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Turkey in Asia: Persia
RESOURCES. Persia has plenty of good agricultural land, and what crops are grown thrive abundantly. Persia would be a rich agricultural country were it not for the vicious government and the ignorance of the inhabitants. Rice, wheat, barley and maize, cotton, tobacco, opium, and silk are grown. Fruits, vegetables, and flowers grow in most luxurious abundance. There is plenty of valuable timber. Iron, copper, lead, antimony, salt, and sulphur are among the minerals, and they are entirely neglected. There are diamond mines in Khorassan. Bitumen, naphtha, and petroleum are found at various points, but have not been utilized. The pearl fisheries in the Persian gulf are the largest in the world. Commerce is unimportant. The revenue and expenditure average £2,100,000 each yearly.
RELIGION AND Government. - The State religion is Mohammedan, and the "Shiahs " are the ruling sect. Of the fire worshippers who once ruled Persia only a few thousand remain. There are from 18,000 to 20,000 Jews, and perhaps as many Nestorian and and Armenian Christians, but the dissenting sects do not flourish, and are greatly despised by the orthodox. The Government has an unlimited despotism, the Shah being perhaps the most absolute monarch in the world. The koran, modified by bribery, is the law.
HISTORY.-Persian history may be said to begin with the revolt against the Medes, 600 в. C.. About 635 A. D. the fire worshippers gave way to the Moslems, and the country was governed from Bagdad. A native dynasty was established A. D. 868, and for many years Persia was subject to civil troubles. The Mongols overran Persia during the 13th century, and again by Tamerlane in the 14th. Russia has gradually been encroaching on Persia during the last half century, and Persia has lost control of Georgia, Crivan, and many other provinces of the N.-W. ARABIA.
This country consists of a peninsula lying between 12° 40' and 34° N. lat. and 32° 30' and 60° long., with a length of about 1500 m., a breadth of 900 m. (Suez to Bassorah), and an area of more than 1,000,000 sq. m. Its sea-coast is over 1200 m. long, and a large proportion of the country is an arid, sandy desert. On the shores of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf there is however, considerable good and fertile land. The Arabs claim descent from Ishmael, and have always been a wild and independent people of nomadic instincts. Their history proper begins with the advent of the prophet Mohammed and the foundation of the Caliphate. There are properly from 12 to 15 million inhabitants of the Peninsula, of whom all but a few Guebres (fire worshippers), some negroes, and a few Jews, are Mohammedans. Coffee, believed to be indigenous, is one of the chief articles of export, and balm, frankincense, gum arabic, cassia, and other drugs and spices grow freely. Wheat, barley, beans, millet, and lentils form the food of the natives, and almonds, dates, and tamarinds are largely exported. The Rivers of Arabia are few and unimportant; the heat is intense, and little rain falls at any season.
OMAN. 1 Sultan or Sovereign-Seyyid Turki bin Said, suc. Jan. 1871. Omān is a Mohammedan state in S.-E. Arabia, with a coast line of about 1500 m. along the gulf of Persia, the Gulf of Oman, and the Arabian Sea, an area of 81,000 sq. m., and a population of 1,600,000. There also belong to it two small territories on the Mekran coast of Persia and Baluchistan. Zanzibar, on the African coast, was a dependency of Oman until 1856. The population of Oman is chiefly Arab, but three is besides a considerable foreign element, consisting of Banians and Khojas from Western India, Persians, Abyssinians, Somalis, and Nubians. The chief productions are dates, grain, fruit, and sugar; and the fisheries are very productive. The exports are dates, cloth, salt, fruits, pearls, dried fish, and matting. The imports are sugar, rice, piece-goods, coffee, wheat, raw silk, cotton, etc. The rainfall is very scanty, averaging about 6 in. annually. Muscat, the capital, with 60,000 inhabitants, trades with India, the Persian Gulf, Batavia, Zanzibar, and Yemen, but has little direct intercourse with Europe. AFGHANISTAN.
Ameer-Abdur Rahman Khan; proclaimed 1880.
This is the name usually applied to the great elevated plateau situated to the N. of Beloochistan and extending from the Hindoo-Koosh to the Persian frontier. Speaking generally its boundaries may be given as from 30° to 36º N. lat. and from 62° to 70º E. long. Its extreme length E. and W. is about 600 m., its greatest breadth 400 m., and in the entire absence of surveys its area may be estimated at nearly 279,000 sq. m. Much of this country is, however, practically independent of the rule of the Ameer of Afghanistan, and peopled by tribes differing in many respects from the Afghans proper. The plateau has an average elevation of 4000 ft., and there are many mountain ranges of great height. The country is fairly well watered by the Kabul, Helmand, Arghandab, Lora, Khashrud, Farrah, and other streams, and contains some lakes, mostly saline. Kabul, Ghazni, Kandahar, and Herat are the chief cities. No country of equal extent presents such diversities of climate. In Kabul the snow lies for 2 or 3 months, and at Ghazni the thermometer, sinks to 10º and even 15º below zero (Fahr.). On the other hand, the heat at Girihsk and all through Kandahar during the summer is intense, sometimes reaching in August 115° to 120º Fahr., while the simoons render life almost insupportable. So great is the difference in elevation that it has been said of Kabul that at a day's journey from it snow never falls, and at two hours' journey snow never melts.
RESOURCES.-The soil of Afghanistan varies as much as its climate. There are sandy wastes, rocky mountain slopes, and fruitful valleys well watered and sheltered from the winds. On the terraces up to a height of 6000 or 7000 ft. all the fruits and vegetables of Europe do well. In the S. the sugar-cane and cotton are grown, while in the oases of the sandy districts the date-palm abounds and forms a large part of the food of the people, though wheat is the staple. Rice, millet, barley, corn, lentils, and tobacco are grown for home consumption. Madder, saffron, and the castoroil plant, are also cultivated, the greater part of the product being exported. The mulberry flourishes in the cool valleys and is used for the rearing of silk worms. successful prosecution of agricultural pursuits is impossible, however, in a country where war is the chief occupation of the inhabitants, where there is no settled government, and where the methods of cultivation have remained unchanged for centuries. The population increases very slowly, if at all, and even with the rude and imperfect The system of agriculture which is in vogue, sufficient food is raised for the subsistence of the inhabitants.
GOVERNMENT.- The government is a monarchy, but the authority of the ruler over such turbulent subjects is very uncertain. The kingdom is divided into provinces, in each of which is an officer who collects the taxes. In the towns justice is administered by the cadis, but they are rarely resorted to, the Afghan generally preferring to avenge his own wrongs, especially where blood has been shed the killing of the murderer becoming a family duty. The natives are divided into clans over which the chiefs exercise a species of supremacy.
POPULATION.-As to the population, it may be anywhere between 2,500,000 and 5,000,000.
BELOOCHISTAN. - This country is situated between lat. 24° 50′ and 30° 20' N., and long. 60° 40' and 69° 18' E.; is bounded on the N. by Afghanistan, E. by Sinde, S. by the Indian Ocean, and W. by Persia; has an area of about 106,000 sq, m., and a population estimated anywhere from 400,000 to four times that number, the lowest figures being probably nearest to the truth. It is a rugged and barren country, with few rivers; a sea-coast of 600 m. without a single good harbor; without roads, and inhabited by a predatory horde of untamable semi-savages, governed nominally by a Khan, but practically in a state of anarchy, with neither literature nor laws, and almost unknown to the civilized world. The people consist of two tribes, the Baluchees and the Brahoes, who differ considerably in appearance and language, and who are subdivided into an infinite number of minor tribes. Khelat, the nominal capital, is near the frontiers of Afghanistan, and contains perhaps 10,000 inhabitants. Both the tribes are Mohammedans, and the Baluchees are supposed to be of Arabian or Syrian descent; the Brahoes being probably descendants of the ancient inhabitants of the Punjab. Agriculture is practised to some extent in the neighborhood of Khelat, the cereals, dates, cotton, indigo, and other productions similar to those of Bengal and N. India, attaining great perfection. Fruits and vegetables of all kinds thrive in the province of Cutch, but most of the hill country is sterile, and the arid plains of Kharan are unfitted for agriculture. The principal wealth of the inhabitants consists in their flocks of sheep, goats, and other animals, and in herds of buffaloes and black cattle. Camels, asses, horses, and mules are plentiful. The habits of the natives are nomadic, much resembling those of the Tartars or Bedouins, residence in a town or a settled life being something unendurable. ANNAM.