Page 186 - PERSIAN 2 1879_1883

18 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OP THE TKRSIAN GULF POLITICAL

to have much chance of regaining their former status and wealth.
Those known as the Ecl-i-Kbamesh, of which I am informed there is
also an Arab tribe, and a number of smaller tribes brought down
forcibly, or attracted at various times, from the northern parts of Persia,
and the Caucasian provinces of Russia. #
(3.) The Arab Eeliytfts who emigrated some centuries ar>o, and
still speak an Arab patois. With these I have as yet no personal ac­
quaintance; they are generally held to be a very troublesome and dan­
gerous element amongst the populations, being nomadic and turbulent
in the extreme. Those lying within the bounds of the Government of
Fars would seem to be principally wandering in countries, as yet unex­
plored by Europeans, between Yezd and Shiraz, having summer quarters
in the hills of Baonat and other places.
There is still, however, another element in the population, viz.,
the inhabitants of the big towns, who would seem to be a mixture of the
Persian original aud the scum of the stranger; such Turkish Eeliyats
and others who, from the breaking up of their whole tribes severe
pressure of taxation, or other causes, have become disintegrated, and
clung in small parties to the nearest rock of shelter, such asylum being
in most cases a large town as being presumably able to afford them
protection, and at any rate a present refuge from the attacks of stronger
nomad brethren with whom they would in their broken state be unable
to cope, and near whose grazing grounds they could not venture. As
an example, I would mention the fate of the once powerful Lak tribes,
who, it is said, came down during the reign of Nadir Shah and Karim
Khan Zeud from their own country round Kirmansliah. These having
lost sight of their tribal duties have no longer a name amongst the Eels,
but have been gradually and completely absorbed into the town popu­
lations.
The heads or the rulers of nomad tribes, usually styled Eel-Khani and
Eel-Begi, are, I believe, invariably chosen from amongst themselves, and
apparently in an arbitrary manner, every year, if necessary, by the ruler
for the time being, although, naturally enough, from the leading families
in wealth or power; the former attribute, it is almost needless to say,
depending very generally on the latter.
The present Eel-Begi of the Kasbgaes, though a well known man,
Wing the brother of a better known Zohrab Khan, who had his throat
cut by the orders of the Prince Motaraid-ed-Dowlab, does not belong
to the best families apparently, but is the creature of IhtisbAm-ed-
Dowlah, who saved him from death when the hangman's noose baa
already begun to tighten. He received his kbillut to the exclusion of
Nasirulla Khan, the late Eel-Begi, on a promise of paying an enhanced
revenue of 6,000 tomans. This he will have to wring from the already
impoverished brethren of his tribes, and, to do him justice, no qualm*
of conscience are likely to stand in his way when making the attempt
A bard man and fanatical. If the stories about him and his own hand­
some hard countenance are to be believed, he will go for the object in
view with cynical determination.
I asked Haji Nasirulla Khan, the man whom he had supplanted,
how it was possible for him to do this. The reply was, he cannot,