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HISTORY OF BUSHIRE—SHEIK NASR—THE NASAKCHEE BASHEE, THE CHIEF EXECUTIONER DISPATCHED FROM SHIRAZ AGAINST THE SHEIK ABDULLAH RESOUL; VISITS THE ENVOY: VISIT RETURNED—DIFFICULTIES OF THE SHEIK—HIS SEIZURE—CONSTERNATION OF THE TOWN—PRECAUTIONS OF THE ENVOY—EXPLANATION OF THE NASAKCHEE BASHEE—SUCCESSOR OF THE SHEIK, MAHOMED NEBEE KHAN—ASSUMPTION OF THE GOVERNMENT BY THE NASAKCHEE BASHEE—MAHOMMED JAFFER APPOINTED PROVISIONALLY; DISGRACED; RESTORED—RECEIVES A KALAAT—CEREMONY—FATE OF THE LATE SHEIK OF BUSHIRE.

The history of the Sheik of Bushire, who had received us on our landing, added the principal interest to our subsequent residence in his country. Our stay was marked by the subversion of his power and of the Arab rule; and the journal of every day naturally contained ample accounts of the progress of an event, which was locally so prominent and important. The travellers of the last century, who mentioned his predecessors, may possibly direct some little curiosity to the fortunes of their descendant; but without any previous interest in the persons, the tale of the present day may excite attention as a practical illustration of the principles of an eastern government.

The coast of the gulph was lined for ages with the petty sovereignties of Arab Sheiks,12 who, while they occupied the shores of Persia, yielded a very uncertain obedience to the monarch of the interior. The degrees indeed of service paid were probably at all times measured more by the character and relative force of the different parties, than by any original stipulations. Nadir and Kerim Khan in vain endeavoured to reduce these Arab chiefs to more complete obedience: but in many districts their authority was scarcely acknowledged, and except in partial remissions, still more seldom felt. Among these chiefs, Sheik Nasr, of Bushire, long retained a real independance. The Dashtistan, the low country under the hills, was his province; and in all the turbulence of his age, this territory and more immediately the country round Bushire, was still the place of security. In one instance indeed, memorable in the latter history of Persia,13 the resources of Bushire supported the sinking fortunes of the last dynasty. Lootf Ali Khan, after the murder of his father Jaffier Khan, king of Persia, fled for refuge to Sheik Nasr. The Sheik, in memory of his ancient attachment to Jaffier Khan, received the prince with the warmest hospitality, and gathering the Arab tribes under his controul, resolved to lead them in the cause which was thus trusted to his honour. The prince in the mean time prepared, by letters, his friends at Shiraz to second their operations; and the measures were continued with secrecy and success, when, in the words of the Persian historian,14 “The boat of Sheik Nasr Khan’s existence from the beating waves of the sea of life, had received considerable injury; and the bark of his age, from the irresistible tempest of death was overwhelmed in the sea of mortality.” In his last moments the Sheik committed to his son the duty which he was no longer permitted to execute himself. The son fulfilled his father’s charge with faithfulness: in two or three months he had assembled a large force of Arab tribes15, and advanced with them towards Shiraz: when a conspiracy in the camp of their enemy enabled them in the first instance to succeed without a battle, and eventually to reinstate on his throne the Prince who was confided to them. The story marks the character of the two nations more fully, if the history of Lootf Ali Khan, before his flight to Bushire, be recollected. Although his father had reigned in Persia for a long time (compared with the usurpations which preceded,) although himself had long accustomed the people to serve and triumph with him, yet in the first moment of distress (the arrival of the intelligence of his father’s slaughter, and of the orders of the conspirators to seize him), even in his own camp he was left unsupported by all. Five, indeed, fled with him in the night to Bushire; but in the morning the whole camp had dispersed without an effort; and all had submitted to the usurpers. The contrast now begins: the Prince threw himself on the protection of the Arabs, the vassals or allies of his father; he was welcomed with the most warm fidelity, supported by their honour, and restored by their valour to his throne.

The Sheik of Bushire, who in his dying charge had bequeathed this cause to his successor, is still remembered in his general conduct with reverence. Whenever his little domain was threatened either by the Government of Persia, or by a neighbouring chief, Sheik Nasr flew to arms. According to the traditional accounts of the country, his summons to his followers in these emergencies was equally characteristic and effectual. He mounted two large braziers of Pillau on a camel, and sent it to parade round the country. The rough pace of the animal put the ladles in motion, so that they struck the sides of the vessels at marked intervals, and produced a most sonorous clang. As it traversed the Dashtistan, it collected the mob of every district; every one had tasted the Arab hospitality of the Sheik, and every one remembered the appeal, and crowded round the ancient standard of their chief, till his camel returned to him surrounded by a force sufficient to repel the threatened encroachments. In every new emergency the camel was again sent forth, and all was again quiet.

The territory, therefore, of Bushire, and the neighbouring district, remained under the rule of the Arabs, unviolated by the successive Princes, who have conquered and retained so large a portion of the rest of Persia. But Abdullah Resoul, the grandson of Sheik Nasr, inherited the office only of his predecessor, and possessed no qualities which could command the affections and the services of his people; and though at the time of our landing the government was vested in him as the descendant of the ancient possessors, it was obviously improbable that Bushire, which had now become the principal port of Persia, would be suffered to remain long under the administration of a young Arab, of sluggish, dissolute, and unwarlike habits.

In the evening of the 16th Oct. (the day after our landing), the Sheik of Bushire, escorted by several of the principal men of the town, paid a visit to the Envoy. They had not sat long, when a man came in and whispered something in the ear of one of the visitants, which caused the Sheik to arise, take a hasty leave, and gallop at full speed into the town. The Government of Shiraz had sent a body of men to seize him. He had just time to reach Bushire before the party of Shiraz horsemen could overtake him. He immediately mustered all his little force, planted a guard on the walls, and himself kept constant watch at the gates. He had indeed anticipated the probable designs of the Court of Shiraz; and, though now apparently resolved on the last resistance, he had already taken the precaution of shipping most of his property on his own vessels, and with them meditated to retire to Bussora.

The commander of the Shiraz horsemen, to whom the commission was intrusted, was Mahomed Khan, the Nasakchee Bashee, an office not ill understood by that of chief executioner16. He is always employed, at least, in seizing state prisoners, though his personal character is rather opposite to the duties of his situation; for to the facetiousness of his temper, according to the report of his countrymen, he owes the favour of the Prince of Shiraz, and through that favour, his office; and, as a second consequence, the monopoly of tobacco17. In the discharge of his functions the Nasakchee Bashee is generally supposed to realize in every commission a considerable sum, besides the maintenance of himself and his followers at the expence of the individuals against whom he may successively be sent. While he waited the accomplishment of his present attempt, he remained encamped at a short distance from the town. About twelve o’clock on the 18th, he made a visit of ceremony to the Envoy. He was attended by eighteen men, himself alone mounted on a horse; on his arrival he seated himself on a couch next to Sir Harford Jones, and his men extended themselves in two rows to the right and left before him. The conversation consisted of mutual compliments about health, the hopes of continued amity between Persia and England, and the never failing topic the weather. The whole party wore the black sheep-skin cap (the dress of every rank of Persians), and almost all had pistols in their girdles; some had muskets, and all, except the Khan’s own body servants, had swords. Most of them also wore the green and high-heeled slippers of ceremony, and every man had a full black beard. On the day of this visit, the Sheik, as a douceur perhaps to engage the Envoy’s interference in his cause, sent him a present of two horses.

On the 20th. I went on the part of the Envoy to return the visit of the Nasakchee Bashee. He was encamped among some date trees; and living in the remains of a house which was all in ruins, but which he had screened up with mats to keep off the sun and wind. A clean mat was spread on the floor, carpets were arranged all around, and his bed and cushions were rolled up in one corner: over the carpet, on which he sate himself, was a covering of light blue chintz. When we were within a hundred yards, we saw him walking about; but as soon as he perceived our approach, he seated himself in the place of honour, and did not pay us the compliment of rising when we entered. I made him a civil speech in Turkish, and he in return asked after the Envoy’s health. He seemed, indeed, much pleased with the epithet of Effendi, which I used frequently in addressing him, but which, as I afterwards learned, is never applied in Persia to any but very great men. His vanity was accordingly much flattered; and he exclaimed to his attendants, that I was “Khoob Jouani,” a fine fellow. When we had exhausted all our compliments, we took our leave.

The mission on which he was dispatched to Bushire originated in the following circumstances. Some years ago, the Sheik had been required by the Governor of Farsistan to furnish a certain sum of money. He pleaded poverty: he was ordered to borrow; and to obviate every difficulty, he was told that a particular person would advance the money, at an interest indeed prescribed by the same authority which dictated the amount of the capital. The Nasakchee Bashee was now sent to enforce the immediate repayment of the capital and interest, which together had swelled to twenty-eight thousand tomauns, a sum nearly equal to the same number of pounds sterling. To save his authority, and perhaps his head, the Sheik endeavoured to accommodate the present difficulty by offering to pay down five thousand tomauns, and to secure the rest by instalments. This, however, was refused; and the unfortunate Sheik accordingly gave immediate and public notice of the sale of his effects, his horses, mules, and asses; and in the course of a few days raised fifty thousand piastres.

Still the hope of a less rigorous arrangement was not entirely excluded: the Sheik, attended by the principal men of the town, and with a strong guard (so stationed that the signal of a moment could bring them to his assistance) visited the Khan. The Khan indeed had sworn that he would not molest the Sheik “at present;” though, when asked to extend the oath to every visit or opportunity, he replied that he would not answer for the directions which he might receive from his government. Two days after the visit, we observed a party of forty horsemen arrive at the Khan’s encampment, who probably bore the last orders of the Court.

On the 25th of Oct. the Envoy received an intimation of a visit, jointly from the Sheik and the Nasackchee Bashee; but he was so much occupied, that at the time he could not accept it. In a few minutes after we heard a great commotion among the servants, and an outcry that the Sheik was seized. By the assistance, indeed, of our glasses we perceived the unfortunate man, with his arms pinioned, surrounded by about twenty horsemen, and dragged away at full speed towards the Shiraz road. It appeared, that trusting in this conditional oath of the Khan, the Sheik had accepted his invitation to visit with him the Envoy, and had gone forth from the town escorted by five men only. On his way to the Envoy, he called for the Khan; and when they were both mounted, the Khan cried out to his men to seize, disarm, and carry off their prisoner.

The consternation of the town was immediate and general. Mr. Bruce, the Assistant Resident, was sent by the Envoy to learn the particulars of its situation: he found the gates shut, and the towers manned, but he gained admittance through the wicket, and saw all the misery and confusion of the crisis. The Sheik’s wives and servants were embarking in great haste on board one of his ships; his Vizir also, Hajee Suliman, was hastening his own preparations to escape. The shops were shut, the streets were crowded with men transporting their households to the sea shore, and their wives and daughters were beating their breasts and crying in loud lamentation. Nor was there a shew of resistance, except on the walls; or a thought of defence: the only hope and the only thought of every man was the preservation of his little fortunes and the honour of his women. The same alarm prevailed in the country; all the poor date-hut villagers flocked for protection into the Factory, and trusted to its walls the security of their families and their scanty wealth. Women and children, their asses and their poultry, were all indiscriminately hurried into the enclosure; and before the evening we saw around us no common scenes of misery and terror.

The Assistant Resident, who had examined this state of things in the town, was sent, on his return, by the Envoy to the Khan, to represent the alarm of the place; and to add, that the Envoy expected that no molestation should be offered to any of the persons belonging to his mission. The Khan was extremely civil, and treated him as usual with coffee and three kaleouns. He informed him on the subject of his commission; that he had orders from his court to seize the Sheik, his cousin, and his Vizir: and then read to him the firman. The firman, in the first place, ordained the act of seizure; and then ordained, that not the smallest molestation should be given to the English, that every possible respect and attention should be shewn to them, and strongly denounced vengeance on any offender; and lastly ordained, that no inhabitant, either of the town or of the villages, should receive the least harm. In his own name, he assured the Assistant Resident, that he was determined to put the firman in its full force; and turning to his followers and guards, cried out, “Woe be to that man who shall be found guilty of giving the smallest offence to any Englishman, or to any of his servants, or to any thing that belongs to him.” He added, indeed, that the present fate of the Sheik was the punishment of his ungracious behaviour to the English;18 and swore, that, for his own part, nothing was so strongly the object of his mind, as the good will of our nation. The Khan further stated, that he had intended, in the proposed visit of the morning in conjunction with the Sheik, first to have read the firman to the Elchee, (the Embassador), and then to have executed it on the Sheik; but the Sheik had tempted him by an opportunity so resistless, that he could not pay the full compliment to the Envoy of delaying the seizure till the communication had been made.

Mahomed Nebee Khan, who is known to the English as the Persian Embassador at Calcutta, had procured the succession to the Government of Bushire, at the price, it was said, of forty thousand tomauns19.

At this moment the Vizir Hajee Suliman was seized on the point of embarkation. The Khan had declared that he would not spare Bushire unless the Vizir was delivered to him. The people, therefore, of his own town intercepted his flight, and surrendered him to the Khan. But the cousin of the Sheik, whose fate was threatened in the same proscription, escaped. There, as in Turkey, and probably in all despotic countries, the guilt, or rather the disgrace, of an individual, entails equal punishment on all his family and adherents.

On the following morning, Mahomed Khan, the Nasakchee Bashee, whose mission had produced these changes, entered Bushire, and assumed the administration of the government. The town was so far tranquillized, indeed, that the Bazars were re-opened. The proclamations which the Khan had issued, pledging security and peace to the inhabitants, had recalled them to their houses; and the example of severe punishment, which he inflicted on one of his own men for stealing the turban of a Jew, operated still more powerfully than his assurances. In the course of the morning we rode to the gates of the town: there was here a large assembly of armed men, for little other purpose indeed than to hear the news and the lies of the day: for a picture, however, the mob was excellent; nothing can be marked more strongly in character, than the hard and parched-up features of the inhabitants of this part of Persia. Though the first consternation had thus subsided, the people had not resumed their daily occupations. In the course of our ride we did not meet a single woman carrying water, or a single ass carrying wood; for the circumstances which had now happened were unparalleled in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, and excited the strongest emotion throughout the country.

In appearance, indeed, the place was already tranquil; but the regulations which the Khan enforced, were too little accommodated to the previous habits of the people to reconcile them to his administration. Some of the most respectable merchants prepared to emigrate, and all beheld with terror the officers of police displaying in the Bazars the preparations for the bastinado, (the justice of Persia), with which they contrasted very favourably the lenient rule of their Arab Chief. In the progress of his government, the Khan still continued to exasperate the principal inhabitants by extorting donations of their goods. When, indeed, Mahomed Jaffer, the brother of the expected Governor, received in his turn such a demand, he not only returned a direct denial, but wrote to the townsmen to arm in revenge, and defend themselves against such requisitions.

In a few days the same Mahomed Jaffer, in obedience to new orders was proclaimed by the Khan, Governor pro tempore till the arrival of his brother; and was invested in this dignity by the girding of a sword on his thigh, an honour which he accepted with a reluctance perhaps not wholly feigned. When he was complimented on the occasion, he replied, “You see to what I am come at last; all would not do: I was obliged to put on this sword.” But the moment that he assumed the government, he followed in his turn all the rigours of his predecessor, and bastinadoed his new subjects without commiseration.

His reign, however, was short: on the 7th of November he was seized by the Khan, (the Nasakchee Bashee), thrown into prison, and fastened to the wall by a chain, said to have been sent expressly from Shiraz for his neck, but in reality intended for that of Hajee Suliman, the late Vizir of Bushire. The cause of his disgrace was his supposed instigation of the flight of the Vizir, who had contrived to escape by sea; and this punishment was to be enforced unless he delivered up the fugitive, or paid twenty thousand tomauns. As the Vice-Governor was unable or unwilling to conform to either requisition, he remained in prison. At length, however, he resolved on attempting the re-capture of the Vizir; and would have undertaken the voyage, if the security, which he offered for his own return, had been deemed sufficient by the Nasakchee Bashee.

In the mean time his release was prepared on easier and surer terms. Mahomed Nebee Khan, the appointed Governor of Bushire, though little friendly to his brother, was yet jealous of the honour of his family, and felt in his own person the indignity which the late punishment of the chain had inflicted on Jaffer. He swore, therefore, that he would not rest till the head of his brother’s enemy was cut off; and as the first act of his influence procured the immediate restoration of his brother to his former offices. Jaffer was accordingly released from the prison where he was chained by the neck, and again seated in the administration.

I must not omit as a specimen of Persian character, the mode of communication which notified this change at Bushire. The Prince’s Messenger that brought the intelligence from Shiraz of the disgrace of the Nasakchee Bashee, came into the presence of Mahomed Jaffer, and told him, “Come, now is the time to open your purse-strings; you are now no longer a merchant or in prison; you are now no longer to sell dungaree, (a species of coarse linen); you are a governor; come, you must be liberal, I bring you good intelligence: if I had been ordered to cut off your head, I would have done it with the greatest pleasure; but now, as I bring you good news, I must have some money.” The man that said this was a servant, and the man that bore it was the new Governor of Bushire.

In a few days Mahomed Jaffer paid us a visit, in appearance perfectly unconscious of the indignities which he had suffered. But the habitual despotism which the people are born to witness, familiarises them so much to every act of violence which may be inflicted on themselves or on others, that they view all events with equal indifference, and go in and out of prison, are bastinadoed, fined, and exposed to every ignominy, with an apathy which nothing but custom and fatalism could produce.

On the 4th of Dec. the restored Vice-Governor was invested with a kalaat, or dress of honour, from the Prince at Shiraz; and his dignities were announced by the discharge of cannon. The form of his investiture was as follows:—Attended by all the great men, and by all his guards (the greater part of whom were the shopkeepers of the Bazar armed for the occasion), the new Governor issued from the town to meet his vest. As soon as he met it he alighted from his horse, and making a certain obeisance was presented with it by the person deputed by the Prince to convey it. The whole party then rode to the spot appointed for the investiture; thither the kalaat was brought in state on a tray, surrounded by other trays decked with sweetmeats. The Governor was here assisted to throw off his old clothes, and to put on his new and distinguishing apparel. The whole present consisted of a ponderous brocade coat with a sash, and another vest trimmed with furs, and valued altogether at one hundred and fifty piastres, though the receiver would pay for the honour (in presents to the bearer and to the Prince in return) the sum, perhaps, of a thousand tomauns. When he was invested, his late clothes were carried away as the perquisite of the servants. After this, the firman was read, declaring the motives which had induced the Prince to confer so marked an honour on Aga Mahomed Jaffer, and then every one present complimented him on the occasion, with a “Moobarek bashed, Good fortune attend you.” After this the company smoked, drank coffee, and eat sweet cakes; and then mounting their horses escorted the Governor into his town. The Governor, in his glittering but uneasy garb, re-entered Bushire, amid the noise of cannon and the bustle of a gaping multitude; and the ceremony closed.

These honours were conferred on Aga Mahomed Jaffer, as a compensation for his late indignities, probably through the influence of his brother; but his brother had a less questionable merit, than that of thus revenging the wrongs of his own family: for to his influence his deposed predecessor owed his life. When the unhappy Sheik of Bushire was dragged to Shiraz, and hurried into the presence of the Prince, all his crimes real or fictitious were immediately accumulated in his face. Of every vice in the catalogue of enormity he was pronounced guilty, till the passions of the Prince were so exasperated, that he ordered his victim to be decapitated on the spot. Mahomed Nebee Khan then threw himself at the Prince’s feet, and entreated that the life of the wretch might be spared. The Prince was sufficiently appeased to grant the supplication, but ordered the Sheik to be blinded. Again, a second time, his intercessor threw himself at the Prince’s feet, and saved the prisoner’s eyes. The Prince contented himself with ordering the Sheik into confinement.

The particular interest which these changes might have excited in the people, is swallowed up by the consideration, that their new masters in every change are Persians, and that the rule of Arabs is over. A feeling which naturally did not conciliate the Arab community to any successor of their Sheik. The general impression was not ill-expressed by an old Arab, whom we found fishing along the shore. “What is our Governor? A few days ago he was a merchant in the Bazar; then he was our Governor: yesterday he was chained by the neck in prison; to-day he is our Governor again; what respect can we pay him? The Governor that is to be, was a few years ago a poor scribe; and what is worse he is a Persian. It is clear that we Arabs shall now go to the wall, and the Persians will flourish.”