Page 184 - PERSIAN 2 1879_1883_Neat

1G ADMINISTRATION RETORT OP TIIE PERSIAN GULF POLITICAL

APPENDIX B TO TART I.
Extracts from a Report by Captain E. L. Durand, lately Assist­
ant Resident, on Men and Internal Politics of Pars.
The population of Farsmay bo resolved into two distinct elements
the settled and the nomad. The first known as the “ Delicti/” or " Deh-
nishm” (the dwellers in villages), quiet, cowardly, and inoffousivc.
The second known as the Eeliyat, or Chfidar-nishin, the tribes [from
the Mongol] or dwellers in tents; who* form a most characteristic and
most interesting part of the. population, which from its character, tur­
bulent spirit, recklessness, and intestine quarrelling, modifies or deter­
mines to a great extent the policy of the local Government. It is true
that Government itself often favors these intestine brawls to serve its
own ends, but the spirit of lawlessness is too strong to be easily kept
down.

The Dehdti, or Deh-nishin, would appear to have been attached
from time immemorial to the soil, and forms the class of labourers and
agriculturists. I am told that it is an open question whether they are
not the descendants of an ancient aboriginal race which was probably
subdued when the Iranian tribe separating from their Aryan brethren
in India invaded Persia, and which from that time probably had to
adapt themselves to the language of their conquerors. It is very pos­
sible that physiological facts may lead up to such a conclusion which
would be quite analogous to what has been observed in other countries
now occupied by other branches of the Aryan race. As a confirmation
of this view, it is urged that the shape of the skull of these races, and
the shape of those of the pure Arab and Turkish tribes, present a
marked difference in size and direction of development, and that the
peculiar Aryan shape is most marked in some of these village population.
To an ordinary observer or traveller, however, the general characteristics
of the race do not differ from the surrounding populations to such an
extent as to call immediate attention to its peculiarity as is the case in
India with Bhils, Gonds, and such like, probably aboriginal inhabitants.
However this may be, it is very certain that on the shores of the Gulf,
for at any rate some thousand years, there has been a constant influx
of Arab blood, and there are villages, such as (Jhakutah, Abutavil, and
others between Bushire and Borasgun, inhabited by Arabs who still
speak with, I believe, small variations, their original mother tongue.
The Arabs came first as conquerors, afterwards as settlers and
traders, and no doubt otherwise Arab tribes or broken remnants of tribes
have, at various times, drifted into Iran from the head of the Gulf.
Arab blood would seem also to be very noticeable to the southward
.towards Lingah and Bunder Abbass, where a part of the villages
(Persian) are Sunnis.
Towards the north and interior again the village populations have
received contingents from Khorassan and even from. Russia. At Duzd-
i-Kurd [a corruption of Diz-i-Kurd, the fort of the Kurds] there art