Page 185 - PERSIAN 2 1879_1883

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residency and MUSCAT POLITICAL AGENCY FOB 1880-81. 17

still families living who can show by all accounts a written jrcdigree
from a Russian tribo [the Cbirkas*l,
• Circassian.
having been originally settled by Shah
Abbas, but who, sometime after this reported peaceful settling, became
unruly and dangerous, and were then broken up, and^ their fragments
distributed at safe distances throughout the country. Kurdish remnants
at any rate have certainly emigrated into Persia. I came across one
man during my wanderings with the history of some such flitting fresh
in his memory. Besides these elements of viliage population, there is
also a residue gathered from some of the more ancient Ecliy^t tribes
who have given up their wandering habits and settled down as treated
of below when glaucing at the supposed composition of the larger villages
aud towns.
Generally speaking, the Eeliy^t looks down upon the village popu­
lation, and iu truth they are usually harmless and peaceable; the
Tangistanis however, and the men of Ardakun, have a great name for
courage. The former were, it is said, responsible for <he only resistance
that was met with by the force sent to Persia in 1856, and fought well.
In the case of these the pluck is probably to be traced to a strong
infusion of the Arab; iu the case of the men of Ardakun to a strain of
the Lur blood.
We may, then, tentatively class the nomad population of Fars under
three heads
(1.) Lars.—The Lur tribes, whom I am told speak almost pure
Persian, but with which I have as yet no acquaintance, comprising the
Mamasseni’ with their divisions, whose country may be said roughly to
lie south aud west of the mighty Lenit range into Behbehan; the
Kohgclu with their divisions aud minor tribes occupying part of the
same districts; and lastly, the Bakhtiari, who are popularly supposed
to come from Balkh, and said to speak pure Persian patois, now certainly
the mnst proiniuenl tribe in Southern Persia uuder the direct govern­
ment of Ispahan, whose summer aud winter quarters stretch from the
Karun to Ispahan, and march with those of the Kashgae and the
Mamasseni. This with regard to Fare, for properly the Governor of
Arabistan, now Hishraefc-ed-Dowlah
f Now dead.
(Sd.) E. C. Ross. (Hamza Mirzaf), uncle of the Shah, and
brother to the Prince Governor of Fare,
is the ruler to whom the Bakhtiari Chief is subordinate; but as their
tribes are scattered in Fare, as well as in Arabistan, i.e., in districts
sufljrdinate to the Ispahan Government, not Fare as a governorship,
those which are in Ispahan are subject to the Zil-cs-Sult£n, and the
remainder are subject to the Governor
t All now under Hu Roval Highi
Zil-eaSultao. 1881. of Arabistan. J The Mamasseni, on the
... other hand, are under the immediate
jurisdiction of the Behbeh£n Government, and the Kashgae under Fare.
The government of Behbehdn may, however, I think, be described as
* Lieutenant-Governorship dependant on Fare.}
* ' * • « * « *
(2.) The Turkish Ee1iy£b, comprising the Kashgae, formerly a
puwer in Fars, but now poor and broken, and too near the Shiraz power
C