How the traveling Englishman Henry Layard interacted with a Persian eunuch, Manucher Khan, the notorious governor of Isfahan, in 1841. (You may see his name as Manuchehr Khan Gorji Mo'tamad al-Dawle.) The story is in Chapters 3 and 4 of Jeff Pearce's book Winged Bull.
The Lur and Bakhtiari tribes wanted more power, but they were under Manucher Khan's boot.
Pearce explains:
"The governor was a larger-than-life sadist of almost cartoonish proportions. A Georgian eunuch with a high, shrill voice and flabby features, dressed in the finest cashmere tunic with a jewel-handled, curved dagger in the shawl wrapped around his waist, he enjoyed being creative in his cruelties. He’d ordered men to pull the teeth of a horse thief and then hammer them into the soles of the man’s feet like shoes for a horse. He ordered a tower built near Shiraz with 300 rebels stacked and mortared into a living wall.
When Layard met the governor, he didn’t hesitate to complain about Imaum Verdi Beg. Manucher Khan promised the official would be punished, and ‘he was good as his word.’ It was only after the wretched thug suffered the agonies of the bastinado that Layard felt any regret or pity.”
The British referred to the political situation as the 'Great Game':
"They had long feared the Russians might try to invade India, and so Cabinet ministers in Whitehall looked on with dread as their counterparts for the tsar orchestrated an alliance with Persia. Perhaps inevitably, Afghanistan became the site of the proxy war between the nineteenth-century superpowers. The British Empire soon found an excuse to send in an army of more than 20,000 men so that a pro-London puppet, in this case a governor of Herat and Peshawar named Shuja Shah Durrani, could proclaim himself ‘King of Afghanistan.’"
Britain suspended diplomacy with Persia.
Anyhow, "the loathsome governor...who rested his considerable bulk on his plush divans" got the idea to impose burdensome taxes on the Bakhtiari chieftain, Mehmet Taki Khan. The governor also told the shah that the chieftain was "conspiring with exiled princes in Baghdad." The Persian army would ride through the mountains once the snow melted and assault the Bakhtiari people. "There were reports that Manucher Khan had already started preparations..."
So, as an Englishman in Isfahan, “Layard now found himself smack in the middle of the chessboard for the Great Game." He was residing with the Bakhtiari when Manucher Khan came.
Mehmet Taki Khan told two of his sons to ride to greet Manucher Khan. They were lifted down "so that the odious eunuch could kiss them in greeting.”
"Now," Pearce writes, "would start a long cat-and-mouse game of negotiations that would last forty days.”
Mehmet Taki Khan gave Manucher Khan "five well-bred Arab horses, twelve mules, an expensive cashmere shawl, an allotment of cash, and presents for the governor's men." But it did not satisfy his "greed" and "cunning treachery." Mehmet Taki Khan “offered more hostages to prove his loyalty. It was a horrible mistake attempting to placate a sadist." Manucher Khan demanded his eldest son, Hussein Kuli. He got a second boy, too.
Layard wrote that Manucher Khan ‘could not conceal the smile of satisfaction and triumph which passed over his bloated and repulsive features when the children stood before him.’" Pearce adds: "Layard knew this monster would break his word. But first the beast wanted to play with his mice." He threatened to execute the two boys if Mehmet Taki Khan didn't surrender — so the father surrendered. Manucher Khan immediately accused him of rebellion and put him in chains.
Layard raced to inform the Bakhtiari what had happened to their chieftain. They sought to rescue their chieftain, but ultimately they would be defeated.
Manucher Khan escaped with his prisoner. Layard went to Shuster to negotiate with Manucher Khan. Layard was placed under house arrest, but he managed to flee. Much later, he was able to visit the Bakhtiari chieftain in chains. The chieftain was eventually released, dying in 1851, soon followed by his son.
You may also be interested in my earlier posts about an Assyrian obelisk that mentions Henry Layard or an earlier Persian eunuch, Aga Mohamed Khan, who had conquered Georgia a half-century before Manucher Khan's time.
No comments:
Post a Comment