Part 28 (1/2)
There are about a dozen public schools in Yezd, but the one conducted on most modern lines is the new school started by the Mus.h.i.+r. If I understood aright, the Mus.h.i.+r provided the buildings and money to work the school for a period of time, after which if successful it will be handed over to be supported by the city or by private enterprise.
The school was excellent. There were a hundred pupils from the ages of six to fifteen, and they were taught Arabic, Persian, English, French, geography, arithmetic, &c. There was a Mudir or head master who spoke French quite fluently, and separate teachers for the other various matters. The school was admirably conducted, with quite a military discipline mingled with extreme kindness and thoughtfulness on the part of the teachers towards the pupils. By the sound of a bell the boys were collected by the Mudir in the court-yard, round which on two floors were the schoolrooms, specklessly clean and well-aired.
While I was being entertained to tea, sherbet, and coffee, on a high platform, I was politely requested to ascertain for myself the knowledge of the boys--most of whom had only been in the school less than a year.
It was rather interesting to hear little chaps of six or eight rattle off, in a language foreign to them and without making a single mistake, all the capitals of the princ.i.p.al countries in the world, and the largest rivers, the highest mountains, the biggest oceans, and so on. And other little chaps--no taller than three feet--summed up and subtracted and divided and multiplied figures with an a.s.surance, quickness and accuracy which I, personally, very much envied. Then they wrote English and French sentences on the slate, and Persian and Arabic, and I came out of the school fully convinced that whatever was taught in that school was certainly taught well. These were not special pupils, but any pupil I chose to pick out from the lot.
I visited another excellent inst.i.tution, the Pa.r.s.ee school--one of several teaching inst.i.tutions that have been established in Yezd by the Bombay Society for the amelioration of Persian Zoroastrians,--in a most beautiful building internally, with large courts and a lofty vaulted hall wherein the cla.s.ses are held. The boys, from the ages of six to fifteen, lined the walls, sitting cross-legged on mats, their notebooks, inkstands, and slate by their side. At the time of my visit there were as many as 230 pupils, and they received a similar education, but not quite so high, as in the Mus.h.i.+r school. In the Pa.r.s.ee school less time was devoted to foreign languages.
Ustad Javan Mard, a most venerable old man, was the head-master, and Ustad Baharam his a.s.sistant. The school seemed most flouris.h.i.+ng, and the pupils very well-behaved. Although the stocks for punis.h.i.+ng bad children were very prominent under the teacher's table, the head-master a.s.sured me that they were seldom required.
Another little but most interesting school is the one in connection with the clerical work done by the Rev. Napier Malcolm. It is attended princ.i.p.ally by the sons of well-to-do Mussulmans and by a few Pa.r.s.ees, who take this excellent opportunity of learning English thoroughly. Most of the teaching is done by an Armenian a.s.sistant trained at the C. M. S.
of Julfa. Here, too, I was delightfully surprised to notice how intelligent the boys were, and Mr. Malcolm himself spoke in high terms of the work done by the students. They showed a great facility for learning languages, and I was shown a boy who, in a few months, had picked up sufficient English to converse quite fluently. The boys, I was glad to see, are taught in a very sensible manner, and what they are made to learn will be of permanent use to them.
The Church Missionary Society is to be thanked, not only for this good educational work which it supplies in Yezd to children of all creeds, but for the well-appointed hospital for men and women. A large and handsome caravanserai was presented to the Medical Mission by Mr. G.o.darz Mihri-ban-i-Irani, one of the leading Pa.r.s.ees of Yezd, and the building was adapted and converted by the Church Missionary Society into a hospital, with a permanent staff in the men's hospital of an English doctor and three Armenian a.s.sistants. There is also a smaller women's hospital with an English lady doctor, who in 1901 was aided by two ladies and by an Armenian a.s.sistant trained at Julfa.
There are properly disinfected wards in both these hospitals, with good beds, a well appointed dispensary, and dissecting room.
The natives have of late availed themselves considerably of the opportunity to get good medical a.s.sistance, but few except the very poorest, it seems, care actually to remain in the hospital wards. They prefer to take the medicine and go to their respective houses. A special dark room has been constructed for the operation and cure of cataract, which is a common complaint in Yezd.
The health of Yezd is uncommonly good, and were it not that the people ruin their digestive organs by excessive and injudicious eating, the ailments of Yezd would be very few. The population is, without exception, most favourable to the work of the Medical Mission, and all cla.s.ses seem to be grateful for the inst.i.tution in the town.
The school work of the Mission necessarily appeals to a much smaller circle, but there is no doubt whatever about its being appreciated, and, further, there seems to be exceedingly little hostility to such religious inquiry and teaching as does not altogether collide with or appear to tend to severance from the Mussulman or Pa.r.s.ee communities. This is very likely due to the fast extending influence of the Behai sect, the members of which regard favourably an acquaintance with other non-idolatrous religions. These people, notwithstanding their being outside of official protection and in collision with the Mullahs, form to-day a large proportion of the population of Yezd, and exercise an influence on public opinion considerably wider than the boundaries of their sect. As for actual Missionary work of Christianization going beyond this point, the difficulties encountered and the risks of a catastrophe are too great at present for any sensible man to attempt it.
The European staff of the C.M.S. Mission, employed entirely in educational and medical work in Yezd, consists of the Rev. Napier Malcolm, M.A., a most sensible and able man, and Mrs. Malcolm, who is of great help to her husband; George Day Esq., L.R.C.P. & S., and Mrs. Day; Miss Taylor, L.R.C.P. & S., Miss Stirling, Miss Brighty.
The work for ladies is somewhat uphill and not always pleasant, for in Mussulman countries women, if not veiled, are constantly exposed to the insults of roughs; but people are beginning to get reconciled to what appeared to them at first the very strange habits of European women, and no doubt in time it will be less unpleasant for ladies to work among the natives. So far the few English ladies who have braved the consequences of undertaking work in Persia are greatly to be admired for their pluck, patience, and tact.
The Yezd C.M.S. Mission was started in May, 1898, by Dr. Henry White, who had a year's previous experience of medical work at Julfa and Isfahan. He was then joined in December of the same year by the Rev. Napier Malcolm, who had just come out from England. The European community of Yezd is very small. Besides the above mentioned people--who do not always reside in Yezd--there are two Englishmen of the Bank of Persia, and a Swiss employed by the firm of Ziegler & Co. That is all.
The fact that the Persian Government recognizes the ”race religions,”
such as those of Armenians, Pa.r.s.ees and Jews, has led many to believe that religious liberty exists in Persia. There is a relative tolerance, but nothing more, and even the Pa.r.s.ees and Jews have had until quite lately--and occasionally even now have--to submit to considerable indignities on the part of the Mullahs. For new sects like the Behai, however, who abandon the Mussulman faith, there is absolutely no official protection. Great secrecy has to be maintained to avoid persecution.
There seems, nevertheless, to be a disposition on the part of the Government to go considerably beyond this point of sufferance, but wider toleration does not exist at present, nor is it perfectly clear to what length the Government of the country would be prepared to go.
CHAPTER x.x.xIX
The Guebres of Yezd--Askizar--The Sa.s.sanian dynasty--Yezdeyard--The name ”Pa.r.s.ees”--The Arab invasion of Persia--A romantic tale--Zoroaster--Pa.r.s.ees of India--Why the Pa.r.s.ees remained in Yezd and Kerman--Their number--Oppression--The teaching of the Zoroastrian religion and of the Mahommedan--A refres.h.i.+ng quality--Family ties--Injustice--Guebre places of wors.h.i.+p--The sacred fire--Religious ceremonies--Three excellent points in the Zoroastrian religion--The Pa.r.s.ees not ”fire wors.h.i.+ppers”--Purification of fire--No ancient sacred books--Attire--No civil rights--The ”jazia” tax--Occupations--The Bombay Pa.r.s.ees Amelioration Society and its work--The pioneers of trade--A national a.s.sembly--Ardes.h.i.+r Meheban Irani--Establishment of the a.s.sociation--Naturalized British subjects--Consulates wanted--The Bombay Pa.r.s.ees--Successful traders--Pa.r.s.ee generosity--Mr. Jamsetsji Tata.
Yezd is extremely interesting from a historical point of view, and for its close a.s.sociation with that wonderful race the ”Guebres,” better known in Europe by the name of Pa.r.s.ees. The ancient city of Askizar was buried by s.h.i.+fting sands, in a desert with a few oases, and was followed by the present Yezd, which does not date from earlier than the time of the Sa.s.sanian dynasty.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Ardes.h.i.+r Meheban Irani and the Leading Members of the Anguman-i-Na.s.seri (Pa.r.s.ee National a.s.sembly), Yezd.]
Yezdeyard, the weak and unlucky last King of the Sa.s.san family, which had reigned over Persia for 415 years, was the first to lay the foundations of the city and to colonize its neighbourhood. It is in this city that, notwithstanding the sufferings and persecution of Mussulmans after the Arab invasion of Persia, the successors of a handful of brave people have to this day remained faithful to their native soil.
To be convinced that the Pa.r.s.ees of Yezd are a strikingly fine lot of people it is sufficient to look at them. The men are patriarchal, generous, sober, intelligent, thrifty; the women, contrary to the usage of all Asiatic races, are given great freedom, but are renowned for their chast.i.ty and modesty.
The name of Pa.r.s.ees, adopted by the better-known Guebres who migrated to India, has been retained from Fars or Pars, their native country, which contained, before the Arab invasion, Persepolis as the capital, with a magnificent royal palace. From this province the whole kingdom eventually adopted the name.