet ,,eating ,,in ,a ,,talar 0 #bf ,,dehbala 0 #cd ,,small ,,square ,,in ,,yezd 0 #gf ,,corpses ,,en ,,route ,,to ,,the ,,qum ,,cemetery 0 #abj ,,sandy ,,desert ,,near ,,yezd 0 #abj ,,carrying ,,the ,,nakhl ,,in ,,the ,,big ,,square ,,in ,,yezd 0 #acd ,,square ,,outside ,,governor',s ,,residence ,,in ,,yezd 0 #ahd ,a ,,view ,,of ,,yezd 0 #baf ,,scenes ,,in ,,yezdi ,,life 0 #bbf ,,the ,,school 0 #bdb ,,map at the ,end ,,five ,,years ,,in ,a ,,persian ,,town ,,chapter ,i ,the ,yezd district--,desert--,water supply--,villages--,the town of ,yezd--,gardens--,streets--,houses--,fur niture--,cleanliness--,undurability of buildings--,built for heat--,hill villages--,effect of surroundings on intellect and character4 ,in the very centre of central ,persia there is a town called ,yezd1 which in some ways may be uninteresting1 but ought for a student of ,persia to have the greatest interest1 for it possesses all the regular attributes of a ,persian town to an exaggerated degree4 ,these ,persian towns can be better understood after some consideration of the country in which they lie4 ,some one1 ,i think1 has said that ,persia consists of two parts1 the salt desert1 and the desert which is not salt2 and though this is not true of all parts of ,persia1 with regard to most of the interior of ,persia it is as nearly true as a reasonable man can expect an aphorism to be4 ,in the vast district where ,yezd lies you find an archipelago1 with sand for sea1 and towns and villages for islands4 ,if you want to know how big that desert area is1 ,i can only tell you that we went to ,yezd1 which lies in the very centre of ,persia1 from the southern shore of the ,caspian1 which is the northern boundary of the country1 and with the exception of a belt of land at the extreme north about thirty miles broad1 and a patch round ,teheran about twenty miles across1 we literally passed through nothing but desert4 ,but desert in ,persia is of many kinds3 even the salt desert is not all the same4 ,there are places where the ground is absolutely bare1 except for the thick crusts of salt that lie like snowdrifts streaking the surface in every direction4 ,there are also places equally salt where the proximity of a certain amount of useless water produces a larger quantity of plant life than in most parts of the ordinary desert4 ,the ordinary desert is good soil1 and wherever water can be brought to it1 it is extremely fertile4 ,generally it has a hard but rather gravelly surface4 ,sometimes it is flecked with dry brownish shrubs about the size of bedding-out plants1 sometimes it is quite bare4 ,there is in parts a good deal of scattered growth1 but two plants never touch one another4 ,in the more favourable places shrubs may be found at an average of not more than two yards apart1 but1 with one exception1 ,i have never seen in the desert plains of central ,persia a place away from the hills with sufficient natural growth to modify the colour of the distance4 ,then there is the sandy desert4 ,here also1 if the sand is scraped away and water brought1 the soil is good1 but in appearance the sandy desert is the most desolate of all4 ,absolutely nothing grows on it4 ,it is like the worst kind of salt desert1 without the relief of the white patches4 ,yezd lies in a big stretch of sandy desert4 ,sometimes the sand may be broken by a large piece of gravelly plain1 but such places are generally as bare as the sands themselves1 and form no real break in the dull monotony4 ,of course there are oases2 but what is called an oasis is not really very different in character from the desert that surrounds it4 ,it is the same desert artificially cultivated4 ,in the plains the water is brought from a distance1 and when it is applied the ground consents to nourish exactly those seeds that have been sown4 ,there are hardly any weeds1 no turf1 no tangle1 no hedges1 and no waste green4 ,every blade in the artificial wheat-field is an isolated unit1 that may be pulled up without disturbing its neighbour4 ,even in the fresher-looking gardens1 enclosed and concealed by high mud walls1 there is the same meagre1 bedded-out appearance on every side4 ,in spite of the possibility of three artificial harvests in the year1 one sees at a glance that the very roots will inevitably be annihilated when the water is cut off1 and of course this happens pretty frequently4 ,there are no wild trees at all1 and those that are reared are very small1 and scanty in leafage4 ,such oases as these go by different names1 according to the quantity of water4 ,those that can support a fairly large population are towns1 those that can support a smaller one are villages1 those that can only support one or two households are called cultivations1 or mazra's4 ,but1 however big or however small1 they are no interruption to the continuity of the desert4 ,in the hills and round their bases there is a trifle more plant life1 but there is no strong contrast to the barrenness below4 ,only high up in the creases of the mountain sides1 right above the cultivations and villages1 there are the narrowest strips of turf on either side of the snow torrents4 ,here one may find small ferns nestling under the boulders1 and quantities of soft flowers1 or an occasional wild barberry bush4 ,away from the actual bed of the mountain streams one is again in desert of a kind1 though here1 too1 the scattered dry shrubs will be found alternating with more succulent varieties of plants1 and the landscape is by no means entirely bare4 ,as soon as these streams reach ground that it is possible to level into terraces1 they are used for irrigation1 and become the stalks of minute mazra's4 ,then come long hill villages with orchard trees and walnuts2 and lastly1 if there is any water left at the real mountain base1 there will be a round irrigated patch of rather larger extent on the edge of the plain4 ,in the middle of the plains water may be found about sixty yards beneath the surface1 a depth from which it may be drawn through wells for drinking purposes1 but not in large quantities for irrigation4 ,consequently1 if the snow torrents were the only source of water supply1 the centres of the ,persian plains would be uninhabitable2 for in districts like that of ,yezd the rainfall is so trifling that nine or ten not over large falls of rain or snow in the twelve months constitute a wet year4 ,but water that is found at sixty1 or even a hundred1 yards down at the base of the hills is by no means useless4 ,from this point to the centre of the plain there is a considerable1 though very gradual declivity4 ,so when the original shaft has been sunk1 and water has been found1 perhaps at three hundred feet below the surface1 a long line of similar shafts are sunk towards the centre of the desert1 at distances varying from twenty to forty yards1 the line sometimes stretching for more than thirty miles1 until a point of desert has been reached that lies as deep down as the original water-level4 ,then all the shafts are connected at the bottom by burrows1 just big enough to afford passage to a man2 the water is let in1 and appears in an open ditch in the centre of the desert4 ,of course conveyance of water by these qan'ts as they are called1 which are often thirty or forty miles long1 is by no means inexpensive1 so as a rule the water is used immediately it can be brought to the surface4 ,consequently we find all through the barren ,persian plains two strange phenomena3 little cultivations1 fed by artificial channels1 standing all by themselves1 leagues away from anywhere1 in the middle of a desolate and waterless expanse2 and large towns such as ,yezd1 situated far away from any natural water supply1 in the barest spot to be found in all the desert1 the central hollow where the drifting sands have collected and covered over even the faintest vestige of vegetable life4 ,illustration3 ,,hujjatabad1 ,,the ,,first ,,stage ,,from ,,yezd4 ,sandy desert1 with qan'at pits in foreground4 ,the typical ,persian plain is very long1 appearing to be comparatively narrow1 and certainly flat beyond conception4 ,the plains through which one approaches ,yezd from ,kashan or ,kirman are probably on the average about sixty miles broad4 ,but the huge barren mountains1 lying in long jagged ranges to the right and left1 show with such plainness of detail from every point1 that the traveller unused to the clear atmosphere of the ,east can hardly credit the full size and distance4 ,mountains1 plains1 foreground1 and far perspective1 everything1 in the ,yezd district at any rate1 is one neutral tint of brown1 except for the snow lying on the rocks of the mountain-top1 the long flakes of salt scattered here and there about the plain1 or the continual moving mirage4 ,even at sunrise and sunset1 when the sky and distant hills put on a colouring of glorious brilliancy1 there is an utter absence of those soft tones in the foreground which can only be given by sunlight in a humid atmosphere4 ,near ,yezd there rise into sight brown villages1 excrescences of the same material as that on which they stand1 isolated separate objects with sharp definite bounds4 ,the scanty1 hedgeless crops that surround them1 usually arranged in oblong patches like small allotments1 seldom show until the traveller is quite near2 the few trees are wretchedly poor in size and colour1 and the walls and buildings are simply mud1 of which three parts are in ruins4 ,after a few of these villages we come to ,yezd itself1 equally isolated from everything1 and in other respects very much the same as the villages4 ,however1 as we approach the town by most of the main roads1 there are no fields and no trees at all4 ,also there are sticking out from the town a lot of high square air-shafts1 looking like short factory chimneys4 ,yezd1 like the villages1 is brown1 but there are a few patches of white4 ,there are one or two very faintly tiled minarets and a newer-looking green dome2 but these things are not sufficiently striking to modify the general brown effect4 ,now we are among the bghs4#a ,a bgh is an enclosure1 generally oblong1 consisting of mud walls twelve feet high1 surrounding a planted area4 ,very often a bagh contains nothing but fields of farm crops4 ,the better class baghs1 belonging to the richer ,persians1 have in the centre a kind of summer dwelling-house with plenty of porticos1 built on a very open-air pattern4 ,such baghs are well stocked with fruit trees and rose bushes2 there may also be a few small elms1 or short poplars1 or perhaps some cypresses4 ,there are not many flowers4 ,here1 too1 most of the area is given up to farm crops4 ,everything is laid out after the plan of a ,dutch garden1 but without the turf and thick foliage1 and also without the extreme trimness that we connect with such places4 ,in the better gardens there is always a small gutter of running water1 and generally an artificial tank with a stone border4 ,this is the part of the bagh most highly prized by the natives4 ,in ,persia a small artificial channel with a stream of water about two feet across seems to give that air of distinction to a house which we expect from a well-kept lawn with good flower-beds4 ,from the road nothing can be seen of all this greenery except the tops of the highest trees4 ,in ,yezd indeed only the baghs that lie some way out up the course of the qan'ats show as much as this4 ,just round the town nothing is to be seen but the bare walls and the gateways of the gardens4 ,the gateways have some brickwork about them1 and are sometimes partially whitened4 ,they stand back from the road4 ,the tops of the mud walls are generally in bad repair1 and here and there we come across a jagged hole that has been made as a short cut into the garden by the gardener4 ,in such cases the pieces of mud and sun-dried bricks1 when they have been taken out1 lie in the street4 ,where the surface of the thoroughfare has not been taken up for bricks1 which by the way are left to bake in the sun in the middle of the road1 it is generally used for drying manure that has been kneaded with a modicum of earth4 ,the dyers also use the street for hanging up their cloths to dry1 and also for arranging their skeins of silk1 which they twist round wooden pegs stuck into the wall about forty yards apart4 ,the road surface is a little irregular1 and occasionally it is made more interesting by a shaft leading into a qan'at4 ,as we approach the houses proper the road narrows1 for it is only the natural lane between enclosures1 and the house enclosures1 which from the outside are exactly similar to the baghs1 lie closer together4 ,occasionally1 as we near the centre of the town1 we come across open squares with a small mosque on the one side4 ,the wall of the mosque is dirty white1 and there is a little black lettering over the doorway1 but very little tile or brick4 ,in the middle there may be a dilapidated octagon with a flat top1 about five feet high and six across1 built of mud covered with tiles rather the worse for wear4 ,round such squares there are generally arched recesses1 filled in at the bottom1 so as to make a ledge three feet from the ground4 ,the bazaars are just the old narrow lanes1 covered by a succession of mud domes forming a continuous but untidy roof4 ,the goods are displayed on tiers of mud ledges1 and there is a mud room behind4 ,quantities of the wares are mud4 ,firepans1 barrels for grain1 several kinds of toys1 bread receptacles1 and some other household implements are simply clay1 moulded into a rough form1 and dried in the sun4 ,water-bottles1 various kinds of pitchers1 children's money-boxes1 and hookah-bowls are baked with fire1 but without the slightest glaze4 ,the baker's ovens are made of mud1 down to the very doors4 ,many of the ,yezdis even eat mud1 and develop an unwholesome muddy complexion4 ,the cleverness of the ,yezdi in manipulating mud is beyond belief4 ,sometimes you may see men in the streets making barrels for storing grain4 ,first of all a smooth round slab of mud about an inch and a half thick1 is moulded on the ground4 ,then another piece of mud is kneaded into a long sausage1 and placed in a hoop upon the edge of the slab4 ,sausage after sausage is added hoopwise1 one on the top of the other1 until a height of about four feet has been reached4 ,each hoop1 as it is laid in position1 is worked with the hand into smooth connection with the hoop below1 and when the barrel is completed there is not the least vestige of a join4 ,the whole is done without wheel or machinery of any kind4 ,a mud lid is added which is soldered on with mud when the barrel is filled4 ,i have hardly yet succeeded in giving any adequate impression of the untidiness of the streets4 ,the central courtyard of the house is generally a fair-sized garden4 ,for reasons connected with the water supply the inhabitants of the houses are continually altering the level of these places1 and large quantities of earth are emptied into the street or carried out of it every day as occasion may arise4 ,all along the sides of the streets there are shallow holes for rubbish heaps2 here and there there are cesspools2 and yet with all this the streets are so well scavenged by dogs and children that1 except in the ,jewish quarter1 the thoroughfare is comparatively clean1 while1 thanks to the powerful sun and the absolute absence of moisture in the atmosphere1 almost the only obtrusive smells from one end of the town to the other are those that hang round the public baths and the places used by the dyers4 ,let us now enter one of the doorways that leads into a better class house4 ,we find ourselves first of all in a round or octagonal porch1 covered by a small dome1 which is generally pierced in the centre to admit light4 ,from this porch we go through a passage into one of the court-yards4 ,in a good house there are two1 or even three court-yards4 ,the whole family live in the better compound1 and the men receive their visitors in the smaller one4 ,though this rule is not without exception1 the better class women in ,yezd do not seem to have much to complain of in the matter of housing4 ,in the court-yard there will be found an open tank and some flower-beds2 the rest is generally paved4 ,the flower-beds are below the level of the pavement1 and are irrigated from the tank4 ,watering-pots are used for watering the pavement only4 ,sometimes the whole garden is sunk to the level of the cellar floor1 so as to get nearer to the qan'at4 ,the house itself consists of two sets of buildings1 chiefly one story1 with perhaps one or two upstairs rooms4 ,the upper rooms1 however1 do not really form a separate story1 but are built over the lowest of the ground-floor rooms1 so as to bring the roof more or less to one level4 ,the roofs are generally paved with flat bricks of the shape of tiles1 and are surrounded by a low mud wall1 so as to form a more or less secluded and cool place1 where the family may sleep in summer4 ,perhaps a dome may partially project above the level of the rest of the roof4 ,also there is the inevitable bd-gr1 or square air-shaft1 running down to the back of the big summer portico1 or tlr1 and furnished at the top with long slits on all four sides to catch any air that may be moving4 ,this talar is the principal room on the summer side1 which faces north4 ,it is often built in the form of a cross with very stumpy arms1 or rather of an oblong with the corners so taken off as to render it slightly cruciform4 ,the long side of the oblong faces the court-yard1 and has no wall at all1 but there is a curtain of tent-cloth that moves up and down on pulleys4 ,to the right and left of this sun-blind are short walled-off passages1 which are used as entrances4 ,corresponding to the projecting front part between the passages there is at the back a recess under the bad-gir1 completing the cruciform design4 ,the roof is arched into a high dome4 ,the whole talar is raised three feet above the level of the garden1 so as to give room for a two-foot upright grating1 which is the window of the cellar room underneath4 ,for five months in the year these are the only habitable rooms in a ,persian house2 and they are both furnished as living-rooms4 ,the rooms on either side of the talar are so like the winter rooms that it is unnecessary to describe them separately4 ,the whole structure of the place is quite different from that of an ,english building4 ,except for enclosing a rough garden the ,persian builder hardly ever makes a blank wall4 ,sometimes the walls of the compound1 generally the walls of stables and outhouses1 but always the sides of rooms1 passages1 and porticos consist of a series of arches more or less carefully moulded4 ,in the house1 unless they are intended for doors1 windows1 or cupboards1 these arched recesses are filled in to a height of three feet2 so that round every ,persian room there is a series of ledges1 called tqchas1 about the size of a small mantelpiece1 generally a span deep1 but sometimes very much deeper1 and running in instead of running out4 ,if the height of the room will allow it1 there is a line of straight moulding above these arches1 and above that a second row1 usually much shorter than the lower ones4 ,above that comes a second series of lines of straight moulding1 shelving into the arch of the roof1 for the ceilings are always constructed on the arch principle1 although they are sometimes flattened on the top when it is intended to build an upper room4 ,these arches are built of brick and mud only1 without any wood or wooden foundation2 and indeed no wood is used in a ,yezd house at all1 except for doors and windows4 ,you will find three styles of wall in ,persian houses4 ,sometimes the rough mud is coated over with a smoother surface1 either clay and chopped straw1 or clay and sand1 and the brown colour is left unchanged4 ,in fairly good houses this style is often thought good enough for the summer portico4 ,very often the angles of the mouldings are pointed with white gypsum1 and when ornamental designs in the same fashion are added1 the effect is exceedingly pretty4 ,but generally the living rooms in a ,persian house are entirely whitened with gypsum1 and a moulded design1 about an eighth of an inch thick1 is made in the centre of the ceiling4 ,these complicated and accurate geometrical designs are produced by the natives with no better tools than a chisel and a bit of string4 ,the formation of the arches and straight mouldings without instruments is equally wonderful1 but though the appearance is geometrical two arches never exactly correspond with one another if one comes to measure4 ,still the construction of a ,persian room1 perhaps with a large dome1 without any better materials than clay1 gypsum1 and a small modicum of baked brick1 without any scaffolding or wooden basis1 and with the help of none but the very simplest tools1 is a thing that may be accounted one of the most extraordinary marvels of the ,east4 ,as in the summer1 so in the winter side1 the best room is generally in the centre4 ,the better rooms are almost invariably approached from the side and not from the front1 being separated from one another by passages that run to the whole depth of the buildings4 ,this enables the entire frontage of the room to be given up to windows4 ,generally some of the rooms have a large cupboard room at the back1 which is frequently used for sleeping in4 ,as the floor of the house is three feet above the level of the compound1 the passages between the rooms are furnished with steps1 but they have no doors4 ,consequently1 to shift one's quarters in such a house necessitates going into the open air4 ,the smaller rooms are generally approached from the front1 and in this case they sometimes have an aivn1 or mud verandah4 ,the winter rooms always take up the north end of the compound1 but are often built along the east or west side as well4 ,rooms are generally named by the number of their windows1 which is usually three or five4 ,a good five-windowed room will have a frontage of five arches filled in with ,french windows4 ,the semi-circular fanlight consists of pieces of coloured glass fixed together in a wooden lattice4 ,the lattice at a distance resembles fret-work1 but is really elaborately pieced together4 ,some of the older windows contain exceedingly fine work1 but even when it is well done it is not very durable1 and nowadays they can only do very rough work4 ,some of the work that is forty or fifty years old is marvellous1 but could not be done at the present time for love or money4 ,the ,french window itself consists of two doors which are supposed to meet in the middle4 ,there are no hinges1 but each door has a wooden foot which turns in a mud socket4 ,the arrangement of the coloured glasses which forms the panes is extremely artistic4 ,the same sort of wooden lattice is used1 but the pattern is rather larger than the pattern of the fanlight4 ,as may be supposed1 it is extremely difficult to keep these windows clean1 for the panes1 besides being very minute1 are simply caught into grooves in the wood2 and1 as the work is done without any great accuracy1 they very seldom fit4 ,the doors are made after the same design as the windows1 but they have wooden panels4 ,they are often surmounted by a glazed fanlight4 ,the wood of the doors and windows is covered with a yellowish-brown paint1 and warps very badly1 as it is used in an unseasoned state4 ,our cat could generally get in through a bolted door4 ,of course there is no form of door fastening which can be used from both sides1 and in this way as in others a ,persian house is distinctly inconvenient4 ,still the style of building when fresh is very pretty4 ,these masses of ,french windows with their coloured panes artistically arranged1 the lines of white arches all along the sides1 and the high-arched ceiling with its curious mouldings give the room an ecclesiastical appearance4 ,at the back of the room there is not infrequently a corresponding line of door-windows1 leading to one of those cupboard-rooms which ,i have before mentioned4 ,this arrangement increases the regularity of the general design4 ,before passing on to describe the furniture ,i must mention that there is one other totally different style of window1 which lifts up in a sash1 without pulleys1 and is supported when open by metal stays4 ,also it is very common to find wooden lattices unglazed4 ,paper or calico is pasted over these in the winter4 ,there are one or two other forms of ornamentation that are not uncommon4 ,perhaps a line of painting1 quaint but distinctly artistic1 may run round the room just below the taqchas1 giving the effect of a dado4 ,sometimes the roof is much more elaborately moulded1 and is spangled with little bits of looking-glass2 when this is not overdone the effect is pleasing4 ,it is not uncommon to find very poor looking-glasses1 about twelve by six inches1 let into the walls4 ,there are in almost every room rings attached to staples1 which are intended to support the baby's hammock4 ,fireplaces are a ,european importation1 but they are generally to be found in at least one room of the better class houses4 ,they are almost always narrow1 and comparatively high1 so as to conform to the arch design1 and they are made in the wall without any metal4 ,the metal fittings of the room1 such as hammock-rings1 staples1 and door and window latches1 are made of whitened iron curiously engraved2 and nails of the same material with very large heads1 from one inch to three or four inches across1 are used freely by the ,persians for ornamenting woodwork4 ,the movable furniture of a ,persian room is very simple4 ,curtains are not used very freely1 and those that are used are rather scanty4 ,generally they are hung up by the corners without any string4 ,in the men's apartments they are used more for doors than for windows4 ,the favourite pattern is a very crude green or red with a large lozenge in the middle1 like the design on a watered silk4 ,the only really valuable things in a ,persian room are the carpets4 ,in some cases these are laid right up to the walls1 and a piece of drugget something less than a yard wide is also laid along the walls1 usually on three sides of the room4 ,in other cases there is a border of very thick clumsy felts arranged round the carpet which occupies the centre of the floor4 ,the felts are self-coloured1 with a small amount of stamped pattern4 ,they have not got cut edges1 but are made in one piece1 consequently the shape is very inaccurate4 ,they cost nearly as much as good carpets1 and are often protected with druggets in the same way4 ,in the place of honour1 furthest from the door1 is a mattress stuffed with cotton1 covered with some sort of chintz or cretonne1 and furnished with one or two very large round bolsters4 ,in the winter there is also occasionally a kurs in evidence1 but they are less common in ,yezd than in other ,persian towns4 ,the kursi is a rough stool1 about as high as a milking-stool1 and about eighteen inches square1 completely covered with cotton quilts and rugs1 which trail on the ground on every side4 ,beneath this an iron brazier of lighted charcoal is placed1 and the family tuck their legs underneath the wraps1 and squat round the kursi on the floor4 ,this1 however1 is not generally kept in the room except in the coldest weeks4 ,during the remaining seasons the brazier is often brought in on a large copper tray1 either for heating the room1 or for keeping the teapot warm and for opium smoking4 ,all copper and iron utensils in ,persia1 such as these trays and braziers1 are carefully tinned4 ,tables in ,yezd are made in the roughest fashion1 but the legs are nicely turned1 the ,yezd carpenters being greatly inferior to the turners1 who are entirely distinct from them1 and who produce very good work with the simplest class of hand-lathe worked with a bow4 ,the carpenter1 on the other hand1 is incapable of putting up a shelf straight4 ,he never dovetails1 and he disguises the inaccuracy of his joints with plentiful deposits of clay4 ,many of the ,yezdis use little tables about three feet by two1 and standing about twelve inches high4 ,these are used only for tea-things4 ,but tea is generally made by an inferior1 standing at a tall table in the corner of the room4 ,these tables are rather larger1 not less than four feet by two4 ,they stand as high as an ,english sideboard1 and have a rough border of curved or dog-tooth pattern falling down from the slab1 so that they very much suggest a rough dressing-table4 ,they are often brought in and out of the rooms as they are wanted4 ,people who wish to be thoroughly ,european in their manners sometimes have a larger table of the same kind permanently in the room1 surrounded by a few bentwood chairs1 which are brought up from ,bombay1 or folding-chairs with cane seats1 which ,i think they bring from ,isfahn1 and about which the less said the better4 ,such a table is always covered by a white cloth1 the most fashionable variety being a ,turkey bath-towel4 ,these chairs and larger tables are no real part of ,persian plenishing1 while the tea-tables are being continually carried backwards and forwards1 and are not necessary to the equipment of the room4 ,consequently the room does not present a very filled appearance4 ,the few utensils which it contains1 other than those mentioned1 are placed upon the taqchas4 ,on one of these taqchas may be seen a pair of llas4 ,the lala is a spring candlestick with a globe1 and is1 ,i believe1 made in ,europe4 ,the candles are also imported4 ,all lights in ,persia have to be carefully protected from the wind1 as the house is not a continuous building1 but a series of outhouses4 ,on another taqcha will be found a lamp1 also of ,european manufacture4 ,persian lamps1 which are simply saucers of native vegetable oil with a floating wick1 are used freely about the house when a strong light is not required1 but they have the disadvantage of blackening the gypsum of the walls4 ,with regard to the imported lamps it is a curious thing that1 although the lamps used are of the cheapest variety1 with stems and reservoirs of blue or white glass1 lamps with short stems1 which might be brought into the country at an infinitely less cost1 do not seem to have come into fashion4 ,on a third taqcha is sure to be found a specimen of the ,persian hookah1 or qalin4 ,this is a most elaborate pipe1 and is both made and bought in sections4 ,the large bowls1 however1 when they are made of glass1 are1 ,i believe1 imported2 also some of the china heads4 ,sometimes you will find on the taqchas a pair of ,european vases4 ,in ,yezd the pattern is almost always that of the hand rising up from a stand and grasping a tapered vessel4 ,sometimes also you will find cheap ,continental oleographs1 generally ladies' heads4 ,these are bought by the pair1 and you will find two copies of the same picture standing side by side4 ,another ,european import to which the ,yezdis are much attached is a looking-glass4 ,these are of the oblong shape1 with varnished or gilt frames4 ,perhaps also one will see on the taqchas a covered glass vessel with a long spout1 containing rose-water4 ,in the women's rooms there is occasionally a large wooden trunk for clothes1 covered with gold and silver paper1 and of a very clumsy design4 ,the taqchas may be covered with plush cloths1 and this is sometimes the case in the men's apartments4 ,the women are also fond of highly ornamented trinket boxes4 ,illustration3 ,,sweet ,,eating ,,in ,a ,,talar4 ,this is the principal part of the summer buildings in a ,persian house1 and the bottom of the picture is the level of the compound4 ,the room underneath is a living room1 and is lighted by the grating under the talar4 ,it is only used in the heat of the day4 ,the door to the cellar staircase is seen on the right of the picture4 ,the passage is the approach to the talar itself4 ,the three men are sitting in the ordinary ,persian way round a tray of sweets4 ,the ,yezd sweets are remarkably good and have no coarse flavour4 ,they eat them as we do cakes1 but in rather larger quantities4 ,this talar is a small one4 ,the larger ones are generally cruciform in shape4 ,it has no bad-gir 7air-shaft7 or front curtain4 ,the better class ,yezd houses are exceedingly clean1 and so on the whole are the people who live in them4 ,in this ,yezd is distinctly superior to some other ,persian towns4 ,the houses of the rather poorer classes in ,yezd are dirtier1 but they would compare favourably with those of a corresponding class in many parts of ,europe4 ,the very poor class are crowded together1 many families to one house1 and live in a condition of filth as great as the dry atmosphere will permit4 ,you must remember that the native never removes his clothes for the night2 indeed he only removes his clothes or washes his body when he goes to the public bath4 ,the fee for admission is a mere trifle1 but people do not go to the bath unless they have an absolutely clean set of clothes to change into when they have bathed4 ,a few of the poor people take off their clothes on arriving at the bath and wash them1 staying in the bath until they are dry enough to put on again4 ,this1 however1 is exceptional1 and generally speaking the difference in the standard of cleanliness accepted by the richer and poorer ,yezdis is very large4 ,houses that are not very new are always more or less tumble-down4 ,the mud ceilings crack very easily1 and the white gypsum flakes off at the slightest touch4 ,the more essential parts of the structure are equally undurable4 ,but you must remember that no ,yezdi wants his house to last for ever4 ,when the house is first of all built1 a large chamber is made below the surface to receive the drainage1 and the size of this is determined by the length of time the owner wishes his house to last1 which is generally forty to fifty years4 ,when the chamber is full1 the rich occupants move to another house1 and the house gradually falls to pieces4 ,to the ,yezdi an old house means a bad house1 and this idea is so deeply rooted1 that even in his bagh he seems to prefer young trees to those which have attained their full size4 ,the idea of a residence which bears the marks of natural growth1 and is not simply artificial1 has never entered into the ,yezdi's mind2 and the absence of this to us familiar idea1 has to be reckoned with in dealing with his character4 ,also it must be remembered that two-thirds of a ,persian town1 and three-quarters of a ,persian village1 is from various causes invariably in ruins4 ,i suppose that in an ,english climate the best-built ,yezd dwelling houses would remain standing for about a fortnight4 ,in spite of their palatial design they are really nothing but mud huts1 and when you live in them1 or rather about them1 for you are in the open air as often as you are inside1 you learn their imperfections to your cost4 ,nobody can realise the immense amount of damage that can be done in a town like ,yezd by a really wet day4 ,some while ago we had twenty-four hours of rain1 which destroyed1 ,i believe1 about a couple of hundred roofs1 and1 what is worse1 caused the older qan'at pits to fall in1 blocking the water supply in some parts of the town for three months4 ,is there any other town in the world where a little extra rain causes a three months' drought8 ,there is a story in ,tehran about a ,dutch ,ambassador1 who was so afraid of the roof falling down that in wet weather he invariably slept under the table4 ,however he was a very tall man1 and1 when the catastrophe happened1 he got his foot crushed4 ,still the summer buildings in a ,yezd house are really not bad4 ,generally speaking1 the ,persian builds well for heat and badly for cold4 ,yet the short ,yezdi winter is a very severe one2 and we1 who are accustomed to a longer cold season1 are astonished to see the philosophic way in which the ,yezdi sets himself to endure the cold while it lasts1 without taking any particular precautions to defend himself from it4 ,the long window-front is a mass of spaces and cracks4 ,even when panes are not missing1 daylight is frequently to be seen between the glass and the lattice1 between the window and its frame1 and sometimes between the frame and the wall4 ,this of course is not including the crack between the two doors1 which is often half an inch wide4 ,remember that every door in the house is a front door1 leading into the open air1 and you will get some idea of the provision made against the winter cold4 ,the fact is that the ,persian only understands two kinds of winter requirements1 that of the hard living working-man who demands only the simplest shelter against the cold1 and that of the man who on cold days can devote himself to keeping warm with a kursi in an inner apartment4 ,a man who wants to do his work comfortably in any sort of weather is entirely beyond his calculation4 ,on the few days when snow falls the merchants' offices are practically deserted1 and no one but the smaller tradesmen and artisans goes to the bazaars4 ,the house1 as ,i have said1 is really built for a protection against heat4 ,when ,i first went to ,yezd ,i was surprised to find how tremendously the natives were affected by the hot weather4 ,the native is certainly less affected than the ,european by the direct rays of the sun2 but although something in the climate seems to tell on ,europeans after two or three years' residence1 ,i would back a fairly strong ,englishman1 furnished with a sun-helmet1 against the average town ,yezdi1 to get through a piece of work on a hot day1 or to keep up continuous hard work for a season or two4 ,consequently every ,yezdi who can afford it tries to get away from town for at least two months of the year4 ,the hill villages1 which the ,persians call yailq1 or summer quarters1 lie about thirty miles away from the town4 ,every well-to-do ,persian has a house in one or other of these villages1 and there is a fashion about them1 some being resorts chiefly patronised by the artisans1 and some by the big merchants4 ,as most of the richer ,persians have more than one house in the villages1 ,europeans generally have no great difficulty in hiring a place to stay at4 ,the houses are left during the winter in charge of a villager1 who uses the lower rooms only1 the upper ones being then uninhabitable from the intense cold4 ,indeed the cold is so great that we were told that one winter the animals had been dying of thirst1 as the water was frozen beyond the possibility of breaking the ice1 and they had not fuel enough to melt it4 ,the whole building is much rougher than the town house1 though the roofs have to be made more carefully4 ,the villages are very small and isolated1 and the winter population is quite trifling4 ,there is in these villages a little arable land1 but the people depend chiefly on root-crops1 nuts1 and dried fruit for their winter stores1 and on the produce of the sheep and goats4 ,the animals are tended in summer by the children4 ,the little boys spend most of their time up the walnut trees1 throwing down leaves for them to eat1 while the little ragged shepherdesses carry a twelve-foot staff for whacking the walnut trees1 when they do not climb them in the same way as their brothers4 ,those who go to the villages in the summer take with them everything they need in the way of carpets1 furniture1 and cooking utensils1 also all groceries1 and even wheat and charcoal2 for the commonest things of this kind are often absolutely unprocurable4 ,a rich ,persian has stores frequently sent to him from ,yezd during his stay4 ,even in ,yezd some necessary store or other is almost always running short1 so that something is generally at famine prices4 ,this1 of course1 is due to the great isolation of the town4 ,but in the villages it is intensified4 ,sometimes there will be no meat1 at another time hardly any bread1 and some years ago we found it almost impossible to procure milk1 and were told by our ,persian friends that they had the same difficulty4 ,this eighteen-hour journey1 with all the paraphernalia of the home1 is the average ,yezdi's only experience of foreign travel2 and for this reason ,i have thought it necessary to give some account of what he sees and finds4 ,i have now done my best to describe in detail almost the whole of the ,yezdi's surroundings1 the furniture of his room1 the pattern of his house1 the streets of his town1 and the vast deserts by which he is isolated from the world4 ,when he gets up in the morning1 he finds himself in a room practically containing nothing but a carpet1 the walls and ceiling an expanse of white gypsum1 and the taqchas provided with solitary objects upon which his eye can rest in turn without the slightest diversion to anything else4 ,there is no confusion1 but at the same time there is no arrangement4 ,in such a room1 with such furniture1 the necessity for arrangement never occurs to him4 ,he goes out into his court-yard2 certainly there are flower-beds1 but they are not cut like ,english flower-beds in the middle of necessarily existing growth and greenery4 ,the shape of the beds and the nature of their contents has not been chosen with the slightest view to their artistic surroundings2 they are simply artificial constructions in a waste of pavement which itself conceals the desert which stands to the ,persian in the place of the natural world4 ,inside the beds each plant grows its own life1 by itself1 untouched by its neighbour1 and the eye unconsciously fixes itself upon it as on an isolated unit4 ,the ,yezdi leaves his house and passes through an absolutely dry and scentless atmosphere along streets which present variety only in the matter of form4 ,he goes for a journey across the desert plains2 to the right there is only one object to be seen1 a range of distant mountains1 with a slight variety of jags along the top2 to the left there is a similar range4 ,every now and again he comes across a shrub which attracts his eye by its hermit existence4 ,behind him is the solitary city2 every six miles1 while he is in the neighbourhood of the town1 there is an equally solitary village1 or perhaps a water-cistern with a domed roof2 for league after league he can see in front of him his solitary manzil1 where he intends to stay the night4 ,even when he goes to the villages this sparseness of life and circumstance is scarcely modified4 ,can you be surprised if this hourly contemplation of isolated units produces a mind which it is impossible for the tangle-reared ,european ever to fully understand8 ,can you be surprised if an intellect is produced accustomed to almost unbelievable concentration upon single and solitary ideas1 but almost unreachable by minds that are accustomed to complicated trains of thought1 to careful evasions of contradictions1 and to systematic arrangements of their intellectual knowledge8 ,illustration3 ,diagram illustrating the use of the qan'at4 ,notice that all the cultivation about the hills is irrigated from the snow torrent4 ,yezd is irrigated by qan'at water1 brought in some cases from a point #cj miles distant1 for the qan'ats do not go straight to the centre of the plain but make for a low part of the plain from wherever water is found4 ,the #cjj ft4 well in ,yezd is useless for irrigation1 there being no lower point than ,yezd4 ,illustration3 ,,dehbala4 ,a hill village on one of the snow torrents4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,isolation and insularity--,the town the geographical and political unit--,extension of citizenship to strangers--,bigotry--,oppression and persecution of ,parsis#b--;,improvement in their position--,position of ,jews--,fanaticism largely non-religious--,position of ,european colony4 ,the population of ,yezd can only be guessed at1 but probably that of the town proper is between thirty and forty thousand1 and that of the town and surrounding villages between fifty and sixty thousand4 ,this little community is insular beyond the insularity of islands4 ,within two hundred miles there are three sizable cities1 ,shrz1 ,kirmn1 and ,isfahn1 of which ,isfahan is slightly the nearest4 ,when you send a letter to ,isfahan from ,yezd1 if your friend writes by return of post you may get back your answer in a month2 although a runner1 taking the slightly shorter road by the mountains1 could go and return within the week4 ,travelling in the ordinary way the journey takes eight days there1 and eight back4 ,it is a great pity that within the last two years they have got rid of the native telegraph line4 ,during my journey up six years ago this contrivance was a source of never-failing interest and surprise to me4 ,first of all there were the poles4 ,they were rough sticks1 exactly like what a washerwoman in ,england uses for propping up her clothes-line3 ,i suppose1 taking the good line with the bad1 there was on the average about one insulator to every three poles2 this is without counting the insulators which were hung midway between the poles1 apparently by way of ornament4 ,the wire itself was at different levels3 in a good many places it lay on the ground1 but at others it crossed the road about the level of a horseman's chin4 ,one day in ,yezd one of the ,european residents wanted to send a telegram1 and sent to the telegraph office to ask when the line would be up4 ,they sent back a very polite message to say that the trouble was not that the line was down2 it was always down3 the difficulty was that a camel had stepped upon it4 ,of course they do repair the line3 we saw a man repairing it4 ,he had a forked stick about half the length of one of the poles on which the line was hung4 ,with this he caught the wire and hitched it on to the nearest fork of the telegraph pole1 a procedure which had at any rate the advantage of economy4 ,i think ,i may say that telegrams by this line never went faster than the post goes in ,england4 ,the slightest fall of snow or any other similar cause cut the communications altogether1 sometimes for a fortnight2 and1 on similar lines that were a little longer1 if you sent a telegram to your destination while you yourself were on a journey1 it was a quite common occurrence for the telegraph master at the next town to ask you to carry it yourself as the quickest way of hastening its arrival4 ,such an apparatus as this could hardly be expected to prove a great connecting influence4 ,as a matter of fact1 the ,yezdi regards the ,isfahani as a foreigner4 ,when ,i was leaving ,yezd ,i remember the sensation amongst my servants when they heard that my successor1 who was going to take on most of them1 wanted to bring an ,isfahani butler4 ,yezdis hardly recognise the bond of a common country at all4 ,there are three connecting links which appeal to them2 the link of a common religion2 the link of a common family or business1 for the family tie is of a character that includes the relation between employ and employer2 and lastly1 the link of the common town4#c ,the bond of fellow-townsmanship is perhaps not considered a very close one1 but for all that it is a real link4 ,however1 if you were to suggest to a ,yezdi that he ought to have something in common with a ,bushr1 irrespective of the question of religion1 simply because they both paid taxes to a common king1 ,i very much doubt whether he would understand what you meant1 and1 if he did1 ,i am quite sure that he would think that you were either joking or a lunatic4 ,in the vocabulary of the common people it is difficult to find an intelligible word for country4 ,there is a word for empire1 but the natural equivalent in the ,persian mind to our expression country1 meaning fatherland1 is shahr1 which denotes a town1 or vatan1 which is the home-district1 and is used in very much the same way4 8,what is your town80 is the ,persian's way of saying1 8,where do you come from80 and although he has been taught to call an ,englishman ,ingls1 he almost invariably calls ,england ,landan2 indeed it is this which we put as an address on all our ,english letters4 ,the ,yezdi's ideas on the regions beyond his very narrow horizon are distinctly confused4 ,if you begin to talk to him about other places1 you are met not by mere ignorance of geography1 but by a conception of the surface of the earth that is ludicrously impossible4 ,it is difficult for a ,european to conceive of a number of towns and villages1 containing several millions of people1 bedded out over an enormous desert area considerably larger than the whole of ,france4 ,it is equally difficult for the ,yezdi to conceive of a natural and continuous land4 ,even those who have travelled a little outside ,yezd1 and have been obliged to modify slightly the ,yezdi conception of the universe1 have built up their notions of the world's surface upon what seems to us a most peculiar first idea2 and they have in most cases clung to far more of their original views than we should believe possible4 ,the ,yezdi's idea of the town as the only geographical and political unit is simply a generalisation from the circumstances of his own city4 ,yezd is a solitary object rising abruptly out of a vast desert that is about the nearest thing to a vacuum which ,nature has yet produced4 ,then too1 the methods by which the ,shah retains his half of the government of the country--,i say his half1 for half of the real control of the people is in the hands of the ,mussulman clergy--is in some points similar to the old ,roman system of provincial government4 ,the local governor1 and not the supreme sovereign1 is the real ruler1 and he rather than his people is responsible to the head of the ,state4 ,of course he is only appointed for a time1 and is in constant expectation of recall4 ,still1 while he remains1 his power is limited more by the power of the ,mohammedan mulls on the one hand1 and by the strength and number of his subordinate officials and guards on the other1 and much less by the orders and authority that he receives from ,tehran4 ,but it is true that the ,yezdi exaggerates the separateness of his town1 for he hardly recognises the actual limitations to the ,governor's power made and enforced by the ,shah4 ,of course it is thoroughly understood that the ,governor only holds his office by the ,shah's appointment2 but it is very difficult for the ,yezdi to realise that that appointment1 while it lasts1 is to anything short of autocracy4 ,so to him the local ,government is the ,government1 and the local ,governor the real ruler of his country1 that is to say of the district surrounding his town2 and it would puzzle him if you were to tell him that there were people in this world1 living together in one sphere of government1 who were not resident in one town1 or in the district that belonged to it4 ,it may be urged that ,i am speaking of the uneducated and ignorant class1 but there are very few in a town like ,yezd who are not uneducated and ignorant1 and even those who have superadded a certain degree of knowledge1 have1 in almost all cases1 retained the majority of their preconceptions4 ,persians are very slow in seeing a contradiction2 consequently1 ,i believe that this conception of the universe1 which is certainly accepted by the ordinary ,yezdi1 is with small modifications very general even among the slightly travelled or educated classes4 ,nor should a student of the mental attitude of a people ignore the curious ideas that are to be found amongst the women4 ,one who had moved a great deal amongst the women of ,yezd1 assured me that they were almost invariably under the impression that the less familiar words occurring in the ,persian translation of the ,scriptures were ,english1 and that it was a common thing for a woman who was accustomed to the ,european pronunciation of ,persian1 to be referred to as knowing the language of the ,ferangis4 ,such people would1 of course1 fail to comprehend the possibility of a linguistic barrier very much greater than the somewhat considerable difference of dialect which separates them from their neighbours in ,isfahan4 ,that such a state of mind would be equally possible amongst the men ,i do not for a moment suppose1 but if this is the view of the women1 one may be sure that there is a view of the ,ferangi stranger1 more or less approximating to it1 amongst many of the ignorant hobbledehoys and young fellows1 who contribute the largest share to the character of a fanatical ,persian crowd4 ,now the people of ,yezd are quite ready after a due interval to extend the citizenship to strangers from other towns1 provided that the newcomers intend to stay1 and are ready to enter into the life of the community4 ,the ,kshs from ,kshn1 the ,shrzs from ,shrz1 the ,lrs from ,lristn1 and the ,rashts from ,rasht1 are all well-known ,yezd families1 and are not by any means regarded as foreigners4 ,also the ,yezd community includes persons of three or four different religions4 ,there are in the town fourteen hundred ,parsi houses1 the inhabitants of which are ,zoroastrian4 ,there is also a smaller colony of ,jews4 ,the remainder are ,mohammedans2 but a considerable number of these belong to the ,beh sect1 and are considered rank heretics4 ,the ,parsis1 though greatly oppressed in the past1 and still liable to some disabilities1 have of late years become wealthy and prosperous4 ,the ,jews are in some ways less restricted than the ,parsis2 but1 as they are still wretchedly poor1 they are really much more down-trodden4 ,that religious bigotry still exists among the ,mussulmans in ,yezd has only lately been made perfectly plain by the ghastly massacre of the ,behs in the summer of #aijc2 but ,mohammedan bigotry in ,persia is by no means without limitations4 ,it is spasmodic in its action1 nor does it entirely obliterate every other feeling4 ,a few years ago ,yezd had the reputation of being one of the most bigoted of the towns of ,persia4 ,the presence of the ,zoroastrian remnant1 who were subject to the grossest persecution1 served only to keep alive the fire of religious hatred2 and the community of ,jews in a lesser degree had the same effect4 ,the stories of the way in which the ,parsis were bullied and persecuted are interesting1 as showing1 amongst other things1 the intense childishness of the ,persian ,mussulman4 ,the atmosphere of the town seems to have resembled1 as indeed it still resembles1 that of a preparatory school for little boys4 ,up to #ahie no ,parsi was allowed to carry an umbrella4 ,even during the time that ,i was in ,yezd they could not carry one in town4 ,up to #ahie there was a strong prohibition upon eye-glasses and spectacles2 up to #ahhe they were prevented from wearing rings2 their girdles had to be made of rough canvas1 but after #ahhe any white material was permitted4 ,up to #ahif the ,parsis were obliged to twist their turbans instead of folding them4 ,up to about #ahih only brown1 grey1 and yellow were allowed for the qab or arkhlq 7body garments71 but after that all colours were permitted1 except blue1 black1 bright red1 or green4 ,there was also a prohibition against white stockings1 and up to about #ahhj the ,parsis had to wear a special kind of peculiarly hideous shoe with a broad1 turned-up toe4 ,up to #ahhe they had to wear a torn cap4 ,up to about #ahhj they had to wear tight knickers1 self-coloured1 instead of trousers4 ,up to #ahia all ,zoroastrians had to walk in town1 and even in the desert they had to dismount if they met a ,mussulman of any rank whatsoever4 ,during the time that ,i was in ,yezd they were allowed to ride in the desert1 and only had to dismount if they met a big ,mussulman4 ,there were other similar dress restrictions too numerous and trifling to mention4 ,then the houses of both the ,parsis and the ,jews1 with the surrounding walls1 had to be built so low that the top could be reached by a ,mussulman with his hand extended2 they might1 however1 dig down below the level of the road4 ,the walls had to be splashed with white round the door4 ,double doors1 the common form of ,persian door1 were forbidden1 also rooms containing three or more windows4 ,bad-girs were still forbidden to the ,parsis while we were in ,yezd1 but in #aijj one of the bigger ,parsi merchants gave a large present to the ,governor and to the chief mujtahid 7,mohammedan priest7 to be allowed to build one4 ,upper rooms were also forbidden4 ,up to about #ahfj ,parsis could not engage in trade4 ,they used to hide things in their cellar rooms1 and sell them secretly4 ,they can now trade in the caravanserais or hostelries1 but not in the bazaars1 nor may they trade in linen drapery4 ,up to #ahgj they were not permitted to have a school for their children4 ,the amount of the jazya1 or tax upon infidels1 differed according to the wealth of the individual ,parsi1 but it was never less than two tomns4 ,a toman is now worth about three shillings and eight pence1 but it used to be worth much more4 ,even now1 when money has much depreciated1 it represents a labourer's wage for ten days4 ,the money had to be paid on the spot1 when the farrash1 who was acting as collector1 met the man4 ,the farrash was at liberty to do what he liked when collecting jaziya4 ,the man was not even allowed to go home and fetch the money1 but was at once beaten until it was given4 ,about #ahfe a farrsh collecting this tax tied a man to a dog1 and gave a blow to each in turn4 ,about #ahia a mujtahid caught a ,zoroastrian merchant wearing white stockings in one of the public squares of the town4 ,he ordered the man to be beaten and the stockings taken off4 ,about #ahfj a man of seventy went to the bazaars in white trousers of rough canvas4 ,they hit him about a good deal1 took off his trousers1 and sent him home with them under his arm4 ,sometimes ,parsis would be made to stand on one leg in a mujtahid's house until they consented to pay a considerable sum of money4 ,occasionally1 however1 the childish mockery that pervaded the persecuting ordinances enabled the ,zoroastrians to evade the disabilities proposed4 ,for instance1 as the ,jews had to wear a patch on the qaba1 or coat1 the mujtahids in about #ahhj tried to make the ,parsis wear an obvious patch on the shirt4 ,muhammad ,hasan ,khan was then ,governor1 and ,mulla ,bahrm of ,khurramshr1 a ,parsi1 asked him to arrange that his people should have three days' respite to get the patches ready4 ,during these three days the ,parsi women set to work1 and made a neat embroidered border round the neck and opening of the shirt4 ,this the ,parsis exhibited as the required patch2 and as it was very obvious1 and was certainly an insertion1 there was really nothing more to be said4 ,in ,yezd a small score like this counts for more than does a firman of the ,shah4 ,in the reign of the late ,shah ,nsiru'd ,dn1 ,mnukj ,limj1 a ,british ,parsi from ,india1 was for a long while in ,tehran as ,parsi representative4 ,almost all the ,parsi disabilities were withdrawn1 the jaziya1 the clothes restrictions1 the riding restrictions1 and those with regard to houses1 but the law of inheritance was not altered1 according to which a ,parsi who has become a ,mussulman takes precedence of his ,zoroastrian brothers and sisters4 ,the jaziya was actually remitted1 and also some of the restrictions as to houses1 but the rest of the firman was a dead letter4 ,in #ahih the present ,shah1 ,muzaffaru'd ,dn1 gave a firman to ,dnyr1 the present ,qalntar of the ,parsi ,anjuman1 or ,committee1 revoking all the remaining ,parsi disabilities1 and also declaring it unlawful to use fraud or deception in making conversions of ,parsis to ,islam4 ,this firman does not appear to have had any effect at all4 ,about #ahhc1 after the firman of ,nsiru'd ,dn ,shah had been promulgated1 one of the ,parsis1 ,rustami ,ardishri ,dnyr1 built in ,kcha ,biyuk1 one of the villages near ,yezd1 a house with an upper room1 slightly above the height to which the ,parsis used to be limited4 ,he heard that the ,mussulmans were going to kill him1 so he fled by night to ,tehran4 ,they killed another ,parsi1 ,trandz1 in mistake for him1 but did not destroy the house4 ,so the great difficulty was not to get the law improved1 but rather to get it enforced4 ,when ,manukji was at ,yezd1 about #ahgj1 two ,parsis were attacked by two ,mussulmans outside the town1 and one was killed1 the other being terribly wounded1 as they had tried to cut off his head4 ,the ,governor brought the criminals to ,yezd1 but did nothing to them4 ,manukji then got leave to take them to ,tehran4 ,the ,prime ,minister1 however1 told him that no ,mussulman would be killed for a ,zardsht1 or ,zoroastrian1 and that they would only be bastinadoed4 ,about this time ,manukji enquired whether it was true that the blood-price of a ,zardushti was to be seven tomans4 ,he got back the official reply that it was to be a little over4 ,the ,yezd ,parsis have been helped considerably by agents from ,bombay1 who are ,british subjects1 and of late years things have slightly improved4 ,about #ahhe1 a ,seyid1 that is1 a descendant of ,muhammad1 killed a ,zardushti woman in ,yezd4 ,ibrhm ,qall ,khn took him1 and1 by order of the ,zillu's ,sultn1 ,prince ,governor of ,isfahan1 and elder brother of the ,shah1 killed him before daybreak4 ,when the ,mohammedan mullas heard of it in the morning1 they gave orders for a general slaughter of the ,parsis4 ,many of the ,parsis were injured1 but none killed4 ,then in #ahii the ,sahmu'l ,mulk1 at the commencement of his governorship of ,yezd1 killed a ,mussulman servant of the ,mushru'l ,mamlik for a criminal assault upon a ,zoroastrian woman4 ,this man was not a ,seyid1 which made the matter more simple4 ,just before1 when the ,mushru'l ,mamlik was temporary ,governor1 ,isfandir1 the ,parsi schoolmaster at ,taft1 one of the large ,yezd villages1 and ,salmat1 another ,parsi1 were killed by two lts 7roughs7 without reason4 ,one of these lutis was a ,seyid4 ,both were sent to ,tehran1 and a mujtahid went up with them to ask for their release4 ,the ,shah ordered the ,seyid's release1 but the fate of the other is not known4 ,that the ,seyid was not much intimidated is certain1 as in the ,august of #aija1 when ,i was in ,taft1 he used to wander about with other lutis quite openly4 ,during the last nine or ten years the governors in ,yezd have been much stronger1 and they have1 generally speaking1 been friendly to the ,parsis4 ,the ,parsis are an industrious and intelligent people1 and they have become in ,yezd a wealthy community4 ,also there is an extremely wealthy ,parsi in ,tehran1 ,arbb ,jamshd1 who is probably more able to influence the ,persian ,government in favour of his countrymen than are the ,indian ,parsis from ,bombay4 ,nowadays no governor who wants to remain in ,yezd can afford to leave the ,parsi community out of his calculations4 ,the real advance made by the ,parsi colony seems to date from the second term of government of the ,jallu'd ,daula1 eldest son of the ,zillu's ,sultn1 ,governor of ,isfahan4 ,the ,parsis themselves also put down a great deal of the improvement in their circumstances to the spread of the ,beh faith1 and certainly1 although a semi-secret sect1 the ,behs individually plead openly for a general religious liberty and toleration4 ,naturally such a movement has been of considerable assistance to the ,parsis4 ,as an indication of the influence of the ,parsis1 it is interesting to notice that during the late ,beh massacres1 immediately there was talk of an attack on the ,parsi quarter1 the ,mussulman clergy applied themselves to suppressing the movement4 ,although the ,jews are very much weaker and poorer1 they have their place in the social organisation of the town1 and the contempt in which they are held does not prevent the ,yezdis from recognising their right to a kind of citizenship4 ,their religion of course is held in much greater respect than that of the ,parsis1 for they are people of the ,book1 and although the ,persian ,shiahs granted the ,zoroastrians a certain share in this status1 when they allowed them to continue in the country on the same terms as ,jews and ,christians1 the ordinary ,yezdi of to-day hesitates considerably before he allows that ,zoroaster was in any sense a prophet4 ,i myself have met ,mussulmans serving in a menial capacity in ,parsi houses2 ,i have entertained ,parsis of standing and ,mussulmans of standing together on public occasions2 and ,i have no hesitation in saying that even the bigoted ,mussulman recognises the bond of common citizenship1 although it is certainly true that on most occasions he prefers the bond of religion4 ,still1 a ,persian's religious feeling1 even when it seems to amount to fanatical bigotry1 is generally so connected with self-interest1 that1 when it is disconnected from thoughts of profit1 it is difficult to know how much influence it will possess with him4 ,it is certainly a fact that a year or two ago1 when an ,isfahani ,seyid came and preached in the ,yezd mosques against painted trays1 ,manchester cottons1 bank-notes1 and ,bibles1 the ,yezdi ,mussulmans gave him the cold shoulder1 and treated him as a foreigner who had intruded himself into their domestic concerns4 ,people were surprised at this happening in the city which a few years before had been regarded as one of the most fanatical in the whole of ,persia4 ,as a matter of fact1 the so-called fanaticism of ,yezd was two-thirds of it non-religious in character4 ,there was an element of turbulency1 produced by a series of weak governors2 there was a real religious element2 and there was an element of insularity1 utterly unconnected with creed and doctrine4 ,in spite of the smallness of the ,christian colony1 which even at present consists of only eighteen ,europeans1 to which may be added twenty-two ,armenians 7the households of men in ,european employment71 the people of the town which is after all not large1 had soon become familiarised with this little settlement as a ,yezd institution4 ,then the insular spirit came to be enlisted on the side of the ,ferangis1 and1 the turbulence produced by weak governorship being eliminated1 there was only the religious difficulty left4 ,there have only been ,europeans in ,yezd for some twelve years4 ,the early arrivals were a bank manager and a merchant's agent4 ,the work of the ,church ,missionary ,society has been established there for some six years1 and the ,english telegraph clerk has been there for about a year4 ,now all the members of the colony have contributed something to the life of the town1 and all the ,europeans have worked together with marked cordiality and harmony4 ,both of these things have certainly had a great effect in hastening the establishment of the colony in the town1 and in winning for it the support of the ,yezdis' insular prejudices4 ,the merchants are distinctly glad of the bank1 and of the resident agent from a responsible ,manchester firm4 ,the people have learnt to value the ,medical ,mission2 and the schools1 though they appeal to a smaller class1 appeal equally strongly4 ,even the directly spiritual work of a ,mission is granted an established position in the town by the natives1 if it is partially in connection with the ,christian community4 ,having granted a community right of residence no ,mohammedan would deny them the right of religious observance4 ,indeed this would be expected to exist as a matter of course4 ,it is quite true that ,christian missions in ,persia do not possess the treaty right to make converts from ,mohammedanism4 ,at the same time1 it must be remembered that ,persians are much more inclined to regard custom than law1 nor are they used to the accurate observance of a fine distinction4 ,all that can be said is that1 at present1 the right of a ,christian missionary to baptize a ,mussulman is in ,yezd by no means established1 but that his right to live and work and preach in the town as1 primarily1 the mujtahid of the ,ferangis1 and secondarily1 an accepted ,yezd teacher1 is practically recognised by all4 ,this point seems to have been arrived at chiefly through the acceptance of the entire ,european colony as unitedly ,christian and as a real part of the town4 ,things that have helped us to arrive at it have been the usefulness of the various branches of work engaged in by the ,europeans1 their general straightforwardness and honesty of life1 combined with their ready co-operation in ,christian effort2 also the extreme acceptability of the work of the medical missions1 and the linking of the clerical work with the life of the town through the medium of schools4 ,to these must be added the smallness of ,yezd1 which makes it impossible for the population consistently to ignore or refuse to assimilate any important band of workers that can maintain a residence at all prolonged within its walls1 and the insularity which makes it impossible to refuse altogether to champion what has become part of the town4 ,also we must not forget the natural proneness of the ,shiah to religious speculation1 and the special ferment of religious ideas at present prevailing throughout ,persia4 ,this1 however1 is a matter that will be dealt with at length1 later on4 ,a curious incident occurred in ,yezd not long ago1 that will perhaps serve to point to the extraordinary way in which the ,europeans have in the mind of the ,yezdi become an established part of the town population1 with rights and privileges similar to those possessed by the native section of the townsfolk4 ,one of the ,european residents had received a threatening letter from a young ,mussulman1 whom he had dismissed from his employ2 and he had paid as little attention to the matter as it deserved4 ,it so happened that the next day he came to our house for a week's visit1 ,i being a clerical missionary2 and the dismissed servant then spread the report through the bazaars that his master was frightened1 and had taken sanctuary with his mujtahid1 this being a common ,mussulman custom when danger is apprehended either from lutis or from the law4 ,not only was the report believed1 but one of the other ,europeans was obliged to give up a visit which he had intended to pay us1 as he was a business man1 and his credit might have been temporarily shaken4 ,a similar story is told by ,canon ,bruce1 of an experience in ,isfahan4 ,though in some ways more curious1 it is1 however1 less convincing with regard to the particular moral to which ,i am attempting to point1 since the ,canon was then working largely amongst the ,armenian ,christians of ,julfa1 who are a considerable colony1 and subjects of the ,shah4 ,the ,roman ,catholic ,armenian priests1 who were also working amongst the ,armenian ,christians1 got the chief ,mussulman mujtahid of ,isfahan1 of which ,julfa is a suburb1 to summon ,canon ,bruce to his house4 ,the mujtahid1 they said1 was1 after all1 the chief religious authority in the place1 and ,canon ,bruce was as much a heretic in ,christianity as the ,babis were in ,islam4 ,this quaint summons was actually issued1 and the ,mussulman mujtahid required ,canon ,bruce to defend himself against the charge of preaching incorrect ,christian doctrine4 ,this1 of course1 was an acceptance of ,canon ,bruce's position2 but the acceptance of the position of a clerical missionary in a place where there were only eight or nine households belonging to ,christian races1 ,european or ,armenian1 is stranger still4 ,the possibility of such a thing ought1 however1 to encourage us with regard to the future of missionary work in isolated and apparently bigoted ,persian towns1 and also to make missionaries realise the immense value of the co-operation of ,christian residents1 and the necessity of attending fully to their spiritual needs4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,persian ,mohammedanism--,mohammed--,founding of ,islam--,shiahs and ,sunnis--,laxity distinguished from infidelity--,central doctrines of ,islam--,the ,divine ,unity--,the prophethood--,beh view of the prophethood--,the ,bab--,the ,behu'llah--,behism--,its prospects--,islam--,predestination--,rep entance--,savbs--,eating with unbelievers--,charge of pantheism--,effect of ,islam on character4 ,we have seen that the ,yezdis have long been accustomed to have in their midst professors of three distinct religions1 the ,jewish1 the ,zoroastrian and the ,mohammedan4 ,but as the ,jews are neither numerous nor influential1 and the ,zoroastrian ,parsis1 though more numerous than the ,jews1 are nevertheless not more than a tithe of the population1 the religion that chiefly demands our attention is ,mohammedanism1 which is the established faith of ,persia4 ,the ,mohammedanism of ,persia is not quite the same as that of ,india or ,turkey1 and the ,persians call themselves ,shiahs or nonconformists4 ,in ,persia there is one creed of nonconformity which is there accepted as orthodox1 so those professing this creed will for the future in these pages be called ,shiahs without further qualification4 ,it must1 however1 be remembered that the name ,shiah is not properly confined to this one sect1 and also that this sect itself1 like other nonconformist bodies1 has always shown a great tendency to subdivide4 ,in ,persia besides ,shiahs1 that is the more orthodox ,shiahs1 there has always been one other smaller sect of ,mohammedans attracting general attention4 ,at present the dissenting doctrine most widely taught is that of the ,behs1 who have laid hold of the popular imagination1 partly because of their great steadfastness under the most terrible persecutions1 partly because of the somewhat popular nature of their teaching1 but chiefly because ,persia is now being brought into rather closer touch with ,europe1 and the people as a whole feel that the teaching of the ,shiah mullas needs to be modified if ,islam is to be preserved4 ,i think one may go further1 and say that there is at present in ,persia a period of enquiry and spiritual awakening1 which gives a special opportunity1 not only to ,mohammedan sectaries1 but also to ,christian missionaries4 ,later on further allusion will be made to these ,behs1 but we must not forget that our first task is not so much the study of the complex religious systems of ,persia1 as the analysis of those religious influences to which the ,yezdi has been subjected4 ,the ordinary ,yezdi ,mussulman is descended partly from the original ,aryan inhabitants of ,persia1 and partly from their ,arabian conquerors3 but the enormous difference in character that exists between him and the purely ,aryan ,parsi is certainly due less to race and more to religion1 for the jadds1 or converts from ,parsiism1 often develop all the ,mussulman characteristics in a few generations1 without the slightest admixture of race4 ,so before attempting to describe the character of the people1 it will be necessary to pay as much attention to the religious ideas that have been brought to bear upon them as we have already paid to the nature of their country and the seclusion of their town life4 ,some aspects of the ,yezdi's religion will be left to a future chapter1 and we must at present content ourselves with trying to understand the essential nature of ,islam1 particularly dwelling on those points of ,mohammed's teaching and example which seem to have produced most impression on the ,persian mind4 ,to do this we must divest ourselves of all pre-judgments of the prophet's life and doctrine1 and simply study the facts of history1 remembering that the conception of ,islam which is to be found amongst the ,sunnis of ,india and ,turkey cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged1 for the ,mohammedan world is by no means unanimous about it2 and also that the well-known ,european theory1 that there was a difference in ,mohammed's aims and objects in ,mecca and ,medina1 and that the ,meccan period rather than the ,medinan indicates the essential idea of ,mohammedanism1 is one which no educated ,mussulman would for a moment tolerate4 ,as for the still more favourable views that have been lately brought forward by ,european authors1 ,i can only pass on a story that was told me of an educated ,mussulman in ,india who had been shown such a treatise4 8,this gentleman1 ,sahib10 he said1 as he handed back the volume1 8appears to know very little about his own religion1 and absolutely nothing about ours40 ,i myself went to ,persia with the intention of making the most of the good points of the religious systems of the country4 ,with regard to the ,parsis ,i was not disappointed4 ,like many other missionaries1 ,i started with the idea that ,i should find these people possessed of a great many radically wrong notions about the nature and power of ,god1 which were essential to their religion4 ,i now believe that ,i was wrong1 and ,i have never heard my right-hand man1 ,mihraban1 who is himself a ,parsi1 and also one of the most sincere and earnest ,christians whom ,i have ever met1 speak one word against the real groundwork of ,zoroastrianism4 ,in this religion it is not unteaching but teaching that is required to lead the people to ,christ2 but1 in ,mohammedanism1 in spite of its greater pretensions1 almost every apparent truth crumbles into mere truism or actual falsity the moment that you try to make it the basis of anything practical4 ,also the more ,i read of the life of ,mohammed1 the more convinced ,i am that the radical rottenness of the system is due to his original teaching4 ,perhaps this may be a confession of narrowness1 but one cannot be broad all round4 ,unless we are going to deny the iniquity and wickedness of modern ,islam1 we shall have to believe that somebody is to blame2 and1 if it is not ,mohammed1 ,i suppose it must be either the mullas or the ,mussulman laity4 ,i do not know why we should expend all our breadth on the big people3 ,i myself have some sympathy with the little ones3 and ,i firmly believe that the difficulties in the ,islam of to-day are due rather to the essential wrongness of the system than to its corruption by the masses4 ,mohammed was born in ,mecca towards the end of the sixth century4 ,he was a member of the important family who had charge of the ,ka'aba1 which was a heathen temple that the ,meccans had attempted to make a common meeting-ground for the whole of ,arabia1 by including within its limits the idols and symbols of worship that were respected by the different tribes4 ,some of these tribes had adopted ,christianity and ,judaism2 so pictures even of ,jewish and ,christian saints were to be found within the walls of the ,meccan temple4 ,the ,mussulman historians of ,mohammed's life tell us that there had been in ,arabia1 for some years before the prophet came forward1 a set of reformers called ,hanfs1 who seem to have been half political and half religious1 but to have been all of them convinced that some form of religion1 purer than that represented by the ,ka'aba1 was needed to unite ,arabia against its common foes4 ,some of these ,hanifs ended by adopting ,christianity or ,judaism2 others were inclined to the adoption of a more essentially national form of monotheism1 which should retain the ,ka'aba as its centre4 ,the most notable of the latter party was ,zaid ibn ,amr1 a man so much admired by ,mohammed that he declared him a prophet1 and in other ways professed his complete acceptation of his principles and teaching4 ,mohammed by his marriage with ,khadja was certainly introduced into this set of reformers4 ,waraka ibn ,nawfal was one of the most prominent ,hanifs1 and we have indisputable evidence that he was one of ,khadija's most intimate friends1 both at the time of her marriage1 and also at the time when her husband received his first revelation4 ,mohammed himself had been from childhood of a hysterical disposition1 and was subject to fits1 during which he saw visions1 which on recovering consciousness he was able to recollect2 consequently while in this company he became convinced that he was the expected prophet who was to bind ,arabia together by a politico-religious system4 ,in placing himself at the head of the ,hanif movement1 ,mohammed probably gave more prominence to the political aspect than had most of the former and less successful leaders4 ,this is brought out by ,koelle in his life of ,mohammed2 and indeed it is obvious that the man who could allow an unbelieving friend1 even though a close relation1 to play the important part in the building of his church that ,abbs played in the second meeting on the eminence1 was primarily a politician rather than a religious reformer3 for it was ,abbas who on that occasion first proposed the oath that may almost be called the basis of ,islam4 ,a critical study of ,mohammed's early dealings with the ,arabians brings us to a similar conclusion4 ,of the other stories collected by ,koelle from ,mussulman sources to prove this point1 perhaps the most forcible is that of the discussion between the prophet1 his uncle1 ,abu ,tlib1 under whose protection he was then living1 and ,abu ,jahl4 ,abu ,talib called his nephew and said to him1 8,thou seest the nobles of thy people are assembled here to concede to thee certain things1 and1 in return1 to receive concessions from thee40 ,mohammed made this reply3 8,well1 then1 give me a word whereby the ,arabs may be governed and the ,persians subjugated40 ,abu ,jahl responded to this request in the name of his fellow-elders by saying3 8,thou shalt have ten words40 ,but ,mohammed setting him right1 and indicating what kind of word in his opinion could alone answer the purpose1 rejoined3 8,say1 #8,there is no ,god except ,allah6' and renounce what you worship besides ,him40 ,this story ,koelle quotes from ,ibn ,ishk1 the earliest and most trustworthy biographer4 ,certainly the movement from paganism to monotheism1 which took place in ,arabia in those days1 was in itself a fine thing2 and it was accompanied by much sincerity and religious zeal4 ,it is also obvious that ,mohammed possessed a personality peculiarly attractive to the ,arabian1 and that this1 as well as his enthusiasm on the subject of his mission1 had the effect of attracting many to the cause4 ,but not only did ,mohammed pay much more regard to politics than can be possibly excused1 he also accepted the religious and ethical teaching of the ,hanifs only in the most superficial manner2 and1 under the cover of verbal conformity1 retained as much as possible of the original pagan ideas in which he had been reared4 ,the result is that his followers are still to be found possessed of what seems at first sight to be correct doctrine upon fundamentals1 and yet are unable to advance by its assistance along the path of light and progress4 ,the popular idea1 that fanatical intolerance of all professors of other religions is an essential and fundamental principle in ,mohammedanism1 cannot be maintained4 ,the paganism of ,mecca was distinctly latitudinarian1 so ,mohammed accepted in full the sacred books of the ,jews and ,christians1 as would have seemed natural to an ,arabian of that age1 especially to a monotheistic teacher who was closely connected with the ,ka'aba4 ,this does not mean that he in any way apprehended the meaning of ,judaism and ,christianity4 ,the doctrine of the perpetuity of the moral law never seems to have entered into his mind1 even in the most elementary form4 ,he wished to say that he had himself received a revelation superseding all former ones by the mandate of ,god1 and he did not wish to make trouble by pronouncing other religions to be false1 without absolute necessity4 ,his real object was to unite the ,arabs by a reformed religion1 and at first he regarded his mission as a purely national one4 ,whatever were his ultimate designs upon the ,jews and ,christians in ,arabia1 he intentionally conveyed to them the impression that1 if they recognised him as a prophet to others1 he would be content without their accepting him themselves4 ,indeed1 while he was still at ,mecca1 he was even uncertain whether the idolaters who accepted him might not be allowed to retain some of their idols as intermediaries between themselves and ,allah4 ,he went so far on one occasion as to actually effect a reconciliation on this basis2 but as such a concession must have greatly damaged his influence with those who were favourably disposed to the ,hanif movement1 he afterwards repudiated the transaction1 and declared that he had acted under the influence of the devil4 ,his work in ,mecca was not very successful2 and the opposition he encountered was so strong that he had at last to begin to make attempts to start work in some other place1 and he was finally successful in making a fresh beginning in ,medina4 ,here he was able to take advantage of a family connection with some of the principal citizens1 and also of a long-standing rivalry between ,medina and ,mecca4 ,although the movement in ,mecca had not been widely successful1 ,mohammed had gathered amongst his followers several really prominent men4 ,consequently1 the people of ,medina1 although divided on the subject of his prophetic mission1 were unanimous as to the advisability of receiving him and his followers into their town4 ,settled in ,medina1 ,mohammed's fortunes underwent a change4 ,the chieftancy of the tribe to which his grandmother had belonged fell vacant1 and1 as most of the members of this tribe had become ,mussulmans1 ,mohammed had no difficulty in himself becoming their chief4 ,considering himself restrained by no preconception or former revelation of the moral law1 he was able1 without dropping for one moment his pretensions to prophethood1 to use every means of fraud and violence which seemed conducive to his political end4 ,as ,koelle has pointed out1 there is no reason to suppose that his principles in any way changed1 but under the altered conditions and environment the utterly non-ethical theory of revelation held by the prophet became more apparent4 ,this is perhaps most clearly brought out by his utterly unscrupulous dealing with the ,jews1 and also by the story of ,zaid and ,zainab1 in all which affairs ,mohammed professed himself to be acting under ,divine direction1 nor is it at all obvious that he did not actually believe it4 ,finally1 before his death1 he succeeded in establishing his religion and political system throughout the whole of ,arabia4 ,of course it was impossible for a movement like this to take place without rival prophets appearing in other parts of the country4 ,two of these appeared during ,mohammed's lifetime1 and he thought it best to guard against future schisms of a similar kind by declaring himself the last of the prophets4 ,exactly what he meant by this is not very clear3 if the almost universal voice of ,islam is to be accepted1 he did not mean that he was the last divinely appointed teacher1 for all ,mussulmans look forward to the coming of a ,mehdi or ,mahdi1 who1 together with ,jesus1 the son of ,mary1 is to appear in the last days1 and spread the doctrines of ,islam throughout the world4 ,orthodox ,mussulmans1 however1 always look upon ,mohammed as the last great shibi kitb1 or book-bearer4 ,the ordinary ,sunnis1 who are the largest and best-known ,mussulman sect1 assert that1 as a matter of fact1 since the time of ,mohammed1 no divinely-appointed teacher has as yet appeared4 ,the ,khalfs were in their eyes simply appointed by the congregation1 and the four great writers of the sunnat1 which is to them the only authoritative commentary upon the doctrines of ,islam1 were only learned and saintly men4 ,now1 they hold1 these doctrines can only be learnt from this book1 and from the ,qurn itself2 for the mujtahid or high mulla1 capable of giving authoritative decisions on moot points1 no longer exists4 ,the ,shiahs have very different tenets4 ,mohammed according to their teaching was the first of a hierarchic dynasty of thirteen1 consisting of himself and the twelve great ,imms1 of whom the first was ,ali1 the son-in-law of the prophet1 and who were all as certainly divinely appointed as ,mohammed himself4 ,mohammed is only the last great book-bearer1 and therefore the founder of the present era4 ,the last of the ,imams was the ,mehdi1 who according to the ,sunnis has not yet been born1 but according to the ,shiahs appeared long ago4 ,this man did not die1 but disappeared1 remaining at first accessible to his followers through the medium of four successive ,bbs1 or gates of knowledge1 who were in touch with him during his concealment4 ,like the ,imams1 the ,babs came to an end1 for the last of them refused to appoint a successor4 ,all this of course is very ancient history4 ,the ,shiahs have their own traditionists1 for they reject the sunnat altogether4 ,between the traditions of the ,shiahs and the ,sunnis there is not much to choose3 there is a certain amount of historical fact embodied in both1 and there is also a great deal of absolute nonsense4 ,however1 many otherwise orthodox ,shiahs either reject the traditions altogether1 or interpret them allegorically4 ,there is more freedom of interpretation amongst the ,shiahs than amongst the ,sunnis3 indeed many ,shiahs believe that some of the most objectionable chapters of the ,quran describing the delights of heaven are entirely parabolic4 ,of course with mujtahids 7supposed to be able to pronounce authoritatively on moot points7 scattered all over ,persia1 the fixity of doctrine that prevails amongst ,mohammedans of ,sunni countries would be impossible4 ,the tenets of the ,shiahs are not derogatory to the mission of ,mohammed1 or to the position of the ,quran1 but they make the solitary figure of the prophet stand out much less prominently4 ,for instance1 if a ,persian is told that his religion possesses nothing corresponding to the vicarious sacrifice of ,christ1 he will invariably reply by pointing to the martyrdom of the ,imam ,husain4 ,also the ,mehdi1 or occult ,imam1 is not the future1 but the present ruler of ,islam2 and so he is in some ways as important a personage as the original prophet4 ,not very long ago the ,shah of ,persia used to pay rent for his palace to the ,mehdi1 the money going to the mujtahids as the representatives of the ,imam3 ,i do not know whether this practice is still continued1 but the theory on which it was based is certainly not extinct4 ,again there is a common saying that the ,imam ,ali is present in the heart of the true believer1 but ,i think it is only regarded by the ordinary ,yezdi as a poetical expression4 ,the point to be noted is that the saying is always about ,ali1 not about ,mohammed4 ,shiahs invoke the ,imams ,ali and ,husain very much more frequently than they invoke ,mohammed2 and though the inscription over a ,persian mosque should be1 8,y ,ali1 ,y ,muhammad10 that is1 8,o ,ali6 ,o ,mohammed60 the 8,y ,muhammad0 is often omitted and the 8,y ,ali0 left to stand alone4 ,the excuse is sometimes brought forward that ,mohammed is too great for constant invocation4 ,considering the way in which the ,shiah uses the name of ,god1 this must1 ,i think1 be regarded as a mere excuse for a habit due to wholly different causes4 ,this extreme attachment to the ,imams is probably due to two things4 ,in the first place1 there can be no doubt that the cause of ,ali and his sons was taken up in ,persia as an outlet to national jealousy1 for the ,aryan converts were not sorry when a pretext occurred for differentiating themselves from the majority of their ,arab conquerors4 ,in the ,shiah religion the early ,khalifs1 who ruled ,islam while the holy ,imams were still alive1 are held up to the bitterest execration1 and ,omar in particular1 who1 by the way1 was the conqueror of ,persia1 takes much the same place in the ,shiah system that ,judas ,iscariot does in the ,christian4 ,illustration3 ,,small ,,square ,,in ,,yezd4 ,to the left is a small ,nakhl1 and in the centre a mosque door with the inscription 8,ya ,ali40 ,secondly1 the influence of sects of mystics1 professedly ,mohammedan but having in their doctrines a distinctly pantheistic tendency1 must be remembered4 ,ancient ,persia was full of pantheism1 and when it became ,mussulman the inclination towards such teaching still continued1 for the broader views held by the ,shiahs as to freedom of interpretation in reading the ,quran gave a possible status in the country to very heretical sects4 ,these ,persian mystics often preferred to make the ,imams1 especially ,ali1 at least as prominent in their systems as ,mohammed1 whose teaching was more difficult to bend to their purposes2 and although the ordinary ,yezdi is certainly not a pantheist1 they have undoubtedly intensified his enthusiasm for the personalities of the ,imams1 and through their poetry they have familiarised him with religious expressions of a somewhat unorthodox character4 ,this is in some ways an advantage to the missionary1 but he must beware that it does not give him a false view of the progress that he is making4 ,as to the theory of the divinely appointed ,imamate it might be urged that the retention of the whole glory of the early sainthood for the close relations and descendants of the prophet is an excess of zeal that ,mohammed would have greatly approved4 ,however this may be1 the doctrine is not obviously opposed to ,mohammedanism4 ,the ,shiahs are certainly much laxer than the ,sunnis with regard to some of the commandments of the ,qurn4 ,painting1 and the making of figures is considered by the ,sunnis to be a violation of the law against idolatry4 ,there is1 however1 a regular school of ,persian painting2 and clay models of men1 animals and demons1 as well as rag dolls1 are given to the children as toys4 ,the protests made by the mullas against these things are very faint4 ,they are rather louder in their denunciations of all forms of music1 which amongst orthodox ,mohammedans is supposed to have no purpose but the exciting of the passions4 ,as to the drinking of wine and spirits1 the avoidance of the regular ,mohammedan fast in the month of ,ramazn1 and the omission of the prescribed prayers1 the ,shiah mullas take a view which is at least intelligible4 ,to begin with1 such things do not amount to infidelity unless they are done wilfully and consistently4 ,a formal acceptation of the whole of the ordinances is demanded4 ,there must be no drunkenness in the streets1 no eating in ,ramazan when anybody is near unless a legitimate excuse can be brought forward1 and if prayers have not been said men must say that they have said them4 ,further than this external government does not go2 and as a matter of fact many irreligious ,persians secretly drink themselves drunk in their houses1 forget to say their prayers regularly1 and make up what would1 if true1 be valid excuses for not keeping the fast in ,ramazan4 ,such people are well aware that they are liable to punishment1 but they also know that1 unless they prove disloyal to ,islam by accepting some other faith1 they are not in any great danger4 ,it is true that every now and again the mullas incite the people to join them in cleansing the land of infidelity1 and on such occasions sectaries like the ,babis1 and those who are supposed to sympathise with them1 may greatly suffer1 but those who have been merely lax in their observance of ,islam are apt to make up for their past deficiencies by a peculiar show of zeal4 ,it may be asked whether the mullas in ,persia are justified in making no more persistent efforts to enforce ,mohammedan law1 and whether their winking at such irregularities is not in itself disloyalty to the system of ,islam4 ,probably it would be easy for them to show that they were justified by the example of ,mohammed himself4 ,if ,mohammed enforced a much stricter discipline in the town where he was himself present--a matter which ,i think is open to doubt--it would be almost impossible to maintain that he caused such discipline to be enforced among the ,arab tribes4 ,these tribes were generally accepted through the medium of their chief1 who usually came to ,mohammed in person1 had a short interview with him1 part of which was devoted to political subjects1 and often went back to his tribe on the same day4 ,it is true that ,mohammed made a distinction between hypocrites--munfiqn1 and true believers1 but he generally meant by hypocrites people who were not really on his side against others1 and here the ordinary ,shiah is unimpeachable4 ,the fact is that ,islam contains much more than an assortment of commandments4 ,otherwise it would never have impressed its adherents in so distinct and remarkable a manner with special characteristics4 ,the central idea of the religion is that we are all under the dominion of an invisible and absolutely powerful ,god1 ,who has created all things1 and has willed and ordained everything both good and evil that is to be found in the universe4 ,it is true that there is a ,shiah dogma against the extreme predestinarianism which characterises the ,sunni creed1 but ,i do not believe that it has in the least affected the fatalistic view of the ordinary people4 ,in ,islam ,god may be called good because it is our duty to accept as good whatever ,he does1 and ,he may also be called by other names according to the character of ,his known actions towards us2 but ,his own nature is absolutely different from that of man2 consequently nothing can be known of ,his moral character beyond the fact of certain explicit actions4 ,this ,god from time to time sends to the world prophets1 whose duty is to teach mankind the doctrine of ,his unity1 the necessity of worship1 and the necessity of doing what is for the time being ,his will4 ,according to the popular opinion there have been a hundred and forty-four thousand of these prophets1 but of this number only a few have been authorised to publish a new code of human duty4 ,those so authorised are known as book-bearers1 and ,adam1 ,seth1 ,enoch1 ,abraham1 ,moses1 ,david1 ,jesus1 and ,mohammed were all of this class4 ,the ,behs add the name of ,behu'llah after that of ,mohammed4 ,these book-bearers are always marked by the possession of some sort of supernatural powers appealing to the intellect1 and also1 in the case of the latter ones1 by the fulfilment of signs mentioned by the former prophets4 ,obedience to them is rewarded by various degrees of bliss in ,heaven1 disobedience is punished by ,hell4 ,the prophet must conform to previous revelations in the assertion of ,god's unity1 invisibility and omnipotence1 but it is not necessary that there should be any coherence between the directions about human action as set forth in successive dispensations1 nor is any difference made between ceremonial and moral commandments4 ,this central doctrine of ,mohammedanism concerns ,god1 the prophet1 man and creation2 so we come across it under four names1 giving the four possible points of view4 ,first of all there is the name of tauhd1 or assertion of the ,divine unity4 ,the ,mussulman means by this very much more than the mere assertion that ,god is a single ,being4 ,he includes in it the doctrine of the invisibility of ,god and of ,his absolutely separate nature1 and it appears to clash with the ,christian conception in two important particulars4 ,there is an absolute denial of the statement1 upon which most ,christians more or less consciously base their belief in the perpetuity and absolute nature of the law of human morals1 that 8in the image of ,god created ,he man40 ,consequently we shall afterwards find that in ,islam there is no belief in the permanency of the moral law1 for nothing is thought by the ,mussulman to be necessarily permanent except things connected with the nature of ,god2 and as our nature differs entirely from that of the ,creator the law given for it cannot be necessarily permanent4 ,there is also in reality a fundamental contradiction of ,christian doctrine in the ,mohammedan's rendering of the statement that ,god is a single ,being4 ,this is best explained by a simple illustration4 ,supposing a man were to say1 8,london is one place10 it is conceivable that he might mean one of two things4 ,either he might mean that the ,city of ,london was the only true ,london1 and that there was no other part of the town in ,middlesex or ,surrey that ought to be called by the same name2 or he might mean that the whole of those places which go by the name of the ,county of ,london are in reality only one place2 and these two statements are not similar statements with a slight difference1 but they are absolutely contradictory4 ,so the ,christian says there is only one ,god1 by which he means to assert the unity of the all-good ,creator1 the all-good ,personality ,who was revealed as the ,son1 and the all-good ,spirit ,who is the only source of good in the heart4 ,as ,god to the ,christian means the ,all-good1 what he needs is a doctrine that asserts the essential unity of the ,all-good wherever he finds it4 ,the ,christian is of course not a pantheist1 but his conception of the one ,god has to be sufficiently inclusive to cover those ,three ,who1 as he knows1 certainly possess the attributes of ,deity4 ,the ,mussulman on the other hand does not pretend to know anything about the attributes of ,deity1 excepting that ,god is one1 invisible and omnipotent4 ,consequently he frames his definition of the ,deity so as to purposely exclude what the ,christian with his larger knowledge knows to be the manifestation of the same essence4 ,to pass on to the ,mussulman's conception of his religion as it relates to the prophet4 ,the paighambar1 or the bringing of messages from the ,deity1 is in many ways a peculiar idea4 ,mohammed himself had very little notion of his message being an advance on what had been given before1 and of the gradual growth of revelation he had no conception at all4 ,he was content to assert that his teaching was the religion of ,abraham1 a phrase of which he frequently made use4 ,it is true that ,mussulmans sometimes say that parts of ,god's ,word were revealed to former paighambars1 but that the complete commandment was given to ,mohammed1 and although this is very different from the ,christian doctrine of the growth of revelation1 it might possibly be regarded as a substitute for it2 but the fact is that1 though it may be traceable to the prophet1 it is quite foreign to the essential system of ,islam4 ,we frequently find such foreign ideas which have been imported into ,islam1 occasionally by ,mohammed but more frequently by his followers1 simply to answer some specific objection1 or to maintain the superiority of the system over all others4 ,such importations can as a rule be easily separated from the essential doctrines of ,islam1 and in most cases they have not affected the general character of the religion4 ,this is due to the religion as first conceived by ,mohammed having been clear in its essential points1 and it is these points rather than the accretions that have left such a strong mark upon the body of ,mussulmans4 ,the paighambari1 more than any other doctrine or expression of doctrine1 brings out with intense plainness the fundamental distinction between the ,mussulman and the ,christian1 that enormous divergence of view regarding the moral law which lies at the root of almost all their differences in subordinate theories and tenets4 ,so when we are discussing the influence of ,mohammedan ideas upon character1 it is well to remember that sects which do not hold this theory of the paighambari ought to be regarded separately4 ,there are in ,persia sects which are only nominally ,mussulman1 and which largely owe their origin to non-,mohammedan sources4 ,the ,sfis1 for instance1 are only half ,mohammedan1 and their philosophy is really pantheistic4 ,sufis are to be found in ,yezd1 but there are not very many serious ones1 and the sect has largely lost its direct influence in the country4 ,but the ,babis1 of whom the ,beh branch is rapidly spreading everywhere throughout the ,persian towns1 have been influenced by ,sufi ideas to a much greater extent than have the orthodox ,shiahs1 who1 we agreed1 are not pantheistic4 ,perhaps some professing ,behs are really very near to the ,sufis in ideas1 but this is not the case with the more orthodox1 who1 though they have modified the fundamental doctrines of ,mohammedanism in such a way as to remove the gulf between ,god and the prophet1 have not produced a theology which is free from the obvious defects of that of ,islam4 ,the ,beh appears to hold that the superior prophet1 that is1 the book-bearer1 is in every case an incarnation of the ,deity1 but he goes on to say that there is an absolute distinction between the prophet and his people2 for the book-bearer is ,god1 and the people are not ,god2 nor are they1 so far as ,i can understand1 capable of receiving the ,spirit of ,god1 either from the prophet or directly from ,god ,himself4 ,they can only be impressed by the prophet as wax is impressed by a seal4 ,whether this doctrine is really ,behu'llah's or not1 it was certainly given to me by men who ought to have known the truth about the ,beh faith4 ,the adherents of this sect in ,persia are now exceedingly numerous1 and many people believe that in the end the whole country will become ,beh2 so the question whether the ,behs are more reliable than the orthodox ,shiahs has become an important one4 ,certainly they teach a cleaner and purer doctrine on points of ethics2 but what ,persia needs is not so much a higher moral teaching1 but rather a higher basis for morality4 ,a religion that puts the commandment not to steal on the same level as the direction not to stew your dates but to fry them1 will never produce the high characters that are to be found in such communities as the ,parsi4 ,it would be irreverent to compare such a faith with the religion given to us by the ,saviour4 ,during the late ,beh massacre1 ,i had the opportunity of discussing what was going on with a ,beh muballigh1 that is1 an authorised ,beh teacher and missionary4 ,i have no intention of unnecessarily dwelling on the ghastly horrors that were then being perpetrated1 but a few details are unavoidable4 ,the ,beh sectaries were not at that time being executed before the mujtahids1 but were being torn in pieces by the crowd4 ,what had excited the people was not simply religious feeling1 but it was very largely the statement by the clerical authorities that the goods of the ,behs were 8lawful10 that is1 that any one might plunder them who cared to do so4 ,the attacks were often made by men who had lived for a long while in close companionship with the ,behs1 knowing them all the time to be members of the sect1 and yet consorting and eating with them freely4 ,holes were bored in the heads of some of these poor wretches with awls1 oil was then poured into the hole and lighted4 ,other forms of torture were used about which one cannot write4 ,women and children were very seldom actually killed1 but were fearfully ill-treated1 and sometimes left to die of starvation4 ,it was reported that in one of the villages ,babi children died within full sight of the villagers1 after waiting for days under the trees where their murdered parents had left them4 ,the ,beh muballigh with whom ,i was talking was certainly well aware1 in a general way1 of what was going on2 yet ,i could not get him to see that these things1 done in the name of religion to his own sect1 were in themselves wrong1 and that man's eyes had been opened1 or could be opened1 to their essential wrongness4 ,of course he maintained that the action of the ,mussulmans was evil1 but his reason was that1 in the first place1 those persecuted were spiritually right1 and1 in the second place1 even had they not been so1 the last book-bearer1 the ,behu'llah1 had promulgated a ,divine commandment that there was to be no religious persecution4 ,i then asked him if such persecution could again become lawful if another book-bearer appeared and promulgated a different commandment4 ,he answered that it was impossible for another book-bearer to appear for a long period4 ,i then asked him if he would accept a new book-bearer1 who1 besides satisfying the other conditions1 exhibited a text in one of the previously received ,scriptures1 stating that one day in ,god's sight is as a thousand years4 ,he replied that1 if such a verse could be shown1 and the other conditions were satisfied1 such a man might be accepted to-morrow1 even although he taught a doctrine similar to that of ,mohammed about religious persecution and other matters of the same sort4 ,now there are three points to be noted by those who expect great things of the ,beh movement4 ,first of all1 the ,behs accept the whole of the ,jewish and ,christian ,scriptures1 which1 of course1 include a verse of the kind above mentioned4 ,secondly1 they have already had three book-bearers2 the ,bab1 who was the original founder of the ,babi sects1 and who not only exhibited a ,divine book1 but also claimed to be the resurrection of ,mohammed in the same way that ,mohammed was the resurrection of ,jesus2 ,subhi ,azal1 whom for some years they recognised as the ,bab's successor2 and lastly1 ,behu'llah1 whom the ,behs now hold to be the only major prophet of the three4 ,thirdly1 the ,behs1 in attempting to prove that the ,bab was a lesser prophet and a mere forerunner of the ,behu'llah1 and also that ,subhi ,azal was never a really great personage1 have seriously falsified their records4 ,the reader who desires further information on this subject cannot do better than consult ,professor ,e4 ,g4 ,browne's admirable introduction to his translation of the ,trkhi ,jadd4 ,the ,bab1 who came forward rather less than a century ago1 was a young ,shirazi ,persian1 a ,seyid of the merchant class1 whose real name was ,ali ,mohammed4 ,the ,shaikhi sect were at that time predicting the appearance of a great religious leader1 and the ,bab came forward claiming to be this prophet4 ,he called himself the ,bab1 or ,gate of ,knowledge1 and was at first supposed by his followers to be the ,gate of ,access to the ,mehdi2 but he seems to have used these terms in a very broad and allegorical fashion1 and to have held the doctrine of the essential unity of all book-bearers4 ,he later declared himself to be the ,mehdi1 and also to be the ,gate of ,access to ,one ,whom ,god should manifest4 ,the movement caused a great deal of fighting in ,persia1 and though the ,babis were acting on the defensive1 there is very little doubt that they had harboured political designs4 ,the ,bab1 however1 differs from ,mohammed in having been1 so far as we can judge1 primarily a religious reformer1 and having done his best to make the movement as spiritual as possible4 ,his followers were treated with the most barbarous severity1 and he himself was after a few years put to death4 ,before this he appointed ,subhi ,azal1 one of his followers1 to be his successor1 and for a few years this man was received as 8,he ,whom ,god should manifest40 ,later on1 ,subhi ,azal's half-brother1 the ,behu'llah1 managed to get himself accepted as head of the sect4 ,many of the followers of ,subhi ,azal were assassinated1 and the sect was re-organised with some important differences4 ,it now purports to be absolutely non-political1 and the teaching has become more simple and practical4 ,the ,behs are anxious to retain the use of the ,quran1 so as to preserve their claim to toleration1 although they imagine that the law of the ,quran no longer stands1 its place having been taken by a later revelation4 ,partially to avoid inconsistency in this matter1 and partially to keep before the minds of the ,mussulmans the possibility of one really divine book being replaced by another1 they encourage the reading of all the ,scripture considered divine by ,mohammedans1 that is1 not only the ,quran1 but also the whole of the ,christian ,bible1 nor do they generally call the authenticity of the extant version in question4 ,behism is obviously an attempt to adapt ,islam to the exigencies of modern circumstances1 taking advantage of the special tenets of the ,shiahs4 ,the ,north of ,persia is being at present rapidly overrun by ,russia1 and even in the ,south the ,persian feels that he is on the eve of political changes4 ,the ,behs consider that they have a creed which enables them to meet the foreigner without continual jar and offence4 ,in this they are right1 for they do not veil their women1 they do not consider infidels unclean1 and they go further than does the broadest ,shiah in the matter of respect to other forms of faith4 ,some orthodox ,shiahs accept the ,jewish and ,christian ,scriptures as they stand1 without pressing the story that the ,jews and ,christians altered their books to suit their own purposes4 ,almost all ,persians are open to argument on this point1 though most will say that to those possessed of the ,quran the perusal of former ,scriptures is unnecessary4 ,but the ,behs hold that1 unless started by a real prophet1 no religion can possibly survive1 and consequently they allow to even the grossest forms of idolatry a divine origin1 and the possession of a certain substratum of truth4 ,in ,persia there can never have been that almost impenetrable wall of dogmatic assertion and self-assurance which seems to exist in many ,sunni lands1 but something of the kind is to be found throughout ,islam4 ,as the self-satisfaction of the ,beh is almost as strong as that of the ,sunni1 and infinitely stronger than that of the ,shiah1 it seems a paradox to say that ,babiism has given us in ,persia a prepared soil for missionary work4 ,the fact is that the field prepared is not amongst the ,babis themselves1 but amongst the ,shiahs who have been in touch with ,babis1 and are nevertheless unconvinced4 ,consequently it is a field which cannot be expected to last for ever1 but of which advantage ought to be taken immediately1 for it is very seldom that we find so exceptional an opportunity given to us for attacking ,mohammedanism on its own ground4 ,in ,yezd the ,behs have attached to themselves many of the most enlightened ,mussulmans4 ,the teaching of the sect about behaviour and practice is not bad1 though1 in matters connected with women1 there is an inclination to adopt customs that are rather dangerous considering the low moral atmosphere4 ,the tendency to minimise the miraculous element in religion is not altogether wholesome1 and some professing ,babis are inclined to a rather crude rationalism1 the end of which it is difficult to foresee4 ,this tendency is perhaps fostered by the peculiar manner of interpreting the sacred books1 a method difficult to describe1 as it fluctuates between the wildest flights of metaphor1 and the lowest depths of puerile literalism1 the balance between the two being decided by a very determined preconception of what ought to be4 ,to give a specimen of this1 it was seriously urged in a ,beh pamphlet1 reviewed and summarised by the ,rev4 ,w4 ,a4 ,rice in the ,church ,missionary ,intelligencer1 that ,isaiah xxv4 #f-i1 where ,god is described as making 8unto all people a feast of fat things1 a feast of wine on the lees1 of fat things full of marrow1 of wines on the lees well refined10 refers to the entertaining of visitors by ,behu'llah during his banishment at ,acre4 ,the 8wines on the lees well refined0 are the tea1 which ,persians generally pour through a small strainer4 ,the passage also refers to the fact that ,god 8will swallow up death in victory10 and will 8wipe away all tears from off all faces2 and the rebuke of ,his people shall ,he take away from off all the earth40 ,to this part only a spiritual interpretation is given4 ,i tried before ,i left ,persia to find out the impression that the sect had made upon other ,europeans1 so as not to give a one-sided opinion about them4 ,personally1 ,i came to the conclusion that1 in matters even remotely connected with religion1 they were less truthful than the ordinary ,shiah1 but that in the ordinary affairs of life they were a trifle more reliable4 ,some other missionaries had a lower opinion of their truthfulness1 and most of those who had had business dealings with them considered that they were not more trustworthy than ordinary ,mussulmans4 ,my conclusion is that1 though they may succeed in establishing their creed in ,persia1 and may even make the ,persians more easy to deal with1 they will not greatly alter the moral character of the people4 ,they have not done so hitherto1 and an examination of their faith shows that they cling1 in the main1 to the ,mussulman theory of the paighambari1 or at any rate have not changed it for a doctrine which gives a man more cogent reasons for adhering to an approved line of conduct in times of difficulty4 ,the name given in ,mohammed's system to the state of the true believer is ,islm1 which means 8,resignation to ,god40 ,by this the ,mussulman seems to understand that he must not criticise the prophet1 whatever he may do or teach1 and that in the same way he must accept everything that happens as the will of ,god4 ,a waiving of personal responsibility1 and an acceptance of all occurrences as the ,divine intention1 is to the ,persian an undoubted virtue4 ,the steadfast pursuit of a purpose which has been thwarted will often appear to him actually vicious1 although such persistency might be justified in his eyes by its success1 which would prove it to have been in harmony with ,god's will4 ,the word which expresses the duty of the believer being ,islam1 or resignation1 the corresponding word used by the ,mussulman to describe his theory of the course of events is taqdr1 or predestination4 ,there is1 as ,i have said1 in ,shiah dogma an attempt to modify the extreme predestinarian doctrines of the ,sunni4 ,but these doctrines are so much an integral part of ,mohammedanism that it is impossible for the ,mussulman1 ,shiah or otherwise1 to be anything but a gross fatalist4 ,this then completes the list of names under which the essential and fundamental conceptions of ,islam are taught1 ,tauhid1 ,paighambari1 ,islam1 and ,taqdir4 ,there are also in ,mohammedanism certain other doctrines which seem to be part of the system1 but which are not quite so fundamental as those that have been stated4 ,some of these are not quite plain3 it is very difficult1 for instance1 to understand what was ,mohammed's teaching on the forgiveness of sins1 and there is great confusion of thought on this point amongst his followers4 ,certainly an infidel becoming a ,mussulman has his sins forgiven1 though he does not expect to receive any peculiar strength for the future1 but only a direction as to what ,god wants him to do and to avoid4 ,after this the motives of his actions will be khauf u jiz1 that is to say1 the fear of ,hell and the expectation of ,heaven4 ,he will have to be punished in ,hell for his sins according to their assessed value1 unless he has previously wiped them out1 either by savbs1 that is1 by works of merit1 or by repentance4 ,repentance of a real kind is supposed to have a certain value1 though it is hard to state exactly what that value is4 ,formal repentance1 which does not in the mind of the common ,persian necessarily involve the giving up of such fruits of sin as stolen articles1 has also a certain value4 ,but the most efficient way of atoning for sin is by savabs4 ,finally no ,mussulman1 at any rate among the ,shiahs1 would consider it justifiable to hold himself free from the fear of ,hell4 ,punishment in ,hell according to the ,mussulman idea is not necessarily everlasting1 for most of the ,persians believe that1 by the intercession of ,mohammed1 all his people will finally get to ,heaven4 ,but in ,heaven there are many grades1 and the position of the individual will be determined by the relative weight of his savabs and sins4 ,properly1 a savab is a work of supererogation considered as possessing merit2 but the word is often used less exactly for any action which will be put to the account of a man as a good deed4 ,i believe that ,persian ,mohammedans when using this word almost universally accept the view that the performance of a certain number of approved actions makes it less necessary to adhere to the path of duty4 ,also1 to put it crudely1 the good deed is not regarded as the gift of ,god to man1 but as the gift of man to ,god2 and ,i feel convinced that the word is bound up with the assumption that ,heaven-seeking or the fear of ,hell are the only possible motives for right behaviour4 ,the ordinary ,yezdi has no doubt that a non-,mussulman can do a savab1 especially if he benefits a ,mussulman2 and the belief that such a man if he was a ,jew or a ,christian1 could get to ,heaven1 would not be considered very heretical4#d ,some ,yezdis might allow that idolaters could get to ,heaven by savabs1 but this would be considered a more dangerous doctrine4 ,the fact is that there was in ,mohammed's essential teaching a very large amount of latitudinarianism1 and this comes out in the common ideas of ,mussulmans who are not repressed by a system such as that of the ,sunnis4 ,the merit of an action is decided by the intention of the doer and not by its result4 ,this is brought out by a native story1 framed for the purpose4 8,one day a traveller came to a well1 where he dismounted1 fastened his animal to a pin1 and satisfied his thirst4 ,as he returned to his animal it occurred to him that it would be a savab to leave the pin behind1 for other travellers who might wish to tether their beasts4 ,the next to arrive at the well was a man on foot1 who1 being very thirsty and in a hurry1 fell over the pin4 ,this man threw the pin down the well1 so as to prevent any one else from having a similar accident4 ,a learned man in the neighbourhood was asked which of the two did the savab1 the man who left the pin or the man who threw it away4 ,he answered1 #8,both1 for their intentions were equally good4'0 ,that there is truth in this teaching is obvious1 but the story ignores the necessity of taking thought and pains1 so that one's impulses may not do more harm than good4 ,this is always ignored in ,persia1 and ,i think ,i am right in putting it down to the teaching connected with the use of the word4 ,large sums of money are given for the poor1 and yet the alleviation of poverty is very small2 and the same sort of thing happens in other branches of philanthropy4 ,the gift once given1 the donor loses all interest in its bestowal2 funds are squandered on the most paltry objects1 and the general effect seems to be that money given in this way becomes money wasted4 ,charity is also much vitiated in ,persia by unpractical1 and in many cases superstitious ideas4 ,to give alms to a ,seyid is a greater savab than to help an ordinary beggar1 so a large proportion of the philanthropy of ,persia goes to support a begging class1 who are in every way a burden1 and in some ways a danger to society4 ,the ,seyids are also more lightly punished1 and consider themselves outside the reach of the very small amount of justice that exists4 ,again1 it is more meritorious to give on a ,thursday1 as the eve of the ,friday holiday1 or on the eve of a feast1 than on an ordinary day2 and lastly1 the people expect that they will amass more merit by giving microscopic sums to all comers than by giving more effective assistance to a limited number4 ,as ,i have said1 the doctrine connected with savabs acknowledges only two motives of action1 the fear of punishment and the expectation of reward1 and it is not allowed that any other motive can possibly exist4 ,persian women are very inquisitive1 and one day some of them were questioning the ladies of the ,yezd mission as to what they ate for breakfast4 ,when it transpired that the others ate eggs and one did not1 the remark was immediately made1 8,you see she is trying to get a higher place in ,heaven40 ,at another time when my wife was trying to explain to some women that we do not look to works of merit to secure salvation1 she was met by the answer1 8,but the ,hakm ,khnum 7lady doctor7 does2 or why should she have taken all that trouble about the ,seyid's wife when she was ill80 ,shiahs often consider that by letting others do a savab for them they confer a favour greater than they themselves receive4 ,one might imagine that this would only apply to benefactors who agreed with their religious notions2 but even if you can convince a ,shiah that you do not believe in the possibility of winning ,heaven by savabs1 he will reply1 very logically1 that your want of faith does not prevent the fact being true1 and that it is absurd to expect him to be grateful because of your unbelief in facts4 ,i remember trying to make a very badly-behaved youngster1 who was in the school under my charge1 see that we had some reason to expect more gratitude from him1 as we had really taken great trouble with him1 and ,christians did not think it necessary to do such things for the sake of their future welfare4 ,his answer was that if we did not consider that savabs were necessary ,mussulmans did4 ,savabs are not necessarily good actions1 but almost all actions which are directly kind are included in the term4 ,so although the doctrine connected with savabs is not in every way a good thing1 it still has a certain value4 ,of course it is true that men who are anxious to do big savabs in order to wipe off the sins of very evil lives generally choose non-ethical ones4 ,during the late ,babi massacre a soldier found a ,yezdi who was dragging about another man1 and trying to make out whether he was really a ,beh4 8,you see10 he said1 8,i have been a wicked man all my life1 and have never said my prayers or done any other savabs1 so1 unless ,i can do a big savab1 ,i shall certainly go to ,hell4 ,if this man is a ,babi1 ,i mustn't let him go1 for if ,i kill an infidel of course ,i shall go straight to ,heaven40 ,nevertheless the ordinary savab is a kind action1 and in the idea of their efficacy we get something almost corresponding to a moral principle4 ,sometimes indeed the ,persian's conception of a work of merit tends to correct and check the worse commandments of his code4 ,for instance1 although the killing of a ,babi as an infidel may be considered a savab1 the saving of a life1 even if it is the life of the same ,babi1 may also be held a meritorious act of a different kind4 ,that the ,persian's notions as to what constitutes an act of merit are a saving clause in his religion ,i have no doubt at all4 ,i am1 however1 not quite certain whether this saving clause properly belongs to ,mohammedanism1 for it bears on the face of it a family likeness to the doctrines of superior systems1 and it will not quite fit into the system of ,islam4 ,the rest of the ,shiah ideas about ,heaven1 ,hell1 the efficacy of savabs1 and repentance1 seem to be really ,mussulman1 though everything is not quite coherent4 ,perhaps the fact is that in these points ,mohammed was an opportunist1 and taught any doctrine which he thought would make people obedient to his law4 ,he was careful not to expect too much1 and1 while keeping his followers as long as possible in a state of uncertainty as to their salvation1 he tried never to shut the door on hope4 ,so it is questionable whether either the teaching of the ,quran1 or the ideas of the ,persians on these subjects1 could possibly be presented in a quite consistent form4 ,i have tried to enumerate in this chapter just those doctrines which form the original philosophy or theology upon which everything in ,islam rests1 and to show that not only does the ordinary ,shiah ,yezdi accept them in toto1 but that1 with the one small exception that has been stated1 all his fundamental beliefs are to be found in this category4 ,of course these ideas are a much more serious part of a religion than is a code of commandments that is not believed to be permanent4 ,indeed it is quite possible that greater laxity in the observance of such a code may be due to a juster appreciation of the notions with which it was promulgated4 ,to say that ,persia has not been greatly influenced by ,mohammedanism because the ,persians get drunk in their houses1 is shallow criticism4 ,it is still shallower to imagine that the fact that some of the ,shiah ordinances are in themselves laxer than the ,sunni makes it plain that ,persians are less ,mussulman than ,turks and ,indians4 ,for instance1 the ,shiahs have a custom of temporary marriages1 according to which it is lawful for a man1 besides the four regular wives allowed by ,islam1 to have as many inferior wives as he likes1 contracting these marriages for any length of time he pleases1 from a few days upwards4 ,there is1 however1 a legal fiction by which these women are supposed to be lowered to the rank of slaves1 which ought to entirely remove the ,sunni objection2 for1 unless it can be proved that the temporary ownership of a slave is impossible1 it is very difficult to understand why this evasion should not be considered quite legitimate according to the undoubted principles of ,mohammedanism4 ,that there is a certain amount of latitudinarianism in ,shiah ,islam is indisputable1 but so there is in the whole of ,mohammed's teaching and practice4 ,as a matter of fact his attitude towards ,jews and ,christians1 and even towards the idolaters1 was largely opportunist4 ,at one time he made leagues with the ,jews1 promising that they should not be disturbed in their religion2 at other times he picked quarrels with them1 and put every one who would not accept ,islam to the sword4 ,this latitudinarianism has found its way into the ,quran itself1 where a verse is to be found telling ,mohammedans that they may eat the food of 8the people of the book10 that is1 of the people holding religions whose origin he recognised as divine4 ,the strict ,shiahs in ,yezd interpret this as meaning dry food4 ,they make a great distinction between wet and dry2 only a few years ago it was dangerous for an ,armenian ,christian to leave his suburb and go into the bazaars in ,isfahan on a wet day4 8,a wet dog is worse than a dry dog40 ,nevertheless1 there are great differences of opinion on this point1 and most non-clerical ,shiahs would take tea at any ,european's house4 ,there was a ,shiah woman who used to freely take tea at the house of a ,christian lady1 the lady herself making it and pouring it out1 but she refused to use the tea-glasses used in the same house by ,babi women4 ,another ,shiah lent a donkey for a ,christian lady1 but told her that he could not use it again if she allowed her ,parsi nurse to ride upon it4 ,and yet it is more easy to get the ,mussulmans to eat food with the ,parsis than with the ,jews1 whose religion ranks higher than ,zoroastrianism in the popular regard1 though they themselves are specially despised by the ,mohammedans4 ,this curious mixture of breadth and bigotry is only explicable on the assumption that the ,shiah's main ideal is exactly that opportunist position which was taken up by ,mohammed during his lifetime4 ,perhaps we ought not to leave this subject without discussing rather more fully the assertion which has been made about the ,persian ,shiahs1 that they have changed the doctrine of the unity of ,god for a loose pantheism1 and have dethroned the ,quran for the utterance of ,sufi poets4 ,that the ,persians as a race have an extreme veneration for ,sufi poetry1 which contains expressions of questionable orthodoxy1 cannot well be called in question2 but before discussing the more serious part of the allegation1 it is necessary to thoroughly understand about whom it is stated2 for there are small ,shiah sects1 of whom it is quite true that they are only half ,mussulman1 but these are very different from the sect which is at present predominant in ,persia1 and which in ,yezd at any rate does not appear to lack veneration for the ,quran4 ,one point1 however1 must be granted1 and that is1 that all ,persian ,mussulmans1 orthodox or otherwise1 are often led to express acquiescence in a statement which appears to be in itself correct1 however opposed it may be to the general tenor of their other beliefs4 ,the fact is that they do not easily see a contradiction1 and this has made it possible for the ,shiah to accept poetry which he would otherwise have absolutely rejected4 ,i do not myself know a single ,christian doctrine to which ,i could not get most ,shiahs to agree1 if ,i was careful to state it in language with which they were familiar1 and not to dwell on its divergence from the ,mussulman idea4 ,but doctrines so allowed to pass1 whether ,christian or ,sufi1 would have no strength against the system of ,islam1 which most ,yezdis have grasped as an integral whole4 ,the general plan of ,mussulman doctrine1 constructed as it was for inhabitants of a desert1 is peculiarly comprehensible to people like the ,yezdis1 who are accustomed to isolated objects and ideas1 and are slow at grasping a too elaborately connected argument4 ,for the system of ,islam is not elaborately connected3 that there is a general consistency in it1 is true1 but the consistency is like that of a certain housewife's accounts1 in which a large number of items were entered under the heading of 8forgets40 ,the accounts were true and accurate1 but they were not highly instructive4 ,similarly in ,islam a large variety of commandments have been labelled1 8commandments for the age of ,moses10 or 8commandments for the age of ,mohammed10 and the doctrine of the paighambari is so formulated as to make further systematisation unnecessary4 ,this being a scheme of arrangement which a ,persian can understand1 it has laid hold of his mind to a peculiar degree4 ,phrases and expressions that are opposed to it1 he will often accept1 but their influence on his behaviour is exceedingly small4 ,the thing which dominates him1 and will1 unless explicitly resisted and combated1 always continue to dominate him1 is ,islam and ,islam alone4 ,before going on to discuss in another chapter some other important aspects of the ,yezdi's religion1 it will be well to consider how the whole ,mussulman theory has affected his character4 ,first of all1 it has made him even more disposed to unconnected and disjunctive views of life than he would otherwise have been4 ,this becomes plain when we compare him with his fellow-townsmen who have been in touch with other religions4 ,secondly1 we find that he possesses a very low view of the value of morality1 which in ,mohammedanism has no unique place1 but is only one of the ways of attaining salvation4 ,another way is through accuracy of religious observance1 and1 when a ,persian takes to this1 he generally abandons any attempt to live straight4 ,residents in the country are well aware of this1 and are justly inclined to distrust a man who is very particular about his prayers and ceremonial duties4 ,i must ask the reader to pardon me if ,i have said in this chapter anything which appears disrespectful to ,mohammedanism4 ,in trying to record facts and to correctly weigh impressions1 one cannot avoid frankly stating what has been forcibly brought before both mind and eyes1 even though the things stated may not be exactly what they are expected to be4 ,the fact is that ,islam has ruined ,persia2 and it is not fair to the real character of the people to underrate the effect that this religion has produced on them4 ,as to ,mohammed1 ,i believe that ,i have stated nothing about him which is not a matter of common knowledge4 ,doubtless the author who starts with the determination to write an interesting and sympathetic book1 will be able1 by selecting his incidents1 to convey a more favourable impression1 just as a criminal lawyer may be able to find much in favour of even a guilty client2 but the historical critic who starts on the examination of ,mohammed's history without any pre-judgment must necessarily find it difficult not to come to a very unfavourable conclusion4 ,the ,arabian prophet headed a monotheistic movement which had started without him1 and which would have probably succeeded to a very large extent whether he had touched it or not1 and to this movement he did a great deal of damage without making any serious ethical contribution4 ,it may be readily admitted that ,mohammed was an attractive person1 and that he possessed other great gifts1 one of which was unusual eloquence4 ,he seems to have been an enthusiast who in his worst moments absolutely believed in himself and in his mission1 and there is no doubt that he drew into his company1 both by persuasion and violence1 men who might have looked askance at a more spiritual leader4 ,but those who want to know what ,islam does for a people who accept it had better compare the ,yezdi ,mussulman with the ,yezdi ,parsi4 ,the ,parsis have a curious and interesting religion1 the main point of which seems to be the belief that ,god has created all things of the four elements1 and that ,he therefore expects from all ,his creatures a reverential and sympathetic treatment of one another4 ,the religion is ,gospelless1 it is coated over with gross superstitions1 and it has the very great defect of being so elementary in its teaching that there is a strong tendency amongst its professors to deny revelation altogether1 and to become simply rationalists4 ,for all this the ,zoroastrian ,parsi possesses1 as a rule1 a strong moral character1 which1 when he becomes a ,mohammedan1 is almost always lost in a few generations4 ,unfortunately1 the ,beh movement is just now attracting a large number of ,zoroastrians1 and is becoming a serious danger2 for the ,beh1 whatever he may say to the contrary1 is really a ,mussulman1 and his system1 in which opportunism takes the place of the doctrine of the growth of the moral law1 retains most of the more serious defects of ,islam4 ,however1 as the majority of the ,yezdi ,parsis are not likely to become ,behs1 it is a matter for congratulation that any ,european power that may have to solve the problem of establishing good government in ,southern ,persia will find ready to hand a considerable community of this intelligent and interesting people in at least one of the ,persian towns4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,results of ,islam--,untruthfulness--,superstitions- -,pilgrimages-- ,divining--,jins and dvs--,the evil eye--,trivial commandments--,entertainments--,islam includes rather than controls the life--,two purposes better than one--,ceremonial uncleanness4 ,it is now necessary for us to touch on some aspects of ,mohammedanism in ,yezd with which it was impossible to deal fully while sketching the essential system4 ,in the last chapter we were primarily dealing with the religious ideas that had been brought to bear upon the country as influences1 but in this chapter we shall speak rather more of their results4 ,first of all1 ,i should like to give two stories4 ,i give the two1 because one is the account of a conversation which ,i had with a man who was not an orthodox ,shiah2 and1 although ,i fancy ,i have heard similar remarks made by men whose orthodoxy was unimpeachable1 it is well to be on the safe side4 ,i had been challenged to give my reasons for preferring ,christianity to ,mohammedanism1 and in reply ,i gave an account of a conversation ,i had had with another ,mohammedan only a day or two before4 ,i had been trying to show him that lying was a sin1 and he had replied to me3 8,it's all very well for ,ferangis to say that2 but the fact is that they can't tell lies1 and we can40 ,i quoted this story simply as bringing out very forcibly a common ,persian idea1 for ,persians trust ,ferangis implicitly1 not because they respect them1 but because they believe they have a constitutional difficulty in telling lies4 ,having quoted it1 ,i went on to say that as we all acknowledged in theory that truth-telling was right1 it was reasonable to infer that a religion which had produced a mental constitution supposed to be incapable of falsehood1 was better than a religion which had produced the exact contrary4 ,the answer of the ,mohammedan was that truth-speaking and honesty had nothing to do with religion1 but were purely a matter of climate4 8,in that case10 ,i said1 8the people of ,persia ought to speak the truth very well1 for one of the ,greek historians who lived before the ,mohammedan era declared that the ,persians were famous for speaking the truth40 8,but who does not know10 said the ,mohammedan1 8that the climate of a country changes entirely every two thousand years80 ,at another time a ,mohammedan of undoubted orthodoxy was answering a similar position1 only he was trying to explain away not only the difference in honesty1 but also in other matters4 ,he said3 8,these facts cannot be denied1 but they prove the truth of ,islam1 and not its falsity4 ,if you find that thieves have broken the doors and windows of a house1 do you not conclude that there is something worth stealing inside80 ,i have reason to believe that this is a well-known retort1 for other ,europeans in other parts of ,persia have been met by it4 ,it is therefore well worth examination4 ,i myself find in it two assumptions which seem to me to be peculiar features of ,islam4 ,first there is the assumption that the possession of the treasure gives no safety to the doors and windows3 that is to say that the possession of true religion does not in any way assist the keeping of ,god's commandments4 ,the fact is that ,mohammed's commandment is not expected to be a source of spiritual strength1 but only a set of orders4 ,then there is the equally un-,christian assumption that the keeping of the moral commandments of ,god is in no sense the treasure1 but something entirely extraneous to it1 which is not essential to the state of the treasure-holder4 ,these two assumptions are to be found running through the whole of ,persian ,islam1 and producing the most extraordinary results4 ,very few ,mohammedans will hesitate to acknowledge the low state of ,mussulman morality as opposed to that of the ,armenians1 or even of the ,parsis1 whom they regard as little better than idolaters4 ,if a ,mussulman of the teacher class has anything to gain by confessing or making it plain to an infidel that he has been guilty of gross sin1 he will not consider that he has in the least forfeited his claim to a superior position by doing so4 ,of course being non-ethical the religion becomes superstitious4 ,the ,mohammedan considers that there is no known principle by which the commands of the ,deity can be connected and understood1 consequently he admits actions in his religious code which we should regard as ridiculous4 ,the whole theory of ,mussulman pilgrimages is absurd1 and the practice is even more so4 ,what can be more intrinsically foolish1 as well as heartless and cruel1 than the custom of sending off the old women1 when they are past work1 to some holy shrine1 under the impression that1 if they die on the very difficult journey1 as in a certain class of cases they generally do1 they will go straight to ,heaven8 ,it is rather a ghastly custom to send vast quantities of bodies for interment in the exceedingly inadequate space at ,qum1 over a country where there is no vehicular transport4 ,but the natural demand for a more easy set of roads to ,heaven has caused a multiplication of such practices as these far beyond anything that was originally taught in the mosques4 ,things have gone so far in this respect1 that the most popular edition of the ,quran in ,persia is a very minute round one in two parts1 absolutely illegible1 and only suitable for wearing in a sewn-up case4 ,as in most superstitious countries1 we find a number of superstitions connected with divining2 and these are largely sanctioned by the mullas1 who will divine with the ,quran in a mosque for a fee4 ,the commoner form of divining is with a rosary1 rather on the plan of 8,two1 four1 six1 eight1 ,mary at the cottage gate40 ,persians use this to an extent that is hardly believable4 ,they will consult the beads as to whether to send for the doctor1 and again1 after he has come1 to see whether they should buy the medicine he prescribes1 and finally1 after buying it1 they consult them once more before deciding whether the patient shall take a dose4 ,at the same time it is quite permissible to 8call threes40 ,a woman with raging toothache got permission from the beads to send for a ,european lady to extract the tooth1 but on taking the beads for the extraction after her arrival they were unfavourable1 so arrangements were at once made for divining with the ,quran at a mosque1 which would of course overrule any result with the beads4 ,a ,persian will consider himself quite justified in breaking a business engagement if the beads tell him he had better avoid the interview2 indeed very often he will not so much as fix a date for the payment of a bill before he has consulted his almanac1 and discovered which are the lucky and which are the unlucky days4 ,illustration3 ,,corpses ,,en ,,route ,,to ,,the ,,qum ,,cemetery4 ,illustration3 ,,sandy ,,desert ,,near ,,yezd4 ,the vast empty deserts which surround ,yezd1 and the huge mountain ridges which form the horizon are to the ,yezdi by no means empty4 ,it is an axiom of science that ,nature abhors a vacuum1 and it is a corresponding psychological law that the human imagination cannot tolerate absolute emptiness4 ,so the ,yezdi1 like the ,arabian1 peoples his deserts with jins and dvs and devils1 and wherever there is a space not filled in he imagines strange forms of animal life4 ,at the risk of being considered superstitious myself ,i must own that ,i should like to see some of the travellers' tales of ,persia more carefully investigated1 particularly those relating to the existence of very large lizards which are dangerous to human life4 ,one is familiar with the defences that are being constantly brought forward for the fable of the sea-serpent2 how that the sea is after all an almost unknown waste1 only crossed in a very few places by well established water-roads that can be most easily avoided2 and although the desert cannot be said to afford as much cover as the ocean1 for it is not possible to plunge below the surface at any point at any time1 still its vast expanses are almost as untraversed and unknown as the ocean wastes1 and there are not a few places1 especially in the mountains1 honeycombed with caves and clefts4 ,this however is a digression4 ,in such a country as ,i have described1 with its vast and barren solitudes1 it would be difficult for a people to exist and maintain their reason1 if they did not believe in something corresponding to the jins and divs4 ,consequently we find jins in the keyholes1 jins in the qan'ats1 divs in the mountains1 divs in the rocks1 anywhere1 everywhere1 a vast population filling up the huge interstices left by ,nature4 ,most of this population is malevolent2 so naturally the ordinary ,persian is a mass of charms3 nobody goes about without cold iron in his pocket1 and a large number of people wear either the sacred book in its entirety1 or large portions of it somewhere about their person4 ,also they are terribly afraid of the evil eye2 and numbers of their charms1 especially for the children1 are directed against it4 ,it is not that they think the evil eye common3 any ,persian will tell you that very few people have it1 but they all know of at least one case1 and they are terribly afraid of it1 sometimes refusing to admit strangers to their house until they are satisfied they have not got it4 ,if a mother sees a dead body before the birth of her child1 then1 unless she takes the precaution of placing some salt on the corpse1 and afterwards putting a little of it in the child's eye1 her child will inevitably have the evil eye1 and everything that is pleasing to its eye will be cursed4 ,the evil eye is likely to kill children of tender years1 so very young children are always hidden under the chdar when carried in the street4 ,these superstitions are exceedingly general1 and sometimes co-exist with a certain amount of intelligence and education4 ,i remember a man who had obviously been in touch with some of the ,persian mystics1 and was quite capable of discussing and more or less understanding complicated ideas1 telling me that he considered that the silkworm owners in the ,yezd district were exceedingly wise in refusing to admit strangers to see the worms4 ,he explained to me that they were creatures of such extreme harmlessness and guilelessness that they were peculiarly susceptible to malevolent influences from the outside world4 ,superstitions of this kind will be found in all countries1 and in most lands there are in addition superstitions that seem to be more intimately connected with the religion4 ,the nature of the country fosters the tendency in ,persia1 and the ,parsis are nearly as superstitious as the ,mussulmans4 ,but in ,mohammedanism the peculiar difficulty is that there is nothing to guide a man in separating the superstitious practices from any connected with a central true idea4 ,the whole religion is a medley of trivialities4 ,the history of ,mohammed and his early admiration for the ,jews1 with whom he must have been constantly in touch1 explains this4 ,he saw the result of their ceremonial law and their national religious customs1 binding them together and making them a peculiar people in every action of their household life2 but of the parabolic significance of this law1 of the doctrinal system which governed it1 he saw and was taught very little or nothing4 ,nor did he want it3 he wanted simply the political result1 and in getting this he was eminently successful4 ,he copied the system1 but he gave to ,islam a maximum of ordinances containing a minimum of teaching4 ,after his death the minuti went on accumulating1 until everything in the life of a ,mussulman took a religious colour4 ,in ,persia the very dress is supposed to be more or less modelled on that worn by the prophet4 ,the people not only kill their animals and eat their food according to the precepts of the ,quran1 but relying on their very extensive traditions they follow a prescribed religious practice in attitude and language4 ,shiahs are particularly scrupulous about certain of their washings1 and think almost as much about them as they do about the regularity of their prayers4 8,if ,i become a ,christian1 when and how am ,i to wash myself80 ,this is one of the commonest questions for an enquirer to put to a missionary4 ,another very common one is1 8,how am ,i to dress80 ,the ,mussulman hardly understands you if you tell him that such points are left to the individual judgment4 ,i remember a ,persian trying to prove to me that ,i could not possibly consider all meats lawful and ceremonially clean1 or ,i should eat cat4 ,it is very difficult to explain to the ,yezdi that the drinking of wine at meals is not a necessary ,christian institution1 and for this reason the consideration of the necessity of maintaining ,christian liberty is in ,persia rather an argument for total abstinence than against it4 ,in ,yezd we are continually being asked whether the commonest peculiarities of ,european custom1 such as eating with a knife and fork1 were ordained by ,christ4 ,in one house they had to make away with some kittens1 and the servant was directed to dig a hole in the compound for their reception4 ,while he was doing so he asked his mistress1 8,did your prophet direct you to bury kittens80 ,but the extreme point of triviality was reached by a man who had seemed a most intelligent enquirer1 and had asked me to explain the essential points of ,christianity1 to which he listened most attentively1 appearing to weigh them in his mind4 ,when ,i had finished1 he paused to consider the whole position3 8,sahib10 he said very slowly1 8man mas'ala dram40--8,sir1 ,i have a religious question to bring before you40 ,i said1 8,bifarmyd40--8,please proceed40 8y ,mash10 he said very deliberately1 8vz i str hall dnist80--8,did ,christ consider humming lawful80 ,i reassured him on the point1 and tried to explain the spiritual nature of ,christ's teaching4 ,i then left the room to get a book1 and1 when ,i came back1 he was humming to himself contentedly4 ,religion also provides the ,yezdi with his entertainments and excitements2 the place of the theatre is taken by the ,muharram miracle play1 and that of the ordinary concert by the rza khn or religious recitation1 while even street rioting is generally connected with the persecution of people who do not agree with the religious opinions of the rioters4 ,all this serves to strengthen the attachment of the common people to the religious system1 which stands to them in the place of country1 standard of etiquette1 habits of life and code of cleanliness4 ,as a matter of fact religion is not quite the right term for the ,mohammedan system1 for religion means restraint1 and the object of almost all of the other systems called religions has been to present a predominant idea which is to govern and restrain all other ideas and aspects of life4 ,in ,mohammedanism there is the predominant idea of the tauhid and paighambari1 but this conception more resembles the central doctrine of a philosophy than the governing principle of a religion4 ,to put it in other words1 ,mohammed sought by his theological teaching rather to include everything than to control everything4 ,consequently the ,mussulman1 who reflects the spirit of his master much more than is generally allowed1 is never satisfied with himself unless he is using religious language4 ,what he does matters comparatively little1 but the way in which he regards his action matters a great deal4 ,if he forgets to mention ,god's name1 he corrects himself2 but to his mind there is little or no blasphemy in connecting ,god's name with any action of life1 important or trivial1 good or bad4 ,the result of this is that those who are accustomed to religions possessing more influence over moral action are amazed at the religiosity of the ,mohammedan3 but although this religiosity is a fact1 the whole wonder of it ceases when the religion is carefully examined4 ,others are equally astounded at what they consider the hypocrisy of the ,mussulman2 but this also is a misnomer3 a ,mussulman is not hypocritical3 rather he has taken up a position towards affairs which renders hypocrisy unnecessary4 ,in ,persia1 at any rate1 there is a further mistake which ought to be guarded against4 ,islam is not mere worldliness sanctified by the use of religious terms3 it includes a great deal of unworldly thought1 although it combines all considerations1 worldly or unworldly1 with little if any distinction4 ,still it must be owned that the worldly considerations are apt to predominate1 for the ,persian ,shiah seems to be a reflection of ,mohammed1 who suggested that pilgrimages should be used for purposes of trade1 invited people to become ,mussulmans for political reasons1 and not only winked at the making of converts by threats and terrorism1 but laid this down as one of the essential means for spreading the religion4 ,it is not sufficient to call such a system politico-religious1 for it not only includes matters of public expediency in the religious idea1 but it also sanctifies considerations of expediency that are purely personal4 ,yet there is one thing that the missionary in such a land as ,persia cannot too fully realise2 and that is that he is dealing with people who are not in the least ashamed of doubleness of motive4 ,in their view1 two purposes are better than one2 and when it has been proved that their purposes are worldly1 it has still to be considered whether there is not an unworldly purpose as well4 ,men frequently come to enquire about ,christianity1 drawn by what seems to us a strange mixture of motives4 ,they naturally enough put their more spiritual purposes first1 for they realise that these are most appreciated by those to whom they talk1 and they also consider that things like this ought to have a theoretical priority4 ,temporal needs are1 however1 much more pressing1 and these have just as much claim to be satisfied by a new religion4 ,of course such a position is likely to be fruitful1 not only of the gravest difficulties1 but also of the most lamentable misunderstandings4 ,it will be readily understood that a system like this can easily be made to cover ideas which appear inconsistent1 and as a matter of fact1 it is very difficult to define some of the notions which ,persian ,shiahs hold to a point of fanaticism4 ,for instance1 there is room for considerable difference of opinion as to how far the ,yezdi regards the foreigner as unclean4 ,the ,mohammedan is taught to regard as unclean the eating of certain kinds of food1 contact with certain animals1 and also contact with the persons of people who have not been ceremonially cleansed4 ,there seem1 however1 to be degrees of uncleanness4 ,mohammed in one verse of the ,quran declared the food of the ,christians and ,jews1 as well as all food that had been properly prepared by a ,mussulman1 to be lawful2 but we cannot suppose that he regarded these different classes of food as equally clean4 ,bigoted ,persians sometimes ignore this permission of their prophet's1 and declare that it refers only to dry food prepared by ,jews or ,christians2 but in this they are not consistent1 for they eat dry food prepared by pagans also4 ,the truth is that the attitude of the ,persian towards the infidel is not altogether decided by ,mohammed's direct teaching1 but to a very large extent it is based upon an elementary human feeling which can be found in almost every country under the sun4 ,most people in ,england have a physical shrinking from undue contact with other persons4 ,we do not care to drink out of a cup that other people have used1 until it has been washed2 we should1 very few of us1 care to take alternate bites at an apple with somebody else1 and most ,englishmen have a very similar objection to kissing4 ,we are much less particular about contact with the hand1 though here also we feel that a line has got to be drawn somewhere4 ,within the family we are less particular4 ,of course in connection with these things there is in ,england a great deal of talk about infection and the laws of hygiene1 but the instinct exists apart from any notion of hygiene at all4 ,now in ,persia you have got to remember that everything takes a religious colour1 and this has tended to slightly modify the natural instinct1 breaking down the wall of reserve within the boundaries of ,islam1 and giving the feeling the colour of a religious prejudice when applied to the outside world4 ,of course there are hundreds of ,yezdi ,mussulmans who will eat freely with a ,european without the slightest scruple1 and a still larger number who do not allow their scruples to make any practical difference3 at the same time people who wish to get into close touch with the natives should remember that the feeling of nijsat1 or ceremonial uncleanness1 is a somewhat complex one1 and that it will be more easy to overcome it if a certain discretion is observed4 ,persians eating the food of a ,european are on the look out for anything which is strange and peculiar1 and if such peculiarities are observed they naturally feel more strongly the difference between themselves and their host4 ,this not only renders them less approachable1 but it also makes them much more shy of adopting ,christian ideas1 and in the case of enquirers1 who1 as ,i have said before1 find it very difficult to understand that our customs are not all regulated by religion1 a feeling may grow up that the state of ,christianity is not possible to a native ,persian4 ,as this book is not about ,mohammedanism but about the ,yezdi1 ,i have perhaps devoted as much space to the religion of ,islam in ,yezd as is warranted by my choice of subject matter4 ,at the same time there is no doubt that ,i have left out a great deal that might have been said1 even without going into those details of doctrine and practice which it has been my intention to avoid4 ,i have tried to give some idea of what ,islam means to ordinary people in an ordinary ,persian town1 and ,i have had to dwell rather more at length on points where there was danger of misconception either through too precise a study of the accurate doctrines of ,islam1 or through a too superficial view of the result4 ,in doing this ,i fear that ,i may have passed over too rapidly the more familiar aspects of the religion1 the intense excitement of the spectators and actors at the ,muharram games1 the mourning for ,hasan and ,husain1 the frenzied fanaticism of the mob after a rousing sermon at the mosques1 and the close adherence of many ,mussulmans to washing and prayers4 ,this is one side of ,shiah ,islam1 but as it is better known ,i have attempted to give the other4 ,i cannot1 however1 leave the subject without reminding those who have to do with ,persians of two most important things2 first1 that there is a real spiritual seeking amongst ,mussulmans1 and that the presence of worldly motives does not preclude it2 secondly1 that there is real enthusiasm for their religion in spite of latitudinarian ideas4 ,to the ,mussulman1 as has been before stated1 the system of ,islam is everything1 and he clings to it as dearly as to life itself1 for it represents to him every habit that he has formed1 and its cause is the cause of every motive that he acknowledges to be possible4 ,the religious ceremonies which in ,persia arouse the greatest enthusiasm and fervour are essentially ,shiah4 ,the yearly miracle play in the month of ,muharram depicts the death of the ,imam ,husain1 son of ,ali and ,ftima1 and grandson of ,mohammed4 ,this is the occasion of the most violent exhibitions of emotion on the part of both players and spectators4 ,men lash their naked bodies with chains in an ecstasy of frenzy1 and the whole crowd bursts into groans and tears of grief4 ,feeling runs so high1 and becomes so unmanageable on these occasions1 that the secular authorities have tried to keep the performances out of the larger towns4 ,but the atmosphere which is created is not by any means anti-foreign in a general sense4 ,the ,imam ,husain was done to death by his co-religionists1 and tradition reports that a ,ferangi ambassador interceded with ,yazd for the martyr's life4 ,this ambassador appears in the play1 and ,persians often try to borrow an ,english saddle for his horse from the ,european residents4 ,at the performance at the big village of ,taft1 which is near ,yezd1 ,i think the ambassador was often dressed as a modern ,englishman1 but ,i cannot vouch for this4 ,at ,yezd itself1 the miracle play was not acted2 but the carrying of the ,nakhl1 a ceremony supposed to be fraught with the same kind of danger1 took place yearly4 ,the ,nakhl is a huge wooden erection hung on one side with daggers1 and on the other side with looking-glasses4 ,there are several ,nakhls in ,yezd1 and two are very large4 ,this custom also is connected with the death of the ,shiah martyrs4 ,the ,nakhl is supposed to be moved from its place in the square by the miraculous agency of ,fatima2 but a good many people take it on themselves to assist her4 ,lastly1 there is a night set apart for the burning of ,omar1 the usurping ,khalif1 and the carrying of the effigy through the town is the occasion of extreme excitement4 ,one cannot help being strongly reminded of ,guy ,fawkes' day in ,england4 ,omar1 it must be remembered1 is a ,sunni saint4 ,illustration3 ,,carrying ,,the ,,nakhl ,,in ,,the ,,big ,,square ,,in ,,yezd4 ,,chapter ,v ,character of the ,yezdi--,systematised inconsistency--,loyalty to causes and individuals--,unreliability of evidence--,shame--,humour--,disregard of time--,language--,lack of initiative--,courage--,the ,yezdi soldier--,etiquette and manners--,triviality--,pride--,kindlines s and cruelty--,dishonesty--,difficulty in obtaining anything--,tendency to fatalism--,latent strength of ,persian character--,family ties--,the ,jus ,paternum--,religious liberty--,open-handedness--,summary4 ,if it were not absolutely essential to the purpose of a book like this that there should be a more or less detailed analysis of the character of the ,yezdi1 ,i should certainly shirk making such an analysis4 ,the ,yezdi's faults are numerous1 glaring1 and interesting4 ,his virtues are not only fewer1 but there is much less to be said about them4 ,in the concrete man1 these virtues show fairly prominently1 the vices have their peculiar humour1 and the whole is not unlovable4 ,on paper1 while discussing the different points of the ,yezdi's character one by one1 it will be almost impossible to convey the general effect made by the entire human being4 ,when one first becomes acquainted with the ,yezdi1 one is inclined to regard him as so inconsistent in matters of morals as to be utterly devoid of all principle1 bad or good4 ,there is the same uncertainty about his actions that there is about the fall of an unloaded die4 ,but just as the fall of the die is regulated by the law of averages1 so the actions of the ,yezdi are more or less consciously decided by what can only be termed systematised inconsistency1 a kind of law of balance which seems to him to possess the merit of a principle4 ,when he has done a certain number of good actions1 which it must be confessed is frequently the case1 then it is time for him to do some bad ones2 and vice vers1 when he has done enough bad ones1 he comes back for a time to good ones4 ,this is partially the result of the theory of savabs2 and the painful thing about it is that it makes moral trustworthiness impossible4 ,if a man holds this pernicious theory as it was sketched in a previous chapter1 then the more he has done right in the past the more he will feel justified in doing wrong in the future2 and this in ,yezd is no mere nightmare1 but the literal fact4 ,a good many of the ,yezdis are frequently fair and straight in their dealings1 but ,i do not know a single ,mussulman among them1 with regard to whom it would be fairly safe to depend on his doing the right thing on any particular occasion simply because he knew it to be right4 ,there are men whose ordinary habits are fairly good1 but to a man who considers that derelictions of duty can be absolutely paid for by past or future acts of merit not necessarily involving very much trouble1 the temptation to yield to slightly increased pressure is very strong1 and is likely to frequently overcome the bias of habit4 ,on the other hand1 ,persians have very strong notions of loyalty both to causes and to individuals4 ,nothing has brought this out more than the history of the ,babi movement1 which has certainly exhibited the strength of ,persian character4 ,boys and young men have in this movement willingly undergone the most terrible tortures in the service of their spiritual teachers and the common cause4 ,it ought to be understood that the motives of the ,babi martyr are not quite the same as those which have generally influenced the ,christians who have died for their faith4 ,the ,christian martyrs have generally died rather than do some act which they felt to be sinful1 or leave undone something which they regarded as essential4 ,a large number of the ,babi martyrs on the other hand have died because they chose not to deny their faith1 which according to their tenets was perfectly permissible to do4 ,now ,i know of at least one man1 a ,persian of high position1 who was killed as a ,babi1 but who would have preferred embracing ,christianity4 ,what was his connection with ,babiism ,i cannot say3 he would1 ,i believe1 have embraced ,christianity had it not been that he shrank from a religion where a direct denial of one's faith must always be accounted sinful4 ,whatever he was1 he certainly did not shrink from making his divergence from orthodox ,islam dangerously plain1 and in this way he met his death4 ,my purpose in mentioning the fact is to show that it is most difficult to induce a ,mussulman to accept a very hard and fast line4 ,of course the story is only an illustration and does not prove the point1 because there must have been other considerations which made ,babiism1 or a degree of unorthodoxy which passed for ,babiism1 easier to such a man than ,christianity4 ,it is not necessary to suppose that he was only influenced by a dislike to unbending rules2 for the inability to ever deny his faith might have exposed him to petty insults1 which would have been to him worse than death4 ,also his position as a ,christian would have been1 humanly speaking1 a more solitary one4 ,still1 when all has been said1 ,i am convinced that the constitutional dislike to a hard and fast rule played at least some part in bringing the man to his decision1 and also that this dislike is more pronounced in the ,mussulman ,yezdi than in the ,yezdi ,parsi4 ,a ,persian who attaches himself to an individual will often prove himself very trustworthy in all matters affecting that individual's interest2 and generally speaking1 attachment to a ,european would be likely to produce a more dependable loyalty than attachment to another ,persian4 ,the feeling that a ,european friend would always himself act in a certain manner frequently leads a ,persian to try and act in the same way towards him4 ,i remember a ,persian servant once replying to my wife1 who had expostulated with him on the subject of some egregious falsehood that he had just told in the bazaars1 8,of course1 ,khanum1 ,i don't tell lies to you1 for you don't like it2 but these people expect me to lie1 and one couldn't tell the truth to them40 ,perhaps one might go further1 and say that the ,yezdi ,mussulman frequently questions the virtue of keeping to an abstract principle1 particularly when by abandoning it one might do a good turn to a friend4 ,impartiality is a thing which he absolutely fails to understand3 indeed he considers it simply another name for disloyalty1 and here it is probable that most other ,easterns would agree with him4 ,it is impossible to treat the inconsistency of ,yezdi ,mussulmans as simple weakness4 ,it is rather the absence of such principles as ,westerns generally possess than the inability to keep to them2 and indeed it is often the result of other principles of a peculiar kind1 diametrically opposed to those to which we are accustomed4 ,the ,yezdis are a free-handed folk1 and they despise a man who does not spend freely4 ,they like to appear to live up to their incomes1 and ,i think that some of them have a feeling of the same kind about their debit and credit account with their ,creator4 ,also we must not forget that ,persian inconsistency is not always a deviation towards wrong1 but equally often a deviation towards right4 ,though in ,persia it is never well to trust to a man's character1 it is always advisable to appeal to high principles1 even when dealing with apparently the most abandoned4 ,while we were in ,yezd we were brought into contact with three men in high position1 whose names it is not necessary to mention1 but whom ,i would put down as the three worst prominent men in ,yezd4 ,the first was an aristocratic official1 the second a cleric1 and the third an official and a nouveau riche4 ,now each of these three at some time or other made himself conspicuous by conduct that one was bound to commend and approve4 ,it is impossible to always analyse motives1 but in at least one case the action seemed to have been due to nothing but a disinterested and unselfish impulse4 ,in the other cases it is more probable that expediency1 or a conscious intention of paying for sins by savabs1 entered into the matter4 ,to trace this peculiarity of the ,yezdi's character to its source is not easy4 ,sometimes it appears to be a species of hedging1 for it is very difficult to find out the truth in ,persia1 and a general disbelief in everything may have led the ,persian to feel that it is unsafe to stake his all on one theory of the universe4 ,the amount of lying that is done in a town like ,yezd baffles description4 ,an ,englishman when in doubt tells the truth4 ,a ,persian when in doubt tells a lie4 ,this would be more tolerable were it not that a ,persian is always in doubt4 ,in ,yezd security is a thing unknown1 and telling lies becomes part of the instinct of self-preservation4 ,then again the lies are of a new kind4 ,lies in ,england are generally told to deceive people in some particular2 in ,yezd they are just as frequently told in order to make the very search for truth impossible4 ,when ,i have had to examine into cases of petty theft amongst schoolboys1 ,i have found that to get at the truth is an almost superhuman task4 ,english boys1 if they do not tell the truth1 will at least tell as few falsehoods as possible1 if for no other reason1 to avoid being found out4 ,persian boys will not only lie on the subject they wish to conceal1 but they will tell as many untruths as they can cram into the story1 so as to render any attempt at investigation futile4 ,of course you know that they are lying1 but1 as they never imagine that you will suspect them of telling the truth1 they are not much deterred4 ,the result of this practice is that in the ,yezd bazaars1 taking together all statements1 even the most trivial1 that are made by ,mussulmans1 probably not less than one-third of the speeches made are falsehoods4 ,i do not think that the ,persian beggar ever expects to be believed4 ,a woman once came to the house1 asking for a quilt because she had none1 and her son was ill4 ,to have no quilt1 that is1 to have no bed-clothes1 is by no means an unbelievable state of poverty1 and there is no doubt that the woman expected to have her words taken literally4 ,it transpired that her son was quite well1 but was taking sanctuary to avoid being molested for a debt4 ,the woman had a perfectly possible quilt1 but it was old and patched4 ,she actually brought it to us the next morning1 not to prove that after all they were very poor1 but to show that in saying she had none she had spoken the truth4 ,another woman once told me in the street1 that she had six orphan children and her husband was sick4 ,in a country like this it is not surprising that evidence is at a discount1 and that there are intelligent people absolutely convinced that truth is unknowable4 ,a man who is accustomed to act upon this theory in the ordinary affairs of life1 is naturally inclined to apply the same principle to whatever religion or philosophy he possesses4 ,so we get men who are unwilling to stake everything on anything in particular4 ,if they have previously assumed that it is most advantageous to do what is right1 then it is well to perform just a few actions on the assumption that it is more advantageous to do wrong4 ,if they have hitherto acted on the principle that it is better to do what is wrong1 then it is well not to put all their eggs into that basket either4 ,and indeed ,i am inclined to think that many of the ,yezdis would apply the same philosophy to their non-ethical ideas4 ,if they have based most of their opinions on the assumption that something is true1 it is well to base others on the assumption that the same thing is false4 ,this1 of course1 sounds to us mere nonsense1 but once grant with many of the ,yezdis that evidence is valueless1 and truth absolutely unknowable1 and it at once becomes an approximation to sense4 ,it is quite possible that some of my readers may ask whether this last attempt to explain the inconsistency of the ,yezdis is to be taken seriously4 ,to say that ,i do not know is rather a weak confession1 but at the same time it is true4 ,i certainly do not pin my faith to it1 yet it seems to be the way in which the bewildering topsy-turvydom of ,persia is working4 ,never forget that the jokes of ,w4 ,s4 ,gilbert are the facts of ,persia4 ,for instance1 in an isolated place like ,yezd1 the laws of supply and demand operate so peculiarly that the ordinary custom of discount on quantity is inverted2 you will be able to get things usually sold at three for a penny at perhaps thirty for a shilling4 ,there was a governor in ,yezd1 certainly not more than twenty years ago1 who had men bastinadoed for walking in the bazaars without treading down the heels of their slippers4 ,in such a country it is very difficult to say what is in itself ridiculous and impossible4 ,one can only judge from evidence1 which is1 ,i think1 in favour of the theory ,i have just suggested as a possible explanation of undoubted facts4 ,at the same time the unreliability of the ,yezdi is probably due to several causes1 and there is one of these causes about which one may speak with less uncertainty4 ,this is the piecemeal appreciation of ideas and circumstances1 which ,i have already mentioned as the result of the impression made on the ,yezdi's mind by the isolated objects which continually surround him1 and which is probably heightened by a religion which was constructed under circumstances very similar to those of the ,persian deserts4 ,shame is the feeling of vexation consequent upon the consciousness of having fallen below an accepted standard of conduct1 and where such a standard is not to be found1 shame does not exist4 ,consequently the ,yezdi1 who has only the faintest idea of a moral standard that ought to govern his whole life1 is not susceptible to shame in this particular4 ,he has1 however1 a rather stronger idea of a general standard of intelligence up to which he ought to live1 so it is often a greater deterrent to him to point out that a certain action will be regarded as ignorant or silly than to show that it is less moral than his ordinary behaviour4 ,he also possesses a very keen appreciation of what he considers to be the ethical proprieties of a particular occasion4 ,we must remember that what he lacks in breadth of view he makes up for in power of concentration on the comparatively small field of ideas that can come simultaneously within the range of his mental vision4 ,for example1 when ,european missionaries have been in vain attempting to simplify a most abstruse and metaphysical doctrine by spreading it over several easy steps1 they sometimes find that the ,persian mind1 though it utterly fails to grasp the simpler train of reasoning1 can without any assistance take in the more difficult idea1 so long as it is expressed with sufficient brevity4 ,in the same way the ,yezdi1 who seems to have little or no sense of the proprieties of a lifetime1 will have an appreciation of what is right and fitting on a particular occasion stronger than that of the ,european4 ,this is what makes him so dignified at times and seasons1 and so undignified in his life4 ,although his sense of propriety does not always work1 where it does work it is so far from being weak that to violate it seems to give him a sensation that is near akin to physical pain4 ,you cannot make a ,yezdi apologise3 if he has done an injury1 he is quite content to ignore it1 or to assert that it has not taken place1 which is the ordinary substitute for an apology in ,persia3 but the man's sense of shame is too great to allow him to confess to such an action before the man he has wronged4 ,he has no objection to the man knowing what has happened2 but at the interview his denial must be accepted or the injury ignored4 ,this is the only way in which he can submit to the meeting4 ,the ,yezdi has not a very fine sense of humour1 but he is easily amused4 ,perhaps it is worth while to instance an occasion which occurred during our stay in ,yezd when the natives seemed really tickled4 ,a certain ,russian doctor resident in the town1 who had not a very complete and accurate knowledge of ,persian1 wanted to use bad language to his servant1 who had in some way offended him4 ,as he knew no suitable expressions he seized the dictionary and kept looking them out one after another1 and hurled them at the unfortunate man's head as fast as this process would permit4 ,this story was retailed with very great appreciation by some of the better class natives4 ,i rather think it seemed to them very much more funny than it does to us1 and this for two reasons4 ,persians have a great respect for literature1 including dictionaries1 and they would hardly understand their being frivolously handled2 also they are very particular in adapting their language to the occasion1 and it would strike them as the height of absurdity to abuse a servant in book language1 as the doctor must have done1 unless indeed the ,russian publication he consulted contained real specimens of colloquial abuse1 which would have struck the ,persians as even more funny4 ,the story of ,mulla ,nsiru'd ,dn and his mule is a very fair instance of ,persian humour at its best4 ,the ,mulla1 who was a notorious wit1 had sent a mule to the market-place where such beasts were sold4 ,people were suspicious owing to the ,mulla's reputation1 but nobody supposed that he would let himself down by sending an unsaleable animal to the bazaars4 ,so first of all someone examined its forelegs1 and got badly pawed2 then someone went to its hind-legs and got kicked2 next they looked at its mouth and got bitten2 finally they tried to put saddle-bags on to its back1 and it threw them off immediately4 ,consequently when the ,mulla strolled down everyone laughed at him1 and asked him if he really expected anybody to buy it4 8,no1 my friends10 said the ,mulla1 8,i never expected any of you to buy it2 but ,i wanted you to know what ,i have to put up with at home40 ,one of the things that is most difficult for a ,european to tolerate in a ,yezdi is his extraordinary disregard of time4 ,it is not only that he does not care how long he takes over a thing1 one might tell story after story on this point1 but this is a malady common in the ,east4 ,what ,i was not prepared for was that he should have no idea what time means4 ,in ,persia a clergyman's work consists more of seeing people in his own house1 and less of visiting2 but the great difficulty in receiving visitors is that1 if one wants to see parties separately1 a single reception is all one can satisfactorily arrange in an afternoon4 ,this is what happens4 ,two parties send to ask when they can see you1 and you reply by asking when it will be convenient for them to come4 ,both messengers state with the most absolute politeness that it makes no difference to their masters when you say1 and that they wish you to choose the time4 ,if you are wise you will tell one party to come two hours after noon1 and the other to come at one hour to sunset1 which1 supposing the sun to be setting at six1 will be five o'clock4 ,they will both acquiesce1 but you will have to be ready to receive the party due at two at one o'clock1 and you must not consider them late if they arrive at three4 ,similarly you will prepare for the second party at four1 and not consider them late before six4 ,but the probabilities are that both parties will arrive at four1 the favourite visiting hour1 having both decided on that time before sending to ask you4#e ,another great difficulty is the ,persian language4 ,persian is a pretty language with an extremely large vocabulary4 ,what is more1 every class of ,yezdi1 that is1 of the men1 uses a very large number of words4 ,for all this it is almost impossible to accurately define an idea1 for the language largely consists of synonyms1 which cannot be used indiscriminately1 but must be carefully selected according to the occasion4 ,some of these synonyms really possess accurate meanings1 but if you choose your word according to the sense you wish to convey1 you talk bad ,persian4 ,to give an illustration of this1 suppose in dealing with the ,incarnation you desired to bring out the ,christian doctrine that ,god is not only the ,friend of man but also his close ,companion4 ,i am quite certain that in ordinary ,yezdi ,persian there is no sufficiently appropriate term for 8companion10 that could be applied to ,god in such a way as to bring out your meaning1 without exposing you to a charge of irreverence4 ,as a matter of fact ,i once tried to convey this idea in a ,persian sermon1 and was met with this difficulty4 ,i afterwards tried to get three or four native ,christians1 one of whom was a teacher of ,persian1 to suggest a possible word1 but the only expression they could propose was the word ,i had used4 ,the words one uses in a letter in ,persian1 even for the commonest objects1 are almost entirely distinct from the words one uses conversationally1 and the words which one would use in an ordinary prose history book are again different4 ,then it is almost impossible to distinguish the tenses2 the true future is hardly ever used1 consequently the present and the future are indistinguishable2 and the preterite is frequently used of action which was begun in the past but which is still continuing4 ,lastly1 the adjective is generally indistinguishable from the substantive1 and the link between an adjective and the term which it qualifies is the same as the sign of the genitive4 ,for instance the text1 8,this is ,my beloved ,son10 may be read in the ,persian ,bible1 8,this is the son of ,my beloved0 without the slightest violence to the grammar2 nor1 indeed1 is there any obvious way out of the difficulty4 ,i have mentioned these peculiarities of language because ,i think they are greatly connected with the ,yezdi's inaccuracy of ideas1 though which is the cause and which is the effect is sometimes difficult to say4 ,there is no situation in which the ,yezdi is so incalculable as that which seems to demand a certain amount of daring4 ,sometimes the people seem absolutely wanting in the power of taking the initiative1 and expect to be directed like children4 ,they have an aversion to killing animals except for food1 even when there is danger to human life in allowing them to live4 ,one day an ,english lady asked why a dangerous dog which had bitten several people was not killed4 ,the answer was1 8,if you tell us to kill it we will do so1 but not otherwise40 ,the fact is no one minded killing the dog1 but they fancied the curse might lie with the initiator of the movement4 ,they will go on letting things be1 or allowing them to get more and more dangerous1 until they have accustomed themselves to an amount of risk to incur which would be accounted by a ,european mere foolhardiness4 ,in this they are largely influenced by predestinarian notions4 ,an ,english lady was one day standing by an open tank in a ,persian compound1 into which one of the children had fallen that morning1 and she remarked on its extreme danger4 8,yes10 said the mother1 8,i have lost three children in that tank40 ,to build a small wall round such a tank would be in ,persia exceedingly easy4 ,perhaps the little power of initiative that is left them by their predestinarianism is destroyed by the insecurity of the country4 ,people get in the way of making as few improvements as possible1 and of never exposing their capital more than they can help4 ,in fraudulent business1 however1 there is a great deal of audacity1 sometimes combined with a good deal of ingenuity4 ,they are exporting at present to ,china a quality of so-called opium in which there is absolutely no morphia4 ,the stuff is really an entirely different substance1 and very cheap1 and it is tied up in bags steeped in a solution of opium4 ,it is1 ,i believe1 more harmful to smoke than the real article4 ,passive courage the ,yezdi possesses to a very high degree1 but he must have a cause for which he cares sufficiently1 if this courage is to be called out4 ,if the terrible ,babi massacres that have taken place from time to time in ,persia have proved nothing else1 they have at least shown that there is grit somewhere in ,persian character4 ,the way in which mere lads in ,yezd went to their death in that ghastly summer of #aijc was wonderful4 ,there was one boy whom they tried very hard to spare1 for sometimes the mob were moved by something akin to pity4 ,they took him to the mujtahid first1 and told him to recant1 and he would not4 ,then they took him to the open square1 and held him up to give him one more chance1 if he would curse the ,behu'llah and the ,behs4 8,the curse be on yourselves10 was all he said2 and then they tore him in pieces4 ,the early ,babis showed good fighting qualities in the north of ,persia1 as well as passive courage1 and1 as they were chiefly townsmen1 we may presume that there are military possibilities in the ,persian people1 even amongst those who dwell in cities4 ,but to look for military feeling in the kind of soldier that we get in ,yezd is not fair4 ,he is1 ,i believe1 collected by a sort of conscription from certain localities4 ,when collected he is taught about as much of the ordinary elements of drill as is considered necessary in ,england for the national schoolboy4 ,he is also assigned a wage of a toman a month1 which if punctually paid would be insufficient to cover anything but the barest food expenses4 ,this mistake is1 however1 generally remedied by his superior officers1 who usually intercept so much of his wages that he is bound to look for other means of support4 ,in this he is not discouraged4 ,if he has a little ready cash he usually sets up as a money-lender1 his official position and possession of a bayonet assisting him to collect his debts4 ,otherwise he steals shoes1 or takes up some other similar form of employment which does not demand an extensive capital2 sometimes he even makes shoes4 ,once a year he is supposed to be supplied with a uniform1 but1 though the uniforms are probably not worth more than a few shillings1 they are very seldom regularly supplied4 ,he is1 however1 free to add to his uniform as well as to his pay1 and at certain times of the year there is very little left of the original outfit except an old cap with a metal badge1 and possibly a belt4 ,when on sentry duty he amuses himself by planting a small garden1 four inches by two1 in front of his station1 and he keeps a heap of rose-heads to press into the hands of passers-by on the chance of extracting odd halfpence4 ,during the latter days of the ,babi massacres1 a guard of four men1 a sergeant and three privates1 was placed at the doors of the ,european houses by the ,governor4 ,every soldier came to us with a thing that looked like a gun and certainly had a bayonet attached to it2 but we heard that at one house it became necessary to send down an extra weapon which would shoot for the common use of the party4 ,of course the gun that would shoot was withdrawn at the earliest possible opportunity4 ,the higher officers of this extraordinary force are surprisingly numerous1 but as there are among them1 ,i believe1 boys of about twelve who hold the title of ,field-,marshal1 there is some excuse for a reduplication of officers4 ,it is only justice to add that some of these soldiers are in their way very good fellows3 the guard sent to our house were by no means a bad lot2 and ,i shortly afterwards met a military officer whom ,i would class with the best ,persians ,i know4 ,nor does the courage of ,persia come out very strongly in the high official class1 though here too there are honourable exceptions4 ,still1 as a general rule1 amongst those who claim nobility there is very little apprehension of the maxim 8noblesse oblige40 ,of course there is in ,yezdi manners and customs much that strikes the outsider as intensely funny4 ,for instance1 the etiquette is distinctly peculiar1 and although very ceremonious1 it does not always appear to the ,european to be characterised by great politeness4 ,when you come into the room the first two minutes will be spent in phrases intended to convey an exaggerated respectfulness4 ,in upper middle-class houses your host will take upon himself the menial offices of service1 not only making your tea himself1 but going out of the room every two minutes to supplement the crockery1 or to fetch another lump of sugar4 ,if you have a servant with you1 your host or his other visitors will discourse freely with this man before your face as to your most trivial personal affairs1 and if there is a pause in the conversation they will make side remarks to one another on the number of your virtues1 and when they have discovered a certain consensus of opinion1 they will turn to you and give you the benefit of it directly1 by telling you that you are a very good man4 ,from this you must not infer that ,persian friendliness is hollow3 all that can be said is that the etiquette is artificial4 ,even so it means something2 for when a man is anxious to pay you proper respect he adheres to it closely1 unless he has reason to suppose that you would like him to adopt something of ,european manners1 which some ,persians dealing with ,europeans try to do4 ,however the etiquette is too elaborate and artificial for universal use1 and generally speaking it is not much used except in matters relating to visits and to letter-writing4 ,on other occasions ,persians who have no intention of impoliteness are often a little off-hand as compared with other ,easterns1 and those who intend to be rude find plenty of opportunities for being so4 ,there is1 ,i suppose1 between the ,persian and the ,european a difference of opinion as to what constitutes puerility4 ,one of the ,governors of ,yezd once boasted to an ,english resident that it was no good trying to hide things from him1 as he knew what every ,european in the town had for dinner4 ,then there is the custom of making absolutely worthless presents with the most superb empressement4 ,once when ,i was in a big village near ,yezd with my wife and baby and mirza1 a woman whom my wife knew came in1 and after greeting us presented us with four very crumpled lettuce leaves1 selecting the leaves according to her ideas of our exact precedence with the utmost care and circumspection1 and having in the whole transaction very much the air of a maiden aunt giving a tip to a schoolboy4 ,nor must it be supposed that these customs only obtain amongst the women4 ,a ,european banker once told me that if one of his brokers gave him anything1 the others always followed his example2 and that once at the bank one of them presented him with a rose-head1 the second at once plunged his hand into his pocket and produced an old sweet1 the third fumbled among his treasures1 and at last found something which looked like a lump of gum4 ,he could not quite remember what the fourth presentation was1 but he fancied it was another sweet4 ,sometimes1 particularly in ,parsi houses1 presents of this sort will be elaborately handed about1 somewhat after the fashion of a round game1 everybody giving something to everybody1 and finishing with exactly the same amount as they had at the beginning4 ,this game1 however1 is generally played on a special occasion1 and the presents of fruit and sprigs of myrtle have a certain symbolical significance which gives grace and dignity to the performance4 ,of course the interchange of presents which although trifling have a positive value is one of the most striking features of the social intercourse of ,persia4 ,this is a custom which needs to be understood1 and which soon degenerates into extravagance1 but essentially it is a good custom4 ,a higher value is always placed on what are called saughts or travellers' presents1 and ,europeans either travelling or residing in ,persia should remember that a certain number of these will be expected of them4 ,when a ,persian has done you a real civility1 he feels that to a certain extent he has introduced you to his home1 and any little ,european thing which you may give him he takes as a graceful introduction to your separate life1 and he values it from this point of view much more than would be otherwise possible4 ,the custom1 however1 has its drawbacks2 for it is the fashion in ,persia always to present anything which a visitor has admired1 and this becomes a peculiarly hollow piece of etiquette4 ,occasionally big ,persians in dealing with inferiors use this custom as a means of enriching themselves1 but this of course is exceptional4 ,when all has been said ,i think that we must admit that for some reason or other the ,persian is willing to expend his energies upon things which seem to us to be absolute trifles4 ,this was curiously illustrated on one occasion by one of the ,yezdi gentlemen who is supposed to have advanced most in civilisation and culture4 ,i was calling at his house at the time1 and he handed me a most elaborate atlas with charts and diagrams illustrating all sorts of out-of-the-way things4 ,some of these ,i did not feel myself competent to explain1 but everything that ,i could explain he understood at once1 and he had obviously before my arrival discovered the meaning of many of the diagrams4 ,we passed on from this to discuss several of the great inventions of the age1 including wireless telegraphy4 ,in everything he showed a most intelligent interest1 and great quickness of perception4 ,finally1 he produced a photograph of a man who had been shown at an exhibition1 ,i think at ,paris4 ,the man had an enormous beard1 some twelve feet long4 ,my ,persian friend made no difference at all in his manner1 but discussed this peculiar phenomenon in exactly the same way4 ,i cannot remember all the details of this interview1 or the exact amount of smile which my host allowed himself when we were discussing the photograph1 but ,i have attempted to faithfully convey the general impression left on me by his manner4 ,i think ,i am right in saying that it all points to the fact that the great difference between ,persia and ,europe is that the ,persian tends to take things piecemeal1 and the ,european to regard ideas in their relation to others4 ,at the same time this is not always at once obvious4 ,a ,european is firmly convinced of the value of scientific knowledge1 and will decorate a man who has discovered all that is to be discovered about a black beetle4 ,here the ,persian will laugh at the ,european1 as he also will when the ,european rewards highly extreme excellence in the practical trivialities of life4 ,but it is obvious that these exceptions are more apparent than real4 ,the ,persian is like a man who has got a pair of glasses that give him a very clear view of a very small field of vision4 ,he does not view things absolutely piecemeal1 but he generally regards only a very small area at a time4 ,a man who picks up shells with an idea of adding to the general store of human knowledge is to him an imbecile2 but he is only willing to pay the same attention to an invention like ,marconi's that he would to an improved hair-wash4 ,the consequence is that the ,yezdi very soon adapts himself superficially to circumstances1 and it is very easy to veneer him1 but he does not easily assimilate fresh principles of action4 ,in dealing with ,persians it is well to realise this1 and not to build too much on their adaptability4 ,a ,persian visitor1 when he is behaving according to strict etiquette1 depreciates not only himself but all his belongings4 ,it has been suggested that the admiration which is frequently expressed for foreign customs and ideas is really due to this etiquette1 and similarly that the belittling of ,persia as a country that has gone to pieces is due to the same cause4 ,this suggestion is1 ,i believe1 entirely incorrect4 ,a ,yezdi will belittle himself1 his house1 his relations1 and the country of ,persia1 because he regards the first three as purely personal1 and does not care the least bit about the fourth2 but if he belittles his town1 his etiquette1 or the foundations of his creed1 he will make it very plain that he expects you to understand that he simply does it out of civility4 ,there is one thing that a ,yezdi puts before everything1 and that is the water-supply of his town4 ,i personally got on very well with the ,yezdis1 although ,i had to own that ,i did not admire ,mohammed or his religion4 ,but another ,european1 who openly stated that he did not approve of their water1 succeeded in absolutely alienating their affections4 ,these exceptions show that ,yezdis are willing to exhibit their pride in what they really love4 ,they are also very proud of their literature1 their language1 and their intelligence4 ,as a matter of fact1 considering their extreme ignorance1 they are not a conceited people1 and their willingness to adopt foreign things more or less points to the same conclusion4 ,some of them1 and these are generally the most ignorant1 are insufferably conceited1 but as a rule their comparative freedom from this vice makes them peculiarly likeable4 ,the nearest approach to a moral principle that ,i can find amongst the ,persians is their commendation of simple acts of kindness4 ,as ,i have before mentioned the idea of savabs covers many actions which have no ethical point1 and it fails to cover in the ,persian mind many actions of a moral character where the benefit is not at once apparent4 ,but ,yezdis are brought up to admire simple and direct acts of kindness1 and to enjoy doing them4 ,generally speaking1 they are very good-natured1 and in nothing is this so obvious as in their conduct towards children4 ,of course cases of gross cruelty to children come to one's notice occasionally1 but they are after all the exception and not the rule1 and the children are more often spoilt by weak indulgence4 ,the ,yezdi's conduct towards animals very well illustrates his character4 ,i believe that there is less wanton cruelty1 particularly towards wild animals1 than you would find in a ,european town4 ,on the other hand1 the cruelty towards working beasts is beyond description1 there being in this case an ulterior object4 ,again1 the dogs in the street1 which are more or less under the ban of the ,mussulman religion1 are treated in the most extraordinary way4 ,they are made the recipients of little acts of good-natured kindness1 perhaps under the impression that a savab1 even to a dog1 cannot do any harm1 perhaps because a ,yezdi is often better than his ideas4 ,they are also treated on occasions with the most fearful cruelty1 and the cruelty in this case has no point but the satisfaction of a religious prejudice4 ,this is1 after all1 exactly the way in which the ,yezdi ,mussulman treats the human being whom he considers unclean4 ,he has alternative principles which he chooses according to his mood and circumstances4 ,sometimes the prejudice against killing animals gives rise to very great cruelty4 ,it is generally considered a sin to kill an animal except in self defence or for food1 but you may do anything to it short of extinguishing life with your own hand4 ,to sum up1 in the case of offences against the person ,yezdis have an inkling of an ethical principle1 which is frequently at issue with the more explicit teaching of their religion4 ,this seems to me to be one of the most hopeful points in ,persian character1 and one which the missionary ought to most carefully study1 trying to make it in many cases the basis of his appeals4 ,but we have to beware of trading too much upon this very rudimentary principle4 ,when we come to offences against property1 we shall find it applied much less frequently1 and working with much less force4 ,there is no inclination to honesty in a ,mussulman's character to correspond with the inclination to kindly action4 ,if you want to find anything of this kind you must go to the ,parsis4 ,on the contrary1 there is nothing that gives the ,yezdi ,mussulman such intense satisfaction as the feeling that he has scored by his wits4 ,he would much rather steal one kran than earn two by the same expenditure of effort4 ,a certain amount of dishonesty is recognised1 and is not in any way resented4 ,the servants1 for instance1 expect to make a certain profit upon all transactions4 ,the extent of their profit is by custom left entirely to the conscience of the servant1 but everybody would confess that taking more than a certain amount was wrong4 ,you will frequently catch less trustworthy servants trying to make over fifty per cent41 and sometimes over a hundred4 ,as to the morality of this custom when the lowest possible percentage is drawn ,i can only say that ,i am not wholly convinced1 as it appears to me that servants who are trying to live a straight life never ask for it to be sanctioned1 and sometimes certainly give it up1 at any rate in its direct form4 ,but the point is that wages are generally arranged on a scale that allows for a man taking very much more than the minimum percentage4 ,nor is this sort of allowance for dishonesty only made in servants' wages4 ,one day the cook of one of the ,europeans went to the bazaars for meat1 and after the usual haggling the price was fixed at twelve krans a man' 7thirteen pounds71 8,but10 said the cook1 8you have got your thumb on the scale40 8,and do you think10 retorted the butcher1 8that ,i am going to give you meat at twelve krans a man'1 unless ,i keep my thumb on the scale80 ,this shows you something of ,persian business principles1 and indeed trickery is regarded by all ,persians as part of the ordinary routine of life4 ,our servant once asked the milkman if he could sell us some cream1 and the man replied quite gravely1 8,no1 if ,i take off the cream they will complain of the milk40 ,he obviously thought that the natural way to supply us with cream would be to skim the milk he sold us4 ,passing to the merchant class the opium trade affords a good instance of the most barefaced type of wholesale fraud4 ,indeed1 the fraud of a ,persian town is beyond conception4 ,we had a neighbour in ,yezd who was considered a fairly respectable man1 and whose sole business was the forging of seals4 ,but the fact is that every class1 from the highest to the lowest1 is thoroughly permeated by the leaven of dishonesty4 ,there is so little security for property in ,persia that men do not consider it worth their while to amass wealth by ordinary means4 ,everybody in a town like ,yezd is trying to effect a coup1 either a big one or a small one1 and one of the results is the most extraordinarily rapid shifting of social positions4 ,in ,persia the road from beggary to princedom is a very short one1 and the road from princedom to beggary is not very lengthy2 only in this return journey it is somewhat difficult to prevent being assassinated1 for when a big man is disgraced his life is in extreme danger4 ,this inattention to ordinary and petty business enterprise has curious results4 ,when ,i first went to ,yezd ,i found it almost an impossibility to get the things ,i wanted from the bazaars4 ,the ,european has to deal with the bazaar through his servants1 and it took my men about three days to get the commonest articles other than necessary provisions4 ,articles which ,i knew would need a little hunting for were sometimes1 if ,i insisted1 procured within the month4 ,this is absolutely without exaggeration2 and1 although ,i believe ,i was unfortunate1 other residents and travellers in ,persia have confessed to similar difficulties4 ,you may go into a town where the chief occupation is weaving1 and declare that you want some of the woven articles which it is their principal business to make1 and it is very possible that you may be unable to procure them1 or only able to get the most inferior specimens1 if you are passing through quickly4 ,this is rather less true of the larger places on the main roads1 like ,tehran and ,isfahan1 but in towns like ,yezd there is the greatest difficulty in getting what you want4 ,in an emergency it is frequently almost impossible for a ,european to get what is needed1 if the things required are not such as he has been accustomed to buy at other times4 ,to offer rather more than the price one usually gives is not of much use1 and frequently has the very reverse effect to what is intended2 for the seller in such a case may decide to forego the profits of legitimate trading for the chances of effecting a coup4 ,but the real difficulty is rather that the retail trading of ,yezd is totally devoid of ordinary enterprise4 ,when the trader moves out of the ordinary rut of his every-day commerce he prefers to be fraudulent4 ,in his customary business the shop-keeper makes a fair profit1 and although his dealings may not be very extensive1 there is always the chance of something really good coming his way4 ,meanwhile he has a position very much more dignified than that of the ,english shop-keeper4 ,in ,yezd the seller1 not the buyer1 is the conferrer of the benefit1 and so far as the relation is concerned1 the superior4 ,when he sells very small quantities1 he often charges less than the usual price4 ,when he sells large quantities1 he frequently charges something extra4 ,europeans in an ordinary way have not much difficulty in getting regular supplies when they become well known1 though they have to pay more for them than the natives do4 ,an ,armenian also has to pay more than a ,yezdi1 but less than a ,european4 ,i am inclined to think that the poorer natives suffer from the difficulty of procuring on emergencies things which they do not ordinarily buy quite as much as ourselves1 though probably the richer ,persians have more facilities4 ,this is just one specimen of the inertia of ,yezd4 ,in matters of transport one is even more in the hands of other people4 ,it is extremely difficult to find transport at less than three days' notice1 and one can seldom get off on a journey within two hours of the time arranged4 ,during the journey there is the same difficulty in controlling affairs4 ,under such circumstances people naturally get a tendency towards fatalism1 and undue persistence even gets to be regarded as a sin4 ,probably this has some effect on the religious conceptions of the people1 for1 if a man who sticks to his point is not to be admired1 it is difficult to understand why we should consider unchangeableness of purpose a necessary attribute of the ,deity4 ,whatever may be the orthodox doctrine of ,islam upon the subject1 there is no doubt that the ,yezdi fails utterly to understand why there should be any persistence or consistency in the view taken by the ,deity of human sin1 for the ,yezdi himself would hardly feel justified as a father1 or person in authority1 in taking a similar firm stand4 ,one of the consequences of this doctrine is that weakness is hardly accounted a sin at all4 ,i remember two conversations with ,babi mullas in which this came out very forcibly4 ,they tried to argue that taqya1 that is1 the custom of denying one's faith under the stress of danger1 was sanctioned in the gospels by the story of ,peter's denial4 ,i have also found other ,persians who have disputed the sinfulness of ,peter's action1 on the ground that he was the victim of compulsion4 ,but the most curious suggestion with regard to the defensibility of weak conduct was made by another party of ,babi mullas1 who considered that the difference between the forbearance of ,christ towards ,his enemies and the impatience exhibited by ,mohammed was fully accounted for by the respective lengths of their ministries4 ,one finds the marks of this want of persistence everywhere4 ,i have seldom seen a tombstone in ,yezd that has been finished accurately1 and there is scarcely a building that has not got a rough1 unfinished corner4 ,similarly every one who has seen a ,persian carpet knows that the design is almost always broken in at least one place4 ,i suppose the prima facie conclusion is that the ,yezdi is the weakest of weak beings1 but ,i am very doubtful whether this conclusion is true4 ,repose and weakness are two different things1 and although we seldom find the ,yezdi putting out his strength1 the condition of the country is hardly such as to rouse him4 ,certainly in the sphere of morals the ,yezdi's religion gives him very little inducement to a consistent life4 8,the ,light ,that lighteth every man that cometh into the world0 is not wanting in ,persia4 ,sometimes it makes ,mussulmans superior to their creed1 but1 if ,i may be allowed to express an opinion1 ,i think this ,light operates more in calling men out of ,islam than in guiding them in it4#f ,i should hesitate to make a similar statement about the ,parsis4 ,it is not my intention to discuss ,zoroastrianism at length1 but although it is a religion without a gospel1 almost all the essential ideas about ,god1 and right and wrong1 and the bases of human action are undoubtedly true so far as they go4 ,if one wants to know whether the ,yezdi ,mussulman is strong or weak1 one must examine his conduct when he is sure of his cause4 ,i think he is worthy of some praise for the self-restraint he habitually shows when he is conforming to the by no means easy restrictions of an established and elaborate etiquette4 ,but1 as ,i have previously said1 the thing which has opened people's eyes to the enormous strength of ,persian character under partially favourable moral conditions1 is the way in which the ,babis have exposed themselves to martyrdom1 and have stood firm to their beliefs and cause under tortures too horrible for description4 ,it has been mentioned that1 although ,yezdis1 while they remain ,mussulmans1 do not show any great enthusiasm for a distinction between right and wrong1 they still possess the greatest powers of loyalty both to causes and to individuals4 ,in their affection for those for whom they care they are anything but weak1 and when they really attach themselves to ,christianity and realise the personal presence of ,christ1 they develop an unexpected strength of character4 ,we must1 however1 beware of expecting an utter change of constitution to take place at the time of conversion4 ,a ,yezdi's personal attachments do not run so closely along the lines of duty and relationship as might be expected by people coming to ,persia from other ,eastern countries4 ,the family tie is not always a very strong one1 though it is sometimes exceedingly strong4 ,perhaps one reason for this is the extreme looseness of matrimonial relations4 ,a ,shiah may have four regular and permanent wives4 ,when he marries1 a settlement is made on the woman1 who may be divorced at any time if he cares to pay the settlement4 ,the woman may also divorce her husband1 if she cares to forfeit the settlement1 that is if she is sufficiently mistress of her own movements to be able to make the necessary arrangements4 ,there is no limit to the number of divorces and re-marriages1 so long as no man possesses at any time more than four wives4 ,besides these he may have as many temporary wives as he likes4 ,it is true that these wives are theoretically only slaves1 but this1 after all1 is simply a legal quibble4 ,they can be married either for a few days or for a few years4 ,babis may only have one wife1 and divorce is discouraged1 though amongst the less respectable ,babis in ,yezd divorce is as common as anywhere4 ,some of the more respectable ,mussulmans in ,yezd openly profess a belief that monogamy is the more respectable state1 and among the better ,yezdi merchants it is very common4 ,girls are sometimes married extremely young1 for instance at nine or ten1 but there is a growing feeling that to marry a very young child is not altogether respectable1 and some of the better class merchants prefer not to let their girls be married before fourteen4 ,of course this is an unsatisfactory state of things1 but one must not fly to the conclusion that there is no affection in ,persian marriages4 ,one of the missionaries had a lad of about eighteen in his employment1 and there had been talk of a marriage between him and a child of ten or twelve4 ,going home one evening for his night off1 he found that he had landed in the middle of his own marriage ceremony1 which took place that night4 ,he was a good-natured lad1 fond of children1 and the little wife was devoted to him and was terribly distressed at his not coming home the next night1 for she had got everything ready for him1 and would not believe he was not coming4 ,when one of the ladies from the missionary's house went to call on her some days after she came very close up and whispered that she wanted her husband to come home every night4 ,the women of the highest official class are kept very close in ,yezd1 perhaps only going out once in six months1 except to the bath2 but the merchants' wives have considerably more liberty1 and the commoner women go about freely4 ,sometimes there is a great deal of real affection in the home1 at other times exceedingly little1 especially when there is more than one wife1 and sometimes there is the grossest cruelty4 ,the fact is that ,persians are led by impulse in these matters4 ,they are very slightly constrained by any feeling of principle4 ,as a class perhaps the old mothers are the worst treated1 and an old woman generally prefers going to her daughter rather than to her son4 ,one of the richest merchants in ,yezd had an old mother who was very ill1 and he refused even to buy a chicken to make the broth the doctor had ordered4 ,at last a favourite black slave wheedled one out of him1 and made the broth for the old woman4 ,slaves in ,persia are very valuable and are generally well treated4 ,on the other hand1 another well-known merchant and landowner1 whose old mother-in-law was very ill1 thought nothing too good for her2 he insisted on her having all she wanted promptly1 and came himself to her room at least once a day to enquire after her health4 ,the same man took a personal interest in seeing that every provision was made for the comfort of his old cook when she was past work1 and the general tone of the household was one of affection and consideration4 ,another big merchant1 whose old mother had fallen off a roof1 showed the very greatest solicitude for her comfort in every possible way1 spending hours with her1 and himself lifting her most carefully4 ,at the same time the old women as a class are not well treated1 and in the better class houses it is often difficult to distinguish them from the servants4 ,the poorer classes are generally no better4 ,i remember that at one time my wife was trying to explain to one of my servants' wives what ingratitude meant4 ,the woman was very fond of her children1 so my wife asked1 8,would you not think it very ungrateful1 if1 when you were old and poor1 your boy refused to do anything for you80 8,no10 she said1 8of course that is what ,i expect4 ,our boys are always like that4 ,we only say1 #8,it is the will of ,god4'0 ,several women present joined in the laugh at my wife's ignorance4 ,of course a great deal of cruelty goes on in the less respectable ,persian households1 and the use of poison is not uncommon4 ,it should be explained that in ,persia people who are not even professedly respectable are to be found in every class1 and in a commercial town like ,yezd status goes largely by wealth1 and carries with it no obligation to keep up even a superficial reputation4 ,the organisation of the household is very largely outside the operation of the ordinary law4 ,i do not know what is the exact legal limit of the jus paternum1 but ,i am quite sure that it is very difficult to bring to book the head of a household for murdering any member of his family4 ,also in the case of a member of the family leaving ,islam1 the matter would probably be primarily left to the head of the household1 although if the case was flagrant the matter might also be taken up by outsiders4 ,it is very necessary to understand this when discussing the possibility of religious liberty in ,persia4 ,religious liberty1 proclaimed by a firman of the ,shah1 would not have the enormous value which is sometimes supposed4 ,indeed it would be almost entirely without immediate value1 unless the ,persian government were considerably strengthened1 and a limitation put on the jus paternum4 ,a decision by leading mujtahids that it was expedient to give such liberty either to the individual or to the family1 would probably have more immediate effect1 but1 even were such a thing possible1 it would be difficult to say how long such a decision would remain unchanged if advantage was really taken of it1 and the precedent of the decision would on the whole be rather a bad one4 ,another conceivable form of religious liberty is that the right of making converts from ,islam should be secured by treaty to the ,european missionary4 ,this1 however1 would not put a stop to the persecution of converts4 ,there is so much injustice that is done in ,persia as a matter of course1 that it would be very difficult to prove that ,persian subjects who were converts had been interfered with for religious reasons4 ,one of the difficulties that missionaries experience at present1 is that converts are always bringing forward instances of injustice which they themselves believe to be due to their profession of ,christianity1 whereas the missionary1 who has considerable doubts on the subject1 is often afraid of calling down real persecution by using his influence on their behalf4 ,the subject of religious liberty is a very difficult one1 and although some people feel that an extension of treaty rights would be a good thing1 and others1 that a firman of the ,shah giving religious liberty to his subjects would help the growth of sound and civilised ideas in his domain1 there can be no doubt that the primary want is strong and good government4 ,i have tried in this chapter not to discuss the government of ,persia more than is absolutely necessary4 ,it is of course far from perfect4 ,at the same time1 during my stay in ,yezd1 the governors of the town1 and notably the ,jallu'd ,daula1 showed great friendliness to the whole ,european colony1 and great fairness in their attitude towards the mission4 ,the strengthening of the ,persian government is a clear gain to the missionary1 and seeing that strong government without religious liberty could certainly do for us infinitely more than religious liberty without strong government1 ,i personally feel that the strengthening of the ,persian government1 central and local1 is at present the main desideratum4 ,at the same time1 with ,god all things are possible1 and ,i should hesitate to press this view on other people4 ,one or two instances of the lengths to which crime can go in ,persian houses without arousing much notice from the authorities might be recorded4 ,there was in ,yezd one man who stabbed his own child in its mother's arms1 and remained absolutely unpunished4 ,he was still flagrantly ill-treating his wife and children while we were in the town4 ,in the ,isfahan district1 a man murdered his child-wife by pouring paraffin over her and lighting it4 ,the child died in the ,julfa hospital4 ,if any punishment was inflicted it was a very light one4 ,there was another woman in ,yezd dangerously stabbed by her son-in-law1 but as she did not die1 even her family took very little notice of the matter4 ,these are a few typical specimens of the way in which the family is allowed to manage1 or mismanage1 its own affairs4 ,illustration3 ,,square ,,outside ,,governor',s ,,residence ,,in ,,yezd4 ,generally speaking1 ,yezdis are open-handed4 ,they have not the least shame about begging1 and will show the greatest meanness in money-getting1 but this does not prevent their being themselves generous at times4 ,the fact is1 that they regard beggary as a bargain2 one man gets a coin1 and the other a savab4 ,they accept kindnesses of any sort in this manner1 and consider that they give as good as they get1 particularly if they are ,seyids2 but for all this1 they are frequently ready to take the other side in the game4 ,probably not less than ten per cent of the population are professional beggars1 and as they do not starve1 we may conclude that a great deal of money is given away4 ,but the open-handedness of the ,yezdi takes other forms besides the mere giving of money to those who ask for it4 ,he spends money freely upon his own pleasures3 considering his poverty he lives well3 this is true of all classes3 finally1 he really enjoys showing hospitality4 ,there is in ,persian hospitality a great deal more than the observance of etiquette4 ,even the inquisitiveness of the ,yezdi is a kind of attempt to get into real touch with his guest4 ,in a word1 he is essentially human4 ,most ,europeans who have lived in ,persia find it rather difficult to explain why they like the people4 ,in the ,yezdi there is certainly much to lament1 but there is something to admire1 and very much more to like4 ,a people who are open-handed1 good-natured1 affectionate1 not always extravagantly conceited1 and above all1 intensely human1 are a people one cannot help getting to like when one lives among them for any time4 ,at the same time1 their inquisitiveness1 unpunctuality1 intense dishonesty1 frequent ingratitude1 and absolute want of principle in everything1 are1 to say the least of it1 very trying4 ,as to their exact position in the scale of civilisation1 my personal opinion of them greatly changed after living through the ,babi massacre of #aijc4 ,to find men1 and women too1 who had been to a certain extent influenced by contact with ,western ideas and standards1 and who prided themselves on representing the section of ,persian ,society most advanced in civilisation and refinement1 openly gloating over horrors that would pollute these pages if ,i were to write them1 seemed to us to be an indication of a more radical difficulty than was evidenced by the horrors themselves4 ,at the same time1 the behaviour of the ,babis under persecution was sufficient to convince any one that there is plenty of strength in the ,persian character1 if only it can be called out4 ,my conclusion is that it is unfair to the ,yezdi's character to in any way depreciate the evil effects of the circumstances among which he lives4 ,his want of principle1 his ferocity1 and other similar points in his character can most of them be traced to a religious system which was forced upon him by the sword2 for we must remember that he is four-fifths a ,parsi1 and only one-fifth an ,arab4 ,the good points in his character are much less easy to trace to his religion4 ,he is not indisposed to reform1 a fact which is proved by the success of the ,babi movement1 the possibilities of which have been discussed already4 ,under these circumstances one can hardly imagine a country where the call to ,christian missionary work was so peremptory1 both because of the need and because of the peculiar opening afforded4 ,missionary work must1 of course1 be based rather upon the direct commandment of the ,saviour than upon human judgment4 ,however1 there is no doubt that ,god sometimes accentuates ,his written commands by placing peculiar circumstances before our eyes1 and ,i cannot conceive places appealing more strongly to the intelligent student of the missionary field than these isolated towns of ,persia1 one of which ,i have attempted to describe4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,difficulties in dealing with enquirers--,language--,argument--,parabo lic interpretation--,distrust of evidence--,ignorance--,attachment to ,islam as representing whole scheme of life--,the problem of converts--,industrial missions--,employment by missionaries--,helpful points--,readiness for religious discussion--,quickness in grasping single points--,yezdi wants distinctive and systematic teaching--,and a concrete example--,difficulties in accepting converts--,tests4 ,from what has been previously said it will be understood that from the missionary point of view there are1 when dealing with the ,persian1 certain peculiar difficulties1 and also certain things which tend to make missionary work more easy4 ,we have to deal with a people whose fundamental notions of ,god and of ,his dealings with men are absolutely different from our own4 ,i am not now so much speaking of those tenets on which the ,mussulman loves to dwell1 but rather of those tenets of which he does not think it necessary to speak1 which are not so much the objects of his faith1 but rather indisputable facts which stand outside the sphere of faith4 ,the difficulty is not so much that the ,persian is repelled by our holding contrary ideas2 he cannot believe that we hold them2 and indeed it is a serious difficulty that in accepting the ,persian language we often unconsciously admit the very ,mussulman ideas which we intend to attack1 and give to the ,persian premises upon which he can build his whole argument4 ,to give an illustration2 a ,persian enquirer will say to the missionary1 8,of course you allow that ,moses and ,david were prophets80 ,the missionary will probably admit this4 ,now if the ,persian has used the most ordinary term for such prophets1 that is1 the term paighambar1 he will naturally suppose that the missionary has admitted the following3 first of all1 that ,god sends from time to time men who are appointed by ,him to reveal a new law of human action1 which1 so far as the moral commandments are concerned1 has no necessary connection with previous revelation2 secondly1 that ,moses and ,david gave each of them a sufficient direction to the peoples of their day to enable them to apprehend salvation4 ,in all probability your ,mussulman friend will assume that you have granted even more2 for instance1 that ,moses and ,david were both of them commissioned to invite everyone they came across to accept their religion2 and ,i should be sorry to say that you would not have been supposed to have made other still more impossible admissions4 ,i do not think that it would be possible to avoid this difficulty by extreme scrupulosity in accepting terms4 ,the result of such hesitation would probably be to puzzle and perplex the sincere enquirer who was genuinely anxious to find out what ,christianity really meant4 ,a more possible way out of the difficulty is to take the first opportunity of stating the difference between ,mussulman and ,christian belief upon these subjects1 and ,i shall perhaps be pardoned for suggesting that such matters ought to be thoroughly thought out beforehand4 ,there are a good many terms that we use in the present day1 such as 8perpetuity of the moral law10 and 8continuity and growth of revelation10 which require very careful analysis before they can be presented to minds which have not been accustomed to the ideas they represent4 ,i have previously compared the mind of the ,yezdi to a field-glass of very small range and high power1 and have pointed out that the man possessing such a glass sees very clearly within a limited area4 ,the ,yezdi is utterly different from the ,european4 ,the latter looks for a generally consistent system1 and1 knowing how difficult it is to get such a thing1 he is content to find certain points where the agreement has not been thoroughly worked out4 ,the typical ,yezdi expects a much more clearly worked out conception of that small number of points which are at one time presented to his range of vision4 ,but when he has turned his glasses in another direction the first set of ideas is blotted out1 and the second group as a whole may be absolutely contradictory to the first1 so long as it is consistent in itself4 ,the result is that he is absolutely untouched by criticism which appears to the ,european crushing and final4 ,then the missionary gets to regard him as an imbecile1 and presents to him an idea which he has not clearly thought out himself4 ,the ,persian turns the tables on him in a moment1 and frequently the missionary is greatly surprised4 ,the only way to meet this difficulty is both to prepare and select your arguments carefully1 and1 generally speaking1 you can never use with the ordinary ,shiah ,mussulman an argument that contains more than three steps4 ,as to the difficulties of the language1 some have been previously mentioned1 and to these must be added the entire absence of words conveying certain important conceptions4 ,perhaps we are not quite so badly off as the missionary to the ,esquimaux1 who has to explain our ,lord's parables to people who know of hardly any domestic animals at all1 and who have never seen a tree2 nor is the ,persian so intensely dull as the inhabitants of the ,indian district where the mirzas declared that the meaning of the 8field to bury strangers in0 could not possibly be understood unless the strangers were described as dead2 but to find a people who are sufficiently advanced to have an elaborate system of psychology1 and yet have no term for conscience is a difficulty of almost a new kind4 ,between this sort of deficiency on the one hand1 and on the other the impossibility of forming a sentence with an accurate meaning1 or of making the meaning understood when it is formed1 the missionary is sometimes inclined to wish the ,persian language at the bottom of the sea4 ,a very similar difficulty is to be found in the absolute denial1 especially by the ,babis1 of any limitations to the use of parabolic language4 ,i can best explain this by instancing a very common ,babi argument1 by which it is attempted to minimise the extraordinary nature of ,christ's ministry1 this being a preparatory step to the advancement of the claims of ,behu'llah4 ,christ on one occasion said1 8,let the dead bury their dead40 ,in this text it is obvious that the word 8dead0 refers in one case rather to spiritual than to physical death4 ,consequently1 they say1 the miracles of raising the dead to life which are recounted in the ,gospels are not to be taken as referring to physical death either4 ,the obvious answer1 that parabolic language1 when used without any warning and under circumstances that make it certain to be interpreted as literal statement1 is simply another name for falsehood1 entirely fails to appeal to the ,persian mind1 even though it is pointed out in addition that1 in the stories of the raising of the dead1 local colour and special circumstances are added in such a way that the details of the stories do not admit of any intelligible allegoric interpretation4 ,in meeting this kind of position the difficulty is occasionally increased by the ,babi controversialist being aware that certain ,european objectors hold a very similar opinion about our ,lord's ministry4 ,i think1 however1 that ,i am right in saying that no ,european critic has ever attempted to take up what seems to us the impossible position of accepting the absolute truth and inspiration of the ,new ,testament1 which the ,babi fully admits1 while at the same time trying to explain away the plain statements of the ,gospels4 ,another difficulty is that some1 and those not always the least intelligent1 of the ,yezdi enquirers mistrust absolutely all reported evidence4 ,this is after all only the logical result of life in a ,persian town4 ,to say that a certain point1 even the most elementary1 such as the fact of our ,lord's appearance in ,palestine nineteen hundred years ago1 is a matter of history1 or is universally acknowledged1 means to the ,yezdi absolutely nothing4 ,sometimes1 however1 when you are able to explain that historical criticism is not an impossibility in ,europe1 this extreme scepticism partially subsides1 particularly when you are able to show that the demand for direct evidence is not altogether impossible to satisfy4 ,of course1 too1 there are difficulties in argument arising from the intense ignorance of the ,yezdi1 and more particularly from his extremely limited ideas of the size of the world4 ,for instance1 when he is repeating the story that the text of the ,bible was changed in the time of ,mohammed1 the verses referring to the prophet being eliminated1 it is almost impossible to explain the enormous difficulty that would have attended such a proceeding4 ,this must of course be the case in other places1 but ,i venture to think that the peculiar nature of the ,persian desert towns makes this state of mind compatible with a greater degree of intelligence than one would have believed possible4 ,when everything has been said1 the strong attachment felt by the ,yezdi to ,islam remains the greatest difficulty of all4 ,it has been previously shown that ,islam is much more than a creed1 and much more than a set of commandments4 ,behind these things are a number of more or less connected ideas upon the relations of ,god and man1 which have not only been accepted without question for generations1 but are considered by the ,mussulman to be axiomatic and impossible to call in question4 ,also around ,islam there has grown up a system of domestic and social life and of personal habit1 which fills up every moment of the day4 ,habits of personal cleanliness1 the system of cooking food1 the fashion of dress1 and the method of speech are all more or less connected with ,islam4 ,the same thing is true of the more normal amusements of the ,yezdi4 ,there is a certain amount of singing and playing which is in direct contravention of ,mohammedan law2 but the things which in the life of the people take the place of the concert-hall and of the theatre are the ruza-khani1 which is the recitation of religious poems by the ,mohammedan mulla1 and the ,muharram festival1 which is entirely religious1 being a miracle-play depicting the martyrdom of the ,imam ,husain4 ,even the more usual street shows1 which are presented by story-telling dervishes1 are the property of a class possessing a peculiar religious status4 ,under these circumstances who can wonder that to separate himself from ,islam without leaving the country seems to the enquirer almost impossible8 ,further1 he is inclined to say that1 if it is possible1 it is only to be done by joining himself to the life of the ,ferangi household4 ,it is very difficult to explain to the ,mussulman that ,christianity is not a politico-religious system like ,islam1 but it is still more difficult to make him understand that a certain amount of the ,islamic system can in any way remain lawful to him when he becomes a ,christian4 ,the difficulty is really an enormous one4 ,men who would be ready to face death1 if death was in the air1 are not always ready to face boycott and petty persecution1 their neighbours regarding them as unclean1 and their new co-religionists1 though not refusing to associate with them1 having apparently no idea of providing them with a new home atmosphere4 ,those1 too1 who are dependent on their professions or trades feel that as ,christians the friction with ,islam will be so great that1 even if they are not treated as infidels and at once turned adrift1 their seeking of their livelihood will be a daily martyrdom1 often extremely distressing to their newly-awakened religious feelings4 ,all of the obvious solutions of this problem are almost as difficult as the difficulty itself4 ,first of all1 it might be possible to create an industrial mission1 and to provide new employment and new circumstances of life for the converts4 ,such a move would attract so much attention in a town like ,yezd that it might very possibly provoke a serious riot2 and1 even if it did not do this1 it would involve an enormous financial loss4 ,it would be impossible to get for such an enterprise the sympathy of the ,persian authorities4 ,the undertaking would be attacked by a continual succession of intrigues1 and even without these disadvantages it is doubtful whether ,europeans who had to deal with ,persians in matters of trade without being primarily traders could possibly avoid bankruptcy after a very short period4 ,besides this if any such plan was started1 the possibilities of the situation from the employ's point of view would so appeal to the ,persian that numbers would come and profess conversion in order to reap their share in the benefits4 ,it cannot be too fully pointed out that in ,yezd the man who is not in earnest1 and who is willing to deny sincerity of motive1 risks absolutely nothing1 even though he may consent to public or semi-public ceremonies4 ,another solution of the difficulty is to employ converts in the missionaries' households1 but after all this only provides for a certain number1 and those only of certain classes4 ,if the less satisfactory servants and employs were continually ousted to make room for converts1 a further very serious difficulty would be created1 as there would be a number of people in the town doing their best to stir up trouble4 ,the position is further complicated by the number of servants in a ,persian household being very much fewer than the usual number in an ,indian one4 ,at the same time this solution of the difficulty1 when it is possible1 is certainly the best one4 ,converts who are employed by ,christians are in ,south ,persia a far from unsatisfactory class1 particularly when they have given up more remunerative work4 ,when the converts are left too much to fend for themselves the results are not always satisfactory1 for even when they pull through1 a feeling of not having been properly treated is sometimes left behind1 which is not helpful to their ,christian life4 ,consequently1 ,i feel that1 at the present stage1 converts should1 when possible1 be drawn carefully into the organisation of the mission or the mission households1 which would also have the effect of increasing the missionary staff4 ,if it is due to our faith in ,christ1 as it most surely is1 to send out every ,european man or woman who comes forward for mission work1 and after prayerful and careful examination or training still seems to be set apart for that work by ,god1 surely in the ,persian mission under present circumstances we might receive as fellow-workers those who after accepting the ,gospel are thrown upon our hands by the same ,god4 ,later on it may become possible to connect the ,persian mission stations with an industrial organisation at ,bombay1 or ,god may show some other similar way out of the apparent cul-de-sac4 ,but the whole difficulty is so great1 that perhaps it would be well to keep it in mind when we are determining the organisation of missions1 for some methods of work tend to absorb natives of various classes1 while others show no tendency to do so4 ,in spite of the immense difficulties in the way of regular industrial missions1 some ,persian missionaries hold that they ought to be started1 under the charge of thoroughly competent men sent out for the purpose4 ,my personal opinion is that1 if it was the main intention that such work should lead to the formation of an industrial community of converts earning their own living and paying their own expenses1 there would probably be a great deal of disappointment about the results4 ,if1 however1 such work was attempted it would have to be done in very close conjunction with the strongest of the medical missions1 and a responsibility for backing it up would have to rest with the doctors in charge4 ,on the other hand1 the establishment of industrial training classes under competent teachers1 not necessarily ,european1 would not be open to the same objections4 ,it would really be a development of school work1 and the primary object would be the assistance of the native population and the spreading of the ,gospel message amongst them4 ,like other branches of mission work it would be worked at as small a loss as possible4 ,but it would not be a settlement of the great difficulty1 though we might reasonably expect it to prove a step towards such a settlement1 for it would obviously put us in a position to consider further steps as occasion offered4 ,after all1 missionary work is the attempting of the impossible in dependence on the ,almighty1 and under such circumstances to attempt to look too far ahead is absurd4 ,in the face of these difficulties it is really wonderful that missionary work in ,yezd should have gone so far forward4 ,there are1 of course1 certain elements in ,yezdi character and ideas that have proved a very great assistance to the missionary4 ,yezdis are always ready to talk about religion1 and they are thoroughly sociable4 ,then they are always interested in new ideas1 and are quick to adapt themselves to circumstances4 ,further1 the ordinary ,shiah's ideas about the ,bible1 that is1 the ,law of ,moses and the ,gospel1 are somewhat uncertain4 ,he generally regards it as the ,word of ,god1 for he does not consider that the alterations which he believes to have been made in the text are sufficient to rob the ,book of its whole value4 ,altogether1 his ideas are much less stereotyped than those of the ,sunni1 and it is often possible to convince him that the ,book is correct throughout4 ,then there is the extreme intelligence of the ,shiah in grasping single points4 ,some missionaries work upon this1 and also on his essential weakness1 by teaching him ,christian ideas1 and not pointing out their contradiction to those contained in ,islam until he has had time to grasp their value4 ,i am inclined to think that although this method of teaching may be possible with people who do not come primarily as enquirers1 it is not so suitable for the ,yezdi who comes to you for discussion or teaching on the ,christian religion4 ,if you want to gain a particular point with a ,persian1 for instance if you wish to dissuade him from some particular act of cruelty1 do not use too long an argument1 but put what you want to say and your reasons for saying it as shortly as possible4 ,even if he does not recognise your principle generally1 he may very possibly accept it for the particular occasion1 if your argument is a plain and short one2 but when an enquirer after ,christianity comes to you1 he comes to you as to a follower of ,christ4 ,he does not want your advice about any particular part of his conduct2 he wants to know why you follow ,christ rather than ,mohammed4 ,as a matter of fact you have to teach him more1 but the attempt to teach him less generally produces a strange state of bewilderment1 in which the man is not very likely to obey any explicit direction you may have given him4 ,the man wants1 not necessarily controversy1 but teaching of a controversial nature1 opposed to ,mohammedanism1 that is to the doctrine of the supremacy of ,mohammed's religion1 and he generally wants such teaching to be based on some kind of argument1 and not on mere assertion4 ,i think this last statement is less true of the women4 ,but in our early days at ,yezd1 when ,dr ,white and ,i were both struggling with the ,persian language1 and all of the teaching had to be done by ,armenian hospital assistants1 who1 although admirable fellows1 had perhaps not wholly grasped exactly what was wanted1 we had strong evidence of what ,i am now saying4 ,for the moment ,i could speak the language and began to see something of the people1 man after man would come to me1 all with the same question1 8,we have heard a great deal2 a great deal of ,christian teaching1 and a great deal about ,jesus ,christ2 but ,sahib1 matlab chst80 which may be translated1 8,what is the point of it all80 ,from what has been written it will be obvious that one of the most essential points in dealing with ,persian visitors is to understand thoroughly who are enquirers and who are not4 ,those who are not primarily enquirers may often be brought to ,christianity almost as easily as those who come as searchers after truth1 for when you get to know ,persians1 you can do much with them through personal influence1 and indeed1 when all has been written about ways and methods1 the thing most used of ,god in ,persia is the personality of particular missionaries4 ,curiously enough1 it is not always the popular personality by which the ,persian is most affected in big matters1 but he is enormously affected by what we call character4 ,as to enquirers1 it seems to me that no harm is done by being very careful whom we accept as such4 ,i must own that ,i have not always worked on that principle1 and there was a time when ,i was under the impression that to refuse to see a visitor1 or to keep him waiting a quarter of an hour1 would be to derogate from the importance of the message that ,i had to give1 and when ,i would plunge without hesitation into the arguments for the ,christian position with any one who asked me to do so4 ,possibly at the time it was the best thing to do1 for it was not until ,i had pursued this plan that ,i gained any experience to enable me to discriminate2 but ,i should certainly hesitate to advise anybody to follow my example4 ,unless a man professes some serious and practical reason for wanting to know why he ought to become a ,christian it is not always advisable to tell him4 ,latterly1 when ,i was approached on the subject of ,christianity1 ,i always replied by asking the enquirer's reasons for searching1 and also by asking of what he was in search1 and1 if from his answer it was obvious that he was in search of something which could be found outside ,christianity1 ,i always told him so4 ,you must remember that such a man naturally continues talking with you1 generally on religious subjects1 and indeed you have then the opportunity of explaining what ,christianity really is1 without the necessity of controversially proving its truth4 ,he is also just as likely to return to your house as a man with whom you have entered into regular argument1 and ,i am quite convinced that he is not less likely to appreciate ,christianity at its true value than if you had allowed him to consider that any one was a proper applicant for admission into the ,christian ,church4 ,as a general rule1 the thing which seems to me to succeed best with ,yezdi enquirers is controversial teaching of a systematic kind4 ,pure controversy is sometimes necessary to remove particular objections to the ,gospel message1 but it has to be followed by regular instruction4 ,on the other hand1 instruction that does not bring out very clearly the contrast between ,islam and ,christianity is liable not to be understood4 ,persian enquirers seem as a rule to want help in understanding the meaning of ,scripture4 ,several ,persian converts have been brought in through the instrumentality of the ,bible without the help of the missionary2 but such cases are not common4 ,then one of the most important points that the missionary has to bear in mind is that the ,persian expects a concrete example of the ,christian life4 ,he is much more able to understand what he sees than what he simply reads1 and he is anxious to know how the whole scheme works out1 for he wishes to understand how much of the practical teaching of ,christianity is really intended for everyday use4 ,he is aware that in his own religion a good deal can be explained away by the mulla1 and also that rather different conduct is expected from the clerical and non-clerical classes respectively4 ,it is true that in ,islam this difference is not so great as one would expect1 but the ,mussulman clerics as a class are certainly more particular than the laity about prayers1 fasts1 and attendance at the mosques4 ,when a ,persian sees the ,christian colony entirely at variance with the missionary households as to religious customs and ideas1 he naturally comes to the conclusion that as a ,christian layman he will have to conform much more to the practice of the laity than to the practice of the clerical class1 under which heading he will include all missionaries4 ,for this reason it seems to me that it is lamentable for missionaries1 clerical or otherwise1 to separate themselves too much from the social life of the ,european colony4 ,work in such towns as ,yezd ought to be primarily church extension1 and when both missionaries and other ,europeans realise this fact1 and do their best to show the native that ,christ is a real force in the concrete ,european life of the present day1 the hopefulness of mission prospects becomes increased a thousandfold4 ,but the task before the missionary is a rather more complex one1 for his duty is not only to present ,christ as a living force in his everyday life1 but he ought also to try and avoid all conduct which he learns by experience will seem to the native not to tally with the teaching of ,scripture4 ,in other words1 he must be ready to give up lawful things which he is unable to justify to those whom he is striving to teach4 ,such a determination will demand not only strength of purpose1 but also careful and prayerful ,bible study2 but unless the determination is made1 the work will inevitably suffer4 ,one unusually intelligent ,beh1 who1 ,i am glad to say1 afterwards became a ,christian1 once brought forward an objection to ,christianity1 which ,i think is worth closely noting4 ,he said1 8,you point to the comparative prosperity of ,europe as an evidence of the truth of ,christianity4 ,i1 who have been in ,india1 do not doubt that ,europeans have accomplished something4 ,but it seems to me that what has been done has been done by the ,state organisation1 which rests upon the law of retaliation1 and is therefore in direct opposition to the law of ,christ4 ,consequently these successes prove not the truth of ,christianity1 but rather the power of work done on exactly opposite principles40 ,my answer1 which was accepted1 was to point out that although ,christ in the ,sermon on the ,mount showed that the principle of retaliation was not to govern the actions of individual ,christians1 ,christ's religion both as expounded by ,himself before ,pilate1 and as presented by ,his apostles in the ,epistles1 recognises the power of the force-using governor as that of ,god's minister4 ,i also pointed out that the best ,european ,state organisations had only been made possible by the ,church4 ,however1 the objection was certainly one which a serious enquirer might be pardoned for advancing1 and it is interesting as showing the trend of the ,persian's mind when he comes into contact with ,european customs and ,christian ideas4 ,there remain several difficulties1 connected rather with the acceptance of converts than with the making of them4 ,the ,persian is exceedingly impulsive1 and a great many enquirers who are really in earnest ask to be baptized without realising all that it will mean4 ,this1 ,i suppose1 is a difficulty one finds everywhere4 ,a difficulty more peculiar to ,persia has already been mentioned in a previous chapter1 namely1 the feeling that two motives are better than one1 and that the desire for earthly as well as spiritual gain only makes a man a more earnest applicant4 ,in ,yezd it is impossible to treat people who have this feeling as radically unsound1 but of course they have to be taught that it is impossible to become a ,christian from the two points of view1 and that if they intend to make ,christianity pay from the earthly point of view1 they will lose the spiritual benefit4 ,the question may perhaps be asked1 how is it that in a ,mohammedan country there can be supposed to be any temporal advantage in becoming a ,christian8 ,the answer to this is that the ,yezdi ,persian is accustomed not so much to religious as to politico-religious systems3 so he regards the whole ,european colony with their native servants1 ,parsi and ,mussulman1 as all belonging to ,christianity and under the protection of the ,christian authorities1 and this idea is very largely kept up by the servants themselves4 ,servants in a ,christian household will almost invariably join in any form of ,christian worship1 and it would be impossible to explain to them that they did not to some extent participate in the spiritual advantages of ,christianity4 ,they recognise1 however1 a distinct difference between taking service and accepting baptism4 ,probably in their heart of hearts they believe that taking service is temporary1 and accepting baptism permanent4 ,amongst people who are accustomed to a view of the household largely corresponding to the patriarchal view1 such notions cannot be altogether eradicated4 ,so enquirers1 when they first ask for baptism1 do not necessarily see the enormous danger1 but only realise that they will be brought into close touch with a community that seems to them to include other natives who wear the same dress as themselves4 ,of course when the enquirers are junior members of strict ,mussulman households1 or in other equally unfavourable circumstances1 they realise that their peril will be extreme2 but heads of households sometimes expect much less danger4 ,then again1 the ,mussulman is accustomed to secret religions1 for taqiya1 the denial of faith in times of danger1 has always been considered lawful by ,shiahs1 and it is used by the ,babis4 ,although the enquirer learns at a very early date that such conduct is regarded by the ,christian as sin1 it takes him some time to realise the exact degree to which his ,christianity is likely to be public4 ,lastly1 although he may be told that converts are not under consular protection1 in a country where law means so little and custom so much he is not likely to understand how real are the boundaries of treaty rights4 ,this will perhaps give some idea of the amount of misapprehension1 both as to the meaning of ,christianity and also as to the danger of accepting it1 which may possibly exist after a considerable amount of talk and enquiry2 nor would the dangers of embracing ,christianity be made altogether obvious by a single riot or martyrdom2 for the whole operation of ,persian law1 or want of law1 is irregular and spasmodic1 and in a town like ,yezd things which are foolhardy in ,january are often attended with no more than ordinary risk in ,june4 ,under these circumstances the question of the admission of professing converts to baptism must necessarily be extremely difficult4 ,in towns where the mission work is in a pioneering stage it has to be primarily settled by the ,european missionary2 and not until the difficulty has been by him sufficiently solved to admit of the foundation of a church1 can much of this burden be placed upon other shoulders4 ,sometimes he may have the good fortune to have among his earlier converts a wholly trustworthy man1 who1 from his greater experience of native character and knowledge of what is going on in the town1 can advise and counsel him1 but even then the main responsibility must rest with the ,european4 ,the difficulty is greatly enhanced by the fact that the missionary in ,persia does not really live amongst the people1 and that the clerical missionary usually sees enquirers only in his own house4 ,under these circumstances it is perhaps well not to apply too many tests1 for it is not easy to get a test which is really sound4 ,one test which is sometimes advocated is the practice of keeping the catechumen waiting for a long period2 but the result of this is frequently to deter those who are weakly in earnest1 whereas a ,persian who has a worldly end to serve is capable of extraordinary patience4 ,it is sometimes urged that an unsound convert brings the whole band of native ,christians and enquirers into extreme danger2 but ,i am inclined to think that1 in the circumstances of our pioneer missions as they at present exist1 a totally unsound catechumen may do almost as much harm as even an unsound convert4 ,it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the only way to deal with the situation is to baptize all persons who after full instruction1 not too hurriedly given1 profess conversion and demand baptism1 and even after baptism to observe a certain degree of caution towards the newly baptized4 ,if it is absolutely proved that such converts are behaving in a manner that is not only weak but actively hostile towards ,christ's cause1 they must be excommunicated2 but the most necessary point of all is that as much attention should be paid to the instruction of converts as to the instruction of catechumens4 ,it is of course impossible to expect that all points of character should be absolutely changed after baptism1 and nobody ought to be cut loose from the ,church in a place like ,yezd1 unless he is actively hostile2 and1 even when actual hostility has been proved1 an opportunity ought to be given for the man's return4 ,as to the advisability of giving converts material help1 a great deal may be said against it in theory1 but in practice it is at times absolutely necessary4 ,after all1 it is impossible to avoid mistakes1 and the attempt to avoid all mistakes in detail is only too likely to lead to the more general one of entirely failing to present ,christ in any form whatsoever4 ,the conclusions which have been stated in this chapter are not intended to be taken as the fully thought out summing up of an extremely complex and difficult problem4 ,they are the result of rather less than six years' experience of the mission-field4 ,but just as there is a value in first impressions of country1 so there is a value in first impressions of difficulties in work4 ,at five and a half years first impressions of country have passed away1 and consequently the contents of the earlier chapters of this book1 which deal with country and surroundings1 can hardly be so characterised2 but at this period the difficulties of mission work are only just beginning to spread themselves out before one's eyes4 ,so when we pass from country to character1 from character to opportunity1 and from opportunity to suggestion1 we pass from subjects with which it is comparatively easy to become familiar to subjects which need life-long and careful study4 ,i have tried in writing this chapter to eliminate from the style that consciousness of uncertainty which is frequently so irritating to the reader2 but in doing this ,i should explain that ,i am fully conscious of the superficial nature of much that ,i have written4 ,at the same time1 the view that ,i have gained of mission work in ,yezd is a full one compared with that which is possible for people at a distance1 and for that reason it may be considered worth stating4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,view ,,of ,,yezd4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,getting into touch with the natives--,the missionary's style of life--,visiting and receiving visitors--,philanthropic work--,poor relief--,school work--,medical work4 ,in ,persia the missionary has no right to teach and preach in public places4 ,he cannot take up his stand in the bazaars and proclaim the ,gospel4 ,he can talk to the people who come to his house1 and to a certain extent he can talk with crowds in open caravanserais or in the villages1 but anything approximating to public teaching is only done on sufferance1 and without any established licence4 ,so the ordinary evangelistic missionary's first task is to get on terms of social intercourse with a sufficiently large number of natives to afford him a field for work4 ,afterwards he may arrange for services1 either in his own house or in the house of some other ,european1 and so his visitors will become congregations and his talks sermons4 ,now1 although it is obvious that such work can only be carried on when it is acceptable to the natives1 the work may be accepted for very various reasons4 ,if the missionary knows enough of the ,persian language1 of native ideas1 and above all of the message he has come to deliver1 he will1 in a town like ,yezd1 without the help of school or medical work1 attract a large number of people to his house4 ,in ,persia there is just now a great seeking after truth1 which1 though due in part to traceable causes1 seems in its entirety to be simply one of those mysterious movements which ,god evokes at certain seasons in all lands for the furtherance of ,his ,kingdom4 ,one class attracted by such a man as ,i have described would therefore be real enquirers1 and with them would be mixed a second class of people who have been called religious sightseers4 ,these men though not apparently so good a field for work as the first class1 would still1 if properly handled and directed1 prove a perfectly possible sphere for serious missionary operations4 ,so also would the third class of callers1 who would be men not primarily interested in religious questions at all1 but who would nevertheless follow the fashion of calling on the newly-arrived foreigner1 and would be generally willing to follow any line of conversation that was agreeable to their host4 ,of course a man who did not intend to engage in school or medical work would naturally be careful to take full advantage of such contacts as these1 and of others that he would naturally make from time to time2 he would order his life in such a way as to get day by day into close touch with the people of the town2 and he would equip himself with a material outfit that would enable him to exchange courtesies with natives of various classes4 ,i am not speaking of a man who elected to spend most of his time itinerating in the villages3 of such work as this ,i have little experience3 but ,i am convinced that a stationary missionary1 fairly well equipped at all points1 does not in a town like ,yezd absolutely need the help of more elaborate aids to enable him to get into touch with his work4 ,to suppose this is to ignore the extraordinary preparation which ,god has made in ,persia for the preaching of the ,gospel4 ,before passing on to the very real demand for missionaries of a somewhat different kind1 it will be well to mention some points connected with the life of the ,european missionary in the country4 ,there are probably very few men or women at present working in ,persia1 who have not at the outset of their work felt doubtful whether the details of their household life could not be simplified1 so as to bring them into closer touch with the poorer part of the population4 ,it is hardly possible to write a serious book on missionary conditions without expressing an opinion on this question4 ,there is1 ,i think1 no doubt that it is a great mistake for a missionary in ,persia to be known as one who is leading the life of a wealthy man4 ,it is considered by many of the enquirers to be absolutely inconsistent with ,christianity1 and ,i am not sure that this judgment is incorrect4 ,temporary advantages might sometimes be gained by such a reputation1 but in the end the work would suffer4 ,generally speaking1 however1 it is the habit of missionaries in the ,persian stations to live as economically as is compatible with ,european style1 so far as their strictly personal expenses are concerned4 ,many things which appear at first sight to be luxurious prove on closer acquaintance to be mere substitutes for the ordinary necessaries of the simplest ,english life4 ,other things prove to be absolutely essential to health in a hot climate1 while yet another class are not exactly necessary1 but they are comforts of the cheapest kind4 ,people who are economising seriously in ,eastern lands have to put up with so much that is really difficult that they make a great mistake if they unnecessarily deny themselves small things which can be had for the asking1 simply because they have regarded such things as luxuries in ,england4 ,but although the existence of careful economies on ,european lines may be sufficient to prevent an intelligent enquirer from thinking that the missionary is untrue to his creed1 such economies can never bring the missionary into touch with the poor of the ,east in the same way that living in a model lodging-house might under some circumstances bring a home clergyman into close touch with the ,english poor4 ,the real analogy would be for the missionary to live as an ,eastern dervish1 or as a native of the artisan class1 and although this might be sometimes helpful and advisable1 the principle of its general advisability could not be accepted4 ,to begin with1 it would be only possible for a bachelor1 and1 in a country where no man can possibly give individual instruction to women1 the bachelor is at a great disadvantage4 ,secondly1 it must not be forgotten that1 although the missionary living the life of an ,european has been accepted in ,persia1 the missionary wearing ,persian dress and living like a native has not yet been accepted1 and would probably find himself not only at variance with the consular authorities but also regarded with a great deal of suspicion by the natives themselves4 ,in a matter of this kind it is impossible to ignore apostolic precedent1 and one thing that cannot but strike the student of the missionary methods of the period covered by the ,acts of the ,apostles is that the apostles generally1 and notably ,st ,paul1 seem never to have adopted a method of missionary work which would have seemed to the inhabitants of the district to be outr1 when some more natural method of work was equally possible4 ,nothing would strike the ,persian as more outr than for the ordinary ,european to drop the form of life which is expected of the ,ferangi1 and to adopt the manners and customs of the native of ,persia1 particularly as he would probably have to periodically re-assume ,european clothes4 ,if he was going to work among the ,mussulmans as a ,christian missionary1 ,i suppose he would have to choose between life as an ,armenian and life as a ,mussulman4 ,life as an ,armenian would have this advantage over the other1 that he would not be supposed to be hiding his religion4 ,but the life of the ,armenian in a town like ,yezd is the life of a stranger in a foreign town1 and would not bring the missionary into very much closer touch with the ,mussulmans than life as a ,european4 ,by assuming the dress and manners of an ,armenian of any class whatsoever1 one would simply forfeit the respect that is usually paid by the ,persian to the ,ferangi1 without gaining anything that could not have been gained by other and more ordinary methods4 ,on the other hand1 life as a ,mussulman would be attended with serious difficulties4 ,in a town where there was a ,ferangi colony wearing ,european dress1 such a man would very possibly be regarded as a soldier is regarded who attempts to mix with the enemy without his uniform4 ,i can conceive circumstances which might make an experiment of this kind worth trying1 but it would be madness for any one to attempt it for missionary purposes1 who had not extraordinary experience of the country and a full mastery over the language4 ,i think then we must take it for granted that the kind of life which missionaries are living in ,persia at the present time will have to be accepted1 with such modifications as future events and further experience may suggest1 as the normal method for ,europeans who wish to carry on missionary work in the country4 ,there are one or two tasks which lie before the pioneer missionary which seem to be made more easy by the possession of an ordinary ,european household4 ,first of all1 he has to be prepared to work amongst the ,european colony4 ,secondly1 it is well for him to possess sufficient influence and standing in the town to be able to help the converts or enquirers in time of trouble4 ,thirdly1 he wants to be in touch with all classes of natives1 and this would probably only be possible for a man who stood in the highest rank as a native1 or for one who stood outside native rank altogether4 ,every missionary has to do a good deal of visiting4 ,all visits have not got to be returned1 but a certain number must be4 ,it is well not to return all visits1 for otherwise it is difficult to get secret enquirers to come to your house1 or people who are too poor to receive you in their own houses4 ,the usual ,persian habit is never to pay a visit without first of all asking leave1 but though this rule has to be observed towards others1 it is best to make it clear that your own house is an office1 and only to insist on notice for visits of civility when they are made by people who are likely to prove awkward4 ,paying visits to ,persian houses has a certain value to the missionary1 as it introduces him to ,persian life and manners1 and puts him on easier terms with the natives1 but it seldom affords the evangelistic missionary who is working amongst men his best opportunity for direct missionary work4 ,there is too much publicity1 and too many interruptions4 ,the best missionary work is usually done on one's own premises2 and in ,yezd ,i have known enquirers and visitors begin coming at six o'clock in the morning1 and go on almost without intermission till ten o'clock at night2 but at that time ,i was connected with scholastic work1 which1 although requiring only superintendence1 advertised my presence in the town to a considerable degree4 ,one of the things that is therefore most necessary in a place like ,yezd for the evangelistic missionary is an absolutely well-ordered household4 ,everything ought to go by clockwork4 ,almost every visitor has to be treated as an ordinary social guest1 and unless the arrangements are nearly perfect1 either his attention or the missionary's will be called away from the conversation4 ,a missionary in such a position ought to pay close attention to the number and description of his tea-cups and pipes4 ,one class of visitors ought to be properly served with silver-mounted hookahs and three tiny cups of very hot tea1 brought in at intervals of ten minutes1 and this without any previous notice to the servant4 ,another class of visitor ought to have a ,european cup of tea holding about three times as much as the ,persian cup1 and a box of cigarettes1 so that he and his host may be able to talk without further interruption till the end of the interview4 ,a third class of visitor1 who has given notice1 ought to be prepared for beforehand1 and served with iced sherbet4 ,then again1 a decision has to be made according to the status of the guest as to whether the missionary shall be served with tea at the same time or not4 ,all this requires the most careful training of servants1 and any inattention to detail may produce an atmosphere which makes teaching exceedingly difficult4 ,further1 the servants have to know who should be shown into a private room1 and who can be allowed to mix with other guests4 ,these are just a few of the minor points which are nevertheless of real importance4 ,to come to points which are obviously more serious4 ,servants have to be procured who can act with firmness when people attempt to take liberties1 and who are at the same time absolutely civil4 ,servants in a ,christian household have to be good-tempered2 and in order to effect this they have to be kept well occupied without being overworked1 in a house where the chief work is meeting emergencies4 ,they have to be taught some consistent and systematic line that is to be observed in dealing with the countless beggars who every day come to your house4 ,they have to be rendered as truthful as possible in every matter connected with the missionary's business4 ,they have to be paid a rate of wages which will make honesty and contentment possible1 and which will neither spoil the market1 nor be incompatible with reasonable economy4 ,it is needless to say very much more about these matters2 sufficient has already been said to make it plain that the problem of household arrangement is an exceedingly difficult one1 particularly as the servants sleep in their own houses at a distance1 all but one1 who stays for the night2 and they generally expect to go home for their mid-day meal4 ,my own impression is that as the evangelistic missionary's house is almost his parish1 he may be excused if he thinks right to expend a very great deal of time over its arrangements1 and to consider this just as much missionary work as the teaching of enquirers4 ,if the missionary intends to aim at anything that is likely to be satisfactory in this matter1 he certainly needs an enormous degree of faith1 and will do well to make his efforts in this direction the subject of very earnest prayer4 ,illustration3 ,,scenes ,,of ,,yezdi ,,life4 ,the centre of these three pictures represents two men smoking opium4 ,behind them is a qalian1 or hookah1 for tobacco2 in front is a sherbet bowl1 and also a small tea-table with sweets underneath4 ,the picture on the left represents two men2 one holding a rosary1 and the other holding a hookah4 ,the single figure on the right is a ,jew1 with his book for divining4 ,the ,persians use the ,jews as diviners a good deal4 ,another difficulty in seeing enquirers in the house is the arrangement of times4 ,missionaries are sometimes blamed for not sufficiently consorting with ,europeans in the ordinary amusements of the colony1 but there is one great difficulty about this4 ,the times when you naturally take exercise in the ,east are the times when the native artisan or shopkeeper is off work4 ,supposing that the evangelistic missionary is seldom at home at such times as these1 the more industrious ,persians get to regard him as inaccessible1 and his enquirers begin to consist of people who for some reason or other have very little to do4 ,it is hardly necessary to enter into the difficulties that may follow4 ,we have been hitherto speaking only of directly evangelistic methods of missionary work2 but almost all missionaries have something to do with philanthropic work also4 ,these philanthropic efforts are not solely undertaken as means to an end4 ,in most cases they are treated as an end in themselves by the missionary1 and generally speaking they are things which could not well be left undone4 ,medical missionaries will tell you that their standing orders are to heal the sick and preach the ,gospel2 but ,i think we may say very much more generally that the presentation of the ,gospel without adequate and proportionate care for the minds and bodies of those surrounding us1 would be impossible4 ,for the ,gospel is the message of our ,saviour1 and any message that was so delivered would entirely fail to represent that ,saviour's attitude4 ,i doubt whether any one would call in question this aspect of the case1 but when we come to discuss how much philanthropic work is really necessary1 we are face to face with a difficult problem4 ,in matters like this the decision must depend not only upon the needs of the people with whom the missionaries are brought in contact1 but also upon the nature of the church or congregation of ,christians that supports them1 and whose material as well as spiritual force they are appointed to convey to the mission field4 ,there is a great difference between the position of a band of men sent out by an infinitesimal body of earnest ,christians who have the greatest difficulty in subscribing the means of their support1 and that of a band sent out by an exceedingly wealthy ,christian church4 ,present-day missionaries sent out by the ,church ,missionary ,society have passed outside the conditions of the first class1 but they cannot be said to fully belong to the second4 ,they are supported by a large number of people1 but those who give most are generally those whose purses are least elastic4 ,in the countries to which they go they are treated with the greatest courtesy by ,british officials1 and accepted as representatives of the religion of ,england by their fellow-countrymen4 ,naturally the native expects more from them than they are really able to give1 and this increases the difficulty when they have to decide what they are bound to do as ministers of ,christ and as representatives of those who send them1 for the people committed to their charge4 ,naturally1 and ,i think rightly1 they do not wholly shut their eyes to the attitude and expectations of the natives4 ,but1 unfortunately1 the ,persians think that there ought to be no difficulty about anything4 ,the average native cannot get out of his head the idea that we are sent by the ,government1 or1 if not by the ,government1 by the whole nation under its religious authorities4 ,those who know anything of ,english thought and feeling realise that foreign missions are now well established in the popular regard in ,england1 and many ,yezdis have a confused notion that in our country education1 medical attendance1 and support in old age are free to everybody1 irrespective of class1 and that as ,christians we are all anxious to extend this system as far as we can to other nations4 ,of course views like this are variable1 but it may be seen after a moment's consideration that in a country where the need for schools1 for hospitals1 and sometimes for relief is very real1 and where the native is capable of believing such absurdities about the ,european as have been stated1 if the missionary does not to a large extent take up the white man's burden1 he is likely to lose any influence which ,god may have given him4 ,consequently ,i think we may say that the philanthropic work of missionaries in ,persia must not only be regarded as a means to evangelisation1 although this is an aspect which must largely determine its importance4 ,primarily it is a spiritual necessity created by three things1 the comparative wealth of the ,christians who send out the missionaries1 the comparative poverty of the natives who are ready to be relieved1 and the obvious commandment of ,almighty ,god4 ,philanthropic work in ,yezd is of three kinds2 medical work1 school work1 and the work of poor relief4 ,the last is of course not recognised or supported by the ,church ,missionary ,society4 ,it is not within the scope of this book to deal with either of these three provinces of work in detail4 ,all that ,i wish at present to explain is the way in which they seem to strike the ,persian mind1 and contribute to the general campaign of the mission4 ,relief work is of all the three most absolutely necessitated by the essential difference between the circumstances of the missionary and his supporters on the one hand1 and those of a certain section of the natives on the other4 ,but from an evangelistic standpoint it is the least directly productive in effect2 so we have never in ,yezd used for this purpose any funds not specially subscribed for it1 and such money has been collected almost entirely from the resident ,europeans4 ,there is a very great deal of terrible poverty in ,persia which is not touched by the native charities4 ,in ,yezd1 particularly towards the end of our stay in the town1 things were in a very bad way4 ,yezd is really an industrial town1 and not less than half of the grain supply comes from outside1 chiefly from the ,shiraz district4 ,most of the people are silk weavers4 ,the silkworms used to be reared in the ,yezd district1 but the extreme droughts rendered this source of supply very insecure1 and after the great famine that occurred some years ago there were not sufficient trees left for the business to be continued in this way4 ,cocoons were then brought from ,rasht1 and this system proved more satisfactory till lately1 when the ,rasht cocoons were diverted to ,france and ,italy4 ,the natural result was a great deal of poverty in ,yezd1 which was most felt among the poor ,jews1 who since the famine year have had no looms but have devoted themselves to winding and spinning the silk4 ,then again1 after the ,babi massacre of #aijc1 something had to be done for the large number of widows and orphans4 ,in this work the ,europeans were by no means alone1 for the sufferers were helped both by the ,babi merchants and also by a large number of the ,parsis4 ,the ,parsis are generally very good in looking after their own poor1 but the ,mussulmans give money so indiscriminately that their charities cause more poverty than they relieve4 ,although the work of poor relief is not as a rule the direct means of bringing in converts1 it helps the evangelistic work enormously by saving valuable time4 ,before it could be organised the number of begging enquirers who had the very smallest interest1 if any1 in the ,gospel message1 was so large as to seriously impede more important work4 ,it is much easier and better to keep the two things more separate1 and to be able to say to a man1 8,if you want to read with me1 well and good1 but if you want material help1 then you must do so and so40 ,this does not necessarily mean that the man who is relieved gets no chance of hearing the ,gospel4 ,the ,jews1 who came in a body1 used always to have a chapter of the ,gospel read to them by my mirza1 and any man who showed a disposition to come as a real enquirer after his case had been looked into and relieved was thoroughly welcomed4 ,but the practice of trying to earn a kran by wasting hours of the missionary's time was effectually discouraged4 ,i think also that the practice of separating poor relief as much as possible from the work with enquirers helps to explain to the native our view of the ,christian ,church4 ,that some explanation is necessary is undoubted4 ,during a severe famine in ,kirman1 over two hundred respectable ,mussulmans1 chiefly shopkeepers1 came into the courtyard of the ,consulate1 and wanted to take protection under the ,british flag4 ,major ,phillott was then ,consul1 and they explained to him that the price of bread was so prohibitive that they could not live any longer under the regulations of the ,persian officials4 ,their leader was a ,seyid4 ,major ,phillott tried to explain that1 although he sympathised with them greatly1 he could do nothing for them unless it was to give them pecuniary help4 ,he offered them a hundred krans1 but they explained that they were not beggars4 ,they further said that they were quite ready to become ,christians if they could only get cheap bread4 ,the end of the whole business was that the ,consul paid an unofficial visit to the ,governor1 and got him to promise that bread should be lowered to a more or less normal price by gradual reductions spread over a period of ten days4 ,it is easy to understand that people who could go to a ,consul in a famine and ask to be accepted as ,christians in order to be able to buy bread at a fair price1 thinking ,i suppose that ,consular pressure would then be brought to bear upon the ,governor on their behalf1 might easily get an absolutely wrong notion of what was going on1 if circumstances forced the missionary whose general business was seeing enquirers to use funds for poor relief without carefully separating these two branches of work4 ,even the practice of giving occasional relief to very poor enquirers from one's own purse is liable to great misinterpretation and abuse4 ,men will frequently come to you and ask for support1 so as to enable them to leave their ordinary trades and listen to your teaching4 ,myself1 ,i think that there are occasions when poor people have come from a distance and are certainly interested1 where something of this kind has to be done1 the man if possible being made to work for his money2 but it is easy to see how extremely dangerous it would be to encourage expectations1 and how easily natives might get the idea that enquiry1 and still more ,christianity1 entitled them to payment4 ,consequently1 even if it could not be demonstrated that an actual saving of time was effected by making of poor relief a distinct organisation1 there would be still a very great deal to be said for the practice4 ,to administer poor relief in a town like ,yezd on anything approaching to a sound system necessitates a great deal of reliance upon native information1 and also a certain amount of high-handed dealing4 ,any food or clothing given must be of a class only acceptable to the very poorest1 for otherwise the candidates for relief would be too numerous to deal with in even the roughest fashion4 ,these considerations will explain two things2 first of all it will be readily understood that it is much easier to give systematic relief to members of a native community which is more or less down-trodden1 such as the ,jews or ,babis2 for although a certain number of mistakes will be made in dealing with these peoples1 they will be much less resented1 and will militate much less against the success of the whole effort4 ,secondly1 it will be obvious that such relief will not call forth very much gratitude from the recipients4 ,the very fact of investigation gives the idea to the ,persian mind that charity is given grudgingly4 ,also it is impossible to handle a hundred screaming women in a small compound without a certain amount of what appears to be stern dealing1 and after all in most instances the relief given is not as much as we ourselves would like it to be4 ,added to this1 most of the people receiving relief are under the impression that we are simply dispensing a small part of the large supplies sent to us for the purpose from abroad2 and the ,jews1 of whom nearly a hundred families were receiving relief in ,yezd last winter1 believed that all that was given to them came from their co-religionists in ,europe4 ,the ,babis of course looked upon the matter rather differently1 but people who hold the theory of savabs in the way in which ,persians do1 have always a feeling that anything given to them means one for them and two for the giver4 ,at the same time ,persians who are interested in ,christianity1 and who are not themselves candidates for poor relief1 see a great deal more in the system than do those who are more intimately concerned with it4 ,they often understand that the willingness to take trouble in localising need1 and the absolute recklessness with which we incur as many curses as blessings in the performance of our work1 points to an utterly different ideal from that which is accepted in ,islam2 and whether they are prepared to approve it or not1 anything which shows the native part of the fundamental distinction between ,islam and ,christianity must in the end be of enormous assistance in missionary work4 ,school work in ,yezd is very greatly appreciated by a somewhat limited class1 but it means continual friction4 ,the whole ,mussulman clerical class as a body are keenly opposed to it4 ,more curiously it aroused the greatest opposition from a small but not unimportant section of the ,parsis4 ,the ,parsis are a puzzling people4 ,for though they are strong1 intelligent1 thrifty1 industrious1 grateful1 and comparatively honest1 they seem to have a tendency to produce in their community a sufficient number of exceptionally disagreeable specimens of humanity to greatly check their natural progress4 ,i myself believe that this is due to the prevalence of agnosticism amongst them1 but1 however that may be1 the result is that the ,yezd community is always pestered by internal intrigues4 ,i do not think that the opposition to my school was religious1 for the dastrs1 that is the ,zoroastrian priests1 were always very friendly4 ,i have always put it down rather to internal intrigue4 ,my school work was originally undertaken at the explicit request of the natives1 and the boys came chiefly1 but not wholly1 from the upper classes4 ,it would be difficult1 and very questionably advisable1 to start school work in a town like ,yezd except under pressure from the natives4 ,even when the work has been forced on one1 it is very difficult to maintain it4 ,not only is there still opposition from such quarters as ,i have mentioned1 but it is only with the greatest difficulty that competent native assistance can be secured4 ,if native assistance cannot be secured1 the missionary who has work with enquirers will have difficulty in finding time even for short classes4 ,short classes may be the best thing under certain circumstances1 but in a town like ,yezd they do not meet the whole need4 ,boys are brought to you in ,persia in most cases primarily to be taught ,english1 but this demand for ,english is not the only requirement1 nor is it the only need that is felt by the ,persians4 ,persians will frequently tell you that they bring their boys to you for education in the largest sense2 but we made it a practice in ,yezd only to accept boys who wished to learn ,english1 and whose parents could show that the knowledge of ,english was likely to be of some use to them4 ,very frequently poor lads would come1 under the impression that the town was going to be occupied by ,europeans1 and that all who had learnt ,english would get remunerative employment in ,yezd4 ,the only thing to do under such circumstances was to explain the true state of affairs1 and then to insist on payment being made in advance for all books1 and also upon the payment of a six months' fee4 ,the first argument was generally rather ineffectual1 but supported by the second it always had the desired result4 ,if it could be shown that a poor boy was likely to reap advantage from a knowledge of ,english1 fees were always remitted1 and in some cases books were provided4 ,the ordinary fees were very small1 but had to be paid in advance for the half year4 ,the education given comprised ,persian subjects1 arithmetic1 ,english1 and elementary geography4 ,the ,bible was read in ,persian1 night and morning1 and the boys were expected to be present during the ,bible reading and prayers4 ,latterly the whole routine work was put into the hands of natives1 but ,i paid as much attention not only to superintendence but also to conversational classes as my other engagements would allow4 ,naturally there was a great difference in the efficiency of the school at different times4 ,at first it was with the greatest difficulty that the work could be carried on at all1 and what ,i was able to do was of the most trivial character4 ,in the end1 owing to the excellent work done by my ,armenian assistants1 and by ,mihraban1 my ,parsi mirza1 the results were really excellent4 ,on the whole1 ,i think ,i may say that the confidence reposed in the school system by the natives1 was greater than ,i could have expected1 and in many things both boys and parents proved excessively forbearing4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,school4 ,this was drawn when the school was quite small4 ,the figure on the left sitting in a chair is ,mesak1 my first ,armenian schoolmaster4 ,i am on the right leaning against a desk4 ,the thing in my hand is a pointer and not an instrument of punishment4 ,there is a wall in front of me on which was hung the thing to which ,i was pointing4 ,i should perhaps mention that the square fire-place coming forward into the room is not of a usual shape3 fire-places are generally let into the wall4 ,all the boys in this picture are ,mussulmans4 ,in the matter of gratitude they showed discrimination1 but the gratitude that was shown me by the pupils who stuck to the school for any time1 and by their parents1 was extraordinary4 ,the lads themselves1 both ,parsi and ,mussulman1 were on the whole intelligent and teachable4 ,i had1 however1 very much greater success in dealing with them when ,i had not myself to undertake the routine work of the schoolmaster4 ,possibly this was due partially to my not being suited for such work1 but ,i am inclined to think that in most cases elementary school work is not quite the proper field for the ,european missionary in ,persia4 ,there is perhaps no harm in the evangelistic missionary who has not yet perfected himself in the language devoting more of his time to it2 but1 considering the enormous value of the work from a spiritual point of view1 there should be no difficulty in getting funds to employ extra native assistants where the ,european missionary feels himself in a position to organise and superintend a school for native boys4 ,these remarks do not apply to schools for girls1 for which properly qualified native teachers can only be found with the greatest difficulty4 ,my feeling is that not only can the fully qualified ,european missionary be more usefully employed if his time is not too largely given up to school work1 but also much of the actual work of the school is better done by natives under ,european management1 and the influence of the missionary with the boys may be rather increased than checked by his not having to teach them their ordinary lessons4 ,it is1 however1 very difficult to separate what may be taken as a general principle in ,persia from what was true of our particular circumstances in ,yezd4 ,i have before mentioned that ,i do not consider myself very fitted for ordinary school work4 ,in the boys' school in ,yezd we had at first a custom of never admitting a child until his father had been seen1 and had thoroughly understood to what extent he would receive religious teaching4 ,i used to pledge myself to teach nothing to the boy of ,christian tradition apart from what could be found in the ,kalmu'llah1 that is1 the ,word of ,god accepted by the ,mohammedans1 an expression which was thoroughly understood to include the whole of the ,christian ,bible4 ,this may seem at first sight to have been merely a quibble1 but it must not be forgotten in dealing with the ,mussulman1 that he is afraid of something like ,romanism which will stand out in political as well as religious rivalry to ,islam1 and that he knows very little of the special tenets of ,protestants4 ,my assurance would at least have satisfied him that no attempt would be made to draw the boy into a foreign politico-religious system4 ,the fathers were also told that the boys would be expected to attend prayers4 ,latterly1 as the school and its methods got better known1 the necessity for these precautions disappeared4 ,however1 when boys at the school came to me1 as they frequently did1 and told me that they wished to know more about ,christianity1 ,i invariably insisted that their fathers or guardians should be informed before they received special instruction4 ,of course they were always free to come to the ,sunday ,school1 which was held for them by my ,armenian assistant1 and which was attended by a few boys from other schools as well1 and occasionally by one or two men4 ,many of the boys also were extremely regular in their attendance at the services1 which we held at first in our houses1 and afterwards in a chapel which was built in the hospital4 ,our school work in ,yezd was in every way a thoroughly effective evangelistic agency4 ,it brought me into touch with scores of adults who without it would never have entered my house4 ,by increasing the general business with which ,i was surrounded1 it also greatly facilitated my contact with those who came to me as regular enquirers4 ,all this was additional to the direct effects of the school work1 which ,i have reason to believe were exceedingly satisfactory4 ,altogether school work proved in ,yezd to be one of the most effective forms of missionary effort4 ,at the same time one or two things have to be borne in mind about it4 ,first of all1 it is extremely difficult for the evangelistic missionary to organise school work for the teaching of ,persian subjects only that will successfully compete with the native schools4 ,further1 the need for such work is not greatly felt by the natives4 ,but the teaching of ,english is one of those things which missionaries are distinctly asked to undertake1 and which they are able to undertake with great advantage4 ,in a short time ,i have no doubt that industrial education will be an even more pressing need4 ,the argument for schools as against classes is that their effect upon the moral character of the boys is much greater1 and that the qualified missionary has by himself time for neither1 unless indeed the classes are to be very short ones1 and the staff that would be needed to properly undertake classes might just as well manage a school4 ,with regard to fees1 it seems to me that when assistants are employed fees should be charged2 but to get fees that would really cover the expenses would be impossible1 and ,i personally think that the lower the fee the more easy it is to enforce its payment1 and to keep the arrangements of the school entirely in one's own hands4 ,this1 however1 is a matter over which there is plenty of room for difference of opinion4 ,of one thing ,i am certain1 and that is that in the up-country towns educational work must begin amongst classes who can support the missionary against ,persian intrigues and the direct opposition of the ,mulla class4 ,in starting a school in a ,mussulman country the object of the missionary must always be to get the establishment regarded as a settled fact1 consequently certain things which would otherwise be unimportant become matters of extreme moment4 ,for instance1 if anything should happen to the teaching staff1 the school must be kept running1 even if the pupils cannot under the circumstances make great progress4 ,at one time ,i had to keep the school going when ,i was myself laid up in a sick room1 and had no assistant capable of teaching much more than the primers4 ,the day's work for the first class was written out by my wife1 and sent into the school by a servant4 ,however1 the school survived1 and some while later1 when it was again properly staffed1 we saw the effects of our persistence1 for while the town was absolutely under mob law1 the school was never without a certain number of boys attending at the regular hours4 ,again1 when the position of the school is temporarily assured1 nothing can be better than some sort of public ,speech ,day1 which both advertises its existence1 and makes people understand that you regard its permanence as a matter of course4 ,the fact is that in ,persia all opposition and persecution is spasmodic1 and if you can manage to go your own way for a sufficient time and then take your position for granted1 you will be allowed to do things which vastly exceed your recognised rights and liberties4 ,medical mission work in ,persia has been described by those who have been actively engaged in it4 ,under these circumstances ,i intend to speak very much less about it than ,i have done about other methods of work1 though it is at least as important as any4 ,it would be possible to divide the provinces of medical work in several ways1 but it seems to me to be best treated under three heads3 hospital work1 dispensary work1 and medical visiting4 ,the branch of medical work which is most obviously necessary1 and also perhaps least productive of direct spiritual results is the work of the dispensary4 ,a doctor settled in a ,persian town is primarily expected to see all comers and to provide them with medicines4 ,indeed the ,persian will come to the ,european for treatment whether he is a doctor or not4 ,the business of the dispensary affords an excellent opportunity for giving an address on religious subjects1 but comparatively little for systematic teaching of individuals1 though contacts may be made during dispensary hours that may lead to further enquiry1 and of course even systematic teaching can be given during dispensary hours by a determined worker4 ,medical visiting is just what the missionary is able to make it4 ,the over-worked doctor with more visits than he can pay in the day has to be content with a very occasional reading and a word here and there as opportunity offers2 but there is no doubt that the opportunity is unique1 and if time can be made during medical visits for more systematic spiritual teaching1 such teaching is likely for several reasons to carry exceptional weight4 ,although perhaps medical visits give a better opportunity to the doctor who wishes to himself follow up the work with religious teaching1 dispensary work affords a much better opportunity for the bringing of other evangelists into such touch with the patients as will make it possible to find out any serious enquirers and to rouse others to further interest4 ,the great difficulty in dispensary work and medical visiting1 regarded as evangelistic agencies in ,persia1 is that the number of contacts is almost too large to handle4 ,to begin with1 the staff of missionaries is inadequate1 and the difficulty is further increased by the peculiarities of the ,persian1 who in most cases is almost untouched by any teaching that is not systematic1 and that does not go somewhat deeply into fundamentals4 ,of course these kinds of medical work produce more contacts than does anything else1 but the difficulty in ,persia is not to bring people within the hearing of the ,gospels1 but to convey to them something of the meaning of the ,gospel4 ,what makes the medical mission of the present time in ,persia all-important is not that it is absolutely necessary for the purpose of bringing the evangelist into touch with the native1 though in certain times and places it may be still greatly needed for this purpose2 but the great point is that it has often explained the meaning of ,christ crucified to men and women who without it seemed unable to grasp the ,christian idea4 ,this ,i believe to be true of all branches of medical mission work that ,i have mentioned1 but at the same time it must be owned that the branch which has hitherto proved most satisfactory as a direct evangelistic agency is that connected with the hospital4 ,nobody can speak too highly of the potentialities of hospital work in ,persia4 ,it is almost inconceivable what misunderstanding of the doctor's attitude is possible in out-patient work in a ,mussulman country4 ,he is a bad man trying to work off his sins4 ,he is sent out by the ,english ,government at a high salary4 ,he is making a very good profit out of the work4 ,he is an instance of the subjection of the infidel to the ,mussulman by the power of ,god4 ,all these notions gradually die away under the systematic life and discipline of the hospital1 with its atmosphere of trust and repose4 ,day by day men meet the doctor and his assistants and learn to know them2 they see the quiet persistence of their kindness1 and its penetration into the smallest detail2 best of all1 they hear the ,word of ,god day by day brought into a connected story and an intelligible system of salvation4 ,in the best conducted hospitals the only misconception that is likely to remain is the belief that the missionaries as a body are trying to win a high place in ,heaven by savabs4 ,this dies very hard1 and all we can say is that the hospital system1 perhaps partly by its more definite discipline1 tends to eradicate it4 ,it is true that some workers have produced similar results by importing the atmosphere of ,christian hospital work into the medical visit or the dispensary2 but the point to be noted is that what is natural in the ,christian hospital has in other forms of medical work to be deliberately and persistently fostered4 ,in these if the highest spiritual results are to be obtained1 there must be on the part of the worker a determination rather to guide the organisation towards them1 than to depend on its essential qualities as a missionary force4 ,it is not that hospital equipment is an essential for a doctor who wants to preach the ,gospel1 but no matter what a missionary may be1 clergyman1 lay evangelist1 or medical1 it is only by getting into close touch with the native1 and by systematic and persevering teaching1 that he can expect to extend ,christ's ,kingdom in ,persian towns4 ,of course the position of the medical missionary who is invited to the town by those in authority1 as is frequently the case1 is very different from that of most other missionaries4 ,there may be a real demand for school teaching1 but even when school work has been started and placed on a satisfactory footing1 it never appeals so generally to the interest of all classes as to be superior to any intrigue that may arise1 or to bursts of fanatical bigotry4 ,at the same time the medical missionary who has gone to a new station finds that even when invited he is on trial4 ,when free medicines are given1 as on some occasions they have been for a short period1 two-thirds of the people throw them away without using them4 ,even those who have invited him are quite ready to turn against him1 at any rate behind his back4 ,these difficulties1 although real1 are minor ones1 and there are very few ,european doctors1 possessed of an ordinary amount of common-sense and a good material equipment1 who cannot get over them in a short while4 ,the real danger is lest the missionary by regarding these difficulties as more serious than they really are should become too absorbed in his efforts to overcome them4 ,medical work is really an enormous power4 ,it may make possible1 under ,god's providence1 steps and measures which would otherwise be utterly impossible4 ,but if it is to be fully used to ,god's glory1 these ,god-given powers must be realised1 and put forth to their full extent4 ,medical and school work have one other advantage besides those that have been mentioned1 for they enable a class of men to participate in mission work who as ordinary evangelistic missionaries would be useless4 ,in the first place1 there is the newly-arrived ,european1 who imperfectly understands the language1 and who yet may do more or less effective work while he is still studying1 if he is connected with a medical or educational organisation4 ,secondly1 if it were not for schools and medical work it would be exceedingly difficult for the ,persian missions to employ natives1 except in menial capacities or in positions attended with the gravest peril4 ,here to my mind we have one of the greatest arguments for medical and school work1 and this from the directly evangelistic standpoint4 ,this brings the subject of methods of work in ,persian towns like ,yezd to a conclusion4 ,it is not impossible to work as a simple evangelist1 but it needs certain qualifications and abilities4 ,generally speaking1 the ordinary missionary must be prepared to use both hands and both feet1 and to enter in whatever way seems most expedient into the life of the town4 ,there is no room for university work1 and technical instruction has not yet been tried1 but elementary school work and medical work are both much needed and much appreciated1 and they further afford an abundant field for directly evangelistic labour4 ,,conclusion4 ,we have now seen something not only of the ,yezdi's life1 of his character1 and of his mental attitude towards the missionary1 but also something of the way in which the modern missionary attempts to meet this attitude4 ,of course it cannot be claimed that the estimate of the ,yezdi's position that has been made in these pages is in any way final1 or that it is one with which all acquainted with the subject would certainly concur4 ,to have limited myself to the greatest common measure of opinion on such a matter would have prevented me altogether from touching on many questions1 and would have left me very little to say on others4 ,as the book stands1 ,i can claim that it is truthful in matters of fact1 and in other things sufficiently sound to form a basis for other people's corrections2 and as many find it less easy to state their own views than to combat those of other persons1 ,i am not without hopes that it may be useful1 even if my conclusions should prove altogether unacceptable4 ,also it may be pointed out that1 though ,i have throughout spoken of the ,yezdi and of ,yezd1 these have been taken as special instances of a ,persian and his town4 ,other places in central ,persia may differ in particulars1 but there will in most cases be a general similarity4 ,perhaps a short summary of the points which have been noted in the preceding pages may not be without value4 ,we have seen first of all the strange staccato effect of ,persian scenery1 particularly of that which meets the eye of the ,yezdi1 and have noticed how this has influenced the ,yezdi's mind4 ,then we have seen the extreme insularity of the town1 and how this has given rise to symptoms which resemble intense fanatical bigotry1 but on the other hand how this insularity may be utilised by the foreigner when it is once understood4 ,then we have tried to discover the essential system of ,islam1 and to decide whether or not the ,persian ,shiah has been greatly influenced by the prophet's life and teaching4 ,my own opinion is that ,persia is most strongly ,mohammedan1 but seeing that the point of this book is not so much to express opinions as to give the facts that have led to their formation1 ,i must not complain if many of my readers do not agree with me4 ,an attempt has also been made to explain the religiosity of the ,mohammedan1 and to show that it is neither hypocrisy1 nor yet religion in the ,western sense4 ,then there was a chapter on the ,yezdi's character1 and ,i think that in this my main point was to show how superficial is the judgment that pronounces the ,persian thoroughly weak and effete4 ,he really shows great strength of purpose when he has a purpose1 he has some peculiar abilities1 and is at bottom thoroughly likeable and loveable1 but he is spoilt by the unhappy circumstances of his existence and very specially by his creed4 ,after that there was an attempt to show the peculiar nature of the search after truth that is just now going on in ,persia1 and very particularly in ,yezd4 ,that this is ,god's doing1 intended to prepare the way for ,christian teaching1 ,i have in my own mind no doubt at all2 but ,i have tried to describe it as a phenomenon1 and sometimes to trace it to immediate causes where such causes are easily discoverable4 ,lastly1 ,i have tried to show that towns like ,yezd present a field1 not only workable by one class of missionary organisation1 but approachable in many different ways4 ,i sincerely trust that those who have followed the argument of these chapters will have come to my own conclusion1 that1 although there are enormous difficulties in missionary work in ,persia1 there are also enormous opportunities1 and that there is great reason to expect that in such a country things will one day come with a rush3 further1 that when the barrier of ,mohammedanism is removed1 there are grounds for hoping that ,persian character will recover its equilibrium and the nation prove by no means decadent4 ,if in addition the spiritual force of ,christianity be brought to bear upon the people1 ,persia may prove in the future the missionary power of the near ,east4 ,persia at this moment is full of religious enquirers1 willing to make immense sacrifices for their convictions2 and behind these there is a mass of simple people1 religiously minded and yet utterly dissatisfied with their present creed4 ,there are of course great prejudices still existing against ,christianity1 but these prejudices have been by ,god's blessing broken down in individual instances1 and when their nature is better realised they may more generally disappear4 ,it is not necessary to give actual statistics with reference to converts3 it is enough to say that the number of those who have come forward in ,yezd is sufficient to prove two things2 firstly1 that ,god is willing to bless the work very fully1 and secondly1 that we are not quite ready for ,his blessing4#g ,if any further proof were needed of ,god's willingness to forward the work of the ,yezd mission1 it would be found in the history of the ,christian institutions in the town4 ,the medical work was founded by ,dr ,henry ,white about six years and a half back1 he having been in the ,isfahan district for about twelve months previous to his arrival in ,yezd4 ,there is now not only a men's hospital and dispensary in the town1 but also two dispensaries in the outlying villages1 and a women's hospital and dispensary under ,dr ,elsie ,taylor4 ,in connection with the medical work one can hardly help mentioning the name of ,miss ,bird1 who really founded the work amongst the women1 and that of ,dr ,griffith1 who did most valuable work during the furlough of ,dr ,white4 ,the site for the men's hospital was given to the ,society shortly after ,dr ,white's arrival1 by the late ,mr ,gudarz1 a prominent ,parsi merchant in the town4 ,the medical mission in ,yezd may be said to be quite as firmly established as the ,government4 ,i myself came to ,yezd six months later than ,dr ,white1 without any previous experience of ,persia4 ,my successor1 ,mr ,boyland1 has now under his charge a school of about sixty boys1 ,mussulmans1 ,babis and ,parsis1 with a staff of native masters4 ,the boys in spite of their religious differences play football together4 ,the religious teaching in the school is given without the slightest concealment4 ,there is also a school for ,parsi girls more lately established by ,miss ,brighty4 ,in this school religious instruction is also given4 ,when ,i left ,yezd the number of the pupils was about forty4 ,i may also mention that in the chapel which we have built in the hospital we often have congregations of over a hundred ,persians4 ,the chapel cost something under a hundred pounds1 and the funds were subscribed1 all but twenty-five pounds1 by the members of the ,european colony4 ,it is a great mistake to regard such work as we have in ,yezd as primarily of a preparatory nature in view of some future opportunity4 ,babiism1 which is in some ways more opposed to ,christianity than the religion of the average ,persian ,mussulman1 is fast gaining ground1 and the exceptional opportunity1 which is occasioned by the preparation of the soil by ,babi missionaries who have not yet been successful in planting their ideas1 is fast passing away4 ,it has been already pointed out that there is not much hope of real religious liberty under native rule4 ,some people think that there are shortly going to be changes in ,persia which will entirely deprive the ,british missionary of his opportunity4 ,if we take this view we ought to act quickly4 ,taking a second and more hopeful view of the future1 other political developments which might make religious liberty in any sense a reality1 would find us by no means in a position to make the best use of them1 unless we had a native church gathered in time of stress and strain upon whose judgment to rely4 ,consequently mission work in ,persia is a matter which demands most careful consideration1 most unsparing effort1 and most earnest prayer4 ,we ought not to lack recruits4 ,that there are difficulties to be solved is true1 but when all has been said the overwhelming horror of modern ,mohammedanism1 the intense hopefulness of ,persian character1 and last but not least1 the obvious preparation made by ,god in this country for human evangelistic labours1 all together present a situation which cannot but appeal to the ,christian ,englishman4 ,,footnotes #a ,the author has1 with a few exceptions1 accentuated native words only where they first occur in the book4 #b ,the dates given with regard to this persecution are approximately correct2 but1 although reasonable care has been taken to find the exact year in which the changes of restriction were made1 the absolute accuracy of some of these dates cannot be guaranteed4 #c ,the ,yezdi realises the link of a common language1 but by this he means a common dialect4 ,consequently ,i have included this idea in fellow-townsmanship2 it in no way takes the place of the bond of country4 #d ,i was informed1 however1 by ,dr ,griffith that the ,mussulmans of ,kirman welcomed his coming and the work of the medical mission on the ground that his savabs1 being the savabs of an infidel1 would be credited not to him but to the account of the ,mohammedans of the town1 who stood rather sorely in need of them4 #e ,this only refers to visits of ceremony4 ,when people found that they could come to my house without notice1 ,i often had a continual succession of visitors throughout the day4 #f ,certainly the ,light also operates inside ,islam4 ,during the ,babi massacre a number of women who had been horrified by the sights in the streets said to my wife1 8,they say that we can't be ,mussulmans if we mind these things1 but cannot these things sicken even ,mohammedans80 #g ,the opinion that ,persia is changing its religion1 or at least its form of ,mohammedanism1 is not confined to missionary circles4 ,,glossary ,aivn ,a kind of portico1 or roofed recess4 ,anjuman ,assembly1 committee4 ,arkhlq ,under-coat4 ,bb ,follower of the ,bb4 ,bd-gr ,air-shaft4 ,bgh ,enclosed cultivation4 ,beh ,follower of ,behu'llah4 ,chdar ,sheet2 especially the cotton shawl worn over the head and whole body by the women4 ,chrvdr ,muleteer1 or donkey caravan driver4 ,dastr ,parsi priest4 ,dv ,demon4 ,farrsh ,literally a carpet-sweeper4 ,really a servant1 chiefly outdoor4 ,ferang ,frank1 ,european4 ,firmn ,government order4 ,islm ,resignation to ,god4 ,the name given by ,mohammed to his religion4 ,jazya ,poll tax levied by ,mohammedans on non-,mohammedan monotheists living in their country4 ,jin ,genius2 a being composed of fire4 ,kajva ,a kind of wooden pannier with a hood4 ,khn ,a hereditary title4 ,krn ,a coin worth about #d;d41 the tenth part of a tomn4 ,kurs ,wooden stool4 ,especially one used over a pan of charcoal to support a quilt4 ,lla ,a spring candlestick with a globe4 ,lt ,a rough2 a bad character4 ,man' ,a weight varying in different towns4 ,in ,yezd it is about #ac lbs4 ,manzil ,halting-place4 ,mazra' ,a piece of cultivated land4 ,mirz ,clerk1 secretary4 ,muballigh ,a missionary4 ,the word is generally used of the ,beh missionaries in ,yezd4 ,mujtahid ,the highest class of the ,mohammedan clergy4 ,mull ,a word very like our term 8clerk40 ,it is generally used of the clergy1 but it is sometimes a mere courtesy title1 and sometimes means a man who can read4 ,mussulmn1 ,muslim ,a believer in ,islam4 ,one who is resigned to ,god4 ,nakhl ,a religious implement4 ,nijsat ,ceremonial uncleanness4 ,paighambar ,message bearer1 prophet4 ,paighambar ,prophethood4 ,qab ,outer coat4 ,qalntar ,head-man4 ,the title is used in ,yezd for the head-man of the ,parsis4 ,qalin ,persian hookah4 ,qan't ,underground water-channel4 ,raiyat ,agriculturist1 a tenant farmer who pays rent in kind4 ,it also means a subject4 ,rza khn ,religious recitation4 ,saught ,a traveller's present4 ,savb ,work of merit4 ,seyid ,a descendant of ,mohammed4 ,shiah ,nonconformist4 ,however1 there is a ,shiah sect held orthodox in ,persia4 ,sunnat ,ancient traditions and ,commentary on the ,quran accepted by the ,sunnis4 ,sunn ,a member of the ,mohammedan sect accepting the ,sunnat1 who are considered orthodox in ,turkey1 ,india1 and ,africa1 as opposed to the ,shiahs of ,persia and elsewhere4 ,taqdr ,predestination4 ,taqya ,concealment of faith by denial in times of danger4 ,tauhd ,assertion of the ,divine ,unity4 ,tomn ,a sum of money1 #aj1jjj dinars1 equivalent to about #cs4 #h;d4 ,yailq ,summer quarters1 generally a village in the hills4 ,zardsht ,follower of ,zardsht or ,zoroaster1 the ,parsi prophet4 ,,index ,abbs1 #fg ,abu ,jahl1 #fg ,abu ,tlib1 ,mohammed's uncle1 #fg ,avan1 #ah ,ali1 ,imam1 #ge-gg ,ali ,mohammed 7,bab71 #ij1 #ia ,anjuman1 #di ,arbb ,jamshd1 a wealthy ,parsi at ,tehran1 #ea ,arches1 #af ,arkhlq1 #de ,armenian ,christians1 #eh1 #ajg ,aryan ,parsis1 #fb ,atmosphere1 absence of moisture in1 #ac ,bb1 gate of knowledge1 #gc ----1 first book-bearer of the ,behs1 founder of the ,babi sect1 #ij1 #ia ,babis1 the1 #gi1 #hf1 #hh1 #ia1 #id1 #ajh1 #agg1 #ahg1 #aic1 #bab2 massacre of1 #ajd1 #aee-aeg1 #ahf2 martyrs1 #ach1 #aci ,bd-gr1 #ad1 #ae1 #df ,bgh1 #i-aa ,bazaars1 #aa ,behs1 the1 #fa1 #ha2 massacre of1 #dd1 #eb1 #hg-hi1 #ajd2 tenets of1 #hf1 #ij1 #ib-if1 #ajd1 #aad ,beha'llah1 first book-bearer of the ,behs1 #ha1 #hg1 #hi1 #ij1 #ib1 #ie1 #aic ,bigotry1 in ,yezd1 #dd ,bird1 ,miss1 #bfj ,boyland1 ,mr1 #bfa ,brighty1 ,miss1 #bfa ,browne1 ,professor ,e4 ,g41 translator of the ,trkhi ,jadd1 #ia ,bruce1 ,canon1 #eh1 #ei ,carpenters1 of ,yezd1 #bc ,carpets1 #bb ,caspian ,sea1 #b ,chdar1 #abb ,chairs1 #bd ,church ,missionary ,intelligencer1 #ie ,church ,missionary ,society1 #ee1 #bcj1 #bcb ,cleanliness1 of ,yezdis1 #bf ,converts1 problem of1 #aif-aih1 #bab-bae ,crime1 indifference to1 #ahd ,curtains1 #ba ,deserts1 salt and sandy1 #b1 #c ,dnyr1 ,qalntar of the ,parsi ,committee1 #di ,divorce1 #agh ,dvs1 #aba1 #abb ,doors1 #ai1 #bj ,etiquette and ,manners1 of the ,yezdis1 #aeh ,european colony1 in ,yezd1 #ee ,evil ,eye1 #abb ,fanaticism1 of ,yezdis1 #ed ,farrsh1 #dg ,fireplaces1 #ba ,fittings of houses1 #ba ,flower-beds1 #cc1 #cd ,forgiveness of sins1 ,mohammed's teaching on the1 #ih ,furniture1 #ba-bf ,gardens1 #i ,griffith1 ,dr1 #ajj1 #bfj ,gudarz1 ,mr1 a prominent ,parsi merchant of ,yezd1 #bfa ,gypsum1 #ag ,hakim ,khnum1 lady doctor1 #ajb ,hanifs1 reformers1 #fe1 #ff1 #fh1 #gj ,hasan1 ,imam1 #acc1 #acd ,heaven and ,hell1 ,mussulman idea of1 #ih1 #ii ,hill villages1 #ca1 #cb ,hookahs1 ,persian1 #be ,houses1 #ac-cc2 built for heat1 #bi1 #cj ,husain1 ,imam1 #acc1 #acd ,huts1 mud1 #bh ,ibn ,ishk1 the biographer1 #fh ,ibrhm ,qall ,khn1 #ej ,imam ,ali1 #ge-gg ---- ,hasan1 #acc1 #acd ---- ,husain1 #acc1 #acd ,imams1 the1 #gc1 #gf1 #gg ,industrial missions--a suggestion1 #aig-bja ,infidels1 ,persian attitude towards1 #acj ,insularity1 of ,yezd1 #cf ,isaiah1 quoted1 #ie ,isfahan1 #cf ,isfahanis1 and ,yezdis1 #ch ,isfandir1 a ,parsi schoolmaster at ,taft1 #ea ,islm1 doctrine of1 #fd1 #fe1 #hj-hb1 #if1 #ig1 #aaj1 #acb1 #acc2 has ruined ,persia1 #aab ,isolation1 of ,yezd1 #cf ,jadd1 a convert from ,parsiism1 #fb ,jallu'd ,daula1 the1 #eb1 #ahc ,jazya1 #dg1 #di ,jews1 in ,yezd1 #dd1 #eb2 ,mohammed's dealings with1 #ga ,jins1 #aba1 #abb ,julfa1 a suburb of ,isfahan1 #eh ,jus ,paternum1 in ,yezd1 #aha ,ka'aba1 a heathen temple of the ,meccans1 #fe ,kshn1 #g1 #dc ,khadja1 wife of ,mohammed1 #ff ,khalfs1 the1 #gb1 #gf ,khauf u jiz1 fear of hell and expectation of heaven1 #ih ,kirmn1 #g1 #cf ,koelle1 ,life of ,mohammed1 #fg1 #fh1 #ga ,kcha ,biyuk1 village1 #di ,kurs1 #bb1 #cj ,lla1 #be ,lamps1 #be ,language1 ,persian1 #aeb ,lristn1 #dc ,lattices1 #ai ,ledges1 #af ,looking-glasses1 #ba ,lts1 #ea1 #eh ,mahdi1 or ,mehdi1 the last of the ,imams1 #gb1 #gc1 #ge ,mnukj ,limj1 ,parsi representative in ,tehran1 #dh1 #ej ,manzil1 #cd ,marriages1 ,persian1 #agh ,mazra'1 #d1 #e ,mecca1 #fc1 #fe1 #fi1 #gj ,medical ,missions1 in ,yezd1 #ee1 #bbi1 #bdh-bed ,medina1 #fc1 #gj1 #ga ,mihraban1 a ,parsi1 #fd ,miracle play1 ,muharram1 #abf1 #acd ,missionary in ,persia1 the1 his difficulties1 #ahh-baf2 the problem of converts1 #aif-aih1 #bab-bae2 his tasks and duties1 #bag-bee2 philanthropic work1 #bbi-bcb2 poor relief1 #bcb-bci2 school and medical work1 #bci-bed ,missions1 ,christian1 tolerated in ,yezd1 #ee1 #ef2 industrial1 #aig-bja ,mohammed1 #fc-gb1 #hd1 #he1 #ij1 #ia1 #if1 #ig1 #aab1 #aac1 #abh1 #acj2 his birth1 #fe2 his wife1 #ff2 head of the ,hanif movement1 #fg2 his admiration of the ,jews1 #abd ,mohammedanism1 ,persian1 #fj1 #fd-aad2 aspects in ,yezd of1 #aae-ace ,monogamy1 #agg1 #agh ,mountain streams1 #e ,muballigh1 teacher and missionary1 #hh1 #hi ,mud1 use of1 #ab2 huts of1 #bh ,muhammad ,hasan ,khan1 ,governor of ,yezd1 #dh ,muharram1 #acc ,mujtahid1 #df-dh1 #ef1 #eh1 #gc-ge1 #hh ,mulla ,bahrm of ,khuramshr1 a ,parsi1 #dh ,munfiqn1 hypocrites1 #hj ,mushru'l ,mamlik1 the1 #ea ,mussulman v4 ,armenian morality1 #aah ,muzaffaru'd ,dn1 ,shah1 #di ,nakhl1 #acd ,nsiru'd ,dn1 ,shah1 #dh ,nsiru'd ,dn1 ,mulla1 and his mule1 story of1 #adi ,nijsat1 #acb ,non-conformity in ,persia1 #fa ,oasis1 #c1 #d ,omar1 ,khalf1 #gf1 #ace ,opium trade1 #agj ,ornamentation1 of houses1 #ag ,paighambar1 #hd1 #he1 #if1 #aaj1 #abg ,parsis in ,yezd1 oppression and persecution of1 #dd-eb ,pilgrimages1 ,mussulman1 #aah1 #abh ,plain1 a typical ,persian1 #g ,polygamy1 #agg ,poor relief1 #bcb-bci ,postal arrangements1 in ,yezd1 #cf ,qab1 #de1 #dh ,qalntar1 #di ,qalin1 #be ,qum1 #aai ,qurn1 the1 #gc1 #gd1 #gf1 #gg1 #ib1 #ic1 #aje1 #ajg-aji1 #aai1 #abj1 #abd1 #acj ,rainfall1 #f1 #bi ,ramazn1 ,mohammedan ,fast1 #gh ,rasht1 #dc1 #bcc ,rice1 ,rev4 ,w4 ,a41 #ie ,rustami ,ardishri ,dnyr1 a ,parsi1 #di ,rza khn1 #abf1 #aif ,sahmu'l ,mulk1 #ea ,shibi kitb1 a book-bearer1 ,mohammed regarded as the last1 #gb ,salmat1 a ,parsi1 #ea ,salt and sandy deserts1 #b1 #c ,saughts1 #afb ,savbs1 #ih-aje ,school work1 in ,yezd1 #bci-bdh ,seyid1 a descendant of ,mohammed1 #ej1 #aja1 #ajb ,shaikhi sect1 the1 #ia ,shahr1 a town1 #ci ,shiahs1 or nonconformists1 #fj1 #gc-gh1 #hf1 #hg1 #ic-ih1 #ajc1 #aje-aji1 #abd1 #abh1 #acd1 #agg1 #bab ,shrz1 #cf1 #dc ,silkworms1 #bcc ,soldiers1 ,persian1 #aef ,streams1 mountain1 #e ,subhi ,azal1 second book-bearer of the ,behs1 #ij1 #ib ,sufis1 sect of the1 #hf1 #ajh ,summer buildings1 #ae1 #bi ,sunnat1 #gc1 #gd ,sunnis1 and their creed1 #fc1 #gb1 #gd1 #gg1 #hj1 #id1 #ajf ,superstition1 #aba-abc ,tables1 #bc1 #bd ,taft village1 #ea1 #acd ,tlr1 summer portico1 #ad1 #ae ,tqchas1 ledges1 #af1 #bd-bf ,taqdr1 #ig ,taqiya1 #bab ,trkhi ,jadd1 #ia ,tauhid1 #abg ,taylor1 ,dr ,elsie1 #bfj ,teheran1 #b ,telegraph line1 native1 #cg ,trandz1 a ,parsi1 #di ,tomn1 #dg ,trinket boxes1 #bf ,turners1 of ,yezd1 #bc ,uncleanness1 degrees of1 #acj-acb ,untruthfulness of ,persians1 #aaf1 #adb ,vatan1 home-district1 #ci ,villages1 #h2 hill-1 #ca1 #cb ,walls1 house-1 #af ,waraka ibn ,nawfal1 a prominent ,hanif1 #ff ,water system1 #f ,white1 ,dr ,henry1 #bjd1 #bfj1 #bfa ,windows1 #ai1 #bj ,winter rooms1 #ah ,yailq1 #ca ,yazd1 #acd ,yezd district1 houses in1 #a-ce2 its isolation and insularity1 #cf ,yezdis1 and ,isfahanis1 #ch2 their religion1 #aaa1 #abj-abf2 character of the1 #acf-ahg2 systematised inconsistency1 #acg2 loyalty1 #ach2 sense of shame1 #adg2 humour1 #adh2 their disregard of time1 #aej2 difficulties of their language1 #aeb2 lack of initiative1 #aed2 their courage1 #aee2 etiquette and manners of1 #aeh2 their triviality1 #afj2 pride1 #afe1 #aff2 kindliness1 cruelty1 #aff2 dishonesty1 #adb1 #afh2 lack of business habits1 #aga2 fatalism1 #agc2 latent strength1 #agf2 their family ties1 #agg2 jus paternum1 #aha2 religious liberty1 #aha-ahc2 indifference to crime1 #ahd2 open-handness1 #ahd ,zaid1 #ga ,zaid ibn ,amr1 #ff ,zainab1 #ga ,zardsht 7,zoroastrian71 #ej ,zillu's ,sultn1 #ej1 #eb ,zoroastrians1 in ,yezd1 #df-ec1 #aac ,,printed ,,at ,,the ,,edinburgh ,,press1 #i ,,and #aa ,,young ,,street4 ,illustration3 ,,central ,,persia illustrating ,,five ,,years ,,in ,a ,,persian ,,town4 ,by the ,rev4 ,napier ,malcolm4