12. Astrabad, which comprehends the eastern portion of the low plain that skirts the Caspian, and comprises also the hilly country to the south, is the subject of a separate article. [Asraauen.] Manufactures and Commerce.—The manufactures of Persia have been already named. In the manufacture of some articles the Persians are distinguished, as in several kinds of silk stuffs, especially bro cades, and sword-blades, leather, carpets, felt of camel-hair, and jewellery. British cottons and silks obtain a ready sale owing to their cheapness. Persian goods are all woven by hand. The manufactures are chiefly in the large towns. The internal commerce of Persia is very considerable. It is entirely carried ou by caravans. Great quantities of goods are brought by different caravan routes from India across Afghanistan, and distributed over the country. Arthur Conolly enumerate, the articles conveyed to and from India by the northern caravan routes through Muahed, and indicates the countries from which they are brought ; as from Ispahan and Yezd, fine velvet, silks, cotton-stuffs, felt, shoes, sugar, and sugar-candy ; from Cashan, gold and silver, kimoob, cotton-socks, Ink-stands, lamps of bronze, and other utensils of copper; from Shiraz, dates, tobacco, lemons, acquered-ware, ornaments made of ivory, and mats; from Kerman, shawls, sugar candy, opium, henna, and Indigo ; from Sind and Hind, sugar, sugar-candy, spice:, musk, amber, corals, precious stones, leather, klincob, Indian cud British muslin's, and indigo ; from Cashmere and Bokhara, shawls, saffron, paper; from China nud Russia, by the way of itokhara, iamb-akins (more than 120,000), stuffs made of camel-hair, tea, and Russian manufacture's, as ahagreen, broadcloth, satin, nankeen, ohina, glees, utensils of Iron, copper, brass, cutlery, looking-glasses, wadies, etc. Since the navigation on the Caspian Sea has increased, Russian goods are brought from neat and Balfrush. From Iterat are brought to Meshed, carpets, assafcctids, lead, saffron, pistachio-nuts, mutt; manna, gumml, isplruck (a yellow dye), and caraway-seeds. A well-frequented caravan-track leads from Tabriz through Van and Era-rum to Trehizond, and large quantities of textile goods are imported by the route from Europe. A branch of this route leads to Tiflis in Russian Georgia.
The foreign commerce of Persia however Is leas important than the internal trade. The principal foreign trade is with RAJA through the port of Bushire, with Russia through Balfrush, and the ports on the Carl bin (this treacle is now carried on by steamers), with Baghdad, Turkey, and Bukhara by caravans. The total exports are supposed to amount iu value to no more than is million and n half Pterlitig.
Oorevernene—Perssia is an absolute monarchy ; the word of the king Is law, and the life and property of the subject are in his hands. Ile delegates his power to the governors of provinces, reserving to himself the power of life and death, with which ho entrusts only the governors of the royal blood, and such persons as are sent to govern distant provinces or such as are in n state of rebellion. The governors of the provinces are called sardars, and those of smaller districts kulombegs. Tho tribes of the Iliyats however aro not subject to these governors, but are under their own hereditary chiefs. The administration of the law Is exercised by courts, of which there are two kinds, the sherrah courts and the urf courts. The former decide matters according to the Koran ; the second, according to the customary laws of Persia.
The supreme judge in the sherrah courts is the Sheik-al-Islam, who decides matters in the last instance. Iu every town there is is judge, and in the larger ones also a cauzoo, who is aided by a council of mollahs. The urf is administered by the king himself, and his governors end delegates. The courts are held in public, and the monarch sits for a certain time each day in his hall of audience, to hear appeals, to receive petitions, and to decide such cases as come before him.
The army of Persia consists of about 40,000 men regularly disci!). lined, of which only about 20,000 are organised on European principles. But the king can in a few weeks collect an army of 100,000 men, the greatest part of which number is supplied by the tribes of the Iliyats, and consists of irregular cavalry.
(Kinneir; Ouseley; Morier; Fraser; Conolly, 'Journey to the North of India; Burnes, ' Travels into Bokhara ;' Rich, Narrative ;' litter ; 'London Geographical Journal,' vole. iii., vi., viii., ix., x., xiv.) Ilintory.—At the earliest period of which any trace is preserved, Persia appears to have formed a province of the great Assyriau empire, on the disruption of which it fell under the power of the Medea, about B.C. 709. Astyages, king of the Medea, was dethroned is.o. 560 by Cyrus, who, according to Herodotus, was his grandson by his daughter Mandane, and who not only established the ascendancy of the Persians over the Medea, but by his victory over Crcesus, king of Lydia, and by his conquest lac. 588 of Babylon and its dependencies, extended his empire to the Hellespont and the Syrian Sea. This great prince perished (529) in an expedition against the Seythiaua, probably beyond the Oxus; and was succeeded by his sou Cambyses (529-21), who subdued Egypt. On his death the kingdom was usurped by a Magian, who personated Smerdis, the brother of the deceased monarch : but this impostor was destroyed by the nobles, who raised to the throne one of their own body, Darius Hystaspes (Gushtasp). In his reign (521485) the empire was divided into satrapies, and regular taxes introduced : Babylon revolted, and its walls were destroyed: and though a Persiau expedition, under the command of Darius himself, against Scythia was a failure, the acknowledgement by Macedonia and Thrace of Persian supremacy extended the empire into Europe. The revolt of the Asiatic Ionians (501) and the aid given them by Athens, was the origin of the long ware of Greece and Persia. The defeat at Marathon (490) of a Persian force sent against Athens, showed the determination and military skill of the Greeks to be formidable. The famous expedition of Xerxes, the son and successor of Darius (485-64), conducted in person against Greece, Herodotus states to have con sisted of above five millions of men, including an army of 1,700,000 infantry and 80,000 cavalry, and a fleet of 1200 ships. But this stupendous host, though it ravaged Attica and burnt Athens, sustained a signal naval defeat at Salamis ; and the following year (479), after Xerxes had returned to Asia, the land and sea forces were discomfited in the two battles, fought on the same day, of Platma in Bccotia, and Mycale on the coast of Asia Minor. The Persians were now driven from Europe ; and Xerxes, who became more voluptuous and cruel after this disaster, was murdered by the captain of his guards (ee. 461).