Chapter 27
CITIES, SCHOOLS AND HOLIDAYS.
The Persian cities generally are very old and most of them are surrounded by walls about six feet through and twenty feet high. The walls are made of clay, tramped solid by buffaloes or by men. The gates giving entrance to the city are opened during the day from eight o'clock in the morning until night. These walls would not withstand a charge from modern cannon, but they were very useful fourteen years ago when parts of the empire were overrun by about 60,000 Kurds, a tribe of wild nomads. They spoiled the villages wherever they went but could not take the walled cities. The streets of cities are generally narrow and crooked, and are not paved. The best houses are brick with stone foundation. Some poor men build homes with sun dried brick and still others make the walls of mud. The roof is flat and made of mud supported by timber. The houses are built adjoining one another, so that men can walk all over the city on the housetops. This is the common way of travel in winter when the streets are muddy. In some of the large cities like the capital, Tehran, and Isphahan and Shiraz modern paving of streets with stone is being introduced.
On each business street a single line of goods is sold. One will be devoted to drygoods, another to groceries, another to carpenter shops, another to iron and silver smiths, etc. The streets are from ten to thirty feet in width, and many of them are arched over with brick, so that rain and snow are shut out. Light is let into these enclosed streets by openings in the top of the arch. Camels, horses and donkeys bearing burdens of various kinds of goods may be seen passing through the streets. And in open squares of the city there stand many of these animals belonging to men who have come to the city to buy or sell goods. Before some of the mosques may be seen secretaries or mollahs whose business it is to write documents in business transactions for which they get from two to fifteen cents.
In buying goods in Persia a stranger is liable to be cheated. It is a custom among dealers to ask two or three times what an article is worth, expecting to come down with the price before making a sale. The silver smiths do some highly skillful work in making rings for the ears and fingers, and belts for the ladies. In all Persia you cannot find a lady selling goods in a store, except in one street where poor old women and widows are allowed to come for a few hours each day to sell such articles as caps, purses, sacks and soaps. Their faces must be covered except the eyes. Only a few women of the lower class are seen in the stores buying goods, and they must not have their faces exposed to view. No Christian can sell fluids such as milk, oil, syrups or juicy fruits like grapes. It is against the Mohammedan law to buy such things from a Christian. If a Christian wishes to buy any such goods from a Mohammedan he must not touch the same, as the merchant could not thereafter sell it to a Mohammedan.
There are many pick-pockets, both male and female in the crowded streets. A stranger must beware.
WEIGHTS.
The standard measure is the miscal, 100 of which equals a pound. Four Persian pounds equal one hapta while it takes five American pounds to equal one hapta. Eight hapta equal one batma. Four batma equal one khancaree. In this measure they weigh raisins, molasses, and tobacco. Ten batma equal one load. In this they weigh green wheat, corn, etc. Twenty-five batma equal kharwar. In this they weigh fuel.
The money is of copper and silver and a very little gold. The following table shows the values of Persian coins:
25 denars = 1/2 cent 50 denars = 1 cent 100 denars = 2 cent 500 denars = 10 cent 1,000 denars = 20 cent 10,000 denars = 100 dollar
The bankers sit on small rugs before the shops with boxes of money in their laps. Their chief business through the day is to change money. For changing 20 cents into copper, they charge one cent, and the fee increases in proportion to the amount of the bill changed. Interest in Persia, especially among Mohammedans, is very high, being from 12 to 15 per cent. per annum. But the synod of the Presbyterian Evangelical Church has a law which forbids any of their members charging more than 10 or 11 per cent.
There are no gas or electric lights in the streets of a Persian city. The mayor appoints an officer, who has a number of assistants, to watch over the city day and night. Every day of the year is given a name by the mayor; as, lion, eagle, Cyrus, fortune, etc. This word is known only to the officials and such persons as may have been given permission to be out at a late hour. If an officer finds a man on the street after 9 o'clock he calls to him to give the name of the night. If he can't do this he is arrested. One of the worst things in a Persian city is the large graveyards, which contain two to five acres of ground. Mohammedans dig up the remains of a dead relative to carry it to a shrine place, and these removals often fill the city with bad odors. These graveyards make excellent hiding places for robbers and thieves. There are many robbers outside of the city walls, and it is very dangerous to go out after night, even a distance of one mile. Victims are usually shot while at a distance, or stabbed and then plundered.
The hammams or bath-places are quite numerous in the cities. They are usually well-built, brick buildings and have within two or three pools of water, some hot, others cold. Men can bathe any day in the week except Friday, which day is reserved for women. The charge is three or four cents. Christians cannot enter a Mohammedan hammam, as they are considered unclean.
HOLIDAYS.
The Mohammedans have several holidays. Neither the government nor the priesthood compel observance of these days, but they are usually observed either for the sake of rest, religious profit or amusement. There is, however, one set of holidays, ten days known as Moharram, that is strictly observed by all faithful Mohammedans. There is also one national holiday generally observed in memory of the beginning of the Persian nation. It is called Newrooz, meaning new day. This name was given by a Persian king in ancient times. Two weeks before this day all stores will be decorated with different kinds of fruits, such as palms, figs, pomegranates, apples, almonds, and raisins. Also some fine shawls and rugs are hung before the stores. During these two weeks most people buy of these fruits and prepare for the national feast. On that day nearly every man, woman and child puts on some new garments of clothing and new clothes throughout if possible. People also clean their houses for this occasion. On the evening of Newrooz a table is spread with the finest fruits and the family will gather around and feast until a late hour in the night. The poor are remembered on these occasions and presents of fruit are sent to them. Christians are also frequently remembered in this way.
SCHOOLS.
There is no system of public or state schools in Persia. There are schools in all large towns and cities which are taught by the priest in a room of the mosque. These schools are voluntary, no person being obliged to send his children. The students pay the priest each from 5 to 25 cents per month. Those who can't pay anything are admitted free. The priest's food is brought to him by the students. The ages of the pupils range from ten to twenty years. These schools are for boys only. There are no schools for girls. If a girl gets any education at all, it must be from a private tutor. In the schools the textbooks in history and poetry are in the Persian language and Koran and grammar are taught in the Arabic language. Mathematics, geography, the sciences and the history of other nations are never taught. When the pupils are at study they reel back and forth and repeat words loud enough to be heard a block away. They imagine this is an aid to memory. The teacher has authority to punish the students very severely. Sometimes a parent will take his child to a teacher and will deliver him into the gentle keeping of the professor with the remark: "His bones are mine, but his flesh is yours. Teach him, but punish him as you see fit." A post is planted in the schoolroom to which a wild boy's feet are fastened, soles upward, and the bottoms are whipped with heavy switches. This punishment is only for the worst boys. For mild offences, the teacher raps the student over the head with a long switch which is always kept in a convenient place or carried in the teacher's hand. The religious teaching consists of quotations from Koran and traditions about their prophets. The boys are usually very bad about reviling each other and about fighting. The teacher does not protect the weaker, but urges him to return the revilings or the blows he has received. The students of one mosque often attack the students of a neighboring mosque as they regard them as enemies. The most prominent university of the Shiite Mohammedans is in the shrine place of Karballa. All those who are to become Mujtahids study at this place. In several of the large cities they have schools of higher rank than the ordinary mosque school in which a course of Persian literature is given. It is a pleasure to state that the late Shah, after his visit to some of the universities of Europe, founded a college in the capital city which is called the Place of Science. The French, English and Russian languages are taught, and the study of some modern sciences are being introduced. The college is only for princes and the children of rich people. It is only one flower in a vast wilderness. The problem of Mohammedanism is to keep the common people ignorant, so the priest can continue to rule them. Therefore the priesthood does not favor higher education. Some counts or lords send their sons to Paris to be educated, but the ordinary young men have no opportunities for education.