From Moscow To The Persian Gulf

FROM MOSCOW TO THE PERSIAN GULF BEING THE JOURNAL OF A DISENCHANTED TRAVELLER IN TURKESTAN AND PERSIA BY BENJAMIN BURGES MOORE HE THAT INCREASETH KNOWLEDGE INCREASETH SORROW WITH 160 ILLUSTRATIONS AND A MAP G. P. PUTNAMS SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON TEbe Tknfcfcerbocfeer press 1915 COPYRIGHT, 1915 BY BENJAMIN SURGES MOORE TO MY MOTHER The path of a good woman is indeed strewn with flowers but they rise behind her steps, not before them. It was the unstinted, and instructed, and ex perienced hospitality of the . English . . . that made my visit profitable and enjoyable. COLLIER The West in the East. FOREWORD ALL the books I have ever read about Persia, have been more or less rose-coloured encourag ing persons who like myself dreamed of how they might one day visit the land of Iran, hallowed by history and by memories of the lovely art it produced in epochs that shall never return. When at last I travelled in Persia, I found it. disappoint ing nevertheless my journey was so instructive, so diversified by amusing incidents, and offered so much that was curious or picturesque, I would not willingly have foregone it. I have therefore thought that pages whose one aim is sedulously to describe the country as it really is, might have a value of their own however slight not possessed even by masterpieces of rhythm and romance such as Lotis Vers Ispahan while stating frankly all that was disagreeable, I have, however, endeavoured to bring out the beauty of many places in Persia, and avoid in my narrative the monotony which so frequently characterized the scenery. It would be a subject for regret, should anything I have written convey the idea that I consider my unfavourable opinion of Persia and herpeoplj definitive even for myself I have merely noted a viii Foreword travellers passing impressions as accurately as possible, not pretending to judge a historic race by the observation of a single visit. I leave the book in the shape of a journal, believing it to be both a form that has in English greater novelty than that of more ambitious works, and also one permitting a more personal expression. B. B. M. NEW YORK, May, CONTENTS PAGE I. MOSCOW TO ASKABAD .... I II. ASKABAD TO MASHHAD . . 71 III. MASHHAD TO TIHRAN . . . .119 IV. TIHRAN TO ISFAHAN .... 225 V. ISFAHAN TO SHIRAZ . . . .291 VI. SHIRAZ TO BUSHIR . . . .381 INDEX 445