The Press.

Of Persian Journalism, which has been the most powerful modernizing influence in Persia, I have treated so fully in Development of the Press in Persia. a previous monograph on the subject * that little need be said here, save by way of summary. Printing was introduced into Persia about a century ago by 'Abbás Mírzá, and the first Persian newspaper appeared about A.D. 1851, in the third year of Náṣiru'd-Dín Sháh's reign. It was soon followed by others, but these early news-sheets, issued by the Government, were entirely colourless, and even when I was in Persia in 1887-8 the Five earlier newspapers of importance. only Persian newspaper worth reading was the Akhtar (“Star”), published weekly at Constantinople. It was founded in 1875, and lasted about twenty years. Prince Malkom Khán's Qánún (“Law”) appeared in 1890 and was printed and published in London, but in consequence of its violent attacks on the Persian Government, the Sháh, and his Ministers, its circulation in Persia was prohibited. The Calcutta Ḥablu'l-Matín first appeared in 1893, the Thurayyá (“Pleiades”) in Cairo in 1898, and the Parwarish, which replaced it, in 1900. These were the most important Persian papers published outside The best postRevolution newspaper. Persia, and it was not until 1907, when the Revolution was an accomplished fact, and the conflict between King and Parliament was at its height, that independent and influential newspapers began to appear in Persia itself. Amongst the most interesting of these from a literary point of view I should place the Ṣúr-i-Isráfíl (“Trumpet of Isráfíl”—the Angel of the Resurrection), the Nasím-i-Shimál (“Breeze of the North”), the Muṣáwát (“Equality”), and the Naw Bahár (“Early Spring”).

The Ṣúr-iIsráfíl and its Charand. Parand. The first, second, and fourth of these supplied me with many fine poems from the pens of Dakhaw, Sayyid Ashraf of Gílán, and Bahár of Mashhad, for my Press and Poetry in Modern Persia, but the Charand-parand (“Charivari”) column of the Ṣúr-i-Isráfíl also contained some excellent and original prose writing of which I shall now give two specimens, since they are unlike anything else which I have met with in Persian. Both are by Dakhaw: the first appeared in No. 1 of the Ṣúr-i-Isráfíl (May 30, 1907); the second in No. 2 (June 6, 1907).

Translation.

“After several years travelling in India, seeing the invisible saints, * and acquiring skill in Alchemy, Talismans and Necromancy, * thank A cure for opium-eating. God, I have succeeded in a great experiment; no less than a method for curing the opium-habit! If any one in any foreign country had made such a discovery, he would certainly have received decorations and rich rewards, and his name would have been mentioned with honour in all the newspapers. But what can one do, since in Persia no one recognizes merit?

“Custom is a second nature, and as soon as one becomes habituated to any act, one cannot easily abandon it. The only curative method is to reduce it gradually by some special procedure, until it is entirely forgotten.

“To all my zealous, opium-eating, Muslim brethren I now proclaim the possibility of breaking the opium-habit, thus. First, they must be firmly determined and resolved on abandoning it. Secondly, one who, for example, eats two mithqáls * of opium daily should every day diminish this dose by a grain (nukhúd) and add two grains of morphine in its stead. One who smokes ten mithqáls of opium should daily reduce the amount by one grain, adding instead two grains of ḥashísh (Indian hemp). Thus he should persevere until such time as the two mithqáls of opium which he eats are replaced by four mithqáls of morphine, or the ten mithqáls of opium which he smokes by twenty mithqáls of ḥashísh. After this it is very easy to substitute for morphine pills hypodermic injections of the same, and for ḥashísh ‘curds of Unity.’ * O my zealous, opium-eating brethren, seeing that God has made matters so easy, why do you not save yourselves from the annoyance of men's foolish chatter, and the waste of all this time and money? Change of habit, if it be effected in this way, does not cause illness and is a very easy matter.

“Moreover great and eminent men who wish to make people forget some evil habit act in precisely this way. See, for example, how well indeed the poet says that intelligence and fortune are closely connected with one another. For example, when our great men consider that the people are poor and cannot eat wheaten bread, and that the peasant must spend all his life in cultivating wheat, yet must himself remain hungry, see what they do.

“On the first day of the year they bake the bread with pure wheat-flour. On the second day in every hundredweight (kharwár) they put a maund of bitter apricot stones, barley, fennel-flower, sawdust, lucerne, sand—I put it shortly as an illustration—clods, brick-bats and bullets of eight mithqáls. It is evident that in a hundredweight of corn, which is a hundred maunds, one maund of these things will not be noticed. On the second day they put in two maunds, on the third three, and after a hundred days, which is three months and ten days, a hundred maunds of wheat-flour have become a hundred maunds of bitter apricot stones, barley, fennel-flower, sawdust, chaff, lucerne and sand, and that in such fashion that no one has noticed it, while the wheaten bread habit has entirely passed out of men's minds.

“In truth intelligence and fortune are closely connected with one another!

“O my zealous, opium-eating brethren! Assuredly you know that man is a little world, and has the closest resemblance to the great world; that is to say, for example, that whatever is possible for man may happen also in the case of animals, trees, stones, clods, doors, walls, mountains and seas; and that whatever is possible for these is possible also for men, because man is the microcosm, while these form part of the macrocosm. For example, I wanted to say this, that just as it is possible to put a habit out of men's minds, even so is it possible to put a habit out of the minds of stones, clods, and bricks, because the closest resemblance exists between the microcosm and the macrocosm. What sort of a man, then, is he who is less than even a stone or a clod?

“For example, the late mujtahid Ḥájji Shaykh Hádí * built a hospital and settled on it certain endowments so that eleven sick persons might always be there. So long as Ḥájji Shaykh Hádí was alive the hospital was accustomed to receive eleven patients. But as soon as Ḥájji Shaykh Hádí departed this life, the students of the college said to his eldest son, ‘We will recognize you as the Master only when you spend the hospital endowments on us!’ See now what this worthy eldest son did by dint of knowledge. In the first month he reduced the number of patients by one, in the second by two, in the third by three, in the fourth by four; and so in like fashion until the present time, when the number of patients has been reduced to five, and gradually, by this excellent device, these few also will disappear in the course of the next five months. See then how by wise management it is possible to expel habit from the minds of every one and every thing, so that a hospital which was accustomed to eleven patients has entirely forgotten this habit without falling ill. Why? Because it also forms part of the macrocosm, so that it is possible to drive a habit out of its mind, just as in the case of man, who is the microcosm.”

“Dakhaw.”

Translation.

Charand-parand. City letter.

“Kablá'í * Dakhaw!

“In old days you used sometimes to be a help to people: if any A modern Persian Ephialtes. difficulty befel your friends, you used to solve it. Latterly, there being no sign or sound of you, I kept telling myself that perhaps you too had taken to opium and were lolling * at the foot of the brazier in the corner of the room. Now don't tell me that * you, you queer mug, * quietly, without any one's knowledge (I do not know whether in order to study Alchemy, Talismans and Necromancy, as you have written in the Ṣúr-i-Isráfíl) have cut and run to India. Surely then you have found the key to a treasure also! At any rate, if I have entertained an unworthy suspicion of you, you must forgive me: I ask your pardon! Anyhow, praise be to God, you have got safely back, a lasting cause of thankfulness, for you have come at just the right moment, seeing that affairs are all topsy-turvy.