Page 34 - PERSIAN 5 1905_1911_Neat

24 ADMINISTRATION BKI»ORT ON THE PER8IAN GULP POLITICAL

Several visits wore paid to the Truoial and Northern Oman Coast and
two interesting land journeys were undertaken, the first during October and
November from Bunder Dilam to Behbehan, tlienco along the course of the
Hindiyan river to its mouth, and onwards via Mashoor and the Jerrahi river
to Buziyob and Fellahieli. Finally the Babmashir Canal and the ruins of
Guban were oxplored and the expedition, in which the Resident waB
accompanied by Lieutenant C. H. Gabriel and a surveyor, terminated at
Mohammerah.
In the following December an expedition was made from Ras-al-Khaima
on the Trucial Coast to Baraimi in the Dhabireb and thence to the coast at
Sohar where the Lawrence was in waiting. The primary object of this
journey was to fix accurately the latitude and longitude of Baraimi with a
view to the correction of the map in preparation for the new gazetteer. The
Resident was accompanied by Lieutenant C. Scott of the Indian Marine.
Sixty-three slaves who had taken refuge at Bushire, Bunder Abbas,
Lingah and Bahrein, were manumitted
Slave Trade.
during the year.
Shiraz and As was anticipated in last year’s report the grain crops were excellent
Pars.
Birrcit. with the exception of barley, of which a
less quantity than usual was grown.
This probably resulted from the fact that many of the peasants, taught by
the experience of the preceding year, had sown large areis with millet and
maize, which they reserved for their own use. A satisfactory sign was the
appearance of flourishing cotton crops in the immediate vicinity of Shiraz.
Shiraz was in a constant state of anarchy and unrest throughout the
year, the direct result of the oppressive
Political Situation.
and unscrupulous Government of His
Imperial Highness the Sboa-es-Sultaneh, the second but favourite son of His
Majesty the Shah. In his Vazier, the Sardar-i-Akram, he seems to have
found a congenial colleague if not a guiding spirit throughout the course of
intolerr.jle misgovernment into which he threw himself.
Early in June a fanatical movement directed by Mirza Ibrahim,a hading
Mulla, was started against the Jews, who for five or six days in succession were
assaulted in the Moslem quarters of the town and their felt Kulahs (caps)
torn to pieces, the Moslems demanding that the community should wear a
distinctive head dress.
On 4th June these assaults were brought to His Majesty’s Consul's
notice and he at once addressed a note to the Governor-General and paid a
visit to the Jewush quarter.
On 22nd June a Jew was shot dead in the immediate neighbourhood of
Shiraz and his co-religionists on attempting to take the body to the Palace were
prevented with considerable brutality by the Governor's Ferrasbes.
This persecution of Jews continued intermittently throughout the year
as will presently be seen.
In August 1905, by order of the Sardar-i-Akram two raids were
committed on the village of Kushk-i-Bidah belonging to Prince Jamal-ud-din,
a great grandson of Fatb-Ali-Shah residing at Shiraz. The pretext given
but apparently fallacious, was that the villagers had killed a Persian coesack
•who had been sent there to effect an arrest. In these two raids, crops to the
value of no less than 20,000 tomans were destroyed, and the incident gave
rise to much popular indignation in Shiraz.
A little later on, at the beginning of September, Mirza Agba Haicim, a
Munshi in the employment of the Kawam-ul-Mulk, was arrested and put in
prison and blackmail of 26,000 Krans demanded from him on tbe groan
that he had assisted the Kawam in appealing to Tehran agwnst
misappropriation by tbe Governor-General of lands held by him m net.
The Zargham-ud-Dowleh, who in the preceding June had k0en °**s
from the position of Ilkbani of the Kashkais in favour of his younger brotner
the Sowlet-ud-Dowleh and had since been kept under 8?lPer^1® . hv tue
8ardar-i-Akram'B house, was on 17th September thrown mto 7
orders of the Governor-General and closely confined, on the pre