...I now come to that which is the cardinal and
differentiating feature of Iranian administration. Government, nay, life
itself, in that country may be said to consist for the most part of an
interchange of presents. Under its social aspects this practice may be supposed
to illustrate the generous sentiments of an amiable people; though even here it
has a grimly unemotional side, as, for instance, when, congratulating yourself
upon being the recipient of a gift, you find that not only must you make a
return of equivalent cost to the donor, but must also liberally remunerate the
bearer of the gift (to whom your return is very likely the sole recognised
means of subsistence) in a ratio proportionate to its pecuniary value. Under
its political aspects, the practice of gift-making, though consecrated in the
adamantine traditions of the East, is synonymous with the system elsewhere
described by less agreeable names. This is the system on which the government
of Persia has been conducted for centuries, and the maintenance of which
opposes a solid barrier to any real reform. From the Sháh downwards, there is
scarcely an official who is not open to gifts, scarcely a post which is not
conferred in return for gifts, scarcely an income which has not been amassed by
the receipt of gifts. Every individual, with hardly an exception, in the
official hierarchy above mentioned, has only purchased his post by a money
present either to the Sháh, or to a minister, or to the superior governor by
whom he has been appointed. If there are several candidates for a post, in all
probability the one who makes the best offer will win.
- Lord Curzon (Extract from “Persia and the Persian
Question”, quoted by Shoghi Effendi in the Introduction to the Dawn-Breakers)
