Mr. Beale to Mr. Blaine.

No. 30.]

Sir: When the foreign tobacco monopoly commenced its work in Persia, the mollahs, Persian priests, announced to the people that tobacco was unclean. They forbid them to smoke while tobacco was handled by foreigners. The leading priest represented to the King that the concession he had given to a company of foreigners to control the cultivation and sale of tobacco in Persia was inconsistent with the doctrines of the Koran and of Islam. They demanded an abolition of the concession. In my dispatch No. 29, D. S., of December 28, ultimo, I stated the universal use of tobacco in Persia; that it was almost a necessity in Persian life; that the attempt to control its sale by an English company had influenced the fanatical hatred here of all foreigners, and that after various agitations in different parts of the Kingdom the internal monopoly was abolished, leaving the company with only the monopoly of its export.

On Monday last the King ordered one of the high mollahs to smoke in the mosque and to state to the people there that since the internal monopoly was abolished tobacco was no longer unclean, and enjoined them to smoke (abstaining from tobacco was regarded by the King as a sullen resistance to his will). The mollah refused. The King ordered him to leave the country. This mollah was a man of high standing in the community. He was a teacher of civil and religious law, and was much beloved by the students and by the people. The next morning, upon the arrival of his students at his house to hear him expound the doctrines of the Koran, they found his caravan of camels ready, and found him preparing for his departure. Upon learning the cause of his exile the students rent their garments and their lamentations drew a great crowd. The bazaars and all the shops of the city were immediately closed. The mob begged him to remain, and declared that he should not leave. The mob started for the King’s palace and succeeded in forcing the gates of the arc—the outer inclosure of the palace of the King and that of one of his sons. Upon their arrival at the gate of the inner wall they were addressed by a lieutenant of the guard from the roof of the gate. He said, “I desire to say a few words to you.” The leader of the mob replied, “We will not hear you; we are going to kill the King. The first time he went to Europe he brought us Count Monteforte—the minister of police. The second time he went to Europe he [Page 357] brought us the tobacco monopoly, He has sold Ms country to foreigners, and spent no portion of the proceeds upon the public.”

The soldiers were ordered to fire upon the mob, but they reversed their guns and would not harm their coreligionists in such a cause. The regiment of the King’s son was then brought out and ordered to fire. Among those killed two were “green-turbanedmen,” descendants of the Prophet. Their bodies were taken and laid in state in the great mosque of the city. The King’s son was stoned, and he with his attendants were put to flight. When the fury of the mob was at its height, some of the lower mollahs were running about in the crowd exhorting them to the “Jahed”—religious war—and inciting them to go to the foreign quarter and massacre the foreigners. Before they could get to the foreign quarter the gates of the square were closed upon them. The guns were run in and unlimbered at the gates, and a great mollah persuaded the people to disperse and go to their homes. There was a stampede among some of the Europeans, and many of them left their residences and took refuge in the grounds of the different legations.

The King gave way. A conference of mollahs demanded three things of him, which he granted:

  • First. That he should compensate the families of those killed at the palace gate.
  • Second. An amnesty to all those who had been engaged in the revolt.
  • Third. A total abolition of the tobacco monopoly—its export as well as its internal trade.

This affair has brought forth a power in this country that the oldest Orientalist and even the Persians themselves did not dream of, to wit, the extent of the power of the mollahs. A mollah is simply a priest and not a member of any organization like the Church of England, or one of our own churches, but by common consent a body of them came together, carried on negotiations and correspondence with the Shah, made demands and concessions, and concluded an understanding with him.

A means was suddenly found for the expression of popular discontent and for the redress of popular grievances.

In a despotism more like that of Cyrus and Xerxes than that of any government existing elsewhere to-day, a parliament seems to have risen from the ground.

I have, etc.,

Truxtun Beale.