The King

34. The Documents

The vizier had taken three of his young advisors with him. One of them was Amir. The British had asked whether the negotiations could take place on one of their warships because they had better facilities. The look of their glorious ship would increase the pressure on the Persian delegation. The vizier had rejected this request and in turn invited the British to meet in the old fortress where the great world conquerors Cyrus, Darius, Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan had spent time during their journeys.

The fortress was one of the oldest barracks in the country. It was built on a hill beside the sea. There were no conveniences in the old fortress, but you could feel the glory of history there and the spirit of ancient powers. From the tower of the fortress you had a grand view of the Persian Gulf.

Chiselled into the rock walls of the fortress were images of the wars waged by the world conquerors. There was a rare scene of Alexander the Great marching into India with his army. Behind his back was a cloud of smoke rising from the Persian palaces he had set ablaze. There was also an impressive scene of Genghis Khan looking west, with the conquered East in the background. It was common for a new oppressor to destroy all traces of the previous rulers, but miraculously the fortress had been respected by all of them. The wall images had been left alone.

The vizier knew that the impressive wheels of the Industrial Revolution had rolled into the country by way of the Persian Gulf. He wanted to have this event recorded in stone.

Mounted on horseback the vizier and his three advisors arrived on the beach. They refused to surrender their horses to a British sergeant and instead climbed the hill on foot with the horses’ reins in their hands. Once they reached the fortress they ignored the British officer who was there to welcome them. They brought their horses to the stable and gave them food and water. Only then did they go to the tent to sit down at the negotiating table. The vizier could feel the pressure. Groping for something solid to hold onto he began to recite a holy text.

I repeat Your name.

You who created everything and who governs all.

You who determines fate and shows the way.

You who pours down rain in abundance.

You who cracks the earth open.

You who makes the corn to grow.

And vegetables and olive trees, dates, orchards thick with trees, and fruits and fodder.

Alif lam meem.

Alif lam meem.

Alif lam meem.

I pray to you and turn to you for help.

Guide me to the path that is straight.

The path of those on whom you have poured your mercy,

Not the path of those who have earned your anger.

For the vizier the first days of the negotiations were humiliating. The British delegation acted with supercilious arrogance, which was hard for the vizier to swallow. Every day at the end of each session the British negotiators would go back to their ship to eat, rest and sleep in preparation for day to come. The vizier and his advisors stayed in a tent in the fortress. After three weeks of difficult negotiations the following proposals were on the table:

— England is to withdraw its warships from the Persian Gulf.

— England is permitted to use the harbour of the Persian Gulf for trade with India.

— The French are to leave the Persian army, and in their place the British officers will assume the job of reforming the army.

— Mining contracts with the French are to be terminated and England will pay the insurance claim to the French.

— The British are given use of the southern harbour with accompanying customs duties for the next fifty years, but supervision will remain in the hands of the Persian customs office. After deducting the costs incurred for the construction of harbour installations, England will pay a monthly allowance to the Persian state.

— The British are given permission to search for raw materials throughout the southern province and to place the necessary installations there.

— Seventy-five per cent of the extracted product will accrue to England and the remaining twenty-five per cent to Persia.

— On paper Herat remains part of Persia, but leadership of the city will stay in the hands of the British.

— England will construct a telegraph line to India exclusively for its own use and will retain the monopoly for fifty years.

— England will construct a railway line from the Persian Gulf to the Indian border and will retain the monopoly for fifty years.

The treaty was not a victory. The vizier had made passionate attempts to have two decisive demands included, which the British had ignored.

He rose to his feet. ‘Then we won’t do it. If we go home with this agreement our wives will despise us.’

He demanded that the following sections be added to the peace accord:

— England will provide Persia with a telegraph network that will connect Tehran with all the major cities of the country.

— England will not employ Indian clerks to work in the hundreds of telegraph offices, but will hire local ones instead.

The head British negotiator was angry. He could not resist making the comment, ‘In this country no one has even heard the word “telegraph”. How, then, can they be expected to work in a telegraph office?’

‘They’ll learn soon enough,’ responded the vizier.

The negotiations were temporarily put on hold and the vizier’s demands were sent to London.

One week later London responded with a modified proposal:

— England will provide Persia with a telegraph network on the condition that the total customs duties in all the harbours of the Persian Gulf be transferred to England for the next fifty years.

This was a harsh and nationally sensitive demand, but after a long discussion with his young advisors the vizier agreed. The country was in no position to improve its outdated harbours. If the English ships wanted to use the harbours they would have to do the work of modernising them. It was also impossible to say what the future would bring. If the British ever left they wouldn’t be able to take the harbours with them back to England. The buildings and installations would remain for the country’s own use.

The British thought the final accord was now within reach when the vizier tossed one more demand on the table:

— England will construct a railway line from the Persian Gulf to India only on the condition that a national railway for Persia be built at the same time.

The vizier took everyone by surprise, even his own advisors, because this was an unrealistic and unreachable dream that no one even dared to consider. The British realised that if they did not go along with it the Russians would take over the construction of the international telegraph network and the railway line. After a day of fierce discussions they all relented and agreed to the following section:

— Should England ever begin constructing a railway line from the Persian Gulf to India, it will consider the possibility of a national railway system for Persia.

The accord was finally signed, and it took a week for the documents to reach Tehran by messenger. Begrudgingly the shah placed his signature and set his seal upon them.

After the vizier and the head of the British delegation had handed each other the documents and shaken each other’s hands, all the British ships’ horns were sounded. The vizier was deeply moved, but he held back his tears. The ships’ horns were waking the people from a thousand-year sleep. Reports of telegraph cables and trains rumbling through the land were already racing through his head. Now he gave his tears free rein. Seated on his horse before the old fortress he watched as the British warships left the Persian Gulf.

‘A new page in our history has been written,’ said the vizier.