In the land of the lion and sun, or, modern Persia : $b Being experiences of life in Persia from 1866 to 1881Wills, C. J. (Charles James)
History
In the land of the lion and sun, or, modern Persia : $b Being experiences of life in Persia from 1866 to 1881
Wills, C. J. (Charles James)
Iran -- Description and travel; Wills, C. J. (Charles James), 1842-1912 -- Travel -- Iran
All the old gardens and vineyards, too, are protected by low doors, some
yard square, constructed of _stone_ six inches thick; these revolve on a
pin, and are like those figured as “stone shutter at Bashan” in ‘The Rob
Roy Canoe in the Holy Land.’
There is a weekly market held each Sunday in the little maidān, or
square, of Julfa; it is well attended. Raw cotton, fruit, grey shirting,
chintzes, and notions, are sold here, and also _beef_, for the Armenian,
unlike the Persian, is a beef-eater. Fairly good meat is obtained; one’s
cook goes with a chopper and hacks off what is wanted; they have no idea
of any difference in the value of joints.
Here, too, the Persian women hawk their cotton-yarn and buy socks,
which are hand-knitted in Julfa by the Armenians, of wool, and also of
cotton. Any hard-working woman can keep herself in Julfa by knitting; the
earnings barely exceed five kerans (three and ninepence) a month; but
this, with economy, is enough to keep and clothe them.
As a rule the Armenian women are industrious and notable housewives. In
the summer they knit socks in groups at the doors of their houses, and
gossip; in winter they do the same around the kūrsi, as long as it is
light. Wine is made by all, and the jars used in the fermenting are often
very ancient, some being two and three hundred years old.
Most of the men who work do a little market-gardening, and many have
orchards or vineyards. But the more active and brighter travel to India
or Batavia, and often make fortunes in retail trade; some have even
established well-known houses in Manchester, Liverpool, and London.
Many enter the Persian service; these generally apostatise. The effect
of this emigration on the inhabitants of Julfa is deleterious in the
extreme. The rich relations rarely forget the family in Julfa, and there
are consequently a number of people subsisting on what the successful
husband, father, or son, sends as a pension. These will not work, but
prefer to drag on a life of idleness on a pittance. I often have asked
a man, “What are your resources?” and he has replied, “My relatives
at Bombay,” etc., as the case may be. Armenians at times rise to high
employ: the chief of the Arsenal to the Shah is an Armenian, so is the
Ambassador in London.
The first day of my arrival in Julfa I was visited by twenty-six priests;
they were all regaled with brandy. The next day there were twenty-nine,
including the original twenty-six, who called again. However, I treated
them this time to tea, saying I had no more brandy. The third day no more
priests came.
Near the banks of the river is the old church of “Soup Gework,” or “St
George.” This is celebrated for being the receptacle of two miraculous
stones, which have reputed power in the healing of diseases. They are
said to have flown from Etchmiadzin, in Armenia, in one night, and are
the ordinary stones of the country brought to Julfa by some rich citizen
in bygone days for some building which was never erected.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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