The British in Persia

Investment of Shiraz by the Kashgais.----In

the spring of 1918 the Persian Government, in reply to a British note, de nounced the South Persia Rifles as a foreign force and a threat to Persian independence and integrity. It also expressed the hope that the British Government would withdraw its troops and allow Persia to commence her cherished reforms. The cabinet was under the impression that Germany was winning the World War or such a curt note would never have been penned. This reply was published all over Southern Persia ; and the results were speedily shown in serious desertions from the South Persia Rifles and culminated in the formation of a confederacy under the Kashgai chief, Solat-u-Daulah, to annihilate the British in South ern Persia. He had at his disposal 4,500 Kashgais and 1,500 Kazerunis and this number was reinforced by contingents from Dashti, Dashtistan and elsewhere, and reached about 8,000 fighting men. The tribesmen were well armed with Mausers, had plenty of ammunition, and fought both bravely and cunningly. The British force at Shiraz was 2,200 strong, one-third being recruits. The South Persia Rifles slightly outnumbered the Indian troops and, owing to propaganda and the proclaimed hostility of the Persian Government, were a danger to the British. The detach ments in the outposts mutinied and surrendered or deserted. Qawam had collected in and about Shiraz 2,000 Arabs, who were ready to attack the beaten side. On May 24 the column marched out 1,600 strong and defeated the Kashgais in the hilly country to the west of the city. About 50 days later the enemy returned in still larger numbers, and the Kazerunis occupied the garden quarter, which almost touched the fortified perimeter constructed by the British outside Shiraz. The inhabitants of Shiraz were incited against the British by the mullahs, some of whom preached jihad or Holy War.

Sir Percy Sykes learned that the Kashgais were preparing to unite with the townspeople in a combined attack on June 17, and he determined to forestall them. Accordingly, on June 16, the column sallied out and again inflicted considerable losses on the enemy. On the following day Shiraz rose, its inhabitants attacking everyone suspected of being friendly to the British. But the Kashgais did not come to the support of the townspeople, who were overawed by the seizure at midnight of various key positions by the British. The tide then turned. The governor general appointed a new Ilkhani or "Paramount chief" in place of Solat, whose followers began to break away, influenced by the heavy losses they had suffered. Qawam declared in favour of the new Ilkhani, and his example was followed by a brother of Solat and by perhaps one-quarter of the tribe. The column marched out again and Solat fled a broken man, pursued by Qawam, the new Ilkhani, and most of the Kashgai tribe. The expedition is described by L. C. Dunsterville, The Adventures of Dunsterforce, 192o. (P. M. S.) PERSIAN ART, PAINTING AND CALLIGRAPHY.

The share of Persia in the development of the art of book-produc tion in the Islamic countries dates from even before the beginning of the Abbasid period. Towards the end of the 7th century, in the two oldest centres of culture in Iraq, Basra and Kufa, beauti ful Koran mss. executed on broad parchment rolls were common, though at first they had no extraneous decoration, but produced their effect solely by the heavy lapidary style of the archaic char acter. In the 8th and 9th centuries this the most refined branch of Mohammedan art reached its first period of splendour under the powerful stimulus imparted by the caliphs of Baghdad; and the masters of the Cufic who flourished at that time (c. Boo) in clude not only a number of Arabs, but also the Persian Khoshnam of Basra. More important, however, was the part played by callig raphers of Iranian origin in the development of the various forms of the naskhi, the round character, which early began to take a high place beside the vertical script. The inventor of the deco

rative thuluth, which derived from this, is said to have been Ibra him Segzi of Sijistan, and his pupil Ustad Ahwal Segzi has the reputation of having been the first, under the caliph Marnim, to elaborate and discuss rules of calligraphy. He in turn was the teacher of the celebrated Ibn Moqla, who brought the naskhi into general use in place of the Cufic and is regarded as the greatest authority on all the principles of the art. Ibn Moqla's school pro duced, among other famous pupils Hasan es-Sirafi (d. 979), who was of Mazdaic origin, and the Buyid prince Fena Khosrau (d. 983), a descendant of the Sassanian kings.

In painting the Persian element was stronger. Although no traces of frescoes or illuminations have come down to us from the Sassanian period, we know from other sources that in that great age of Iranian culture painting was another field of endeavour, and Herzfeld has traced to Sassanian models all the motifs (dancing-girls, huntresses, animal figures, floral decoration of va rious kinds) of the fragments of ornamental wall-paintings which came to light in the caliphs' palace at Samarra in the course of the excavations. At about the same time (9th century) illumination must have come into favour at Baghdad, probably through the Manichees. We have gained some knowledge of this through the discoveries made by the German expeditions to Turfan and by Sir A. Stein. (See ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS.) The Baghdad School.—The first extant works of the Baghdad school of painting date from the 12th century, when the Seljuk period had already begun, but in their content and their artistic tendencies they go back unmistakably to older traditions, and continue with little change until the middle of the 13th century. They include scientific treatises translated from the Greek or based on ancient models, with explanatory illustrations; Arabic versions of the Bidpai fables which were imported from India ; and the anecdotes of Hariri, then in great favour, in which the bold jests and witty conceits of Abu Said of Serruj were illus trated. These three types of text were all equally well adapted to direct the artist to the study of nature and to emphasize the im portance of problems of composition and colour, and the works of this school are veritably astonishing in their wealth of colour shading and their forcible depiction of their subjects. To what extent Persian masters are represented we do not know; but the circumstance that the "minai" pottery of Raghes (c. 1200) bor rowed the Baghdad style of painting suggests that the whole ten dency had already spread from Mesopotamia to centres in Iran. As early as about the loth century, paper had supplanted parch ment, not only in secular works but also in copies of the Koran and other religious texts, its manufacture having gradually spread from Samarcand to all the countries of Islam. Various places competed to produce perfect and costly types of paper, and the writing-material was often fetched from a distance, especially when commissioned by royal courts. Ornamental decoration of manuscripts, from which for religious reasons figures were ex cluded, also made continual strides, and we soon find the craft of the illuminators and gilders breaking away from that of the cal ligraphers and painters and developing on its own lines. Cufic was now no longer used except in chapter-headings and title-pages; elsewhere the script employed was either one of the many variants of naskhi, or a decorative script representing a more graceful and stylistic development of the vertical character.