Persia 1724I had just reached my fourteenth year when my father was summoned to Kerman where he remained for several days. Upon his return he informed us he had been appointed as commissioner to settle the affairs of Balochistan, which were in most disordered condition. Now perhaps you do not know that owning to its deserts, its savage people, and it remoteness, Balochistan had only recently been subdued by the victorious shah Nasir-u-Din. In consequence, the Balochis, hating Persians both as their conquerors and the introducers of civilization (Shiite), had rebelled and were besieging the Persian governor in the forth of Bampur.
Fortunately Bampur was strong, well provided with suppliers and occupied by a considerable garrison; but, as the wild balochis had assembled in their thousands, and had beaten back army after army sent to reliever the forth, the garrison began to lose heart praying for a hand to appear from the unseen.
We left Bam early one morning and the whole town accompanied us for a farsakh on the road, many of the woman weeping as if their husbands were already dead, so evil a reputation does BULOCHISTAN bear…
“ O Allah, seeing thou hast created Balochistan, what need was there of conceiving hell”.
Indeed I thought that if Balochistan was at all like Narmashir, it was a delightful country.
However, on the fourth day after leaving Bam, the jungle suddenly ended, and we looked across such a sterile naked desert that my gallbladder felt as if it had burst.
Indeed, even at the first stage the supply of water was the greatest difficulty, as my father had arranged for 700 camels to carry forage and provisions; but to cross fifty farsakhs of desert where there is only a small well at each stage is very difficult…
However, everything at last come to an end, and, when we sighted in the distance the thick jungle which grows on the banks of the Bampur river, we forgot all about the Balochis and thought that we had reached the garden of Shaddad.
My father, gave orders that a strong party of Sowars should go ahead at early dawn in three parallel bodies, as he feared an ambush; and this was very fortunate, as one of the parties of Sowars under colonel Mohamed Ali khan seeing no sign of the enemy, went down to the river and watered their horses without taking any precautions.
The Baluchis, however, were in ambush, and fired on them, killing and wounding twenty men, and had not the other two parties come to the rescue there would have been a disaster. My father was so angry with the colonel that night he ate five hundred sticks and was ill for weeks afterwards.
While we were halting at this stage, Nawab khan Bamari, and his tribe, who alone of balochis are shias, and who are thus loyal to the shah, joined our camp, and informed my father that sirdar husein Khan Nahrui, who was the leader of the Balochis was camped a farsahk from bampur forth, and was like all balochis, quite careless at night. He(Nawab Khan Bamari)advised that he should be surprised in the dark. My father, replied that he would not steal a victory; and indeed he sent sirdar Husen khan a stern message, to the effect that either he and his men must come immediately with their hand bound and throw themselves at his feet, or else, within three days, their bodies would become food for the crows and kites. Within a few hours came back the reply that the sirdar was awaiting the honor of receiving a guest!
My father, who knows that the balochis would try to ambush his army, as they had done successfully before in the case of two Persian forces, decided to ambush the ambuscaders…
In the morning his spies reported that the whole force of the Balochis was in ambush, exactly as he had anticipated; and very soon shooting was heard and cries of alarm from the main body, which was being attacked.
My father than mounted Raksh, his great war-horse, and, turning round, his face was so terrible with his eyes blood red, that I felt that to be killed by Balochis was nothing to arousing my father’s wrath. In short, that face inspired us all to become devotees of death, and, charging through the jungle, we fell on the Balochis, who felt sure that this, the third Persian army, was already their prey.
I followed behind my father, and saw him with one stroke cut the son of Sirdar into two pieces, just as Amir, on him be peace!
Sardar Husein Khan NahruiThis sight threw the enemy into a panic and they all rushed to their riding camels, for balochis always fight on foot. Nawab khan, however, had already seized the camels, and so their only hope was to scatter and hide; and this they did, being chased by victorious Persians, who did not slacken the pursuit until their horses fell from fatigue and their sword- hilts stuck to their hands.
My father offered ten thousand Tomans for the head of the rebellious Sirdar; but he escaped towards Rudbar, and it was not until a month later that it was reported that he had died of his wounds in the desert. Thus may Allah destroy all rebels against the ever-victorious shah!
In evening we rode on to Bumpur, but it was not until we drew quite close that the gate was opened and a handful of fever-stricken shadows tottered out to welcome us.
One of these was haji sohrab Khan, the lion-hearted defender, whom my father at first did not recognize. When he knew who he was he threw himself off his horse and embraced him, and all of us wept to hear that only fifty men of the garrison of six hundred were alive, and that had the dogs of balochis assaulted the fort instead of merely blockading it, a calamity would have occurred.
My father ordered the camp to be pitched outside the fort; and I remember with dread how, without even washing his hands, which were reeking with blood, he ordered food to be served without delay
from the history files by M.sarjov
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