6.18.2017 STRANGE LANDS AND FRIENDLY PEOPLE (1951) by William O. Douglas (excellent, insightful first hand account of the Middle East bounded by Israel and India!

note - this has been a delight to read! I discovered it  in the book, 'Dr. Sa'eed of Iran. the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States is an excellent writer, skillful in analysis of what was happening in the middle east at the end of the 1940s. Tragically, I'm not sure his message was heard at all by our government, especially in the post-Reagan era....with tragic results that our current world is suffering deeply to the point of governments, including our own, departing from the rule of law to the rule of the mob. I highly recommend its reading! it is one of the delightful-to-read book that I have read in a long while not only because of its readability but also it's wisdom. finally, the mystery of 'where Russian is coming from' is not longer a complete mystery.  I would love to quote most of the book but that is not possible timewise since the borrowed book must, sadly, return to a distant library soon. 
34  ...there are many Armenians in southern Persia. I visited among them and found them to be friendly, warm-hearted, industrious people. one day I stopped at an Armenian village between Shalamzar and Oregon in the Bakhtiari country of southwest Persia. I was met by the village elders, a dozen or more tall dark men with high broad foreheads and prominent noses who stood with dignity awaiting me. they were dressed in black - long trousers, looking like pantaloons, loose coats and high felt hats without brims. in their midst stood another man, also in his Sunday-best clothes. holding a ewe. the ewe had been washed and scrubbed; it was as white as now - a fluffy bundle in the arms of this swarthy Armenian. this was a sheep for the sacrifice - a ritual celebrating my arrival. I halted the sacrifice; and the pure white sheep scampered away.
the gesture of friendship established a bond and I became fond of these Armenians. for several centuries they have lived in this alien land where the great majority of the people are Moslems. they have nevertheless maintained their own customs, kept alive their religion and language and preserved a racial solidarity that still thrives. their Moslem neighbors think well of them; the Moslem landowners, for whom many of these Armenians worked, have only praise for them.

the Armenians in Persia do not know quite what to think of Armenia S.S.R.  the reports sent them through Armenian sources about the economic conditions, the standard of living, the absence of unemployment, the modernization of farms are often glowing. 'Just how free are the Armenians in Russia? I would ask.
this was the question that bothers these Armenians.  they do not know what new kind of slavery may have been substituted in soviet Armenia for the tenancy that held their ancestors in subjugation. they do not know what new persecutions may hold their people in terror. they know that men do not live by brad alone.  and so the remaining ones are torn: they have a yearning to share in the glories of their new nationalism; they have doubts and fears about intolerance and oppression inside Russia.

down in southern Persia I learned that all is not well in soviet Armenia.

35  a few Armenians who migrated who migrated from Persia to Soviet Armenia have escaped to tell their story. here is one tale from the lips of Hartoun, an Armenian peasant, who 3 years ago escaped with Khachik, another peasant and now lives not far from Isfahan.

Q. what happened when you arrived in Russia(R)?
A. when we crossed the Iranian border in Azerbaijan we arrived in a Rian village in which we had a 4 day rest. in the morning  of the fifth a man who seemed to be the alderman delivered a short speech saying that the Rian government does not consider any right of ownership nor permit any commercial activities.  'you must wok as simple laborers and earn your living. we need  no peasants, he said.
Q. what was your job?
A.  our job was to trim off the trees of an orchard. we had to work for 10 hours per day beginning from 8 AM.  our other friends did similar things. some others were engaged in different constructions.
Q. what was your food?
A. all  our food for 24 hours consisted of 500 grams of black brad with one ladleful of a liquid called borsch which was by no means sufficient. this was the most important reason for our flight from R. that is HUNGER.
Q. were you free to do anything and to go anywhere?
A. most of the time they watched over us. we could not go anywhere without having a written permission from the alderman. I remember one day a friend of mine had a two day leave. he left his home disregarding the necessity of having the written permission. he, after a couple of hours, was arrested. but we, to some extent, were free in our private affairs. nobody interfered in our private affairs. only in official affairs, viz. working, the same alderman of the village interfered, having 4 foremen at his disposal.
Q. where were you living?
A. it was a village having buildings like barracks. population nearly 3000 heads. we do not remember how many men and women.
Q. did you have movies and theaters?
A. we frequently visited pictures and theaters.
A. what ere your wages?
A. the furniture for living was composed of a wooden bed, a mattress, a blanket and a drinking cup. 300 rials (6 dollars) in cash was paid monthly together with one kilogram of sugar and 100 grams of tea, the price of which was deducted from the 300 rials.  the furniture and the amount of cash paid monthly was hardly sufficient for a simple living. as a rule, to workers - as we were-

36  they give just enough to keep them alive. about other categories we do not know. but to me this rule has no exception.
Q. how did government officials behave to the people?
A. very rudely and hard.
Q.  did the police have any contact with you?
A. no, unless they had to find a criminal or someone under suspicion.
Q. what about your vacation?
A a month per year with written permission but we never got any.
Q. can you tell me what feelings the people in your village had about their government? did anyone venture to express any criticism?
A on the whole people are discontented, but no one dares to  express a thought against the government. we ca say those whom we have seen in R are not living; they are existing. in spite of all that, these people love their country, ie. the land which is called Russia. we can assure you that their feelings toward their country are quite different from those they have for their government. 
Q. what happened when you were ill?
A. in case of illness, a doctor and a sufficient quantity of drugs were kept ready and the patient was treated without paying. when surgical operations were needed, the patient was sent to town. wages were paid as usual.
Q. why did you escape?
A. migration to us meant repatriation; thus we expected to have a far better life; but when we got there, they told us they needed no peasants. we in Iran used to till the soil and grow crops, we were not hired men.  so we had to be engaged in work of which we had no experience. in the first few weeks we found out that we were losing our time. we were not laborers. we were separated from our families. (foot - in Armenia S.S.R. women, as well as men, are assigned to work. when Hartoun and his group arrived there, the women were given work assignments in one village, the men in another; the children were sent to state schools; family life was broken up.) we were not given enough to eat.  we did not have anything. we were suffering from poverty and hunger.

Q.  do your other friends in Russia want to escape?
A. beyond the slightest shadow of doubt. their situation could never be worse than that. they are suffering now. but you shall not under-estimate the risk of escaping.
Q. tell me how you managed to escape.
A. we were 4 who planned to escape. we set off in the evening, we moved on all night southward, the next morning about dawn we took shelter in woods.  one was on guard while the other 3 were asleep. next evening we set out again.  in the morning we reached the

37  border. there was a mountain overhanging the border and the river Araxes (Ars). all day we took cover in the mountain. it was then we learned they are tracking us. once the pursuers came close to our hiding place, we could clearly hear them talking but they never found us.  the third evening came and the most dangerous part of our flight was to begin; we had to cross the border. there was a trail alongside the river. when we reached that trail it was 10 o'clock. we came across barbed wire, between the track and the river, it seemed that the wire was attached to an alarm, because when we were working our way out of it, we suddenly saw the sparkling light of a car coming toward us. 2 of our friends fled back to the mountain; but we 2 managed to get through the wires in time and submerged into the water. we heard some shooting but we were not hit. soon we reached the side of the river which was Turkish territory. from that side of the river, we in rays of the searchlight saw our 2 timid friends, who were found and caught by the Russians. after 3 months of internment in Turkey we sere handed over to Iranian authorities in Azerbaijan again.

I also learned that the Armenians going to Russia have adopted a code to communicate with their relatives and friends whom they have left behind.  if the family wants to get word back home that all is well in Soviet Armenia, that it is a desirable place to live, that the Armenians who are there like their new national home, and that the friends whom they left behind should join them, a picture of the group is sent in which the head of the family is standing. If, however, conditions inside Soviet Armenia are found to be oppressive or undesirable or disappointing, and those who are left behind are to be warned not to come, then a picture of the group is sent showing the head of the family seated. 

I had first heard of this code in Damascus; and I thought it was a joke.  but i learned in the Ali-Goudarz district of southern Persia that it is true. an Armenian family, filled with these doubts, had agreed to use the picture code when an uncle and his wife and sons left Persia a year or so earlier for Armenia S.S.R. in the winter of 1949-1950 a letter from the uncle arrived in Alie-Goudarz. with it came a photo showing the family group. some were seated on chairs, others were standing. the uncle was flat on the floor in front of the group.
that decided the matter for the villagers in Ali-Goudarz. they remain in Persia.

38  AZERBAIJAN

Azerbaijan (A),  the northwest province of Persia, lies snug against the Turkish and Russian borders. Mount Ararat - nearly 17,000 feet high, conelike and flecked with snow - looks down on it from the Turkish corner. the Araxees River which empties into the Caspian far to the north is the Persian-Russian border for 200 miles or more. on the west is lake Urmia, about the size of our own Great Salt Lake of Utah, fish cannot live in it. it is indeed so salty that it clings like slime to one's skin. the Zagos Range - heading up i Turkey and the Russian Caucasus and running to the Persian Gulf - is a rough and rugged limestone rampart on the western border of A.  its passes are around 8000 feet, its peaks as high as 15000 the Elburz Pandge on the slopes that face A.

A has the barren appearance of Nevada and Utah, though there are between 20 and 35 inches f rain a year. most of the water comes in wintertime - snow that even in the valleys often lies 8 or 10 feet deep. and most of the water leaves in the spring in mad rushes that cut harsh gullies in the mountains which long ago were studded with trees.
in the winter A is whipped by cold winds that sweep down from the north and whistle through mud-walled villages. in the summer it is parched and blistered. whirlpools of dust dance across the basins, sending eerie-shaped funnels hundreds of feet into the sky. the flat mud roofs of the houses crack under a scorching sun; and dust as fine as flour sifts through one's clothing. this is the hey day of the lizards;  this is when only thistles and licorice root seem to thrive.

but where there is water A is a garden. valleys - such as Khoy - lie lush with crops at the foot of brown and burned hills.
39  Rezaieh, on the edge of the desolate salt sea, is a rich oasis deep in shade. in the north vast fields of golden grain ripple in the hot wind that sweeps up from the south. the climate of A is good for crops and for people. the days are warm;  but the valleys which lie between 4000 and 5000 feet are cooled at night by breezes that come off the mountains.
A is a historic place. here Zoroaster lived in the sixth century BC and taught the unending conflict between good and evil. this was the home of the Medes who, though they conquered Persia, were absorbed by it, losing themselves and their civilization in the process. the absorption was indeed so great that only one word of the language remains in the Persian vocabulary today - sag, the Medes' word for dog. the Arabs came in the seventh century, converting all of Persia to the Moslem religion at the point of the sword. in the middle 13th century the Mongols swept through A burning and laying as they went. they made Maragheh their capital and later Tabriz and ruled 200 years. then came the Turks. A,  the border province, was in the path of a host of invaders.

A was also the staging ground for revolt - and a buffer fro the whole realm of Persia. its character has not changed in the intervening centuries. twice in the 19the century Russia invaded A;  and in this century several times -the last time in 1941.
the location of a has had important commercial consequences as well. Tabiz linked Asia and Europe in trade. it was a key point on ancient caravan routes. its trade tapped distant markets. 800 years ago its bazaars sold spices from India and cloth from Flanders. history has no changed its strategic location. the Transcaucasian Railroad has it s terminus at Tabriz. it is a broad-guage road running north to Russia and then by various links into eastern Europe. now it is closed at the Russian border and its rails in a are covered with rust. Russia permits traffic over it only when Russia's needs are served. once was during the winter of 1949-50 when people were starving in a. Russia made capital out of that event. she sent carloads of wheat by way of the railroad and dispensed it ostentatiously.

A, being from time out of mind an international highway, has seen the crossing of many races. the product is a people
40  still Persian, but different from the rest. they speak a Turkish dialect which has absorbed many Persian words. they are a hardy lot - vigorous, aggressive, easily aroused, hearty  and open-faced in their relations. and their hearts are warm and generous. an An friendship is a sturdy thing -robust and genuine - a commitment that carries through fair days and foul. the Anis are a friendly  to the Russian people for the tow are neighbors and as individuals they get along well together. but the Anis  are not communist nor communist inclined. not one-tenth of 1 % of them have been converted to marxism or its Soviet brand.
A in size is only 7 % of Persia. in population it is only 18% - 3 million out of 16 million.  economically it is more important. it produces about a fourth of the wool, sheep, rugs, wheat and barley of Persia; a third of the almonds tobacco and fats; a fifth of the raisins and sugar.  even in cotton its production is 15% of the total. A is therefore important to Persia. it has long been coveted by Russia.
when England and Russia became allies in 1941 they invaded Persia. the purpose was twofold - to protect the soviet rear from a German drive through the Caucasus;  to provide a supply route to Russia.  on Aug 26, 1941, British troops took over southern Persia; the Russian Army occupied A. during the occupation the Persian Gulf Command of the American Army managed the movement of some 5 million tons of war materials to Russia through this persian corridor. at the end of the war the British and American troops departed. but Russia refused to withdraw. her troops remained. it looked as if she was there to stay. Persia protested and carried the case to the Security Council of the United Nations. Public opinion forced Russia to retreat, and she at last withdrew her troops from A on May 6, 1946.
but before and after that event Russia put in motion a tide of events that still churns that ancient province.
Russian occupation armies are notoriously brutal. but the Russian Army that occupied A was a model of rectitude. everyone told me the same story; even the most bitter critics of the soviets conceded it. the soviets put on an act which left  deep imprint on the people Russian troops were dealt with summarily if 
41  the showed any discourtesy or offense to the civilian population. they toed the line of propriety in all respects. discipline was severe. a Russian soldier would be shot for laying hands on a woman in A.

Russia(R) had one unique opportunity to show its discipline of troops and the loyalty required of them she exploited it to the limit. the Soviet Army of Occupation had one battalion composed of Moslems from the Caucasus.  they were stationed at Khoy. one day they decided to desert. so at an opportune moment they left Khoy and headed for the Turkish border some 25 miles distant. their secret was not kept. soviet troops went in pursuit and captured the Moslems, brought them back to Khoy and killed them in a cruel way.
the chained them together and stacked them like sardines in the basement rooms of a garrison in Khoy. then they flooded the floors with several inches of water and left the Moslems to die of cold and starvation. when a few weeks later the last man had died, they carried out the bodies. thus did the Soviets publicize a lesson in discipline.
the Russian were equally sever on dissident elements among the native population. they did not molest or harm those who kept their thoughts to themselves. but occasionally a son of Azerbaijan - true to his tradition - would speak his mind and protest against some Russian policy. and once in a while he would raise his voice against the Russian occupation. every such person was dealt with summarily. I talked with a man in Rezaieh who was a witness to what happened to one dissenter.

this man had made a speech in Rezaieh, objecting to the Russian occupation, pointing out how it subjugated Persia to a foreign rule, and asking for the liberation of A. he was at once arrested by Soviet soldiers and brought to the edge of town under military escort. he was given a shovel and ordered to dig a grave. when it was completed, the man was not shot; he was bound hand and foot and placed in the grave on his back . then he was buried alive. as the shovels of dirt were thrown on him he payed to Ali - son-in-law of Mohammed and first apostle of the Shiah faith. 'Alee-Alee, he cried, 'Alee, never fails'.  and soon there came from under the dirt the last muffled words, 'Long live A. then all was still, only the thump, thump, thump of dirt s shovels worked quickly

42  to fill the tomb with 6 feet of dirt and still forever the voice of a lone dissenter.

the Soviets however used means much subtler than terror to win over the masses. they sent through the province agents working in pairs. one would be the spokesman;  the other would purport to be his secretary. they would come to a village and interview peasants one at a time. a typical conversation ran as follows:
'what is your name?
'Ahmad
'How many in your family?
'my wife and 7 children.
'which is your house?
'this one here (pointing).
'look at the miserable place this good man has to live,  the agent said to his secretary. 'haven't we got something better for him? look at your list.
the secretary thumbed through a book and replied, 'yes, there is the home of the deputy to the Prime minister in Tehran. that is unassigned.
'put him down for that, the agent told his secretary. turning to the villager he said, 'when the revolution comes and we take Tehran, that will be your home.
then he asked, 'how many rugs do you have?
every Persian has a rug. it may be dirty and moth-eaten; but it is always a cherished possession. this man ran to get his shabby prayer rug - 2 feet wide  and bout 4 feet long. he held it up to the agent, who turned to his secretary and said, 'put him down for 6 rugs - the nicest that Kurish, the rug man, has in Tabiz.

and so the discussion went from houses to rugs, from rugs to meat, from meat to schools for the children.
the campaign moved from peasant to peasant, from village to village this was pie-in-the -sky come to bedraggled, poverty-ridden villagers.  they receive promises of rewards as tangible as any that a precinct leader ever offered the faithful. thus did the communists go among the peasants, spreading discontent.
during this same period the Russians took more effective political measures. they undertook to organize a government in A which they could leave behind when their army withdrew.

43  Daniel Komisarov - Soviet press attache - was the bottomrock of the A affair, the Soviet brain behind the various Communist parties in Iran. he had an excellent knowledge of the Persian language. he sat in the coffee shops and talked man-to-man with the Persians, who liked him for his seeming frankness and meekness. he molded political sentiment the Soviet way.

the man selected to head the government was a native of A,  the son of a holy man -Jafar Pishevari. Pishevari is a Communist who  was educated in Baku and who taught in communist schools in Russia. he went back to Persia in the 30's,organizing a union and publishing newspapers - first at Resht and later at Tehran. his paper was closed by Reza Shah Pahlavi, father of the present Shah; and he was sent to jail. when Britain and Russia invaded Persia in 1941 Pishevai and all other political prisoners were released from jail. Tudah party, the Persian Communist party that always meticulously avoided using the communist label, was formed in 1942. Pish was one of its early members, promoting its cause through a new paper which he founded after his release from jail. 

late in 1945 P went to Tabriz and formed the Democrat party, the Azerbaijan counterpart of Tudeh. that party led a 'revolt'. Soviet troops immobilized the Persian Army stationed in A;  and Pish came into power. a cabinet was formed,  a parliament elected and a political program put into effect. the P government lasted only from late 1945 to December, 1946.  it and the central Persian government quarreled over the supervision of an election called by the Shah. Persian troops entered A,  there were a few skirmishes, the government of P collapsed and P left for Russia - 45 minutes before the Persian Army reached Tabriz. the Russian Army, which had withdrawn from Persia 6 months earlier, did not come to the rescue.

I had assumed from press reports that Pish was not only a Soviet stooge but a bumbling and ineffective one as well. I learned from my travels in A in 1950 that P was an astute politician who forged a program for A that is still enormously popular.
what his long-range program would have been no one knows many suspect it would have followed the Russian pattern; others
44  say it would have been tuned to Persian needs with a mild brand of socialism. but the bulk of the program which P actually imposed on A was purely straight reform.

1. the part of his program which most impressed the peasant was land reform. it had some communism in it. he confiscated the land of all absentee landlords and distributed it to the peasants. but he left untouched the land of resident landlords;  a new law merely increased the tenants' share of the crop.
2. Pish also gave a socialistic flavor to his program. his government nationalized the larger banks.

3. second only to land reform in popular appeal was the law that made it a capital offense for a public official to take a bribe. two top officials and a few lesser ones were hanged for this offense. the law had an electrifying effect. merchants told me that they could keep their stores unlocked all night and be safe from robbers. natives told me that for the first time they could with safety keep their cars on the streets all night without losing wheels, headlights or any other removable parts.

4. health clinics were created, some being itinerant and serving the villages from Tabriz.
5. the prices of basic commodities were rigidly controlled, hoarding of food was severely punished, a rationing system was adopted whereby everyone received the minimum requirements for living Pish promised that the cost of living would be reduced 40% and it was.

6. a minimum-wage and maximum-hours-of-work law was established and collective bargaining between employees and employers was introduced.
7. a public-works program was undertaken and many streets and roads were paved.  the unemployed were put to work.
8. a broad educational program was launched, schools being planned for all the villages. the University of Tabriz was founded with 2 colleges - a medical school and a school of literature.  (the University is still a going concern.)  the cultural aspects of A were emphasized. instruction in the primary schools was in the A language.
9. Pish sponsored autonomy for a, but not separation from Iran. he wanted at least half the tax's collected in A to be spent there. he wanted the province to have a
45  greater degree of self-government an a larger representation in the national parliament than it had ever enjoyed.
there were other parts to P's program; but these were the basic ones. events intervening since the P government collapsed have made this program increasingly attractive to the people as they view it in retrospect.
when  the Persian Army returned to A it came with a roar. soldiers ran riot, looting and plundering, taking what they wanted. the Russian army had been on its best behavior. the Persian Army -the army of emancipation - was a savage army of occupation. it left a brutal mark on the people the beards of peasants were burned, their wives and daughters raped. houses were plundered; livestock was stolen. the Army was out of control.  its mission had been liberation; but it preyed on the civilians, leaving death and destruction behind.
on the heels of the Army came the absentee landlords. they demanded not only the current rentals; they also laid claim to the rent which had not been paid while Pish was in power. these back payments were a severe drain on the food supply of the peasants. moreover, the P crowd, when it left, took quite a few cattle and considerable grain out of the country. the combination of events made the winter of 1947-8 a harsh one. the pinch on the peasants was acute. in order to survive the winter, they had to draw on their reserves of grain. as a result they had less seed for planting the following spring; and thee was a skimpy crop that summer.
the winter of 1948-9 was bitter cold. there was snow on the ground for 7 months or more. many livestock died , the shrinkage in many herds being as great as 2/3rds.  on the cold wind-swept Moghan steppe in northeast A close to 80% of the livestock was lost; and 10,000 tribesmen were on the edge of famine and starvation before spring arrived. grain and meat were scarce; prices soared.

the landlords of A - the most callous I have known - sold their grain at high prices on the market while their villagers starved. they even sold a lot of seed grain, cutting down the supply for planting in the spring. 100 tons of wheat sent by the central government to Tabriz to relieve the hunger of the poor
46  never reached them. the local officials sold it on the market and pocketed the proceeds.

the spring and summer were late; the crop of 1949 was slim.  peasants actually wee eating grass and roots before the 1949 crop came in and before the fall of 1949 had passed they were practically out of food. they were so impoverished that not more than 1% of the people of A had enough warm clothes to face the cold of 1949-50.
the winter of 1949-50 was the severest of recent record. there were 10  feet of snow or more in A. villages without food were isolated. peasants dipped into the feed they had for their livestock. hen the livestock died and they ate them. then they themselves died. thousands upon thousands died. in the village of Navaii near Khoy where I stopped, 50 out of 300 people died of cold and starvation. in many villages every person in a household died. it was common to find whole families prostrate, none able eve  to stand. and yet the granaries of the landlords were often full, the grain being held for a higher price. an illiterate peasant in Navaii stopped his thrashing to tell me some of the lurid details.

the central government sent grain from the Persian Gulf. it is estimated that only half reached the people. the rest was diverted to the black market, much of it going to Iraq.  then came the Russians with their wheat train down the Transcaucasian Railroad, doling out food to the hungry people in an apparently efficient manner.' Russia was a true friend last winter,  many a grizzled peasant told me.

but the tragedy of the situation, the pathos and suffering were best summarized for me by a blind beggar and his wife.
he was Karim and his wife was Fatima.both were well over 60.

I met them far below Tabriz on the western edge of Kurdistan not far from the village of Kamyaran. my party had had a sumptuous lunch and after eating lay down fro the customary siesta. I walked outside to take pictures. finally the glaring sun drove me to the shade of a senjid tree where the old couple were seated. there we talked for a half hour or so.
these people were beggars of low estate.  the man was dressed in rags. his coat was not merely patched; it was made of patches,
47  pieces cut from old blankets, gunny sacks and canvas. I did not at first notice his finely chiseled features because of the heavy stubble of his gray beard and the streaks of dirt on his face. his hands were long, thin, and sensitive. a typical A felt hat without a brim sat on the back of his head. gnarled toes stuck out from a pair of decrepit leather sandals.
he and his wife were christians. she stood unveiled before me, a grimy tan-colored cotton shawl draped over her head. her face was pinched and drawn, partly from a total absence of teeth, partly from hunger. her skin was parched and dry like leather, her hands were as thin and skinny as talons. she talked in a shrill voice, nervously twirling the ends of her shawl.

this was their story:
they had been tenants of a landlord in a village which I will call Nourabad. there they had worked all their lives, paying as rent 60% of the crop. several years ago Karim had gradually lost his sight until now he was blind. he could tell when it was light or dark;  but he could not see objects. the whole burden of the farm fell on Fatima.
the winter of 1948-9 was long and cold. running out of food, they bought grain from the local agent of the landlord. the legal rate of interest in Persia on agricultural loans is 12%. their landlord charged them 40%. he collected in grain at the next harvesting.
'listen, cried the old lady in a voice so shrill that it was almost a shriek. 'he charged us 80 cents for grain and when we repaid him the next year the grain was only 40 cents. so we had to pay him back twice as much as we had borrowed. we had to pay the interest too. we paid him almost 3 times the grain we borrowed. then looking me in the eye she cried, 'do you think that is just?
after the landlord had been repaid there was only about a fifth of the crop left for the blind man and his wife. this included fodder and bout 200 pounds of wheat and barley. this couple had not only themselves to feed; they had two sheep. a goat. and a donkey.
winter came in a rush. it was soon apparent that these people did not have food to carry them and their stock until spring. the landlord's granaries were full; but the agent wanted too high a
48  price and 40 % interest. the loan would impoverish them. further, Fatima's health was poor and she thought she no longer could do the farming alone. so they decided to sell their belongings, take what money they could raise and go to Tabiz and find work and food, apart from the livestock there was not much to sell - a small prayer rug, a few dishes, a picture of Christ in a wooden frame. all their belongings brought less than 80 dollars. but with this they could live the winter out in Tabriz. or so they thought.
they left Nourabad on a bitter cold day, Karim carrying the blankets in a roll on his shoulder. Fatima put in her pockets their remaining food - the thin, unleavened bread which she had baked the night before with the last of their wheat and a piece of goat-milk cheese about the size of an egg.

2 feet of snow covered the road. they broke a path for several miles and then came into a highway where sleds had passed. until then Fatima had been guiding Karim by the arm. now she set him in the broken path and he walked alone.
in this slow and plodding way they came to Tabriz at dusk. their cheese was gone and most of their bread. they entered a bazaar to replenish their supply of food and inquire about work and lodging. as they stood before a stall where grain was sold a sergeant of the gendarmes stepped up and said, 'where is your home?
'Nourabad, Fatima replied.
'what are you doing here?
'we came to buy some grain.
Karim and Fatima did not know that it had been made a criminal offense to sell grain to a nonresident of Tabriz. rationing had been decreed in all its rigors. Tabriz had enough food  for its own population but no more. \
'now you will come to jail, said the gendarme. he hustled them off, Fatima shouting imprecations, Karim protesting. but their objections were of no avail. they spent that night and several more in jail.

'what happened? I asked.
Fatima took time to answer. 'one day the sergeant came in and said, 'how much money do you have? I told him we had about 400 tomans (eighty dollars). he pulled out a book and

49  wrote in it with a pencil. in a few minutes he looked up and said, 'your fine is 400 tomans. you can pay me now and I will let you go.
Karim spoke up,  'I protested to the gendarme. Fatima also argued with him. the gendarme came over to me, took me by the throat, and shook me, saying 'Listen, you blind old devil. people are shot for doing what you did. do you want to get shot or do you want to pay me that 400 tomans?
'you paid?
'yes, we paid Karim answered. 'now we were penniless, we had nothing. we were out on the streets in a blizzard, no work, no home.
'what did you do? I asked.
Fatima opened wide her brown eyes now filled with tears and spreading open her hands, said in a whisper, 'See - we became beggars. then she broke down and sobbed.

Karim and Fatima lived on the streets begging for rials, for food, for pieces of cloth to swap up Karim's feet.  they sought shelter at night behind walls, under packing boxes. finally an old lady let them sleep on her floor. but she had no food for them. they could not find work.  they lived on crusts of bread, on morsels of cast off food. they and the dogs and other beggars competed for their very lives on the streets of Tabriz.
one night - a cold blustering night in January - something happened which shows how  revolutions are sometimes brought to a boiling point.
Karim and Fatima were begging on a street corner of Tabriz when they saw a group of about a dozen peasants being herded along by gendarmes with drawn bayonets. they had committed the same crime that she and Karim had; they had come to Tabriz to find food. Fatima told Karim what was happening and whispered,  'Come, let us go with the crowd.
she guided him to the middle of the street and the 2 of them followed behind the crowd. more joined the precession, all the ragamuffins and beggars of Tabriz. according to Fatima it was a big crowd of several hundred by the time they reached the jail. one of the peasants under arrest tried to escape and was laid low by the butt of a gun.
'we didn't like it, Fatima said, we shouted at the gendarmes

50  to stop. a big growl went through the crowd. the man who was knocked down was carried into the jail. the rest of the prisoners were shoved and herded like cattle. none of us liked what we saw.  I shouted to the prisoners, 'do not let the gendarmes rob you. I was angry. everyone was angry. when I told Karim what had happened, he swore. he was angry too.

Fatima stopped, looked me in the eye and said, 'Karim and I are not Communists. will you believe me? will you believe my husband? you must believe me before I tell you what happened next.
'yes, I believe you, I answered.
Fatima straightened up, put out here chin and with all the pride of Azerbijan on her face said,  'it was awful what had happened to us and to the other peasant. arrested for trying to buy food?! robbed of our money by the police who were supposed to protect us! thrown out in the streets to die like dogs of cold and starvation!
'we could not stand it any longer. everyone in the crowd felt the same way. we stood in front of the jail and shouted in the faces of the gendarmes, 'Pishevari! Pishevari! we want Pishevari!

this blind beggar and his wife are typical of those who today make A boil. their story could be duplicated over and again throughout the length and breadth of that province. it explains why non-communists flock to communist leadership in this border area. here communism gains merely by default, not by a swilling crowd of converts to its cause.
Soviet intelligence in this region is alert. at the time Karim and Fatima were starving in Tabriz the Moscow radio was speaking to A in Persian as follows:  'thousands of the starving people wander in the streets of Tabiz and no one helps them. they are all condemned to death by starvation.
A means the Place of the Keeping of the Fire. the Communists have fanned that fire to the point of blazing.
Pishevari's program was so popular - especially land reform, severe punishment of public officials who took bribes and price control - that if there had been a free election in A during the summer of 1950, Pish would have been restored to power by the vote of 90% of the people. and yet not a 1000 people in A out of 3,000,000 are Communists.

Part II - the Tribes of Persia

Persia, remote and mysterious, is increasingly important in our lives because of the critical frontier it and its oil occupy in world affairs. that is why we must understand it and know what makes it what it is. P is deep in our culture and traditions. we have vague recollections from our school days of a part of that influence:
Zoroaster, born about 660 BC in Azerbaijan, Persia's northwest province, who taught the unending conflict between good and evil, the dignity and worth of man, the immortality of the soul; the man who preached, 'Be like God' -
Cyrus, who, as Ezra relates, conquered Babylon from the Assyrians, returned the Jews from their captivity and helped them rebuild the temple in Jerusalem -
Darius, who, bound by the law of the Medes and the Persians, caused Daniel to be cast into the lions' den and who, when D came out unscathed, embraced D's faith -
Xerxes. who married Esther the Jewess and saved the Jews from Haman's pogrom -
Persepolis, built by Darius about 500 BC and destroyed by Alexander the Great 200 years later -
Sufism, that finds God in the stars and the wind, in the beauty of a countenance or flower, in the expression of love and tenderness -
Firdausi (who wrote the Shah Namah or the Epic of Kings), Omar Khayyam, Nizami, Hafiz, Saadi, Jami, and a long list of other poets whose songs have brought music to most of the earth -

the Bab and Baha'ullah, who were founders of the Bahai faith -
these personages and events, plus Persian rugs, pictures of an attractive young man called the Shah, and news accounts relating to the assassination of cabinet officers and troubles over oil give a

52  vague impression of the country know to us as Persia and now officially called Iran.

Persia needs to be known more intimately by the West. though far away and remote, it occupies a strategic and important place in world affairs. it possesses about one fifth of the known oil reserves in the world. its ports along the Persian Gulf give access to India and Africa. its northern neighbor is Russia, who either may need oil or may desire to shut off Europe's supply from the middle Est.

the pages which follow attempt to introduce the people of Persia, to describe their problems and to analyze some of the major stresses and strains within the nation. I use as my main material the 4 chief tribes of Persia - the Kurds, the Lurs, the Bakhtiaris, and the Ghashghais who. I think, are a good mirror in which to see the soul and spirit of the nation. these tribes - with whom I have lived intimately - reside in  the rough and broken Zagros Mountains that stretch from the Russian and Turkish borders n the north to the Persian Gulf on the south.
if we are to understand these people and see their problems in perspective, we must not only go to Persia; we must return to Persian history and reread it.
Persia, like Armenia, is the land of the invaders. the Greeks conquered it in 331 BC;  the Arabs in the seventh century AD. then came  repeated invasions from the east - the Mongols, Tartars and Seljuk  Turks - bringing destruction and devastation to the land, depredations still associated in Persia's villages with the name Genghis Khan. these Turanian (def - nearly all Asian people groups that are neither Indo-european or Semitic.) invaders held sway for nearly 1000 years, the last dynasty being the Kajar, which ruled for nearly a century and a half until 1925, when Reza Shah, a pure Persian and father of the present Shah, seized power.

this the Persians have lived much of their history under foreign ruler. the foreigner has left a great imprint. the Arabs converted Persia to the Islamic faith at the point of the sword. Persians, however, did not accept the faith unconditionally. the orthodox Islamic creed is the Sunni, but the Persians mostly followed the Shiah sect.
this flair for the unorthodox is a distinctive quality of the Persian character. it is an important reason why Persians, though under foreign rule for much of their history, have survived as a race and keep pure the main stream of Persian culture. in fact, much of Persia's finest work in literature and the arts was done during the periods of the
53 invaders. the invader was somehow a challenge; the Persian spirit of independence manifested itself in creative ways.
the invader had other effects on the Persian personality. the Persian is a master of subtle indirection. one hears in official circles that there are 57 different ways of saying yes (bali) in Persian. that of course is a just; but it has a kernel of truth in it.
old-timers in Persia say that it is a place where one who comes with impatience learns patience and one who comes with patience acquires impatience. that jest also has a bit of substance to it

a prominent physician in Persia  told me that his greatest difficulty in diagnosis was to get from his patients a true and complete history of their ailments. the long centuries under the rule of the invaders quickened the instinct for survival: one avoided confessions and developed new values for secrecy and evasion.
life under the invader also taught the art of circuity of thought and action. indirection became the modus vivendi (def - manner of living; way of life). one adopted the circuitous method not only for purpose of evasion but for transactions involving life and honor. thus if a Persian desired to pledge his loyalty and support to the Shahor the Governor. he never did it directly; he confided his promise to a third person, who by being a witness increased he value of the agreement.

these are minor facets of the complicated Persian personality; and in the main they do no more than add an intriguing flavor. in great measure Persian  and Americans have a close spiritual affinity. the Persian is Aryan - the stock that gave most Europeans  their culture and ethnic characteristics. the Aryans of Persia have a darker skin than we; but they are more Nordic than Mediterranean. their heads are long, their foreheads high , their noses narrow. they have a tendency to sparseness. they are a quick witted ,l friendly people with a yen for tall tales and dry humor. they know the art of hospitality; they thirst for discourse and argumentation. they love the outdoors - streams and mountains and the hunt. in the social sense they are as democratic as any people I have known. they have a reserve we associate with our New Englanders; but underneath they are close kin to our Westerners. these characteristics, most conspicuous among the tribes, tend to become diluted and modified, in the cities.
these tribes of whom I write were from time out o mind principalities within Persia. the Ilkhan of each tribe was a king; the Shah of Persia was the king of kings. the Ilkhans constituted a council

54  of nobles who governed with the Shah. the tribes paid taxes to the Shah and furnished soldiers for the Persian Army. but each tribe had a large degree of autonomy, greater in fact than the separate states of our nation. this system of government survived all invasions. it was somewhat modified by the Greeks, who introduced Governors for the various provinces; but the Governors were in the main tied in with the tribes and the deep-seated pattern of government continued as before, largely undisturbed. though the pattern was feudal, not democratic, it was in large measure benign and progressive.
in the 18th century disaster struck Persia, a disaster that has been a crippling force even to this day. at that time an alien Turkish tribe, who could not speak the language, seized control of the country and ruled for 2 centuries. they established the Kajar dynasty, which laid a curse on the land. they ruled and exploited the people; but they did not govern. seeing the opportunity for profit in Persia's feudal system, they murdered and dispossessed the feudal lords and sold their offices to the highest bidder. the purchasers in turn sold the subordinate positions under them. sometimes a syndicate would purchase a provincial government and sell at auction to the highest bidder every office way down to the village chief. thus government became a ferocious, devouring force. it lived on the people. it squeezed every copper possible from them the feudalism that had been the strength of Persia became the means for bleeding it white.
Justice was for sale. power was used to exact blackmail. the army and the police were weakened and corrupted. decay took hold in the moral fiber. the religious ideals that had supplied the generating force behind Persia's great dynasties were discarded.
not all of the country was despoiled. the Kajar dynasty reached as far into the hinterland as it could, but the fastness of the mountains held treasures it could not reach. these treasures were the main tribes: the Kurds, the Lurs, the Bakhtiaris, and the Ghashghais. they remained independent and largely untouched. their power in fact grew under the Kajars, for peasants flocked to their dependencies for shelter for the long, oppressive hand of the central government.

for the most part, these 4 tribes (with unimportant exceptions) flourished in their ancient and accustomed manner until Reza Shah Phlavi, father of the present Shah -an army officer  - seized power in 1925. he undertook to break their feudal system and to settle them in permanent villages. this part of the book touches on that phase of
55 the life and problems of the tribes.  but it goes further and attempts to tell what kind of people they are, their worth and position, their role in this momentous period of history.

the books and articles that one finds in our libraries usually describe these tribes in unfriendly terms. the tribesmen are said to be villains - robbers and murderers. some of he tribes have been used on unholy missions;  they have been aroused to fanatic violence;  in years past they were instruments through which terror and destruction struck at innocent people. but I walked and lived among these tribes and came to know the lowliest as well as the highest of them. I learned to respect and admire them.
today they constitute nearly a fourth of Persia's 16,000,000 people.

they are mostly ruled as they were centuries ago by their tribal chiefs. the Ilkhan is at the top and under him a hierarchy of tribal chiefs -khans who rule a tribe, kalatars who govern perhaps a 1000 families or more, kadkhodas who are heads of clans or govern from 20 families on up, and rish-safids, the elders or graybeards of a clan or village.
these 4 main tribes are the hard, central core of the nation - proud, passionately independent, courageous and gallant. they have a deep attachment to their land. they are skilled and resourceful warriors. they could become  -if there were the wisdom and political acumen to manage it - an untiring guerrilla force that would relentlessly harass the invader and over the years make an occupation costly. for they live in wild and rugged mountains where dizzy cliffs and harsh defiles are barriers to all transport but mules. they know every trail, every cave, every spring in that vast and broken land. patrol of the borders has been their historic mission. in this they have their greatest pride. but time and circumstance - perhaps fate - have conspired to deprive them of that role in this the greatest crisis in their history, which may also be the greatest crisis in the history of our world.

5. Kudish Nationalism

56 the Kurds  are ancient race located today in 5 countries - Persia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Soviet Armenia.  there are well over a million in Persia alone, largely in the northwest, were they command the Zagros Mountains from Mount Ararat on the north to Kermanshah on the south. the racial origin of the Kurds is not definitely known. some  (including the Kurds) believe they are the original Medes. they are probably from aryan stock. (def - a member of descendant of the prehistoric people who spoke indo-europian) those in Persia have a language that has a common root with Persian; but it also has an admixture of Turkish and Arabic.
ancient Kurdistan is now divided between Iraq, Turkey and Persia.  the Turko-Iraqi frontier cuts through the heart of the ancient country. it has long been the ambition of many Kurds to unite these broken pieces into one nation. at the end of World War I the Treaty of Sevres provide for a Kurdish state, but events conspired to divide the ancient Kurdistan, not between Turkey and Persia as before the war, but among three nations.
Soviet Russia has played to the nationalist ambitions of the Kurds. Communists go among  the tribesmen,  posing as their champions. their propaganda preaches freedom and release;  it promises a separate nation for this minority. it was in fact Communist management that engineered a Kurdish state in northwest Persia in 1945.
Kivan Darreh is a small village in the southern part of ancient Kurdistan. we stopped there one day for lunch. a spring of clear cool water bubbled out of a pipe  into a rock-lined pool in front of a mud-wall house where a detachment of soldiers was stationed.  only a few mud huts lined the dusty village street. a grove of willows by the side of his garrison offered the only shade. as I lighted a gasoline stove and cooked lunch from US Army C rations, we talked of Kurds, of communism, of Kevan Darreh.
57  Divan Darreh means 'the Valley of the Devil'.  how this drab village lying in a defile (def - a natural passage, especially between mountains) among low barren hills acquired the name,  I do not know. it is a bleak place. in summer there is not touch of greenness to the low-cropped grazing land that extends in all directions as far as the eye can see. occasional fields of wheat and barley with alternate stretches of fallow land mark a checkerboard in the valley and on the lower reaches of the hills. this summer the fallow land had not been cultivated and was covered with a rash of thistles, licorice root and other weeds which i did not recognize. men and women were gathering these scrub plants, compressing them into large disk-shaped bundles and stacking them in the fields. Northwest Persia had had three hard winters, feed for livestock as well as for humans had been short. this next winter the goats, sheep and donkeys would have to chew on weeds.  

a strong wind came up. it was a hot wind with a dry sting. it raced across the fallow land where the farmers were working, swirled dense clouds of dust, down the shallow canyons, and whipped through the grove where I cooked lunch. in between its attacks a swarm of yellow jackets descended on our food.
a soldier from the Persian garrison came up to volunteer a story. this village was on the southern border of the country controlled by a Soviet-supported government from 1945-6. the Red Army had established not only the Pishevari  government at Tabriz but also one Mahabad under Qazi Mohammed. during this time many skirmishes took place at Divan Darreh between the Persian Army and the so-called Democrat forces of Mahabad.  'Come I'll show you, said the Iranian soldier.

but I preferred to hear about Qazi Mohammed rather than to review battlegrounds. and so under the dusty willows at Divan Darreh I began  to piece together the story of the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad.
Kumela is an abbreviation for Committee of Kurdish Youth. it was a strongly nationalistic secret society formed in Mahabad in the summer of 1943 by a small group of young Kurds. no one could be a member unless he was a Kurd. that meant that both his father and mother had to be Kurds. there was only one exception: the mother could be an Assyrian.
Kumela flourished. it gained wide support among the tribes;  it had branches even in Iraq and in Turkey. the Soviets saw in it
58  a chance for sowing seeds of trouble and before she withdrew her occupation troops in the spring of 1946, she had brought bout an important event in the affairs of the Kurds.

Kurds from Russia were attached to the Soviet consulate at Rezaieh as Communist agents, and encouraged Kumela in its nationalist program. the Soviets, who ad established in Persia various Iranian-Soviet Cultural Relations Society. this society and Kumela worked together .  one night in the spring of 1945 they put on a play. the heroine was Mother Native Land;  the villains were Iran, Iraq, and Turkey; the heroes were Kurds - the sons of Mother Native Land. in the last agonizing minutes when it seemed that Mother was lost, the sons managed a daring and glorious rescue, the assembled Kurds wept and cheered. it was a moving drama, one that did more than any other single event to unite the Kurds behind the Kumela program.
at this juncture the Soviets took a more direct part, approaching several prominent Kurds with the request that they take charge of the Kumel a movement. one of the men they approached was my friend Amar Khan Sharifi, chief of the Shakkak tribe - tall, thin, patrician, now over 75 years old. they all refused. then the Soviets picked Qazi Mohammed of Mahabad, a middle-aged Kurd.

I never met Qazi Mohammed;  but from all reports he was a distinguished member of one of the most respected Kurdish families. he was a religious leader among the Kurds

the next Soviet step was to supplant Kumela with an organization more amenable to Soviet policy.

the Communist party in Persia was the Tudeh party. Qazi Mohammed, after a trip at Russian expense to Baku for a conference with Soviet officials in the fall of 1945, announced the formation of the Democrat party of Kurdistan. he and over 100 other Kurds signed the announcement, which referred to the victory over fascism;  the hope for liberation which all peoples saw in the Atlantic Charter; and the manner in which the Kurds had suffered under Persian rule, particularly

59  under Reza Shah.  its appeal was nationalistic:  'we have our own history, language, traditions, customs and habits which are our characteristics. why should our rights be discarded in this way?
why should we no be allowed to educate our children in their own language? why will they not permit Kurdistan to be autonomous and to be administered by the provincial Council which the Constitutional Law allows?
the Kurds on the whole rallied to the party, may because it appealed to their nationalist pride, others because the Democrats offered an attractive program. the older generation and those in positions of authority with the tribes joined reluctantly and with reservations. they were suspicious of soviet backing; yet they did not desire to risk liquidation at the hands of the occupying Red army should they refuse.
the Soviet mustered one rabid band of Kurds behind the Democrats - a renegade group oaf armed soldiers led by Mulla Mustafa Barzani, a refugee from Iraq. his forces, well-armed and well-trained, reported to Qazi Mohammed for duty and became the central core of his military strength.

on December 15, 1945,  the Kurish Democrat party met at Mahabad, inaugurated a Kurdish People's Government and raise the Kurdish flag. a parliament assembled; and in January, 1946, Qazi Mohammed was elected President. a cabinet was formed, composed of tribal chiefs, merchants, landlords and officials. there was no member of the proletariat in the entire government.  my friend Amar Khan Sharifi was for a while the Minister of War and for a while Marshal of the Army. once I asked him why he went into the cabinet.  'to save my own neck, he replied wryly. 

during 1946 there were skirmishes between the Kurdistan forces and the Iranian Army, some of which took palace at Divan Darreh. Mulla Mustafa Barzani supplied most of the army for Qazi Mohammed. Amar Khan Sharifi raise a few troops. but when the Persian Army came in full force in December, 1946,  it met with little opposition. soviet Russia was supposed to have promised Qazi Mohammed military support; but it gave none. Amar Khan's forces offered no resistance. he in fact pledged his loyalty to the Persian government. the anti-Soviet attitude among most of the Kurds was very strong. only Barzani held out. the Persian Army entered Mahabad on Dec. 15, 1946 without a shot being fired. their
60  reception was friendly. but the era of apparent good will was short live. Qazi Mohammed and several of his cabinet were imprisoned; 11 lesser tribal chiefs of the Kurds were shot; and on January 3, 1947 Qazi Mohammed and 2 of his cabinet were hanged at Mahabad. Barzani, who had retreated to Iraq, swept back into Persia in the spring of 1947, fought his way through the Persian army, and passed through western Azerbaijan into Russia. 
I went to Mahbad on a hot August day...a bazaar led off the main street. it was o sort of compound, about a half-block square. ..deep- throated  calls of the stall holders filled the compound.

the traditional dress for Kurdish men is strikingly beautiful:  a blue turban usually made of silk and decorated with tassels; a brightly embroidered vest; coarse wool pants - gray or black - that are loose and baggy; a large sash or kamarband -usually bright red
61 that is wound around the waist and tied elaborately in front. there is usually a dagger or two sticking out from this wasteband and sometimes a pipe.
the men in the bazaars at Mahabad were all Kurds - mostly stock and broad-shouldered, wit white teeth and heavy dark eyebrows, swarthy complexions, high foreheads and prominent noses,  dark piercing eyes.though they were dressed in more somber colors than their traditional costume, most of them wore bright-colored waistbands and some had blue or gray turbans. and practically every one of them had a dagger in his belt. I was to discover that a Kurd is a robust, hearty friend. but that day each of them looked bloodthirsty.
I learned at Mahbad some of the tactics and accomplishment of Qazi Mohammed and his Democrats. during his year of power many things had happened that stirred the Kurds.

the Kurdish costume, which had been banned by Reza Shah, came back into use.

Schools were provided for every child through the sixth grade.

Textbooks for the primary schools were printed in Kurdish.

a newspaper, a periodical , and 2 literary magazines were published. a printing press had been supplied by the Soviets.
Qazi Mohammed attached to his staff 2 young poets - Hazhar and Hieman - who wrote not only of Kurdistan and its glories but of Stalin and the Red army a well.

a constitution was prepared. it proposed a Kurdish state that was republican in character. it pledged the state to defend the interests of Kurdish workers and to create unions for their betterment. it proclaimed that 'People should be educated irrespective of race, religion, or sex'. it announced that women should have all the 'political, economic and social rights that men enjoy.

the Kurds are Moslems; and under Islamic law women have a very inferior position. but the Kurds in practice have traditionally given women a more exalted role. Kurdish women are not veiled, and have more social freedom than most Moslem women. a Kurdish woman is indeed sometimes found as the head of a tribe. and so the proclamation of equal rights for women was not so revolutionary as it would have been in other parts of the Moslem world.
Qazi Mohammed needed a program of reform if he was to get

62  mass support from the people. the lot of the average Kurd is misery. illiterate and with few or no educational opportunities, he lives at the subsistence level. he knows practically nothing about modern agriculture. even if he did he would not benefit from his knowledge, for most Kurds are serfs working for a khan or some other landlord on shares and perpetually in debt.Qazi Mohammed knew the poorer of the landowners and the political astuteness needed if real measures of reform were to be realized.
moreover, if his program of reform were to be popular with the people,  he had to remove the suspicion that it was the creature of the godless soviet regime, in general the Kurds are devout Moslems and deeply religious. I have come across them in the remote mountains, on their knees, facing Mecca and bowing in prayer until their foreheads touched the ground. many of heir affairs are managed by mullahs (priests).  the Koran is to them a sacred book. moreover, the Kurds, unlike most Persians, are orthodox Moslems:  they take the Koran literally and completely. and so the Kurd - no matter how wild and ruthless he may appear - has rather strict religious standards. 

and so Qazi Mohammed put his scholars to work to find in the Koran and in the teachings of the prophet principles necessary for his reforms. what he would have done, how he would have proceeded to put through a program of reform no one can tell.  we only know that his basic political approach was through the Moslem religion. so far as i could learn he had taken but one specific step under the guidance of the Koran. he had BANNED USURY.

that alone gave him great support among the peasants. in Persia the lawful interest rate on agricultural loans is 12% but as the story of Karim and Fatima shows, it is not unusual to find loans to farmers 40 % or more. the money lender is usually the landlord. he rents the land on shares that may leave only a fourth or a fifth or even less for the tenant. once the tenant gets into debt to the landlord he is a perpetual serf.interest alone eats up the crop and keeps him in eternal poverty. when the landlord is a khan and the tenant a member of the tribe, more considerate terms are apt to be arranged and the tenant not so badly bled. but even legal interest is a heavy cross to impoverished people.

Qazi Mohammed stood, not for separation from Persia, but for autonomy within it, claiming that the Kurds stemmed from the
63  ancient Medes and , like their forebears, had a natural and historic role to perform in partnership with the Persians. he wanted Kurdistan to promote the revival and development of Kurdish culture. there was a good economic reason for his insistence that Kurdistan be tied to Persia rather  than to Russia. the Kurds raise much tobacco; and their market for it is to be found in Persia.

there is strong evidence that although Qazi Mohammed used the Soviet power to get his republic established, he planned to develop it along democratic lines. in the latter months of his regime he was in constant touch with the American foreign service in this area, seeking American support and endeavoring to be rid of his dependency on his soviet sponsors.

but the khans deserted him - not because of his program of reform, but because of his Soviet support. the Kurds have a long memory. they know that Russia is opposed to their religion. they have heard refugees from Russia is opposed to their religion.they have heard refugees from Russia describe the terror that Russia pours upon anyone who does not conform to the Soviet political creed. they remember Russian troops under the Czar murdering and plundering in Kurdistan and burning whole villages. their memories of Russians are so poignant that in a Kurdish camp a mother will quit a crying child by whispering, 'Hush or the Russians will hear you'.

I forded the river at Mahabad and started out of town to the road that leads down from Maku.  in the shade of some poplars by the side of the road  a man stood selling grapes. a woman had brought 2 quarts or so of meal to barter fro grapes. the merchant, unmindful of the teachings of the Koran, drove an evil bargain: for 2 quarts or so of meal to barter for grapes. the merchant, unmindful of the teachings of the Koran, drove an evil bargain:  for 2 quarts of precious cereal he would give two quarts of second rate grapes. while this bargain was being consummated, a young Kurd and his wife came down the shaded road. he rode a donkey; she walked proudly by his side. we exchanged

'where is your home?  I asked
'Near Khoy, way up north, he replied.
'what are you doing down here?
'we are Kurds, he said.  we are making a pilgrimage. we come to pray at the grave of Qazi Mohammed. there was a not of defiance in his voice and his eyes, as well as the dagger in his belt, conveyed a resolution to meet any challenge to his mission.

64  the grave of Qazi Mohammed is indeed a shrine; hundreds of Kurds flock there each week to worship. the hanging of this Kurdish hero killed only the man, not the idea of Kurdish independence. his death in fact gave the idea new impetus. in the eyes of the simple peasants who walk hundreds of miles to pay homage to his memory, Qazi Mohammed was a good man who gave his life that their dream might come true.

6  Once a Kurd Always a Kurd

65  Mulla Mustafa Barzani (B) was well received in Russia after the fall of the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad. having fought both the Iraqi army (defeating it twice in 1945)  and the Persian army, he was a ready instrument of Soviet policy. moreover, he brought with him a sizable force, numbering about 3000 armed Kurds. some were tribesmen; others were deserters from the Iraqi  army; some were British-trained officers.
from 1947-50 the Russians built B's army up to the strength of 10,000, gave it intensive training, equipped it with tanks, armored cars and the Russian repeater gun. it even had an air force. some 80 Kurds were sent to a Soviet air corps school and given training at pilots.
the Russians curry favor with the Kurds under B, granting them more liberal rations of food than soviet subjects normally receive. the rations are indeed so liberal that the Kurds have a surplus, which they sell on the black market in Armenia S.S.R.;  and Russian officers wink at the offense. the morale of B's army in the summer of 1950 was high for another reason. the Soviets furnished his camps with a liberal supply of girls for the entertainment of the troops.

in the summer of 1950 B's forces were poised along the Russian border in northwest Persia, ready to strike. high-flying planes from Russia dropped leaflets on the Kurds in this area. printed in Kurdish, Turkish, and Persian, they related how long-suffering the Kurds had been; described the sacrifices and sorrows they had endured; and deplored that their struggle for independence had failed to date.  the leaflets went on to say that the Kurds would not have long to wait, that the 'democratic forces' of Russia would liberate them, that the Kurds could then have their own republic.

66  the Soviet timetable for invasion along this southern perimeter seems to have been July 15  to August 15,  1950. there was indeed a great massing of forces at these points. what happened in Korea seemed about to be repeated.  I arrived at the Russian border Aug. 18, 1950.  a few days earlier B's troops had been withdrawn. the soviet timetable had been changed. and it was thought at Maku that the change was due to the success (up to that time) of the united nations forces in Korea.

Maku lies near the tip end of the long finger of land in northwest Persia that is surrounded by Turkey on the left and Russia on the right. it is a town of perhaps 5000 people  lying at the mouth of a gorge. on the east a mountain range ends in a towering cliff about a half mile long and 1200 feet high; less than a mile to the west in another mountain about as high. in between runs a small shallow stream, the Maku River.  its gorge opens to the north onto a broad rolling plain.

a part of Maku lies along the river bank, where a few homes of the rich fill the spot with trees and lush garden. but most of Maku lies up the hill under the cliff, which has crumbled and worn at the base to form a huge overhang. the main town is built under that roof. houses of rocks  and mud stand on great slabs that have broken from the mountain. the cliff has numerous caves. centuries ago a fortress was build here. there is even a spring high on its sides that could in older days keep a beleaguered populace supplied with water.
we passed through the gorge and entered the rolling plain. straight ahead is Turkey. on the right perhaps 10 miles distant is a long stretch of barren hills - a ridge around 7000 feet high that makes the Russian border. ahead about 20 miles is Mount Ararat, this mountain, which towers nearly 17000 feet high, seemed dim and remote in the dusk, almost like a mirage of a peak. a streamer of clouds hung below its crest. the volcanic ash, spewed down its slopes from ancient eruptions, had a velvety sheen in the evening's haze. fro this angle its sides had somewhat the symmetry of an inverted cone; but the tip was not pointed; like Mount Adams of our Cascade Range Ararat had a false top before the true one is reached. flecks of snow were scattered on the upper third of the mountain - great snow fields that stay there
67  the year round. to the right was Little Ararat - two thirds the size of its parent and carved more precisely in the image of an inverted cone. it was dark and somber  in the gathering dusk, too low to have any touch of grey on its crown.
we stayed that night about 10 miles out of Maku at Baghcheh Jough - a palace built about a century ago by a khan who made it a showcase of his wealth. there are terraces of apple orchards and gardens, and a beautiful pool. the ceiling are high;  the rooms spacious; the decorations are gold and cut glass. the walls of he bedrooms have life-sized paintings of beautiful and voluptuous women.

the khan who built Baghcheh Jough not only had great wealth; he had an army as well. he left a son who commanded a principality at the head of his dangerous Persian corridor. Reza Shah, deciding the son should be deposed, sent the Persian Army against him and defeated him in battle; then he stripped the palace clean, taking away all the movable property. I talked to a peasant who worked on the palace grounds at that time.
'it took 7 camels to carry the loot away, he told me.

this august night was cool from a wind that swept off Ararat. I watched the stars come out behind the mountain and sat at the edge of a row of apple trees talking with natives about its glories.
Ararat is where Noah landed the Ark.
Marco Polo called it the Mountain of the Ark of Noah,
and to this day many Persians call it the Mountain of Noah.
legend has it that the first vineyards of the world grew on Ararat's slopes.  its grapes made the wine with which survival from the Deluge was celebrated.
one peasant at Maku sad that it was from Ararat that the wise men saw the star over Bethlehem.

the legend of Ararat and the Ark will not die. the summer before  I came  to Ararat a group of Bible students had explored it, looking for remnants of the Ark. some at Maku believe they can be found.

in the morning Ararat was only the ghost of a mountain seen dimly through a mist. the hot air rises early from the plain, strikes the snow fields and condenses into vapor. that is why in the summer the best views of Ararat are at night. I rode across the plain already drenched in the sunlight of a brilliant day. Persian
68  regiments were practicing their maneuvers on the slopes leading to Ararat.

this is country that the Russians frequently raid, probing and punching in an endeavor to see how strong their southern neighbor is. in the summer of 1949 the raids were numerous. on one foray they captured a half-dozen Persian soldiers in an out post and kept them a year. I studied the passes through which the Soviets might someday come and looked down at the gorge at Maku through which they could roar like a flood. the ridge marking the Russian border a few miles to the north looked peaceful and innocent this morning. behind it lay the famous Araxes River which Russia has closed to all traffic. between 5 and 6 o'clock  in the evening people are allowed to come down to it for water at designated places. on its banks are barbed-wire fences that run the length of the border . behind the barbed wire are land mines - not mines that explode but mines that cause alarms to ring or rockets to rise, exposing the intruders. great secrecy hangs over this border, and transit across it is forbidden. even the Kurds have little inter course with Russia. years ago the Soviets suspected their Moslem population and throughout this particular region moved them away from the border and resettled them in the back country.
in August, 1950,  there was great tension in the region of Maku. would Russia invade? would the United states 'let' the Kurds have an independent province or state in Persia? would the United Nations help the Kurds against Russia as it helped the south Koreans?

but a different kind of trouble also brewed. the Maku region has a population as poor as any in the Middle East. a third of the people are Kurds, roaming with meager herds on poor marginal land between Persia and Turkey. most of the rich bottom lands are owned by a few men who are not Kurds, and who live in Tehran, Paris, London. hey represent the worst of absentee landlords. for example, during the severe winter of 1949-50 the landlords held their grain for higher prices;  the peasants starved. how many died in and around Maku I  do not know but the total was in the hundreds. Russia sent relief. Russian relief reached there before the relief sent by the Persian government.
I talked with Mostafa Vakili, Governor of Maku, a young liberal of high caliber and high ideals, a credit to the government of the
69  late Razmara who was pushing for reforms. in reviewing the economic plight of the tribesmen and the peasants in this area,  he told me of a challenging program he had under way.

this vast valley has rich land and can produce great quantities of food. Vakili has worked out a plan that will rid the region of some of he evils of absentee ownership.  the land is to be pooled so that it can be managed by a co-operative. modern machinery will be brought in; scientific farming will be introduced; savings on purchases will be effected by central procurement; marketing will be done through the co-operative.
how the land was to be acquired from the landlords or, if not acquired, how their share of he profits were to be worked out had not been determined in the summer of 1950.  but Vakili knows that reform in the Middle East begins with the land. he knows that the only political antidote to communism in this region is a program of social justice that is reflected in the lives of the peasants. 'we can make Maku an outstanding example of what can be done in a co-operative democratic way, he told me.

as my jeep turned and started its long journey south, Maku and its problems tumbled through my head. there it lies under the shadow of the Russian border, seething with unrest. the unrest stems principally from poverty and starvation. they in turn result from an agricultural serfdom.

then I thought, why not make Maku the show window of democracy?  a land -distribution program, modern houses, schools, churches, roads, hospitals - all these could be had for a tiny fraction of the billions appropriated for foreign aid and lost through the drainpipes of fraud and corruption. we can build factories in Italy to make a few men rich. why not build on the Soviet border at one of the most troubled spots in the whole world a model, democratic community? then when people ask,  'what does America stand for in her foreign policy? we could proudly reply, 'Maku. (note - Wow! why could not the world be inhabited by men like this ...and governed by a few in key spots? more realistic...a true disciple of Christ within view of every person....!?)

Maku would speak louder
70  hand and the savage propaganda of the Communists on the other.

all the way to the bleak village of Askar Abad where I cooked lunch this idea pounded in my head. I thought of Washington, DC,  and speeches of democracy and peace and containment of communism. those words were fat and meaningless in the environment of Maku. democracy and peace? containment of communism?  why was not the mighty voice of America raised against governments of landlords? why was it not pleading the cause of he peasants? no foreign policy would make sense at this far flung outpost unless it was cast in those terms.

yet in Aug. 1950, there was still time to keep the asses from going over to Soviet Russia. I learned at Maku that while the border people think the individual Russians are good neighbors, they fear and distrust Soviet Russia. they know that Russia would devour them. in spite of their misery and suffering there are very few Communists among these border people.

2 Kurdish tribes - the Jalali and the Milani, numbering over 2000 families each - live in the neighborhood of Maku. they winter on the Russian border and in the summer move south along the Turkish frontier for grazing. their khans were imprisoned by Reza Shah, who tried to settle the tribesmen in villages. he had mud houses build for them and underground caves for their cattle. but those restraints were temporary and unsuccessful. today these Kurds are nomads, hostile to the Persian Army and friendly to their neighbors, the Russians. I learned that Omar Agha Omoei, one of the Milni khans , helped Barzani, for a fee of 500 gold pieces, find a short cut to Soviet territory when he  was fighting the Persian army. the Jalali and Milni Kurds are said to be in regular contact with Soviet agents who maintain friendly relations with the tribes. during World War II some of these Kurds in fact acted as agents for the soviet army. Russia, however, had many allies at that time. she undoubtedly has a hold on some of these Kurds today. but I was convinced that y and large the friendliness of these Kurds to Russia was the friendliness of one neighbor for another, not friendliness born of a common ideology.
I learned 3 things from my visit among the Kurds.
First: Kurdish nationalism is in the marrow of these tribesmen - deeper than any creed or dogma. they want a state of heir own, one in which they have a degree of self-government.  but their basic loyalty

71  is to Persia. there it will remain. they have pride in the tradition that they are the Medes. they have pride in their historic role - border patrol. neither their misery and poverty nor Communist propaganda have altered those articles of their faith.
Second : the Kurds have a saying,  'the world is a rose; smell it and pass it o your friends. that philosophy represents today a yearning for a better life,  an opportunity to be freed from a serfdom that often means death,  that always means poverty and misery. there are good things in life; and the Kurds propose to have them. the Kurds have never had great political leadership not known the art of government. but they have staying qualities that others have lacked. they are the ones that harassed and plagued the 10,000 Greek troops under Xenophon who retreated through Persia to the Black Sea in 401 BC today they are true to character. they will plague any power that stands in the way of social justice.
Third:  at Maku I talked with people about Barzani. some feared him. others distrusted him. a lesser khan of the Kurds, though holding no brief for B, felt that there were extenuating circumstance. as a refugee from both Iraq and Persia, B was welcome only in Russia. this khan argued for B's return to Persia, believing Persia would gain greatly from this move. Russia would be deprived of its greatest Kurdish ally.  a Kurdish province could be formed - a province with local autonomy but loyal to the central government at Tehran. B, he maintained, would be a loyal supporter of that regime.

I asked how he could be so sure; why it was not likely that B, if he were brought back, would work for soviet interests and turn the Kurdish state into a Soviet puppet.

the Kurd rose and looked at me several minutes before answering. there was pride in his face and the words came with precision.
 'there is one thing people forget, he said.  'Once a Kurd always a Kurd on that I will stake my life'

7 - Sons are an Ornament

the welcome which a Kurdish tribe gives a guest is not only hearty;  it is a bloody affair as well. on the outskirts of the village a delegation of men hold a steer ready for the slaughter and as the guest approaches, one of them stabs the animal in the throat. there is the last agonizing moment when the steer lets loose a bloody, gurgling bellow before it is dragged across the road, leaving a steam of blood in its wake. the guest then steps across the blood. the executioner saws vigorously on the neck of the beast until the head is severed. then he heaves it to the side of the road and the khan or other ranking host turns to the guest, takes him by the hand and says in a loud, ringing voice, 'May that happen to the heads of all your enemies'.
it is a robust, primitive and genuine welcome. the ceremony is not the Asian equivalent of one of our stereotyped greetings.  the sacrifice builds a bod of blood between guest and host. the new arrival is now a member of the tribe. he has special privileges, too. every last man will give his life to defend him. every man, woman and child well cater to his needs and show him every courtesy. we of the Western world have no acquaintance with that quality of hospitality. it is a pledge of friendship and fealty. 
in origin it was an expression of gratitude that the guest had arrived safely and in good health. the best way of showing thanks was to kill something precious to the host. in ancient days when a Persian king came to a village or a tribe, the head man would go through the motions of killing a son, since an heir would be closest to his heart. and the villagers or tribesmen, playing their part, would rush in and prevent  it. the king, understanding the play would be deeply moved...

73  ...Amar Khan, over 6 feet tall, sparsely  built, trim with a head of close-cropped gray hair, stepped forward to greet me. he took my hand in both of his and held it for at least 5 minutes while we talked through my interpreter.
79  ..Amar Khan is the paramount chief of the Shakkaks.  the duties of the office are considerable. he has the peace of the tribe to maintain; he is the father confessor for many matters.
among the Kurds there is a division of judicial and notarial duties between the mullah (the Moslem Priest)  and the head khan. the mullah supervises all arrangements pertaining to marriages and divorces. wills must be made before the mullah. they may be oral; but if they are written the mullah is the notary. the mullah also handles minor cases involving civil disputes. men may quarrel over the location of a boundary line. one may claim a sheep that another has. one of both may take the case to the mullah,who hears each side and renders a decision. the procedure is informal; the decree is binding by force or the word of the priest. 
the head khan also sits as a judge. he hears the serious criminal cases, such as assault, manslaughter, robbery, adultery; and he may also take over a civil case involving large interests and potentially disruptive of the peace of the tribe.
feuding is permissible among the Kurds; it is indeed a point of honor to kill in retaliation. these cases are brought to Amar Khan, who inquires into them to learn if the killer and the deceased were feuding. if he finds there was a feud, he will not entertain the complaint.

if 2 men row over a water buffalo and one is killed, that is manslaughter. Amar Khan hears the evidence on both sides. once he is satisfied that the accused is the killer, he turns to the question of damages. he considers not only the wealth of the killer; he inquires into the needs of the family of the deceased. then he makes an assessment. if the deceased was in the prime of life, $2,500 damages are considered adequate. the defendant normally pays in sheep or goats, not in money.

but the assessment of damages is not the end of Amar Khan's functions. he seeks a reconciliation between the families, for he wants no feuding. the reconciliation is sought in a curious way. he tries to persuade the killer to go to the home of the deceased and
80  stay all night. if he does, the wounds are cured for all time. as I said earlier, Kurdish hospitality is a nobel thing. a visit to the home of a Kurd is an honor to the householder and his family. they reciprocate by pledging a bond of fealty.
manslaughter, robbery and assault are not punished by imprisonment. and no fine is imposed as we understand the term, only the payment of damages. in robbery, return of the property is first sought. there is a place in Kurdish jurisprudence for murder, but it is a mighty rare occurrence. in such cases corporal punishment by hanging is provided. but there can be no hanging without the mullah's consent. Amar Khan  could remember no case of murder. what we would call murders wee killings in the course of feuding. manslaughters were deaths resulting from sudden quarrels.

adultery is not notice unless the woman is married, when the offense is most serious. she is at once divorced after a trial before the mullah. the man is tried before Amar Khan, if he is found guilty, he is taken to the village center and stripped. 4 men hold him by legs and arms. he then is publicly whipped - 100 stinging lashes across the back. 'Flog each of the with 100 stripes. is the command of the Koran. Amar Khan says that that is the worst punishment he ever decreed. adultery is a grave offense among every Persian tribe. I was to learn that it was even more serious among the Lurs. the Lurs from time immemorial stoned the man to death if the woman was married.

Amar Khan's court has no clerk or marshal. it has no records. there are no briefs; and no opinions are written. Amar Khan looked surprised when I inquired if the parties were represented by lawyers. 'Of course not, he answered, each litigant acts as his won lawyer. each swears on the Koran to tell the truth. Amar Khan stated that after the oath was administered, the question of discovering the right or wrong of the case was easy. 'No one can lie after he swears on the Koran, he said. 

I suggested that people under oath sometimes commit perjury. Amar Khan was astonished. it was impossible for him to comprehend that a man under oath would lie. I put the case of a major dispute over property - a case brought before him rather than the mullah. the complaining party produces a witness who takes the oath and swears the plaintiff's way. the defense produces a witness who takes the oath and swears the other way. Amar Khan stopped
81 me by raising his hand and shaking his head. hen he spoke with great emphasis:  'that is impossible. the truth can be only one way when there is an oath taken...
82  ..in earlier years - perhaps as little as a century ago - the rolling hills around this village were covered with oaks.  but I scouted great areas of it and found no single shoot. the trees had been cut and consumed by man; the new forests had been eaten by goats before they could get beyond the seedling stage. so today the villagers have no fuel except the dung of their water buffalo, which they make into thick wafflelike disks for use in cooking and heating. this dung makes a hot fire, excellent for cooking. but it should be return to earth as fertilizer. the lands of the Kurds are already greatly depleted. their depletion increases at a mounting rate.
the salvation of Zindasht is the water that pours from a few springs. it is enough for modest irrigation and for household purposes. one stream also furnishes power for a series of primitive grist mills which are owned by khans. the fee for grinding is one twentieth of the grain.

the overwhelming economic problems of Zindaht were in my mind the morning I said farewell to Amar Khan. he assembled his sons outside his home and we spent an our or so taking pictures. he was proud of them and they seemed to adore the old man. he earlier had quoted to me from  the Koran, 'wealth and sons are the ornaments of this present life. now he spoke feelingly of his sons they would carry on after he had gone...

84  Abdollah Ilkhanizadeh is the head khan of the Debukri tribe or Kurds. he is a slight man, of middle age and medium height, with a long, narrow face, dark eyes, black hair and a receding hairline...
(he) has political wisdom as well as business acumen. most of his people own 5 to 10 acres of land and those who
85  do not farm have stalls in the bazaar at Bukan and make or sell merchandise.
...he was convinced that ownership of property - land, business, sheep - has a magic curative effect on social disorders.  one of the chief troubles in the world is that people do not have a stake, and interest in making their society wholesome and healthy. ownership - individual ownership - gives that incentive...
Abdollah's great pride on this tour of Bukan was first, the infirmary and first-aid station and second, the school. the infirmary had been obtained through the good offices of the Royal Society sponsored by the Shah and his family. the Society establishes hospitals and medical centers. the need in Persia is great, for there are not over 1700 doctors for a nation of 16,000,000 people; and hospital beds,including those of the Army, are only 5000. Bukan with its infirmary and first-aid center is unique; few towns of that size have any medical facilities. Bukan has a doctor as well - a German brought in by the Royal Society. Abdollah has made public health next in importance to land reform

then come the schools. Bukan had a public school system through the eighth grade and a high school was soon to be established - one of the few in all rural Persia.

9 - Independence is Preferred

87  the Elburz mountains run east and west across the northern part of Persia. they were formed by a mighty upthrust of limestone that  pushed Demavend - the highest peak - 18,600 feet into the sky. D, flecked with snow, can be seen from Tehran through the heat haze of summer. lesser peaks of the Elburz - 10,000 and 12,000 feet high - are in Tehran's back yard and tower over the city.

...the coastal plain, from a mile to 40 miles wide and washed by the Caspian Sea, is part of Persia's pride. lovely rice ( the peasant's bread)  is grown there; so are tea, citrus, fruit, tobacco, hemp. this end of the Caspian produces sturgeon from which premium caviar is obtained.

here there exists a system of land tenancy which is as oppressive as one will find anywhere in the world. great acreages are held by absentee landlords who have no sense of responsibility either for their tenants or fro the soil. Batman Gelich boasts that his agricultural lands in the Caspian region comprise an area bigger than all of Switzerland. tenants pay 80% or more of
88  the crop as rent; they are eternally in debt to the landlord; they live in miserable huts with peaked, thatched roofs. they know the pestilence of swamps, as severe as any in south east Asia.

high above them, along the top of the Elburz and down the parched, barren slopes on the south side, are other people who are just as poor. they  comb the dry and rocky canyons in search of grass for their sheep and goats, watching their flocks at night under cold stars and hugging the ground for warmth as a sharp wind comes out of the west and thistles along the ridges. they are dressed in rags; they have precious little to eat; they have no hospitals, no doctors, no schools. their women lie out in rock cairns overnight, give birth to children and move on with the tribe the next day. but these tribesmen, unlike the tenants of the coastal plain,  have the attitude of free men.

92  ...the women make mast for the use of the families. mast is also dried into hard white balls and stored for winter use. butter is made in a goatskin resting on a cradle that hangs from a tripod made of sticks. women swing the cradle to and fro; and babies often ride the cradle during the churning to the tune of plaintive lullabies.
surplus milk is put into goatskins, which are loaded onto mules and taken over the mountain to some village where there is a market. the Hedavands were bringing many skins of milk to Afcheh the day we were there. merchants met the pack trains, pouring the milk into fresh goatskins. the milk-filled skins were kept in the river until nightfall, when they were loaded into caravans and taken to Tehran. the Hedavands barter most of their milk for cloth, sugar, tea. grain and the like; some they sell for cash. this milk, made from the meager growth of wasted mountain slopes, in their life. 

their one real meal a day consists of ea, bread, cheese, mast and perhaps a little meat. they cook over an open fire built in a three wall open fireplace and bake bread on a slightly convex copper plate. their summer fuel is thistles. yet these people, as poor as any in the Middle East, are among the most generous people I have met.
one night in the Lar I was very sick. I had not eaten wisely and

93  I was spending a miserable night. word of it somehow went through the darkness to the Hedavad camp. about midnight a ragged, bare-footed man of the tribe came to my bed with a bowl of mast. mast harbors no bacteria hostile to man and has some that kill many unfriendly ones. this mast had a benign influence. after I had eaten most of it, I went to sleep at once and I woke up well.

i talked with these tribesmen about their economic condition and asked why they did not settle down in villages and enjoy the comforts of life. we ended in a long discussion, the sum of which was this:
a peasant in a village is a slave. he pays four-fifths or seven eighths or even more of his crop as rent to a landlord. the landlord owns everything - the land and the mud houses where the tenant lives, the village bathhouse where everyone bathes, the animals that work the fields, even the water that is used for irrigation the peasant cannot leave the village; he has no freedom , no way of escape. he is a serf, bound throughout time to his landlord. his grandfather and father wore those chains before him; his children and grandchildren will wear them after him. 
a grimy old goatherd spoke up:  'there is one man who owns 1500 villages; and all the people in them. they vote as he tells them. they always owe him money. they are real slaves. when the Tudeh party (Communist party) was growing strong in Iran, rents of farmers were reduced. now they are up again. a villager is lucky if he has enough after the landlord is paid to keep his family alive during the winter.
'but you are lucky also if you can feed and clothe your family?
'yes, he answered. but his eyes lighted up as he added, 'we are free and independent.

these tribesmen, no matter how impoverished, are gallant. they are aristocrats. they love the ridges where the wind blows a gale. the remote peaks take them far above the squalor and filth of villages. there is the thrill of the hunt. the sound of whistling wings of ducks coming down from Russia excites them. they like a crescent moon over a rugged cliff and the roar of a rive down a rocky canyon. they like to come and go ass they please. they are law-abiding; but it is their won law that they respect. hence they are
94  often difficult neighbors. they are a force that is in many respects antagonistic to the development of a so-called civilized and ordered society. but even the poorest of them have doe much to keep alive in Persia the nation's unconquerable spirit - the spirit of true independence. 

95  10. I Am a Lur

the chronicles divide the Lurs into 2 main groups - the Lesser Lurs, sometimes called the Feili (Rebel) Lurs; and the Greater Lurs, commonly known as the Bakhtiari. today in Persia when one refers to the Lurs he means the Reili Lurs; and it is of them I write. their territory extends from Azna on the south to Harsin (just south of Kermanshah)on the north; from Malayer on the east to the Irazi frontier on the west. this is a part of ancient Luristan. the capital is Khorramabad, a town of perhaps 20,000 people, that stands on the edge of a broad plain stretching west 20 miles or so to the ridges of the Zagros.
the Lurs and the Kurds are the closest of any of the present population of Persia to the original Aryan stock.  and of these two the Lurs are probably the purest. the Lurs had a place of honor and distinction in ancient Persia. Marco Polo speaks of them as one of the 8 kingdoms. they customarily furnished units for the Shah's cavalry. but they remained a principality under independent management. in ancient days they formed part of the council of nobles that ruled with the King of Kings of Persia. with the advent of the Kajars in the 18th century their relations with the central government worsened.
yet not even 200 years of oppression, corrupt rule and divisive politics broke the Lurs. they were not finally subdued and reduced until Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was crowned in 1926, threw the force of the army against them. even then their final suppression was a major undertaking. and the bitterness that it engendered is today a powerful political force in Persia.

the Lurs are a tribe without much, if any, literature and without a recorded history. most accounts depict them as a thieving, murderous
96  lot and there is no doubt that the Lurs stood across caravan routes and looted people, baggage and freight. their desire for independence inevitably made them a thorn in the side of every conquering power; plundering was a natural weapon for their defense.

today there are still lawless elements among the Lurs as there are among every people. I met a group of them near Nour-Abad. they looked like ruffians; their dark swarthy faces and poker expressions were enough for the part. actually they were smugglers. for a fee they would smuggle anything over the mountains into Persia, anything from a woman to a package of opium. the great bulk of the Lurs, however, are kind, friendly, hospitable. they also have a sense of humor.

the men love to carry arms. these days they have none, except what may be cached away in some secret place, for the army has completely disarmed these tribes. but the urge to display firearms is still strong....
the Lurs today number about 800,000. about half of them are sedentary,  ie. year-round residents of villages. the other half are migratory. in the summer they are in the high country, grazing mountain slopes and farming the high valleys. in the fall they move south and west to a lower and warmer country.
though the Lurs today are Shiah Moslems, they have lung fast to some ancient customs dating back to Zoroaster. thus their wheat and their bread are sacred. a Lur, if he wants to take an oath, is apt to swear, 'by the bread we ate together it is true. when the lamp is lighted at night and brought into the room, all members of the
97  family rise out of respect. and their dances at night are near or around a bonfire.

when their tribal system flourished, they had a self-contained system of law. as in the case of the Kurds which I have already described, the mullah handled domestic affairs and minor civil disputes, while the khan handled major civil disputes and criminal cases. today, how eve, the tribal structure is almost completely pulverized. the mullah handles marriages and wills and decrees divorces, but most of the other case now go to the civil courts of Persia. only occasionally will a khan hear a case nowadays; when he does it involves a major dispute over property.

the Lurs are as dark as the Kurds but shorter in stature. the men usually wear loose black trousers, an open-neck shirt and a large colored jacket that hangs to the knees. their hats seldom have a brim; these days they are usually gray or black skull caps on the roomy side. very often they wear instead a dark-colored turban, in older days the men let their hair grow long; today shaved heads are quite common.
the typical woman's costume is a long dress, usually black but sometimes colored, which hangs from the neck to the ankles. she wears a kerchief around her head. both men and women usually wear cloth sandals.
the dress of the men is sometimes colorful. that of the women seldom is. it may be that in ancient days there was beauty to their dress. once the Lurs were rich, proud and powerful. today they are only proud. the cheapness of their women's dress is a good mirror of their poverty. the best way in Persia to convey the idea that one is poverty-stricken is to say, 'I am a Lur. 

11 The Six Poorest of Us

the poverty of the Lurs is due partly to erosion. in Kurdistan to the north are mountain ranges practically devoid of trees; for miles and miles there is nothing but  high, rolling grassland, from Kermanshah on south into into Luristan one finds willow and juniper in the draws and oak on the slopes. the oaks do not form thick forests but scattered clumps such as one sees in southwestern New Mexico  and southeastern Arizona.  few are full grown. continuous cutting for centuries has resulted in trees that are mere bushy shoot from roots of monarchs that once commanded the range.

the grass has been so thinned by grazing that now one must take several steps between clumps. only the thistles seem to have flourished. they stand 4 and 5 feet high in the ravines - coarse, spiny stems topped by round, blue blossoms almost as big as an orange. the scene reminded me of some overgrazed areas of our own in Oregon and Colorado.

Quick runoffs of rain and of snow water leave harsh gullies. floods come in the spring with a mad rush, carrying topsoil with them. the water necessary for irrigation is wasted. the soil in the bottom lands is still rich, but it lacks water. flood control and irrigation projects are needed. protection of the ranges against overgrazing and protection of the forests against cutting are also needed.  the latter are as effective for storage of water as man-made dams. but in Luristan none of these conservation measures is in force. the wasting of resources goes on endlessly. each year the earth is further depleted;  each year the pinch of poverty is greater.
flood control, irrigation projects and conservation, though critical, are not the whole answer. landownership and illiteracy are also at the bottom of the economic problems of the Lurs.

the Sagavands are often described in the chronicles of Persia as
99  notorious highwaymen. one would not recognize then as such today.  one Porsartib is their khan. Porsartib owns all the land. it lies at the head of a wide valley, 50 miles south and east of Khorramabad. there is scant water for the fields. the mountains that rime the valley on the east and west provide little moisture, except harsh runoffs in the spring. these mountains within the memory of residents of this valley were once green with oak and juniper. now they are barren.

the tribe is sedentary - permanently settled in 36 villages. the menfolk gathered in a village by the road to greet me. they were in rags and tatters; their clothes more threadbare than one saw in our breadlines during the great depression. they stood with a pride despite generations of suffering and privation. these men inherited their tenancy. the entire tribe of 42,000 people works for Porsartib, paying one-third of the crop to him as rent. they are bound to him by debt as well. it is not extortionate debt; but it is eternal - advances to buy grain  during severe winters, loans to meet the recurring emergencies of impoverished people.

practically all the Sagavands are illiterate. hence they have no method of escape from the system that holds them tight. scientific agriculture, cheap means of financing, efficient methods of marketing are unknown to them. they plow with a stick pulled by a cow;  they fertilize with night soil; they burn their best fertilizer - cow manure - since that is the only fuel supply they have; they reap grain with a hand sickle; they thrash it by having cows or donkeys pull a drag over it; they separate the grain from the chaff by tossing the straw in the air. this was their fathers' method. and it is likely it will be their sons'. in all the 36 villages there are only 3 schools; and these go only through the fourth grade.

there is no doctor in the entire area. midwives with primitive methods attend to births; the umbilical cord is cut with a knife from the field. there are no  medicines, no first-aid facilities. I talked with a tall, thin man with dark, deepset eyes about the problem of medical care.

'suppose you get a pain in your stomach, one that makes you double up. what do you do?
he answered in a solemn voice.  'If God wills it, I live.

100  more or less the same conditions exist among the other tribes of Lurs in this valley - the Dalvands and the Biranavands.
one August night I sat up late talking with Rustam (R) Bahaador, the khan of the Tulabi tribe, located farther to the north. R owns not only the land; he owns every mud hut, every outhouse, every corral and barn in the area. he talked of the greatness of the Lurs and of their past, of the enduring qualities of his people. he emphasized the richness of their land. but this khan - rich and powerful though he is -  is not leading his people out of the wilderness of ignorance and disease. I saw the villages that he owns. they have the mark of squalor on them. they have the fecal odor of the Middle East. there is no sanitation; the wells are not protected;  no one is waging a campaign against flies.

R - talkative, gregarious, friendly  -occupies today a strong position of authority and leadership. but, like most leadership in the Middle East, it is irresponsible. he did not seem to be interested in or know anything about the central problems of agricultural production - seed selection, crossbreeding, fertilizers, irrigation, methods of plowing and cultivation, crop rotation, harvesting the thrashing. this tulabi khan has the virtue of being a resident landlord. but the land and people he commands are merely perquisites of a feudal position.
there are not many landlords in all Persia who have a broad vision and a sense of social responsibility: Abdol Hossein Tavakoli, of Kermanshah, is one; Seyid Zia-Ed-Din of Tehran (former Prime Minister of Persia) is another. but these men are the exceptions.

one day I visited the Kirekvan, Baharvand, Mir Baharvand and Papi (pronounced poppy) tribes. as I approached each village or settlement, the tribesmen tried to make a sacrifice in my honor. the Lurs are mostly too poor to kill  a steer, even if they owned one; the sacrifice they usually tendered was a sheep. one day I managed to forestall it at five  different places. on the sixth stop, when I visited the Papi tribe, several men had a steer tied about the ankles, preparatory to the sacrifice and were trying to throw. it. we stopped them. beyond them, however, was another group who had 4 sheep in the middle of the road, ready for the sacrifice. they cut the throat of one before we had time to object. its bright red blood streaked across the path and Ahmad Khan, their warm-hearted, friendly chief, stepped forward to greet me. and when he
101  grasped me by the hand he put in poetic words the ultimate expression of Persian hospitality: 'Ghadam rouyeh tehashm' - 'You may walk on my eyes'.
his encampment was high on slopes  of the Zagros Mountains, west of Khorramabad, 1000 feet or so below Noozhian, an 8000 foot pass over the range.

we sat on exquisite Persian rugs in his oblong tent of black woolen cloth. an orchestra stood on the open side of the tent. dances went on as we sipped tea and ate melons, apples and grapes. after a while 4 men seated themselves before us and played soft music. one played a long, bowl-like violin; one a flute; two  played drums with their hands. and as they played they sag one of the most haunting melodies I have heard. there were seemingly endless verses ending with
My sweetheart is kattaneh
I love Kattaneh
My sweetheart is Kattaneh
I love here dearly.

the tenderest of love songs came out of the rags and misery of the Papis. the words came almost in whispers; there was pathos in their voices; each singer poured out his heart; one middle-aged drummer had tears in his eyes. there was more than sadness in their voices;  there was supplication too. it was the cry of desperately lonely people for love and affection.

Kattaneh was more than a woman; she was a symbol of justice and mercy. all in this Papi environment that met the eye spelled poverty and suffering. the music rose above the surroundings; it was an avenue of escape from the misery of this life.
the melody has haunted me through all my travels. goatherds in the high Himalayas of India, the miserable laborers in the date orchards of Iraq,  workers in the factories of Isfahan - all these conveyed the same message through their eyes. it was a plea for love - for charity and kindness; a plea which, long neglected, turns into an orgasm of hate and revenge, producing revolution and terror.

after the singing, Ahmad Khan served lunch. there were skewers of liver, kidney, chicken and lamb done over charcoal. they were perfectly turned by a genial male chef and removed from the fire at the peak of their flavor. we stripped the meat off with our

102  fingers; and as we ate, the crowd of ragged human beings standing before the tent moved closer. they were so marked with poverty - their faces as well as their wretched clothes - that I felt a sharp twinge of conscience.
these morsels of rich food were drawn from the larders of the poor.

this feast was tendered by the poorest of the poor - a meal the like of which they themselves had never eaten.
and as I ate, I thought of the Lurs who had died of starvation the previous winter. 

and these were the people who were giving me the feast!

not far from where I sat 900 Lurs out of a village of 5000 had starved to death only 8 months before. the central government at last had distributed wheat; but in one village 15 Lurs were so emaciated they died of starvation after the wheat arrived. and in the spring of this present year the Lurs were so emaciated they died of starvation after the wheat arrived. and in the spring of this present year the Lurs in some of the villages I had visited had been so weak they could not stand for more than 5 minutes at a time.
I could eat no more. I motioned to 2 youngsters who stood in front of me to come near. they had sunken eyes and hollow cheeks.  I  handed first one, then the other a skewer of meat. they stripped off the delicate morsels and bolted them down. and the whole circle of hungry people moved politely nearer. 
I asked my interpreter, Shahbaz, to call up at random 6 men among these peasants. they stood in front of me, their hands nervously twisting their gray felt skull caps. turning to the first one I asked, 'What is your name?
'Abbas.
'what land do you work?
'None.
'what property do you own?
'4 calves, 10 sheep.  (skinny animals, grazed on barren tribal land.
'how large a family do you support?
'five people.
I asked the other five similar questions.
103  Abdul. owned no land, worked no land, owned 6 cows and 15 sheep, supported a family of 10.

Emani. owned no land; worked no land; owned 4 calves  and 20 sheep, supported a family of  2.

Hossein. owned no land; rented wheat land from a merchant in Khorramabad and got as his share20% of the crop which last year was 300 pounds; owned 4 cows and 30 sheep; supported a family of 5.

Ali. owned no land; rented wheat land from a merchant in Khorramabad and got as his share 20 % of the crop which last year was 200 pounds of wheat; owned 6 cows and 40 sheep; supported a family or two.
Taghi. owned no land; worked no land; owned 2 cows and 20 sheep; supported a family of 4.

I will never forget their faces. they were simple men, anxious to speak the truth, caught in a mire of poverty and squalor from which they knew not how to escape. they were eager to pour out their hearts. their eyes searched mine, as if  to obtain a promise of a new future. when I ended the conversation and turned away, the expectation and hope that had filled their faces vanished. they stood before me, ragged victims of despair.

while my questioning was going on, the elders of the tribe seated themselves on the far side of the tent. when I finished, one of them arose and came over to me. what he said was perhaps intended to save face, perhaps designed to relieve my embarrassment. he bowed graciously and then stated, 'It was God's will that you should have picked the six poorest of us.

14 The Bakhtiari Save the Constitution

118  ...the Bakhtiari had had units in the cavalry of the Shah since the time of Cyrus and Darius. the Shah of Persia always asserted the right to levy one horseman and 2 foot soldiers on every 10 families. actually the recruitments were much less:  the cavalry of the Bakhtiari in the Persian Army was limited to a few hundred, and they often served only as hostages for the good behavior of the tribe. there were several hundred in the cavalry of Mohammed Ali Shah. they were sent to persuade Morteza Gholi Khan to turn back and not to attack Tehran.

'this changed my strategy, he told me.  'I had one rule: a Bakhtiari must never fight a Bakhtiari'.

the Bakhtiari of the Shah's army were on the left flank. Morteza Gholi Khan whirled and attacked the right flank which were mostly Persian Cossacks; and the left flank of the Persian Army did not move into action. thus he routed the Cossacks at Shahabad and stood before Tehran.

meanwhile a column had marched down from Resht and joined forces with Morteza Gholi Khan. speedy action was necessary, since Russia had pledged aid to the Shah and had landed 3000 soldiers at Enzeli on the Caspian. on July 12, 1909 Morteza Choli Khan struck. he entered Tehran through the Behjit-Abad gate and captured the parliament. a battle inside Tehran raged for 3 days. Mohammed Ali who had taken refuge in the Russian Embassy, was deposed; his son was crowned; and 2 Bakhtiaris went into the new cabinet. in 1911 Najaf Gholi Khan became Prime Minister.

this was a moving story as it was told me at Shalamzar. as Morteza Gholi Khan finished he raise a clenched fist and said, 'that was a proud day for Persia. that day we saved liberty and independence for our people now our people have a forum where they can complain even against their rulers, where they can pass laws that will improve their conditions.

these words came back o me a few weeks later when I sat in the visitors' gallery of the Majlis.

119  one deputy purported to speak  on behalf of a small village: tribesmen had stolen 20 of their sheep.
another deputy was speaking for some of the tribes: the Persian army was preying on the tribes, practicing blackmail against them, and lining their pockets at the expense of the tribesmen.

the Mohammed Mossadegh (passionately Persian and anti-Soviet in his leanings, the one who was to be Prime Minister before a year had passed and cause Persia's oil to be nationalized) rose to attack the British oil concession.
the institution, which Morteza Gholi Khan saved from extinction a generation earlier, was still functioning as a public forum.

121 A Goat Does Justice

the Kurds and the Lurs divide judicial functions between the khans on the one hand and the mullahs or priests on the other. the Bakhtiari, though very religious and devout Moslems, have no mullahs among them. the khans handle the matters which the mullah customarily administers; and, as among the other tribes, adjudicate all civil and criminal disputes or controversies besides. their system of rewards and punishments differs in some details from that of the Kurds and Lurs, but in general the concept of justice is similar. there is one important difference. the Bakhtiari, like the northern tribes, assess damages for man slaughter, the family of the killer being required to pay to the family of the deceased from $2000 to $2500 depending  on the age and condition of the deceased. but the Bakhtiari do not stop there. they require the family of the killer to give a sister or daughter in marriage to a member of the family of the deceased. this custom goes back to immemorial days. Morteza Gholi Khan explained it this way.  'the union of blood works in a mystic way. it washes away all desire for retaliation. the two warring families become peacefully united as one.

...you think the Russian will invade Persia?

'one day the Communists from Russia will come like a flood and sweep all of Persia before them. they will shoot me and all like me, for I am the symbol of all they hate.  then he added with emphasis,  'I will not run away. I will stay right here and die with my people.

there was a long silence while the old man sat lost in his thoughts.
122  he looked up and his eyes were searching me as he asked, 'do you believe in God?
'Yes, I do.
'will you believe a story if I tell it to you? he asked, 'I can't tell you unless you promise to believe it.
'I will believe it if you say it is true.
'It is true.
'then I will believe it. there was a long pause as Morteza Gholi Khan put the pieces of his story together. when it cam, the telling had the polish and forcefulness of Walter Hampden.

'it was the fall of the year, perhaps 25 years ago and the tribes had started their migration south. many groups had gone ahead; I was still at Shalamzar. word came to me that there was trouble between 2 tribes. a dispute had arisen over some sheep. hot words developed into a fight. one man was killed. since he was killed while a large group of men were milling around, no one could be sure just who the killer was. the khans who were handling the case were troubled and perplexed. they could not decide whether or not the one accuse was guilty.
I sent word ahead to hold 20 men from each tribe including the accused;  that I would be there in about a week.
'I reached there by horseback in 6 days. the khans and the 20 men  from each of the 2 quarreling tribes were waiting for me at a village. 29  men stood on one side of the road, 20  on the other. they remained standing while the khans and I had a consultation. as we were talking, a herd of goats came down the road. in the lead was a big billy, who led the other goats between the 2 rows of men.
when the lead goat got opposite the man who was accused of the killing, he stopped for just a second.  then quick as a flash he put his head down and charged this man, it happened so quickly and unexpectedly that the goat caught the man off guard. he hit him in the stomach with a terrible thump. the man fell to the ground; his eyes rolled; and in just a few minutes he was dead.

Morteza Gholi Khan's voice had been loud as he acted out the drama of the goat and the man and showed with gestures what had happened. now his voice was hushed.
'when the men saw what had happened they fell on each other's necks and started kissing one another.

123  'why did they do that? I interposed
'why did they do that? Morteza Gholi Khan said in a voice expressing surprise that I need ask. 'they did it because all of us who were there knew at once that God had appeared through a goat and done justice.
16 -  An Audience at Oregon 
124  the bakhtiari are south of the Lurs and north of the Ghashghais.  their lands are 26,250 square miles and extend southward from Lurisstan to Khuzistan and westward from Isfahan province to Andimeshk. they number today about 600,000 people. about half of them are sedentary; the other half migrate. Merian C. Cooper has told the story of their migration in the book Grass and in the movie by the same name.
the Bakhtiari, like most tribes of Persia, have 2 homes: one is called the Garmsir or hot district (which is below 3500 feet elevation) and the other the Sardsir or cold district (which is over 6000 feet). in each of these districts they own land and plant crops. Khuzistan, the Garmsir, is very parched and insufferably hot in the summer. but the soil is rich and, when the rains come, will grow grain higher than a horse's belly. grain is panted in the fall and harvested in March or early April. during that period there is grass fro the flocks. the sheep are the flat-tailed asian species. the feed is so good that by april their tails will weigh 20 pounds of even more. by April the trek starts to the mountain valleys up north. it is a rugged journey. there usually is snow in the passes. there are many streams to cross, streams that are ice-cold and in flood. women and children and household possessions are floated across on inflated goatskins, tied together to form large rafts and paddled by one or two men who kneel at the bow. it is a cruel. challenging ordeal for everyone, and especially severe on the men when they take the livestock across. each man has two goatskins tied together like waterwings.  he flats on these and paddles, guiding cattle, sheep, and donkeys across the icy waters.  (Goats usually ride the rafts.) he does it not only once but dozens of times as he makes trip after trip, holding

125  a wild steer by the horn, keeping a baby donkey above the water by hanging on to its ear, swimming along with sheep to make sure none drowns.
men women and children work their way through marshland above their knees, negotiate steep canyons, and struggle through deep snow as they climb to the passes. the old and the sick ride; women with backs walk.  calves and lambs must be carried up steep trails and through snowbanks. babies are born on the migrations;  but the mother never stops more than a day to perform the ritual of birth. camp must be mad every night; people and animals must be fed.  the pace is slow;  there are 200 miles or more to cover. on the fall migration when the tribe leaves the mountains for the southland they cover this distance in about 20 days.  the streams are low and there is no snow. but on the way north in the spring it takes them better than a month to make the journey.

when the valleys of Sahalamzar and Oregon are reached, there is green grass everywhere . bottom lands are lush; hundreds of acres of multicolored iris and dozens of other wild flowers fill the basins; there is grass on the lower slopes of the mountains; there will be grass higher up as the snow melts, enough to carry the herds into the middle of summer.
in September, just before starting the migration south, the tribes sow winter wheat. when they come back in the spring, the crop is up. this crop is harvested in July. but first, on their return in May, they plant a second crop, grown under irrigation and harvested in late August or early September. some tribesmen will have stayed the winter at Oregon, Shalamzar, or other villages, taking care of their own property or acting as caretakers for friends or neighbors. there is gaiety and festivity on the reunion. an orchestra of drum and horn, which has played all along the route of the migration to lighten the loads of the tribesmen, now plays for dances in celebration of the return.

Reza Shah succeeded in stopping these migrations for a while. he took all the Bakhtiari chiefs to Tehran and either imprisoned them or put them under protective custody. he sent his army among the Bakhtiari and forced them to settle in villages. but 6 months

126  after he abdicated in 1941, the migrations were under way once more.

127 ...the Bakhtiari (B) are mostly tall and rangy. they have larger frames than the Lurs but, like them, are dark and swarthy. yet once in a while the B produce a redhead with blue eyes. there were a few such among the men who came to see me this night at Oregon.

I thanked the group for their hospitality. I compared Oregon, USA with their Oregon; and i told them of the interest which America long has had in Persia. they had appointed one of their kalantars as their spokesman. he had thought out his speech and delivered it with sincerity and emphasis:

1.  the primary need of the B is medical care. they need doctors. there are only 3 doctors for every 250,000 people. there is none in Oregon or any nearby village. 'if our wives or children get sick, he said, all we can do is pry. if God wills it, they live.
2.  the B have no hospitals, no way to care for sick people.
3. the B have practically no schools. the children grow up, unable to read or write thus they are in no position to help themselves.
4. the B have very poor roads. it is difficult for them to get their crops to market (I remember how our jeep almost got washed away in a river on our way to Oregon).
5. the B need to be taught farming. they do not know how to drill wells and irrigate, how to plow how to use fertilizer and sprays, how to farm with machinery.
6. the Bakhtiari want to be rid of the oppressions of Army rule.  soldiers are quartered among them and live off them, exacting tribute and fines for imaginary misdeeds.

...I stopped in hundreds of villages in many lands from the Mediterranean to the Pacific and talked with the peasants. they were invariably as articulate about their problems and their needs as the

129  kalantar who spoke for the B. concern for the health and education of the family always topped the list.
communist propaganda undoubtedly has made peasants more rebellious. even in the remote B country, the tribesmen learn what is going on in the world about as fast as we do. the bounties and riches of civilization are no longer secret to these plowmen and goatherds. and they will not long be denied them.

17.  Persian Hospitality

western civilization owes much to Persia. the English-speaking community is especially indebted. through Persian literature and trade a rich steam of words has entered our language -khaki, divan, hocus-pocus, shawl, julep, sash, awning, turquoise, taffeta, orange, lemon, peach, hazard, and hundreds of others. there are also many words that sound close: two -do,  six -shesh,  is - ist, daughter - dakhtar,  no - na, brother -braader, mother -mader,  father - pedar.

I have mentioned earlier the contribution of Persia to the arts and to medicine. Persia gave the world rug weaving; and it put immortal poetry on the lips of all men. the Persian cat should be added to the list  - an animal bred for long hair which is useful in making brushes for artists. and Persia has probably done more to perfect the breeding of the Arabian horse than even the Arabs themselves.

yet the finest gift, I think, that the Persians have shown the world is hospitality. it can be illustrated by a lunch with the Shah,  a dinner with the Prime Minister, a garden party tendered by the Governor of Isfahan, or by the reception of Amar Khan Sharifi or Morteza Gholi Khan Samsam.

we were camped at Oregon and scheduled to climb Mount Kalar the morning of our last day. the aim of the trip was primarily to hunt the ibex and secondarily to do a bit of mountaineering. Kalar, over 12,000 feet high, rises about 5,000 feet above Oregon. once the approaches are cleared, the mountain itself is a series of cliffs of Jurassic limestone with setbacks reminiscent of New York City sky scrapers. the higher ledges are streaked with
131  snow beyond midsummer. the climbing is mostly rock work, nothing daring or particularly hazardous, only wearing. the cliffs and slopes offer no shade; there's not a shrub or a tree to be seen. the cliffs are warm to the touch from the hot Persian sun; there are practically no springs from top to bottom; one needs to dress lightly and carry a good supply or water with him.

I awoke that morning with a temperature of 101 degrees and a nauseating attack of dysentery. but since it was my last day in B country, I decided to climb Kalar anyway. we had planned to leave at 5 AM and finally managed it at 7. we had an hour's horse back ride to the base of Kalar, and took another hour hunting partridge in the thistle-filled ravine where we left the horses. these partridge - bull-colored and a bit larger than our Gambel's quail - have a low, fast, swooping flight. they are difficult to hit. but when they are flushed from thistles there is a split second when they are vulnerable. they must first rise vertically three or four feet before they can take off. it is that instant when the B like to shoot them. we had several from each covey; and a B would carefully slit the throat of each. otherwise the meat would be unclean by Moslem standards.

by the time we had finished hunting partridge and started the ascent, the sun was burning with authority it was to be a still, hot day.

I climbed about 2000 feet and then turned back. my canteen was empty, my tongue stuck to my mouth, my temples throbbed. I was sick and weak from fever and dysentery. so far as the hunt was concerned and apart from the item of pride, my turning back made no particular difference.  this hunting party would never have bagged an ibex, I was accompanied by a dozen B. the climb for them was a lark; they were like school boys on a vacation. they ran up the rocks with he agility of the ibex, talking, laughing, shouting as they climbed. any ibex could have heard them a mile away.

when I turned back, they continued the hunt. I cleared the ledges and returned to the base of Kalar where we had left the horses. I was three hours ahead of the tie when the horses would return; the sun was relentless; and the fever had me badly shaken. in the distance a black Bedouin-like tent hugged the base of the mountain and I headed for it.
132  these tents are made of goat wool. women spin a thread about as coarse as a heavy string and weave the cloth into black strips about 18 inches wide and 20 feet long. they then sew the strips together, making the cloth for the back and top of the tent. the other side and the tow ends are usually open.
there was not a tree or shrub in sight; no shade but that of the tent. a small spring was a stone's throw away. a man, a young boy, 3 children and 2 girls about 15 and 16 years old were by the tent. one girl was spinning wool into yarn; the other was milking the 50 sheep and goats that were patiently standing in line.
the man invited me in. he went to the back of the tent and unrolled a small but beautiful Persian rug and laid it in front of me, motioning for me to sit. he brought out a blanket and placed it under my head for a pillow.  he took a large kettle of mast, poured some of it into a smaller pot and mixed it with water from a goatskin. this mixture is known as dugh, a very healthy drink in this area. he scattered some brownish spice over the dugh and handed it to me. I drank deeply and then lay back to sleep.
just before I went to sleep, I thought how gracious and genuine a Persian's hospitality can be. when I walked into the tent, it became mine. I was left to myself. the man, the girls, and the children went about their won business. no one stood gaping at me. this was my new home for the moment. I had complete privacy. 
how long I slept I do not know. but when I awoke, I was fresh and renewed and I went my way after thanking the man and presenting a jackknife to the boy. the scene came back to me over and again as I passed through the drawing rooms of America, Europe, and Asia. there I met  gracious hosts and hostesses - well-educated, charming and warm-hearted - who showed me every courtesy and consideration. yet somehow the hospitality of the little goatherd on Mount Kalar surpassed all the rest. he not only turned over his whole house to me, made me a bed, gave me nourishing food and respected my privacy, but when I first asked if I might rest in his tent, he bowed graciously and said in musical words that still ring in my ears: 'My hut is poor and dirty but you may sit in the light of my eyes.

19 - By My Mother's Milk

138  when Reza Shah undertook to end the tribal migrations, it might be said he was only accelerating a trend, for the tendency through the years has been for all nomads of the Middle East to settle permanently. but whatever may be said of the merits of his program, it was executed by the Army in a barbaric way.
The Ghashgahais (G) were forcibly stopped from migrating. some settle on the hot, barren, waterless lands in the Gulf area where there is grazing for only a few months of the year. the government provided no irrigation projects. the people wasted away and their flocks perished. 

others who were moved to rice areas along the Gulf fell victims to malaria.

these nomads, who now were forced to become villagers, had no sense of village life. the settlements in which they were placed soon piled high with refuse; springs became polluted; typhoid and dysentery spread; a plague of trachoma hit the tribesmen.

those settled in the mountain country fared somewhat better, for the climate there is healthier.  but these nomads did not know how to build warm houses, nor how to take  care of themselves or their stock in freezing weather, nor how to irrigate and farm in settled communities. they suffered greatly from pneumonia, tuberculosis and other throat and lung infections. many, many died. the sever winters also killed off their livestock one year the Darashori subtribe lost almost 90% of their horses when the Army forced them to remain in the mountains all winter.

the property of the khans was confiscated on the theory that the G should pay the state the cost of conducting this campaign against them. further, the central government appointed

139  as khans men who would humiliate the proud tribesmen and who could be counted on to play the government's game.
the tribesmen died at such a rate that many think they would have been wiped out in a few decades had the conditions persisted. to live they had to migrate. and so they began to spend their wealth in bribing Army officers to let them migrate. the army fastened itself as a leech on these peoples; bribery and blackmail fastened itself as a leech on these peoples; bribery and blackmail became the fashion and the order of the day.
Qishlaq is a village of about 70 families. it lies northwest of shiraz in G country. the village and all the land around it is owned by a man named Agha Bozorg, who was a sergeant in the Persian Army for about 15 years. during that time his salary was between 7 dollars and 20 dollars a month. a few years ago he bought Qishlaz for $200,000 cash. I stopped at Quishlaq to see him; but he was away. I learned from the villagers that he is married to a woman who beats him and who occasionally takes a shot at him with a revolver. the villagers say that that is justice. they think Agha Bozorg tot his $200,000 in a way for which he is now being punished. I do not know how Agha Bozorg got his wealth. but I learned how other sergeants and officers of the Persian Army amassed fortunes under Reza Shah. the following is one example.
a sargeant,  with an eye on wealth and fortune, stole a donkey in Ghashghai (G) country. he stole the donkey at night, took it to a distant ravine, and killed it. then he cut off the front feet, put them in his pockets and returned to his barracks, high in G country. he bided his time. as he made the rounds of the tribes, he kept his eyes open for fat flocks, good crops, pure-blooded Arabian horses.

when he selected his victim, he waited until a dark night. under the cover of darkness he crept into the village, a donkey foot in each hand and placed hoof prints along all the streets and before every house. then he withdrew and waited until morning. he returned with troops, searched out the village elder and said, 'there have been donkeys stolen and I am told that some of your people stole them.

the village elder assured him that he was wrong, that there were no donkeys there. the sergeant, looking down, spied the hoof prints
140  of donkeys and said,  'You're lying. here are the tracks. look, they are everywhere. and with that the sergeant went around the village, followed by his troops, the village elder and a growing crowd of villagers. and everywhere he went he pointed to the hoof prints. finally, he stopped and said to the crowd, 'Where are the donkeys?
they assured him they had no donkeys.
But I have the evidence and the court in Shiraz will convict you.
the denials of guilt became more and more insistent, the accusations were emphatic. finally the sergeant said, 'If no one will confess, I'll have to arrest everyone and take you all to Shiraz'.  turning to his troops he said, 'Line them up and start them down the road.

Shiraz was 100 miles away.  it would take days to reach there on foot; weeks would be wasted waiting for trial; it would take more days to return. meanwhile the crops would be lost;  there would be no one to care for the sheep and goats. the prospect of losing their year
's production and the wealth of the flocks was appalling. consequently, the village elder sought a way of settling the controversy.
the discussion was long and heated. the sergeant placed a fine on the whole village. there were violent objections. the sergeant answered by once more directing the troops to start the villagers down the road to Shiraz. the village elder slowly and painfully realized that this was blackmail and that he would have to capitulate to save his people the price then became the subject of negotiation. it was finally reduced to $15,000. sheep, goats, wheat, money, jewelry were collected and assessed and the sergeant marched off with his loot.
in some villages, he got $20,000, in others $5,000. the donkey hoofs became worth more than their weight in gold. the sergeant grew in arrogance and wealth as he bled the G white.

old habits are heard to break and at the lower echelons there is still a great incentive to prey on the tribes. salary of soldiers and gendarmes is pitifully poor. a captain of the gendarmes who has 10 children and relatives to support practically conceded to me that he had to steal of exact blackmail. his salary is about $50 a month.
the G, alert to these practices, are today able to take care of themselves.  almost every man is armed; and their organization
141  is highly perfected. shortly before my visit the Army endeavored to bring 200 Arabs into one G district for grazing. the villagers protested and refused admission. the Army said it would be back in the morning.  when they came, they were met by 1000 G, armed and ready to fight. the Army and the Arabs withdrew.
I heard for days on end stories of the depredations of the Army against the tribes and the loot and plunder they had collected. one afternoon I called on a kalantar. we sat in a long open tent, partitioned by carpet hangings. the side part was the anderun where the women and children stayed. in our part were beautiful rugs and a backdrop of gaily colored carpets against which were piled rolls of blankets and rugs for sleeping. we had tea; and then the kalantar, an old man with a cracked voice, reviewed the ravages of the Army under Reza Shah. he ended the hour or more of discussion with these words:  'We can forgive the Army for some of these things and live with them in peace. but there is one thing which we never can forgive.
'during the reign of Reza Shah there was a captain stationed here who had several thoroughbred puppies. the bitch had died. the captain sent soldiers every morning to one of our villages and demanded 2 quarts of mother's mil, our G women were forced to submit. each day dogs drank the milk of our mothers. there was a pause as he gathered emphasis for his final words, 'that we can never forgive.
the depth of his feeling can be understood only if 2 things are remembered: First. dogs are unclean to Moslems. Second. the G not only have the respect for mothers that is universal; they also have a tradition and custom that this Army captain desecrated. for one of the most sacred oaths a G can take is 'by my mother's milk'.
145...the G have the finest Arabian horses I have seen. they are probably unequaled in the world. for centuries the G have bred them for the hunt. at present they are a bit over 14 hands, larger than the normal arabian. there are not many geldings in the tribes. stallions, spirited but gentle, are preferred for the hunt. since they have more stamina for the long, hard runs. but mares are also used in the less strenuous hunts.
G saddles are a bit reminiscent of McClellan saddles; they have a low cantle (def - the hind part of the saddle, usually inclined upward)  and no horn, but a front that is slightly raised and padded. the usual stirrup is the English type; sometimes triangular side plates are used, one corner of which serves as a spur.
the G men normally tall and rangy, have an odd-looking tribal dress. it is a long robe which looks much like a dressing gown with a sash around the waist. over this they wear a leather vest. the hat is usually brown felt with turned-up flaps, front and back.

the tribe of the G most famous for its horses is the Darashori. its head is Ziad Khan, a short, slight, middle-aged man,  who loves horses as a man loves his sons. he also loves to ride them; and Ziad Khan is one of the best riders and hunters and one of the best shots on horseback of any of the Ghahghais. to be rated with the G let alone be placed at their head is high praise.
Ziad Khan constantly brings new Arab blood to his stables from Khuzistan. the Arab blood most desired is the Khersan. stallions in his string will sell anywhere from $2,500 up. and Ziad Khan in 1950 could produce on 24 hours' notice 20,000 cavalrymen, mounted and armed, with provisions and ammunition for 30 days.
the tails of the horse are cut when they are 6 months old and again when they are a year and a half. this makes them fluffy and full. the effect is striking when the tali is arched. petals of a species

146  of mallow, rubbed on the tails, give them luster and are said to promote their growth.

the horses are first ridden when they are a year old. this requires no breaking of the horse, as we use the term, for they never buck or rear.  they are as gentle as household pets when they are colts; indeed, they are pets from the time they first walk. I was in a long, open G tent having tea, when a young colt came in and nuzzled me looking for sugar. he kept coming back as a dog might, friendly and intimate a regular member of the family.
the first riding of the horse is at a walk, no trotting or running,  this is done only occasionally, just enough to get the animal used to the feel of a saddle, bridle and rider. when the horse is 2 and a half years old he is given a wider experience. this is when he is broken to fire, music and gunpowder.

he is led around bonfires at night until he no longer jumps or shies at the noise, the flame, or the heat. he is then exposed to G orchestras of drum and horn (oboe) that play for the dances. finally he is exposed to fire and to music, because the G' wedding dances are at night around bonfires.

he is led near a firing range. when he no longer is startled at the noise, he is brought closer. in a few days his trainer is shooting a gun next to him; then there is shooting across the saddle and finally from the saddle. any horse goes wild when a gun is shot off right over his ears, as many a hunter has learned. G horses are broken to fire with studious regard for the sensitivity.

in a week a stallion is broken to fire, music and gunfire. then he is ready for a full measure of tribal life. when a stallion is used for riding and for the hunt, he is not put at stud. his days at stud come after his hunting days are over when he is 8 or 9 years old. G have the theory that a stallion at stud loses the keen edge necessary for the hunt.
these horses are wiry and tough. there are no barns or stables to shelter them most of the time they stand tethered by a halter and by the rear feet. they receive generous portions of barley and they are exercised every day.
when I hunted with the G, I learned what magnificent animals the Arabian stallions are. they have an instinct for the hunt that is keen and sharp. all that needs be done is to point them to the game and they hold to the prey as a greyhound does to a rabbit.

147  they and the G make the most skillful hunting combination I have ever known.

one day Malek Mansour and I headed across the Namdan Plain. I was riding Mohammed Hossein's white stallion; Malek Mansour, his own bay. about 80 mounted G were on our flanks and in our rear. each had a rifle and a shotgun, one of which was carried by a bearer. we were headed for an ibex hunt.
Namdan Plain is almost as flat as a floor and extends 200 miles northwest and southeast. it is around 15 miles wide. the plain lies about 6,000 feet high, which makes the ridges that cover its flanks 8,000 feet or better; and the mountains that lie behind the ridge on the west rise to 15,000 feet. the hills have no trees in the vivid sense of the word, but there are wild peach trees - shrubs from 2 to 8 feet tall - and other coarse shrubs of camel thorns and thistles. but by late summer these mountains look naked to the eye.
the plain itself is covered by grass that is stirrup high in the spring. there will be mile and miles of wild iris and hollyhock in bloom. in the spring a meandering stream flows through the plain; by fall this stream is a winding, dark streak of marshland. Dogear rushes, 12 feet tall, grow in it. it is a favorite haunt of the wild boar.
the ibexes are in the hills above Namdan Plain and they were our hunt that day. as we rode, Malek Mansour spotted a hawk traversing our course about a half mile ahead. he took a shotgun from the bearer, pointed his stallion toward the hawk, and leaned forward in the saddle. the stallion ran like the wind. though the hawk changed its course, the stallion kept in pursuit and came under the hawk. the stallion was still on a hard, fast run when Malek Mansour dropped the reins, stood slightly in the stirrups and brought the hawk down with one shot. that afternoon other G performed similar feats, chasing hawks, vultures and low-flying ducks on horseback and shooting from the saddle on the dead run. they must on the law of averages sometime fail to get their bird; but this afternoon they seldom missed; and the most shots anyone took were 2.
we did not bet our ibex that day. they are found above the plain in ravines, rocky gorges, and open slopes of the high mountains. careful planning is required to drive these fleet animals so that they

148  come to range. several converging parties worked one huge valley. never had I been on a faster steed. when he ran it was as if he had his belly to the ground. his feet sounded lie machine-gun fire. he went with the wind and as freely. there was joy and abandon in the run - an all-out, enthusiastic burst of energy. the run had a beautiful rhythm;  horse and rider became one; it was a wild, exultant co-operative project. the pounding of the hoofs, the feel of the wind, the tenseness of the pace, the thrill of the chase make going at 35 miles an hour aboard a stallion an exquisite experience. but to the uninitiated the run of a G horse through broken country is on the starling side. those horses take brush, rocks, gullies as if they did not exist. there is no break in the stride, no change of pace. uphill and down they go as if propelled by Satan. then it is that one knows why stallions are preferred for the hunt. mares cannot endure the grueling speed. once in a while these hard-running stallions have an accident, but injuries are rare. these fleet animals with tiny feet and strong shoulders can go almost anywhere on a dead run. only marshland breaks the beautiful rhythm of their pounding pace.

I took movies of one gazelle hunt. advance parties sent out by the G turned a mass of gazelles from the mountains onto Namdan Plain. there were several thousand of hem in one herd, racing over 30  miles an hour. through the glasses they looked like waves of a vast sea that filled the basin in a mirage. their backs rose and fell in perfect symmetry as the great mass raced across the valley.

some were finally cut from the heard and y group went into action. few of our western horses would ever get within range of a gazelle. this member of the antelope family, with short, straight, pointed horns and tiny legs, weighs about 40 pounds, is hardly higher than a big shepherd dog and can to 50 miles an hour. I have clocked them at that speed  on the Namdan Plain. no horse ever born can run that fast. some therefore resort to the criminal practice of hunting gazelles in a jeep. G strenuously object to that practice and make life miserable for any jeep hunter who enters their domain. they get their gazelles by cutting out a few
149  from a herd, coming in on them from an angle and shooting from the saddle on the dead run. this afternoon the 15 in my party got 40 gazelles; and every one was the result of magnificent riding and shooting. they were all saddle shots, where the hunter has to know the rhythm of the horse, the arc his gun is traveling and the split second when he's on the target. that's hard enough with a moving target when the hunter is stationary. it's an exacting skill beyond most hunters when both target and hunter are on the run.
when I was in the Bakhtiari country I had seen a nice exhibition of shooting on a gallop. I had in fact put up prizes for a contest. Bahman Khan was judge. he laid out a course bout 200 yards long and ran horsemen by a stationary target about 50 yards distant. it was good shooting; but G shooting was even better. the B  have been disarmed so long they are out of practice . once they were equals of the G and Bahman of the B today can ride and shoot with any of the G.  but the average G is now far ahead of any tribes man not only in Persia but in the whole Middle East.

I gave prizes for a G shooting contest. Malek Mansour arranged it. a bush on a die hill was the target. the contestants rode by it at a distance of 50 yards, shooting from 5 different positions on their 300 yard course - once as they started, once at the quarter, once when directly opposite, once at the three-quarter position and once at the end. these were hard fast runs,  the riders never once touching the reins. the lst 2 shots were made going away from the target, the rider shooting over the tail of the horse.
over 20 entered the contest. not one shot from the entire group went astray. there were misses; but every shot either hit or rimmed the target. Ziad Khan, famous horse breeder, won the contest against 2 sharp, clean-cut youngsters in their teens. Ziad put 5 bullets in the center of the bush on the run down; then he turned the horse, came back on a dead run, shifted his rifle to his left shoulder and put 5 more bullets in the bush. others followed suit and many had records almost as good.

I had never seen such shooting, even by circus experts. the skill of these G made the rewards seem woefully inadequate: all I could contribute as prizes were a carton of American cigarettes, a pair of sun glasses, a jackknife, a whetstone and a key ring. to

150  my surprise Melek Mansour made the key ring the first prize and gave the rest in reverse of the order I had listed them.
I thought that exhibition was the most superb shooting I had ever seen, but I was to see more. returning to camp one afternoon with Malek Mansour and a host of G hunters, I galloped ahead to get a picture of the group coming across Namdan Plain. they however, stopped a quarter mile away and sent a rider after me, who came with a clatter shouting 'Gros, gros' before I could translate his message Malek Mansour and the rest of us were off on a hard fast run across the plain in pursuit of a wild boar who had broken out of the marshland and headed across the basin. the boar had a two mile start and was loping at full speed. we had to cross the march and so for a few moments were slowed to a walk. when we finally negotiated it, Malek Mansour had a long lead and was going like the wind. in 5 minutes or so he got within 200 years of the boar, stood in his saddle and fired. the bullet hit the boar in the right shoulder. the animal's front legs collapsed momentarily; but he was up in a jiffy and on his way.
now Malek Mansour had a dangerous venture on his hands a wounded boar has no equal in ferocity to chase a wounded boar on horseback is suicidal, for a boar in full flight can turn faster than a horse can turn; when he does, he comes up under the horse, ripping him with the tusks and killing him and probably the rider too So Malek Mansour pulled out about 50 yards and ran parallel with the boar. in a few minutes he was abreast of the animal.
this was the tense and telling moment of the hunt. the boar now turned and charged the horse.  a wounded boar on a short charge goes much faster than even an Arabian horse can run. if this stallion bolted and ran, the boar would be under him in a matter of seconds, ripping open his belly. this was the crucial test for the rider as well, for he had only one shot before the boar would e under the horse. the Arabian stallion never wavered though death would reach him in seconds . he went pounding across the plain, holding his course as though he were a guided missile. Malek Mansour had dropped his reins and was now low in the saddle, leaning sideways. he waited until the boar was 75 feet away and then dropped him with one gullet between the eyes.

I never have been able to decide who was more of a champion Malek Mansour or the bay stallion with the arched tail.

168   the four enemies of man the world around - Illiteracy, Poverty, Disease, and Misgovernment.

25  The Poisonous Bit of the Goat

179  one has to walk the Middle East to know the full impact of overgrazing of the land and unlimited cutting of trees. here one sees the end product of erosion. a trail that follows the contours of the ridges passes only a few trees a day. in summer one is under a blistering sun the whole day through. great areas show nothing but ugly gullies. the topsoil of the upland basins has rushed to the sea. only bare rocks are left or fields which show little soil until tons of rocks are removed from them. the slopes  have been washed by millions of rains and robbed of their fertility, so that today nothing remains but miles of rocky expanse. some of the rocks have fantastic shapes  -towers, mushrooms, pyramids, needlelike pillars, cliffs with great overhangs produce by a weathering of the base. a changing light turns this land into an artist's paradise, as colors turn form blue, green, gray and brown. but it is land that is no better than marginal and often sterile.
the tragedy grows as the pressure of people on land continues. the pressure is great; every possible bit of ground is used.
180  ...most of the activities of the goat, however, are on the debit side. once the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon Mountains were covered with thick forests of cedars, pine, juniper and oak. some were cut for timber, some for fuel and some to run slag furnaces. these mountains had small iron deposits that ere worked centuries go. no new forests grew up when the old ones were cut. the goat was the reason. he ate the seedlings. we know that is the reason, because the ridges that are kept free of goats grow new forests today.
goats will eat practically anything and does. one ate a part of my plant press when my back was turned and while I was taking pictures. the people cannot live without the goat, since he supplies

181  their meat, milk, butter, cheese, leather and wool. they cannot live with him because he makes them poorer every day. the problem of the goat is basic and fundamental. his bite is poisonous; he is a scourge to the earth unless tethered. to rebuild the economy of the Middle east so as to leave the goat as the poor man's cow and develop other means of livelihood is a major problem no only in agricultural planning but in politics as well. an economy that is as old as man is hard to change.

I was traveling the Conrad Creek Trail of the Cascade Mountains in the State of Washington on my way to the Goat Rocks. I was in the State of Washington on my way to the Goat Rocks. I was several miles  above the lush Conrad Meadows where grass grows stirrup high when I saw a campfire on the edge of a small wet meadow that abounded in beaver. a ranger of our Forest Service was cooking a meal. he invited me to join him. during this meal I received my first lecture on conservation.

my ranger friend told me of the telltale signs of erosion which he had discovered in a meadow below us. sheep had caused it. he explained why it was sheep had been on these slopes in too great numbers and for too long a time.
'Nature has constructed reservoirs in every meadow and on every slope of these mountains. on the slope below us are millions upon millions of fine roots of grasses. there are also coarser root of shrubs and greater root of trees. they hold rain water back; they impound it and release it slowly. moreover roots of grasses, shrubs, and trees build soil.  they create it through chemical processes and through their won transformation into humus. heavy grazing of the grass and the pounding of the turf by the hoofs of too many animals uncover the soil. then the ground is ready for destruction. when the soil is bare, water runs off fast, taking the topsoil with it. if it is held by grasses and roots, it seeps out slowly and is as crystal clear as Conrad Creek down there in the meadow. the grass

182   makes cover for the soil too, protecting it from erosion by rain and wind.

I went with my ranger friend as he inspected some misused meadows, and he told me about the seed time of grass too. he said that stock should be dept off until the grass is about ankle deep; that some grass seed should ripen each year. 'get next year's grass seed in the ground, he said, and you're beginning to lick the problem of overgrazing.
he explained how it was that next year's grass crop is injured it all of this year's crop is eaten. a good part of the green leafage should be left. the green leaves manufacture the food which makes the grass grow. in the winter it is stored in the roots. the next spring new growth comes from the stored food if all the green leaves are eaten, the grass starves.
'that nourishment is carbohydrates, he added, like potatoes and read and ice cream that people eat. grass must have the nourishment made by the leaves if it is to remain strong. sheep have been eating too much here. use of this area should be much lighter.

that was why fewer plants were growing in this high basin. there were bare spots between the clumps of grass. the humus cover of dead vegetation was being washed away. very little was left to decay and to enrich and make new soil. there would be a greater runoff next spring.

'muddy water'll pour into the South fork, he said. 'we can see that kind of damage. but there's other damage that is not so easy to see.
he went on to explain that when there is good cover for the soil, water seeps through leaves, humus and roots into the topsoil underneath. Topsoil is granulated and porous. it absorbs the water and sends much of it into underground reservoirs. are hooked up into great uncharted and unseen river courses that are tapped for wells, that come bubbling out of the ground in springs and that feed lakes and streams. once the plant cover of the topsoil is gone, swift runoffs take the topsoil with them to the ocean. the ground under the topsoil becomes hard.  it is packed, no porous. it will  not absorb water. there are no leaves and plant tops to decay and form new rich, porous soil.

'when the rains come, he explained, the water will not soak through.
183  the underground reservoirs will not be filled. some wells a hundred miles from here will go dry.

this ranger also told me about forests and lumber.
'asparagus is fast-growing, he said. you can cut stalk after stalk in the same bed without danger. pine, fir and cedar are the same, except that it takes 50 to 100 years for them to do what asparagus can do in a few days. one crop of lumber after another - that's what the nation must have, cutting must be planned. only mature, trees must be cut.
he stopped and pointed out the red and white fir around us that were too young to cut the other trees that were ripe, if not overripe.
then he continued, 'there must always be a crop of lumber in the ground. there must always be a crop maturing. the demand for lumber will increase. the forests must be cut. but the forests must always have as much or more timber in them as they had when we started. we can grow richer rather than poorer in timber, if we will use our heads. 
what my ranger friend described to me was the lumbering method known as the sustained yield. since he spoke some thirty years ago it has gradually attained a wider adoption in the US.

I thought of this lesson in conservation as I sat with the Arab boy on the slope above Akoura.

no ranger had ridden the hills of Lebanon to watch for telltale signs of erosion, to say what basins should be grazed, to mark the trees that could be cut. for centuries there had been no guardians of the public interest in topsoil. men and goats - both greedy - took what they wanted from the earth.

the early Phoenicians cut the forests, especially the cedars, for the construction of their merchant ships that plied the ocean. Solomon built his Temple at Jerusalem with cedars furnished by Hiram King of Tyre:
'and Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have considered the things which thou sentest to me for:  and I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar and concerning timber of fir. my servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea:  and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me and will cause them to be discharged there,  and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household. ( Kings 5.8,9)

Solomon also built his won house
'of the forest of Lebanon; the length thereof was 100 cubits and the breadth thereof 50 cubits  and the height thereof 30 cubits, upon 4 rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. and it was covered with cedar above upon the beams,  that lay on 45 pillars, 15 in a row. (I Kings 7.2,3)

it was a mighty host that gathered the materials from Lebanon for Solomon's project:

'and Solomon had 70,000 that bare burdens, and 80,000 hewers in the mountains...(I Kings 5.15)

at that time the mountains of Lebanon must indeed have been lush with cedars and other trees. 80,000 woodcutters! 'today - June 1949, I thought, 8 woodcutters could make short shrift of all that is left of the famous cedars.
as I rose to go I thought that any sheepman, cattleman or lumberman in America who complained of he regulation of grazing or cutting of trees should be give a free trip to the Middle East so that he could see with his own eyes what erosion can do.

26 - Cedars of Lebanon

185  'as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land'.  one has to travel in a barren, naked land under a blistering sun fully to appreciate that Biblical expression. on mountain trips in the Middle East light and heat are everywhere. there's no escape from them - no retreat, no solace, no relief. one watches the angle of the sun in the sky, praying for its early disappearance. the earth is a hot griddle -fair-skinned man is the victim. his energy is sucked out of him through all his pores. shade is haven to a man pursued by light, as land is to the drowning.
we had walked 4 days under a sweltering sun. there was no cover of any kind - for man, birds or beasts. the mediterranean sky was cruel. when at last I reached the cedars at Hadeth, I had an interesting psychological experience. i lay on my back under the first cedar and thanked God for trees.  I felt as if i had reached home, as if protective arms were around me. i had escaped an enemy that pursued me with a hot breath. i, a refugee from the sun who was burned to a frazzle, was at last safe. 
the cedar of Lebanon is the true cedar. it has dark-green needles similar to our red fir. at Hadeth the cedars are wind-blown, about 30 feet high, with 3 or 4 foot trunks. most of them have been topped and as a result of cutting they have split trunks. the effect is a chewed-off, mutilated forest. but the cedars of Bsharreh, which we visited after we left Hadeth, are perfect specimens. they are east of Hadeth at the head of Qadisha Canyo, a harsh, rough defile about 1,500 feet deep and famous in the Middle East for its danger and beauty. the local name of these cedars is Arz-ar-Rubb - Cedars of the Lord.
these cedars rise 100 feet or more. while the trunks are usually 4 or 5 feet thick, like our tamarack, some are over
186  30 feet in diameter. these are the monarchs of the forest, perhaps 1000 years old. the branches are long and swooping and cover the ground for 50 feet or more around. a forest of them is so closely woven with branches that it is difficult to get a picture of a single tree. at Bsharreh there are only about 400 cedars left, packed together in a small 10 acre tract. the remnants of a mighty race. and they barely survived, even after the church that owned them threatened excommunication to any who cut the trees. still the grove steadily diminished in size for generations. now it is a government preserve.
when I saw the true and perfect specimens of the cedars, the praise which the Bible bestows on them had new meaning for me.
Moses knew the hot breath of Palestine and Arabia in summer. he had felt the oven heat of basalt rocks in the hills; he had known the searing of desert sands. he too had walked treeless plains looking for shade. he had stood on naked ridges and looked into valleys barren of green meadows, lakes, or streams. he had crossed saddles where in a whole expanse of dreary land there was not a bit of shade, no clump or line of trees to break the monotony. the land of Moab is parched and dry.  the treeless plains of Bashan are often scorched; its lave rock remains hot the night through.

so Moses looked north to Lebanon where patches of snow capped the highest ridges; were the slopes were dark green with the thick stands of cedars; where Neba Leben and other cold streams gushed from limestone cliffs.. and he said, 'I  pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.' Deuteronomy 3.25

when Solomon said, 'His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars' (Song of Solomon 5.15) he meant that their majesty suggested repose, tranquility and nobility.

the mountains of Lebanon were the hills to which the Psalmist raised his eyes and from which came his strength. here were snow peaks, roaring brooks, green forests, abundant springs, luxuriant meadows, brilliant flowers. here was the source of life and livelihood. above all else here was solitude sublime, the place of meditation and communion. 'the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon'.  Psalms 92.12

and so the destruction of the cedars became the symbolism of dire

calamity and disaster. it was the ultimate in expression of the wrath of God.

'Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down. Isaiah 33.9
'and I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and hey shall cut down thy choice cedars and cast them into the fire. Jeremiah 22.7

'open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Zechariah 11.1

the Prophets knew what the scourge of deforestation could do to a land - that it was the ultimate in destruction. the cedars are mostly gone. topsoil that their roots once held back has rushed to the Mediterranean. the gullies become harsher and deeper, the land more impoverished every year. the goats keep new forests from rising. Yacoub Bishara has to rise at 3 AM to eke out a living from the thin and rocky soil that is left. poverty has permeated the land.

27. The Agrarian Problem

188  we in America think of the Arabs as a nomadic people. the Bedouins are. but at least 90% of the Arab world is even more firmly settled than our Iowa farmers. the economy of the Arab world is predominantly agricultural. the most acute and pressing problems in this area are therefore rural ones.

poverty is foremost in the arab world. poverty in that region, as elsewhere, breeds malnutrition, unsanitary conditions of living, miserable housing, high infant mortality and a long list of preventable diseases. but poverty in the Arab world is not the temporary kind that  a depression produces in our county; it is permanent and abiding, the product of age-old and deep-seated ailments.

the reasons for this poverty are several. first is the system of land ownership. in Egypt about 4,000,000 people are actively engaged in agriculture. of these, 3,000,000 own no land or own less than a feddan - slightly more than an acre. in Syria about 55% of the land is owned by landlords and cultivated by share tenants. these holdings are large, 25% of the land being in units of 500 hectares or more - one hectare being roughly two and a half acres. in southern Iraq practically all the land is owned by landlords who lease it, through an intermediary called the sirkal,  on shares to the cultivators. in Lebanon there is more land owned by the farmers who till the soil than in any of the other Arab countries. but in Lebanon there are great landholdings along the coast and in the interior valley of the Boqaa.
the system of  share-tenancy gives the tenant little feeling of security. he is subject to eviction at the will of the landlord; he has no fixed tenure. the rent he pays varies; usually it is a percentage of the crop. one way of dividing the crop is by fifths: one for the land, one for seed, one for water, one for beast of
189  burden, one for labor. it is not unusual for the tenant to retain only 20% under that system, since the landlord will often furnish not only the land but the seed, water and work animals as well.  but the tenant's share of the crop is customarily higher. he may pay only one0fifth, one-third, or one-half of the crop as rent. his actual share, however, is usually much less than the share to which he is entitled under the lease. the reason is that there is little bank credit available for agriculture. in Syria some agricultural bank loans up to $1000 are available at 9% interest. but the farmer who owns land as well as the landless tenant must usually resort to moneylenders, who have extortionate rates of interest - 15 and 29% are customary; 100% is sometimes charged. a tenant soon gets in debt to a moneylender or to his landlord. in most cases he is unable to repay the principal and meet the heavy installments of interest. he becomes in substance a serf, irrevocably tied to a master by debt. though his share of the crop may on its face seem generous, what he is able to retain is only enough to keep him and his family at a subsistence level.
this system of tenancy not only makes the great bulk of the farming class perpetually poor; it also has a devastating effect on the land, for the tenants feel no responsibility for the use of fertilizers or for the adoption of long-range programs of land improvement. the system leaves no room for incentive - for the prospect that increased activity will bring new rewards.

the methods of farming are in the main still primitive. Egypt is an exception. the areas where farmers own their own land, as in parts of Lebanon, and where farmers own their own land, as in parts of Lebanon, and where large holdings are devoted to the raising of cereals, as in north Syria, are another exception but the habits of farming are for the most part what they were in the days of Christ. plowing is done with a stick, harvesting with hand sickles, thrashing by rolling a spiked drum over grain piled on the ground, separating by tossing the wheat or barley  in the air with a fork, the chaff being blown to one side. Olive trees will produce a crop every year. but in this region the farmers get a crop every 2 years.  the reason is that they harvest the crop by knocking the fruit off the trees with long sticks, which destroys a large percentage of the buds from which next year's crop derives.

a few of the Arab countries have oil, but the natural resources of most of them are skimpy. there is no iron and very little coal.
190  the region is arid: the coastal ranges get around 21" of rain a year; the interior from 6 to 10".  in the interior only one crop in 2 years or 2 crops in 3 years may be grown except where there is irrigation as in the valleys of the Tigris, Euphrates and the Nile. most of the major streams have no t yet been harnessed for flood control, irrigation and electric power. soil erosion and the uneconomic use of water have gone on for centuries. they continue to deplete the land

the pressure on the land increases yearly. the area has a potential capacity to care for may more millions of people, but to do so it must have numerous TVA'S and other handiworks of science.  today the continuous increase in population merely serves to intensify the conditions of poverty.

in many sections of Egypt and in the dry-farming areas of Ayria, Transjordan and Iraq the agricultural worker - the fellah- is on a seasonal basis. he sows the cereals in the spring and harvests them in the fall, working a half or perhaps only a third of the year. he and his kind are not migratory workers; they barely exist on the few hundred dollars which their partial employment produces each year.

in the rural areas illiteracy is high - perhaps 95%. there are few rural schools. the peasants have no avenues of escape from their conditions -no keys to knowledge that will show them improved methods of plowing and irrigating, the use of fertilizers, the way to balance the economy of a farm with livestock, the control of disease among fruit and vegetables, the prevention of disease among  humans.
the governments in these areas are alive to these conditions, but the measures taken to date have not touched the fundamental conditions on which the destitution of the masses grows. remedies employed either have been minor in nature or, where more ambitious, have chiefly aided the landlord. the United States Agricultural Mission made a comprehensive study of agricultural conditions in Syria and submitted an excellent report in 1946. the report is highly praise on all sides. but by 1950 nothing had been done to implement it.
the measure closest to actual land reform in the arab world is the provision of the new Syrian constitution that, 'A maximum limit for landownership shall be prescribed by law. but that touches

191  only future acquisitions, not present holdings, since it has no retroactive effect.

the Arab peasant has long been a fatalist and still is. but he is beginning to understand his problems - the cause of his misery and remedies for it.
part of his understanding has come from the dissemination of ideas about America and its way of life;  part has been due to soviet propaganda. soviet propaganda reached the peak of its influence in the Arab world in 1944. a picture of Staling then hung in almost every Arab home. the expression Abou Shanab - 'the an with the mustache' - came into common usage. Abou Shanab became a sort of Robin Hood. a peasant who was angry at his landlord, and employee who had been discharged by his employer, a person who was indignant over the acts of a crooked politician - each of these would threaten vengeance. he would say that Abou Shanab would see that evil was punished, that the cause of justice was served.

when on Nov. 29, 1947 the Soviet Union voted in favor of partition of Palestine, the wooing of the Arabs by the Soviets received a serious setback. the Arab governments at once outlawed  the Communist party; and their publications were banned. 6 Communists were burned to death in Damascus. the Communist party in the Arab world went underground. the party was purged; the intellectuals were weeded out. control of the party in the Middle East was given to professionals whose endurance to suffering and whose loyalty to the Kremlin had been thoroughly tested.

Communist propaganda has to date failed to make Communists of the masses.  it has, however, made them politically conscious. it has created an acute awareness of their troubles and dissatisfaction with the status quo.
illiteracy, disease, poverty and misgovernment - these are real, personal enemies of the Arab peasant. the Moscow radio tells about them. it speaks of the corruption in high places; the struggle of the arab at the bottom to escape his cruel fate; the eagerness of the Soviet people to help the oppressed; the savagery with which the ruling class, aided and abetted by the 'anglo-American imperialists', thwart every move by  the masses to free themselves from the feudal system. the Moscow radio speaks in Arabic:
'tonigh you Arabs sit in your mud huts eating unleavened
192  bread, cheese and olives. tonight your masters who are supported by the Anglo-american imperialists feast on the fat of the land. you live in filth and misery; they dress in silk and live in comfort. they and the Anglo-american imperialists will not let you be freed from your misery and your suffering'. 
what Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador to the US. recently said of the peasant of south east Asia can be appropriately applied to the Arab peasants as well:  'We can no longer assume, as they no longer assume, that generation after generation will come and go in unchanging ways, lost to all comforts but the meagre one of traditional fatalism.

28. Zayim

193  the famous gardens of the Middle East are those in the palace of Azm in Damascus, built 200 years ago by a noted governor. today its fountains still produce the music of cascades. a mass of jasmine, hauntingly fragrant, blooms against a brick wall; sour orange trees, loquat trees, the thin dark cypress sway in the wind that sweeps off the desert; golden rod and morning glories give a dash of color to drab clay walls.
Azm represents the peak of splendor. yet every Arab, no matter how poor, has his garden or courtyard. in the typical village the home of a poor Arab opens on a courtyard or hard-packed dirt surrounded y a mud wall about 8 feet tall. it has no tree or touch of greenness. an open ditch carrying waste water from the house runs through it, the assembly point of a host of flies. the courtyard carries the smell of goats and donkeys. yet the garden is home, the place where privacy begins.

one july night in 1949 we sat in a more pretentious garden in Damascus. a rich lawn filled the space and willow and apple trees bent before a wind that swept from the west off the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. it had been blistering hot that afternoon. now it was cool - so cool that it was uncomfortable to sit long without a wrap.
a group of us had discussed at length the economic plight of the peasant in the Middle East, the remedies for his ills, Soviet propaganda, the prospect of effective political action to combat it. one of the group - a large landowner - deprecated the suggestion that modern agricultural methods should be introduced. he described in detail the primitive method  of harvesting grain, how women worked all day on their knees to cut with a hand sickle a small plot of wheat, how boys and men stacked the sheaves on camels and took them several miles to a thrashing floor, how that thrashing method caused a loss of a fifth or more of the grain. but then he added,  'if farm machinery were introduced, the peasants would have
194  more leisure time. think of the trouble they would get into then.

another spoke up and said that ownership of land had nothing to do with productivity, that in Syria the larger the estate the more efficient the management of it, that the answer to the land problem was the introduction of scientific methods by those owners who had the necessary skill and imagination.

still another added in general agreement with the others that before land was distributed to the peasants each peasant should demonstrate that he was worthy to be a landowner.

most of this group were business and professional men representing a conservative point of view. they doubtless shared the sentiments of the dominant political groups in the region.

beginning in March of 1949, however, one loud and powerful voice had proclaimed a different attitude. it was the voice of Husni Zayim, dictator of Syria, who had seized control of the government in a bloodless coup.  whether he was in earnest about his political program, I do not know. Damascus seemed to be divided in opinion. but if he were serious, he was a grave threat to the status quo.
He promised - redistribution of the land to the peasants
-slum clearance
- low-cost housing
-emancipation of women
- resettlement of 100,000 Arab refugees from Palestine on Syrian land.
-a tax program to carry forward these projects.

he also seemed to be working for peace with Israel. that at least was what he professed to be doing . and he had taken one step in that direction by signing an armistice. 

I tried to see Zayim to make up my mind about his sincerity, but he was moving around too fast for me to catch up with him. I did, however, see his Prime Minister, Muhsin Barazi. Barazi seemed smooth and suave and full of intrigue. I did not get from him a feeling of sincerity. he pressed me to help Syria get from the United states equipment for a modern army.

'we promise not to use it against Israel, he said. we must be strong against the threat of Russia to the north.
but there did not seem to be in Barazi's mind the idea that the real show of strength against Russia would come in a social revolution
195  that effectuated a program of rural reconstruction such as Zayim talked about.

within the month Zayim and Barazi were dead. they were seized and executed by the army on the morning of Aug. 14, 1949. a new government took over. up to then the Damascus radio  had been broadcasting everlasting praise and tribute to Marshal Zayim. suddenly it switched its theme ; now Zayim was everything wicked in the book, from traitor on down.

the Moscow radio blared at length in Arabic about the episode and offered as usual a conspiratorial theory involving the democracies:  'we now know why and by whose hand these acts were accomplished. in order to grasp this case we have carefully observed whom this Syrian event displeased and whom it pleased. to decide this subject we do not need to look into the simple faces of the Syrian people, but perhaps the countenance of some diplomat in London, Washington and pa5is must be scrutinized,. everything is read in those countenances. in some o the British faces a smile of satisfaction; in some French faces, regret and nervousness; and in American faces, disappointment and displeasure. the Britishers consider themselves masters of the Arab countries. French capital lost its influence in Syria, but is hopeful by serving the Americans who are attempting to oust the Britishers from these countries and replace them to remain in its position.

many believe that Soviet propaganda even to this day. the British are readily suspected in the Middle East. some say Zayim and Barazi were shot because the Zayi government  was too friendly with Israel. that also is too easy an answer. Zayim had given asylum to a political refugee from Lebanon and then in a moment which many thought to be treacherous, returned the an to Lebanon to be shot. Zayim had become, like most dictators, a braggart - bold and boastful in his attitudes. the common Syrian explanation is that he was shot because he was dangerous to the nation. that was the excuse.

the truth is that Zayim's announced program struck at the heart of the feudal system that holds Syria in its grip. the Moslem clergy, the landowners, the industialists, and the die-hard Anti-Zionists were aligned against his reforms. Zayim's political strategy and astuteness were not equal to that revolutionary occasion.
but, the ideas which Zayim espoused live on in the Arab world.

29. Jebel el Druze

196  we left Damascus (D) by car one hot bright morning, heading south by west for Soueida, Amman,  and Jerusalem. in a few minutes the greenery of D. was behind us. the black-surfaced road lay like a snake across the blistering plain of Bashan, there was not a tree as far as the eye could see.

the plain was basalt. dark lava rocks, from the size of eggs to the size of barrels, were scattered across the fields. some had been pile to form fences. others lay on the surface. the ancient wooden plows still used to work the land plowed around them. they stood like islands in a sea of skimpy crops that stretched to the horizon.
the crops were mostly sorghum, wheat, melons and sunflowers. this is an area of dry-farming. there had been no rain for two months. we stopped briefly at the small village of Sheikh Meskine. there was no shade except inside the flat roofed, ill-smelling mud huts. the village had not even a shrub or a tuft of grass. a searing sun had scorched the earth and left it brown. the stone walls on the roadside had a furnace heat in them beyond the walls camels were being unloaded of the sheaves which they had brought to the thrashing floors. their masters stopped work and stared - their faces dark and inscrutable but marked with the almost unendurable effort of producing food and raising families on arid land carrying the marks of centuries of abuse.
the plain of Bashan gets rockier and rockier as it approaches Jebel el Druze - the Mountain of the Druzes. this is a low-lying barren ridge, perhaps 2000 feet high. it lay  ahead of us to the south and seemed from a distance to be no more than a drab foothill. it is historic ground, where the Argob and Geshur are located. this is where Absalom fled after the murder of

197his brother ((Samuel 13.38 it has been a refuge for countless others who fled before the law. a great many Druzes settled here in the 19th century, coming from Lebanon where they writhed under the rule of the Turk.
the Druzes have always been a religious minority in the Arab world. today they constitute about 4 % of Syria's 3.5 million people. their resistance to authority has mad them a thorn in the side of almost every government of Syria. their record as warriors is renowned. they sided with Islam and fought the Crusaders. they have massacred christians and warred on divers groups. in much of this - especially in the killing of christians -  they were inspired and directed by the Turks who ruled Syria for 400 years. in other instances - as in case of their resistance to the French in the 1920s- they were inspired by intense nationalism. and when it came to war with the Bedouins, they fought in self-defense.

the Bedouin and his flocks have walked this region together for centuries. Bashan used to be covered with oaks. they are mostly gone. a Bedouin never leaves a tree standing.  he cuts it down y setting it on fire; then he waits for the wind to blow it over. he uses that extravagant method even though he wants only a few boughs for his cooking. if there were only one tree left in a basin, he would destroy it. the Bedouin figures that if h doesn't appropriate it, someone else will.
it was the lack of conservation that bled Bashan - and more. there has been great insecurity in its civilizations. there was continuous raiding and pillaging. men took what they saw. there was no incentive to build and construct for the morrow. men lived from day to day. the earth and soil were resources to plunder. if one did not take today, the raiding Bedouins or the corrupt Turks would take tomorrow. it paid to cut trees, for the Turks placed a tax on them. thus irresponsible management of water, topsoil, grass and trees became the norm.
the Druzes who bordered the Bedouins on the west were constantly armed. they even took guns to the fields.
we were the guests of the Druzes at Soueida, a clean, pleasant town of about 10,000. we had been invited by Said Taky Deen, who spoke for Sultan Pasha Atrash, the head of the Syrian tribe. the Governor of Jebel el Druze, at whose office we reported,

198  took us on a tour of the city and afterward gave us lunch in the Governor's mansion. the menu consisted of the following:
1. Djaje mihshi  (roast chicken stuffed with a dressing made of rice, ground lamb meat, spices)
2. Koosa and leban (Koosa is squash, stuffed with rice,ground lamb meat and chopped parsley. Leban is milk which when processed thickens as it sets.)
3. Kibbeh (is made from finely crushed wheat, ground lamb meat and spices. this is pounded together until the mixture has an even texture, and then fried).
4. rice and Yakni (prepared by boiling okra until softened. the okra is then drained. onions browned in olive oil and tomatoes are then added.
5. Hummos bithiini (chick peas with sesame. chick peas mashed and mixed with hummos which is diluted and mixed with olive oil, lemons, and parsley).
6. salad (mixed vegetables with a dressing made of olive oil and lemons and highly seasoned).
7. mixed assorted fresh vegetables (olives, fried eggplant, tomatoes).
8. dessert (fresh fruit and Baklawa - pastry made of thin layers of crust with a filling of crushed nuts and honey).

the Druzes constitute a secret, religious sect. Syria and Lebanon have been their home ever since they first appeared late in the 10th century near Mount Hermon. always an agricultural people, not interested in industry or commerce, they are organized today as they were in the beginning - in a feudal society. villages are under the controlled of local sheikhs - a word which, as I have said , connotes old age, seniority, respect. the sheikhs are in turn under one or more amirs or princes. land is for the most part owned by the members of the hierarchy.

the Druzes consider the christianity, Judaism, Islam and all other religions were forerunners of Druzism. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed were all prophets. but to the Druzes Mohammed was Lucifer. for them Al-Hakim ) AD 996-1020

199  is the Messiah. the name Druze comes from Darazi, the first missionary of the faith.

the Druzes have predestination as a philosophy of life. there is little place for the free will of man. they also believe in the transmigration of souls. when a Druze dies, he is supposed to e reborn in China. little actually is known, however, of the Druzes religion. it is part of their religion that nothing of it should be divulged or promulgated. the door of their religion was indeed closed in AD 1031/ this step was taken in order to save the Druzes from being delivered into the hands of their persecutors by converts with subversive tendencies. since that date no one has been admitted to the Druze nation; nor has anyone been allowed to leave it.
the Druze religion thus became wholly hereditary. no outsider and few insiders, know the secrets of this religion. some of the  theology is transmitted secretly by word of mouth to succeeding priests or wise men.  moreover, the words in the religious texts of the Druzes have double meanings that only a select few know.
the art of dissimulation is a legitimate technique. the Druze religion was fashioned with an eye to survival in a hostile world. hence a Druze may profess any other religion as a means of protecting himself. he may in appearance and profession be a devout Moslem or Catholic. but t heart he is always a Druze, forever a member of a homogeneous group, bound by religious and fraternal ties,
tied to a feudal system of government, united to an indissoluble family.

a feudal system of the Druzes of Jebel el Druze was imposed by the Hamdans - Kurdish families who are part of the tribe. but since the Atrashes ousted the Hamdans last century, the social and political structure in Jebel el Druze has been democratic. the Jebel is divided into Makarin (districts)  and each district is governed by the largest family. party politics are family politics. whenever an emergency arises the unity of the various districts and families is achieved by the religious leaders. in ordinary administrative matters the priest or wise men never interfere except where a religious question arises. discussions on public matters are usually conducted t the Madafaat - equivalent to our town meetings and complete social equality in maintained there.
in 9 centuries there has on the whole been little change
200  in the Druze way of life -religious, political, social and economic.  but the Druzes do not live in a vacuum. they are part of the dynamics of the Middle East. their hopes and aspirations are tied  to those of all Arab peoples. and so it is that Russian propaganda,  the advances in Israel, and the contagion of liberal ideas sweeping the world have penetrated the feudal walls of Jebel el Druze.

30. Kemal Djumblatt

208  after lunch the several hundred guests assembled in front of an alcove off the garden and listened to speeches. addresses of welcome were given; and I replied. then Kemal Djumblatt (KD) introduced Ramiz Abi-Suab, a young man in his 20s who spoke of the principles and achievements of the Progressive socialist party.
KD is its founder. a member of the Lebanon Parliament since 1943 and for a while Minister of National Economy, he is well-educated both in government and in religion. he rises at 5 every morning, goes to the tower of his home high on the ridge above El Moukhtara and sits in prayer and meditation for two hours. he is a devout man and somewhat of a mystic, greatly influenced by Hindu
philosophy. the destiny of the Arabs in a fast-changing, evolutionary world is uppermost in his thoughts. he has in fact dedicated his life to their welfare.

he studied Marxism in Paris but was not convinced. yet he

209  believes that the 'capitalistic phase' of society is passing and that a new form of economic, social and political democracy must be designed. he gave this project many months of thought.

in the winter of 19498 he organized the Progressive Socialist party in Lebanon. one of its sponsors describes its aims as follows:
an economic democracy: bread and work, Justice and Freedom.
a social democracy: neither tight nor privilege without a corresponding duty - a society without classes.
a political democracy:  neither dictatorship nor anarchy, but an organized people's democracy.
every citizen is an owner.
a worker is the partner of the owner of the enterprise.
the fatherland is a happy country: social security assured to all citizens, education accessible to everybody. 

the party sponsors socialization of a select group of industries, equality of men and women with respect to civil and political rights, compulsory voting, social security universal education, hospitals and clinics, a degree of socialized medicine, protection of water supplies, elimination of malaria, income taxes, industrialization programs, freedom of the press, formation of trade unions, and independent judiciary, and dozens of other reforms, most of which have had a familiar ring in this country from the time of the elder La Follette to date. and not the least plank in the new party's platform is:
partition of large landed properties into small lots and acquisition of these lots by tenants, farmers and workers in agriculture, the sales price being paid on long term installments. abolition of the system of share-croppers which is tied to medieval feudalism; encouragement of agricultural co-operatives; establishment of a suitable system of agricultural credit.
it is this program that KD calls the Third Force - a group of measures which reject the fanaticism of Soviet communism and the unrestrained activities of private  enterprise.

his party has established rural health clinics in a few dozen villages where its members live. it has arranged medical services on an insurance basis for its members in the cities in villages where the party is organized it is establishing libraries, tennis courts, swimming pools and football, basketball, and volleyball fields.
210  consumer co-operatives have been started in some villages. marketing and credit co-operatives are planned. it is launching genuine collective farms at the villages of Btekhnay and El Moukhtara in Lebanon. and perhaps most important of all, KD's party cuts across all religious lines. among the fervent men who talked, one was a Russian Orthodox; another was a Maronit.

KD is a tall, thin, soft-spoken man, his high forehead, unruly black hair, deep-brown eyes, his long, delicate hands mark him as an intellectual. he speaks  slowly. his responses to questions are thoughtfully methodical, not quick. he is the thinker, the teacher, the philosopher, how he will succeed as a political manager no one knows. but in the first few months of his political activities he fired some 15,000  young men and women with zeal and enthusiasm. theirs is not a passion born of narrow nationalism or class hatred. it has a distinct moral flavor. to paraphrase KD, their movement borrows from the philosophy of Jesus, Mohammed, Confucius and Buddha - all products of Asia.  it is genuinely Asian. it is spiritually akin to every true democratic movement in the world.

during this long discussion my mind went back to an earlier visit I had paid to Beit-ed-Dine, a pretentious castle a few miles up the valley from El Moukhtara. the President of the Republic of Lebanon tendered my son and me a luncheon there in 1949. we ate in the garden, with the full sweep of the valley at our feet. beautiful terraced gardens fall away from the castle on the west. here grow many botanical wonders of the Middle East including one I especially liked - the tiger's mustache, a coarse, broad-leaved grass that grows a few inches high and then droops. it looks a little like the squaw grass (bear grass) of our Pacific Northwest.
after luncheon wee sauntered through the historic castle. of all the wonders we saw, one caught my eye.
211  Emir Bachir Shahab, the ruler of Lebanon who build the castle near the beginning of the 19th century, had an Arab poet attached to his entourage. this poet would not only read the Koran to his master; he also wrote  inspiring poems for him. the choice lines - the ones which the Governor thought the best - were cared in stone on the walls or written over the doorways of Beit-ed-Dine. as we moved through a spacious salon I asked that the inscription over one of the doors be translated. what it said came back to me as I watched the sensitive face of KD at El Moukhtara while he explained his political philosophy. the engraved words were these: 'one hour of justice is worth 3000 hours of prayer.
31.  Siblene - the Magic of Ownership
212  ...Siblene (S) is a village of about 200 people which overlooks the Mediterranean 8 miles or so north of Sidon. S is not on the coastal plain, which is rich with the topsoil carried from the mountains as a result of centuries of erosion; it sits in the foothills. at that point the hills look as if they have been scrubbed and scoured of earth. as one approaches the village there seems to be nothing but bare limestone in sight.
S has been a Djumblatt village for at least 200 years - a Moslem not a Druze village.that is to say, a Kjumblatt has been its owner, renting the land to Moslem tenants on a share-cropping basis. some of the families of these tenants have been  there as long as the village. most of the present tenants were indeed born there, as were their fathers and grandfathers.
213  S from time out of mind has been a feudal estate, the tenants no better than serfs, eking out a bare existence on this rocky ridge. S's olive and fig orchards have the mark of antiquity on them. somehow or other wheat  and barley were raise in small amounts on rocky slopes  that appear to be not even good pasture land.  since there is no well or creek, all water must be carried from a spring 10 minutes distant.
KD distributed the land at S to the tenants. he first asked the peasants to appoint a committee to value the land and to allocate the acreage among each of the families. when he received their report, he took one third of the valuation they had place on the land and sold it to them at that price on a 10 year installment basis. each family ended by owning about 4 acres of land; and in each case it was the ancestral plot that his family had worked for generations.
this distribution of land to the peasants was the bombshell that rocked the Arab aristocracy. and the fact that it was done by an aristocrat made it all the more ominous. I had heard reports of the effect that it had had among the peasants and wanted to see for myself. that was why I went to S.

at S I saw young new apricot and peach orchards which the peasants planted just as soon as they became the owners. these orchards will treble the production of the land in a few years. 

S had been a village of mud huts marked with squalor. the Djumblatts, as landlords and owners of the huts, had never done anything to modernize them I saw a village transformed. in a few months after the peasants had acquired ownership of their homes a miracle had happened. the mud houses were now spic and span; yards were tidy; shrubs and flowers had been planted; new stone fences had been erected; there was fresh paint on the gates and doors. curtains gave dashes of color to the windows. S was now neater and brighter than any Arab village I had seen.

S had never had a schoolhouse. within a few months after the peasants became the owners of the land they built a schoolhouse - a one room affair reminiscent of our country schools.

it had never occurred to the villagers to have a village recreational center. under the feudal system which they had known the landlord had the initiative; their duty was to work for him; they had either no consciousness of demands which they could rightfully
make or insufficient courage to press them. once they became owners of the village they had a new viewpoint. this was now their true home; it was theirs to do with as they pleased. and so they made big plans for it. their recreational center was no more than a large room in a building on the highest point of the ridge, but it provided a place for game, for reading, for small assemblies, as well as a gathering place for the elders when village affairs needed settlement.

I walked among these people talking with them, studying their faces. it was plain that something dramatic and deeply important had happened to them. I had first learned in Puerto Rico that a person moving from a house made of packing cases and sheets of tine into a house that was clean and modern underwent a transformation. even his face was changed. i saw in s something even more fundamental. I saw what magic widespread private ownership could produce. by reason of it a village had been remade almost overnight.
people who own land have a stake in their community; they have a new sense of citizenship;  they acquire a feeling of responsibility. and with it all comes an attitude of confidence, of dignity, of well-being.  this showed on all sides at S. a quiet social revolution had taken place. it seemed to me a dramatic illustration of how quickly the character of the Middle East could be remade if the peasants were permitted to inherit the earth - on the installment plan.

I talked at length with KD about S and its meaning in the Arab world. 'the starting point for social reconstruction in the Middle East, he said is land reform. all else flows from that.

he went on to point out that only when the peasants are given a stake in their country can a truly democratic society be developed.  only then can any sense of citizenship and feeling of responsibility for community and national affairs be developed. otherwise the peasant is bossed by some overlord, whose responsibility it is to determine what shall be panted, how the land shall be worked and so on. in those matters the tenant has no voice. he never learns the lesson of initiative and enterprise. there are none of the rewards that increased effort can produce. the lack of incentive conditions all his activities.
215  such is the peasant's fate. the facts of daily life teach it. Soviet propaganda hammers away at it.

there are those in the Middle East who jeer at KJ and say that he is merely a politician who seeks popular support by what he did at S. he is a politician; but he is of a different breed than the Middle East has ever known. he has spiritual qualities quite foreign to the political arena. he believes deeply and sincerely that the future of the Arab people depends  on the quality of Arab leadership. that leadership has not been progressive; and prominent elements in it are to this day corrupt. that leadership, whether or not honest, has never yet fashioned for the peasants of that area a full-fledged democratic program such as Nehru is sponsoring in India. government in the Middle East has been of the landlords, by the landlords, for the landlords.
'if we want to bring peace and security to our people we must adopt democratic methods, says KD. 'before we do that Arab leadership must cleanse itself.
'is that why you decided to distribute the land at s to the peasants?
'yes, that was one of the reasons, he replied, 'if I am to lead the Arab peoples to a life of social justice, I myself myself be worthy. I myself must live that life.
there was a long silence while he sat in meditation his head bowed.
'what was the other reason? I asked.
he lifted his face and turned to look at me. his eyes now had the fire of the Prophets.
'the other reason that I distributed the land to the peasants was that it is right that he who works the land should own it.

217  PART 4  -Cross, Star and Crescent

Mohammed is a name borne by more boys and men in the world than any other, including John and Bill. the mos famous person who bore it was born in AD 571 at Mecca. to him was revealed the word of Allah; and he reduced that word to the Kora. he died in AD 632, leaving behind a militant religion and a group of fanatic followers who used the Book and the Sword to conquer the earth.

Mohammed taught a new brotherhood - the Brotherhood of Islam.  'know ye that every Moslem is a brother to every other Moslem and that ye are now one brotherhood. it is not legitimate for any of you, therefore, to appropriate unto himself anything that belongs to his brother unless it is willingly give him by that brother. through this creed he fashioned a Pax Isalmica that united the faithful  and inspired them to mighty conquests.
in the decade or so after his death the little nation of Arabia conquered most of the then civilized world . Damascus fell after a 6 months seige. the Byzantines were routed  Yarmuk, a tributary of the Jordan. Arabian armies pushed north to Turkey and into Armenia and Georgia. they moved east and conquered Iraq and Persia.  by AD 643 the Arabs were on the border of India. they swept south and west, taking Alexandria and then most of Egypt and sweeping along the coast of North Africa to Tripoli, by AD 711 they we in Spain. on the first centennial of Mohammed's death Islam had reached the zenith of its temporal power.
while that political empire lasted, a great civilization prospered under Islamic influence. science, rt and literature flowered. the political empire,however, lost its cohesiveness and unity after 5 centuries. the dynasties it established crumbled from within. mongol
218  hordes attacked the empire on the east; Crusaders attacked it on the west. the world of Islam shrank. yet even so it left millions of converts behind. today 1/8  of the peoples of the earth believe that the Koran is the embodiment of wisdom and truth.

five times a day there is the call to worship:
Ia ilaha illa  - 'llah:
Mohammed rasulu - 'LLah
No god but allah: Mohammed
is the messenger of Allah

men from the Mediterranean to the pacific, from Africa to Russia then get on their knees, face Mecca and offer prayers to Allah.
the brotherhood of Islam still persists. it is a brotherhood that draws no line at color, race or nationality. in that sense it is universal. Islam draws only one line - the line between the faithful and the rest of mankind.
the Middle East is predominantly Moslem. in Persia and Iraq about 95% of the population is of the Islamic faith; in Syria about 80%.  only in Lebanon are the christians in a majority.  there they have a slim lead, perhaps 51%.
the Arab village is governed by a council. representation is along religious lines. the religious vote is on the religious 'party line'.  thus Lebanon is divided into religious districts, which means that when delegates to the parliament are chosen a Druze must be elected from one area, a Moslem from one, a Maronite from another and so on.
religious differences cut deep from the Mediterranean to the Pacific. the region is filled with records of religious wars, persecutions and massacres. less than a century ago, 8000 christians were massacred in Lebanon, 8,000 in Damascus. that history injects a subtle influence in all community and political affairs;  it lurks in every dispute; it may whip up into a bloody affair between a Bedouin goatherd and a christian villager; it is an influence in international politics. it was only the other day that Moslem and Hindu alike forgot Gandhi's teaching and fell on each other on bloody slaughter. the religious factor was responsible for breaking India in 2 and creating Pakistan.

32. Hattin

219  one of the most effective speeches ever made in all history was delivered by Pope Urban II at Clermont in the fall of 1095. it was the summons of the faithful to a war against the infidels; it was plea to save the christians of Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine from persecution. the plea of Urban II to the faithful was  -
'enter you the road to the Holy Sepulcher,
convert it from the wicked race
and subject it.
it was a holy cause. 'God wills it' was both the summons and the battle cry. the cross was the badge all wore. Jerusalem was the road of salvation.
and so in 1096 about 300,000 soldiers marched east, headed overland for Jerusalem. finally the Crusaders stood before it, praying, 'O, Sepulcher ,  help us.  they marched around the city, blowing their trumpets, as Joshua had done at Jericho. but the walls did not fall. then started a month's siege. on July 15, 1099 under the blows of the broad sword and battering rams, Jerusalem fell. 'God wills it'. the Sepulcher was in the hands of the faithful. the Cross on which Christ was crucified was the standard carried into battle, as the remaining citadels of the Moslems along the Phoenician coast were subdued.
from 1099 to 1187 Jerusalem was held by a series of Crusader kings, who built and maintained great commercial and financial empires in the region and fastened a heavy yoke of political and social feudalism on the country. the Crusaders in their daily lives set no noble christian example for the Arabs. moreover, the military hold they had on the region was tenuous ; actually what they held were citadels and provinces scattered like islands through a vast region. an Arab leadership watched them closely and- waited. this was leadership driven by a religious fanaticism. with them the jihad (holy war) was a duty.
in preparation for my first trip to the Middle East I had reread the history of the Crusades and learned how much the Crusaders took from the culture of the East- and how little they contributed. my reading had made the Crusaders more real to me and less romantic than they had seemed to be in my youth. their reality became even more vivid as I saw their castles and crosses in Lebanon and Israel and their handiwork at the Church of the Holy sepulcher in Jerusalem. but it was a strange coincidence that made me feel on intimate terms with them.
221  'At Hattin Saladin defeated the Crusaders. now do you remember?

I still shook my head. so he went on to describe the battle. it took place July 3-4, 1187.
Saladin, a Kurd, led the Arabs. he was probably the greatest of all Arab military leaders. he was also more than a general; he was a statesman of character and stature - one of the great men of all time.

at the beginning of the battle of Hattin Saladin seemed to be in a disadvantageous position. his back was to the sea of Galilee. the Crusaders, under the command of Guy, King of Jerusalem,  Raymond of Galilee, and Reginald of Kerak, for a reason not explicable left their camp near Tiberias, where they had good supplies of sweet water and moved out to the heights of Hattin where they had neither water nor shade. the christian soldiers were blistering hot under their armor; and the heat became unendurable when they ran out of water. Saladin capitalized on their predicament, giving them no surcease (def - cease from some action) from attack during the long, grueling night of the first day of the battle. then with an east wind blowing at his back Saladin set fire to the thistles. the fire roared up  the heights, roasting and suffocating the Crusaders. the Cross was soon lowered by the Moslem horde. the Crusaders - parched, bleary-eyed, scorched, singed the burned - where decisively beaten. the Moslem battle cry, 'God is most great',  'there is no other god but god' came in exultant shouts from the heights of Hattin.
762 years later - almost to the day - my son Bill and i saw a raging inferno, fed by thistles, once more sweep up Hattin. as I stood there watching the billowing smoke from a fire that raced faster than a man could run, the Crusaders became real men to me. I was with them and Saladin and relived for a moment the drama of Hattin.
Jerusalem was the real prize won at Hattin. Saladin went on to take the Holy City. it feel on Oct. 2, 1197 and Saladin tore down the Cross that stood on the Dome of the Rock. were the Crusaders had shown cruelty, Saladin showed mercy. in 10990 the Crusaders had marched into Jerusalem killing every infidel they
222  could lay their hands on. when Saladin took Jerusalem, he asked a large ransom for the lives of the Christian inhabitants, but he released free of charge all old people; and he also left unharmed people too poor to pay. for his philosophy, as spoken to his son, ran as follows:  'do the will of God, for that is the way of peace. beware of bloodshed; trust not in that, for blood never sleeps.

then came Richard (R) the Lion Hearted to reclaim Jerusalem. he landed 250,000 on the shores of Palestine. no warrior was ever braver. R's prowess on the field of battle filled the Arabs with terror. near the end of the battle of Jaffa R rode out in front of the whole Moslem army, his lance uplifted. he trotted up and down, taunting the  Moslem hosts, challenging any one of them, any 10 of them, any 100 of them to come out and fight him. but so great was his reputation that none dared move against him.
yet in spite of R's victories along the shores, his troops never even saw the walls of Jerusalem. R was opposed by Saladin, who was too great a commander and leader to be undone by bravery alone.

one day in 1192 when R was storming the plains below Jerusalem he sent word to S, demanding the surrender of Jerusalem. Saladin's historic reply soon came:

'Jerusalem is as much to us as it is to you and has more value in our eyes - for it was the place of the prophet's night journey to Heaven and will provide the place of assembly for our people at the Judgment Day. do not think that we will give it up to you. the land was ours in the first place and it is you who have come to attack it.
the conflict that R the Lion Hearted and Saladin did not resolve in 1192 lives on. it is as sharp today as it was then, it is generated by forces deep in the emotions of men. those forces cannot be crushed. they survive the victories of armies and the raging fires of thistles.

33. Josef and Fouda                                                                                                spellcheck to here

223 Damascus is an oasis.it is surrounded by blesk and dreary foothills on the north and west and on the east by a barren wasteland that stretches 500 miles to Baghdad. in between likes a lush, circular garden 30 miles wide. the oasis yields annually thousands of tons of apricots, wheat, barley, vegetables and grapes and thousands of tons of apricots, wheat barley, vegetables and grapes and thousands of pounds of walnuts, hemp, apples and other fruit. the surrounding country, though dry and barren and showing only camel thorn and licorice root in the summer, is a rash of colorful wild flowers and green grasses in the spring. anemones, poppies, iris, and the purple-headed onopordons give streaks of color even to the desertic steppe on the east. but by July all the land surrounding the oasis is brown. a dry, stinging heat has seared and baked th ground, sapping the strength from every bit of stubble that the Bedouins leave behind.
for centuries the Bedouins have roamed the desertic steppe to the east of Damascus with camels or sheep. both the sheep men and the camel men are calle3d Bedouins; but a Bedouin in the strict sense is a camel-breeding nomad and a member of one of a dozen tribes.

nomadism is a necessity in this barren land. wells or springs are few and far between. the grazing is so sparse that one must keep on the move. the winters are cold, the summers hot. one moves north to the hills in summer and south to valleys in the winter.
a Bedouin seldom runs caravans for the transportation of goods. he is a breeder of animals - principally camels, but sheep, goats, and horses as well - which he sells in the markets. to the
Bedouin, manual labor  - on farms or in town - has been an ignominy. to call him a worker or fellah was to insult him. in recent years, however
224  the pinch of circumstances has changed that attitude. it has driven many of the poorest Bedouins into work for hire.
the Bedouins in modern days are poor folks. the wealthiest sheikh these days probably has an income of no more than one hundred dollars a month;  the poorest B has perhaps 3 dollars a month. he lives almost entirely on flour, rice and dates. when grazing is good he will have milk and cheese from his goats and sheep. he will have a sack of wool and some butter to exchange on the market for coffee, olive oil, sugar and perhaps tea.
yet this man - poor and on the edge of starvation - has the attitude and philosophy of an aristocrat. by his standards there are 2 occupations fit for free men - hunting and warfare.

there is considerable game in the desertic steppe east of Damascus  - gazelles. (fleet animals weighing around 40 pounds with legs as small as dogs' ),  hares, black partridge, sand grouse and a small species of the famous bustard. the B hunts chiefly with hawks and greyhounds. but his main preoccupation has always been war and raiding. he was a mercenary who would hire out to any ruler. he might forsake one ruler for another who paid the higher fee, but if he did so he had no traitorous intent; it was like a man in this country shopping around for a better job.

the B liked it best when central authority was weak. then he could make the raiding of adjoining tribes his profession. it was a sport in which there was honor and excitement. the B entered it with fanaticism. there was always the prospect of untold wealth in flocks of camels, goats and sheep. there were long night marches across the desert and the attacks  at dawn. there was  the strategy of smaller raids - waiting until a herd was far from camp and then driving it off before an alarm could reach the owner; or stealthily entering a camp in dead of night and running off a few horses or camels. 

if the venture was successful, the raiders became wealthy overnight. if hey were apprehended and failed, the consequences were not apt to be serious. if they survived the fighting and were captured, the chances were that the intended victims would then tender them a dinner, give them quarters where they could rest and supply them with food for their return journey across the hot desert. such is the chivalry of raiding. raiding persists to a degree to this day, though it is on the decline.

225  formerly the Bs were the sole masters of the desert. they alone had riding camels that could melt into the desert and travel days without water. the Bs alone knew every  acre of the desert: the water holes, the wadis, the places where men and herds could hide. a man on horseback could not follow them many miles into this waterless wasteland. hence the Bedouins were in command of the vast desert area and collected tribute from travelers and from those who lived along the edge of the steppe, promising safety of passage and immunity from raiding.

that monopoly of the Bs has been practically broken. motorcars manned by high-powered rifles have put even raiding parties moving on fast camels within reach. the patrol cars have been particularly successful when manned by Bs, and Bs have been increasingly available for those jobs. the economics of the desert has made work for the army and the police bery attractive.

but the bulk of the Bs are today as they were centuries ago. they are on the move - free men owing allegiance only to their own tribe. they move as silently as the dawn; when the sun rises their night encampment is empty with no trace of their departure.

at night one will see lights on the desert hundreds of miles from nowhere. the lights are from small fires built of camel chips, marking a Bedouin encampment. here these camel men sit far into the night sipping their slightly bitter coffee from small cups. around these fires plans for new raids are laid and the history of old ones retold. much of the telling is in the recitation of poetry, for the Bs, though largely illiterate, have their poets and venerate them.
I have been among the Bs and learned something of their hospitality. generosity may well be at its best among the desperately poor. in India I saw people on the edge of subsistence make such generous division of their meager food with a guest that they would go without for days. the same is true of the Bedouins. one of these nomads may own but one goat or sheep and be wholly dependent on it for milk and cheese. yet for a guest  - a casual guest who comes as a stranger - he will kill it and prepare a feast. this is a hearty hospitality - a hospitality with abandon. the B also has other extremes of character. he is a cruel and ruthless person when
226  it comes to killing it he has his enemy in his grasp, he can sit on the man's chest and cut his throat out as easily as a New Englander can shuck an oyster - and with the same unconcern.

one evening in late August I returned to Damascus from a visit to some B encampments in the desert. the smell of the camels was on these people, for there is little water for bathing in the desert. the smell of the camels was on these people, for there is little water for bathing in the desert. it was still in my nostrils as I found the black asphalt highway that runs to the edge of this wasteland, it was dusk when I reached the outskirts of town. here are large fields of grapes, each patch being marked by platforms  on stilts - platforms that hold tiny thatched houses. these are lookouts where watchers stay nigh and day when harvest is near to protect the crop against the Bs. as I passed, many farmers were climbing crude ladders to these platforms to start the night's vigil.

I drove through the city and north along the highway that leads over the Lebanon Mountains to Beirut. I was headed for a tea house on the Barada.
the rivers Barada  )formerly called the Abana) and Pharpar are the life of Damascus. D  - founded by the grandson of Shem and by many thought to be the Garden of Eden  -  has had staying qualities that other cities lacked. D was old when Rome was young.  David captured D;  so did Alexander and Pompey.  wave after wave of the invaders swept over it and around it. they sacked and burned it and yet left it strangely untouched. Palmyra - 2 days' ride east of D - was the home of Queen Zenobia. it was indeed a capital of splendor.  today it is a ghost. Baalbek - across the Ati-Lebanon Mountains - was built when D was teeming with life. D lives on, while Baalbek is lost in the mists of history.

the staying qualities of D have come from its 2 rivers.

long, long ago in the days of Elisha, Naaman was the King of Syria. like the present-day rulers Naaman lived in D. he was a leper who came to Elisha for a cure. Elisha said,  'God and wash in Jordan 7 times and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.  II Kings 5.10

Naaman eventually followed that advice and was cured. but his initial reaction was one of anger. he said, 'are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of D, better than all the waters of Israel?  may I not wash in them and be clean?  5.12
227  the Barada boils out of the limestone of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains about 50 miles north and west of D. its water is clear and cold and carried by gravity flow through a system of canals into every house and garden of D .  in its lower reaches  it is lined with cafes which hang on its edges under groves of willow and poplar. at one of these I stopped.

a cool wind swept down the valley. my table was at the water's edge. the babel of tongues from adjoining tables where a few men smoked water pipes was drowned in the roar of the river. I was roused from my thoughts by a tall, dark young man standing by my side. he spoke English, and asked if I would permit him to join me.
he was a Arab and his name was Josef. he was in his 20s - thin, athletic-looking. his black hair was curly and combed straight back . his brown eyes had a troubled look and the thin line that marked his lips seemed grim and determined. I asked him why he seemed so downcast. he hesitated before replying and then said,  'I have no one I can tell my problem to. You  are a christian. may I talk it out with you?
then came Josef's story. he, like about 12 % of syria's 3.4 million people was a christian. J - a Russian Orthodox - was in love with Fouda, a B girl about 19 years old.
Bs are Moslems, but they have modified the standards set for Moslem women. the custom of the veil is not closely followed.  in a B camp the women share in the entertainment of visitors and enjoy a social freedom denied most other Moslem women.
but as J learned, there are other Moslem practices with limit their freedom. as J described Fouda to me my memories of B girls came flooding back - beautiful, untamed creatures, with no mark of convention on them; wild in the sense that a doe is wild. barefooted, wearing ragged skirts full and flowing and a red and whit kerchief on the head. eyes filled half with fear and half with eagerness for friendship. F was such a girl. J had first seen her when her father brought sheep out of the desert to graze above D, crossing the highway not far from this cafe. then J stopped to stare, she ran like a gazelle and joined her father.
her face haunted J. he returned day after day, searching

228  the slopes of the foothills for her. one evening he was rewarded. F was carrying water from the river. they met in a grove of poplars. thereafter they had several hurried, secret meetings that were fleeting seconds for J, who knew now that he was desperately in love. finally one night, while a southern moon rode high over Mount Hermon, J took F in his arms. it was early morning when F crept back to her family's encampment. it was a week or more later when they met again in the grove. now she had bad news -heartbreaking news for J. she could not marry him. she had discussed the matter with her mother, who had talked with a mullah in d. the decision was clear. marriage with J was out of the question. F was a Moslem; J a christian. if F married J, it would be the duty of her father or brother to kill her. that was the law of Islam. 'Nor marry (your girls)  to unbelievers until they believe.  on marriage a woman took the religion of her husband. F would in Moslem eyes become a christian if she married J. there was only one way to avoid the calamity.  would J become a Moslem?  if so, all would be well.

J's uncle had been a priest in the Russian Orthodox church. J's father and mother were devout, religious people. they had been raised in D, where they were always a religious minority, in an environment that bred doubt and suspicion concerning the designs of the Moslems. the Moslems were men whose swords were part of their religion. all who were not of their faith were infidels against whom the sword might be used in a holy cause.

here in Damascus 8000 christians had been massacred less than a century ago. J's father and mother had never forgotten that massacre. that was a holy war or jihad. there had been no jihad since 1914, and that a failure, but J's father feared the jihad might be used again any day or night.

J himself shard these fears. they had indeed been inculcated in him since childhood. the idea of becoming a Moslem would never have occurred to him even in a fantasy. the religion was an alien one; its philosophy seemed to him raw and vulgar. its creed violated his christian sensibilities . it was crass and crude, a handmaiden of force and violence. at least that was his belief. he had spent the torture of sleepless night thinking about it ever since
229  F had given him the conditions of their marriage. his opinion remained the same; he could not embrace the alien religion with true fervor; his heart would never be in it. yet love of F was the most important thing in his life. he would join the Moslem faith as a matter of form; he would sacrifice his scruples for love.
these things he first talked over with F;  then he steeled himself and broached the subject to his father. J had difficulty in describing the scene to me. it was as if he had dealt his father a mortal blow. the news shocked the old man so deeply that he suffered a stroke. J, heavy of heart, brought the word to F. they  sat in the poplar grove discussing their fate while another southern moon rode a high arc above the anti-Lebanons. f broke a long silence with the words, 'J, you must not hurt your father more. I will become a christian.

But you will be killed?
'We will flee.
'where can we go? before we could get a passport the terror of the Bs would be on us.
'
while J talked, I munched the large, sweet pistachio nuts that flourish in the Middle East. now the waiter brought green English walnuts cracked and ready to eat except for the thin skin that covers the meat. it had been 90 degrees in the sun that day;  now the temperature was under 60 degrees.  a chill wind swept down the Barada, whipping the willow trees that line its banks and swinging the overhead cord of electric lights to make weird shadows dance across the garden where we sat.

J, too wrought up to eat, toyed with the nuts. his face revealed the torture of the decision that plagued his mind. there was a silence of perhaps 5 minutes. at last he lifted his eyes. they had an imploring look that asked for release from agonizing indecision.
'You are a stranger, he said. but you are a christian, you have understanding, I think. tell me, what should I do?

35  Moslem Women

239  ...most Moslem women live in an environment of insecurity. that insecurity stems from the philosophy of the Koran that  'Men shall have the pre-eminence above women, because of those advantages wherein god hath cause the one of them to excel the other  and for that which they expend of their substance in maintaining their wives. in the Moslem view that pre-eminence of men rests on their superior understanding; their greater strength; their preferment for the offices of church and state; and their role as warriors for propagation of the Moslem faith.

the Koran commands obedience of the wife to the husband. it allows husbands to beat their wives.  'but those, whose perverseness y;e shall be apprehensive of, rebuke; and remove them into separate apartments and chastise them.
the Koran allows a man to have 4 lawful wives. some sects, as I have said, permit any number of contract wives in addition to the 4 legal ones. a contract marriage is subject to the approval of the priest, the term of contract being specified, as is the amount of money or property which  the woman gets. if children are born during the term of the contract they are lawful heirs. at the end of the contract, the wife goes her way. the contract may not be renewed. the children stay in the home of the father.
the husband can have as many concubines as he wants or can

240  afford. there are markets in Mecca where this can be arranged- where merchants try to please their customers by providing girls that meet the most fastidious taste.

under Moslem law a wife cannot get a divorce for any reason. on the other hand a husband can get a divorce any time he wants one and for any reason he may advance. the Koran speaks of maintenance for the divorced wife 'on a reasonable scale',  but the law in the Arab world provides alimony for only 4 months, to make sure the wife is not pregnant. after that, the duty to support ends.  the length of time children must be supported is also greatly curtailed by law. thus in Iraq  it extends until boys are 7 and girls are 9.
the divorced wife gets the children only as a matter of grace; the husband has the right to keep them if he desires. the short of it is that on a divorce the woman goes empty-handed, retaining only the money or property that the marriage contract provided. in every marriage arrangement there is a provision for dower - the transfer of property from the husband to the wife  - as the Koran admonishes the man to seek a woman in marriage 'with gifts from your property.

the Koran also commands that women 'restrain their eyes and preserve their modesty and discover not their ornaments except what necessarily appeareth thereof. women are to live in a retiring manner; no jewels, no make-up, no attractive clothes are to be worn. the Koran indeed says, 'let them throw their veils over their bosoms', taking care to cover their heads, necks and breasts. they are directed not to show their ornaments except to their menfolk or other women.

women do not vote. they are not qualified for office. under Moslem law women inherit property as men do, but the share of the man is double the share of the woman.

there are of course happy marriages in the Moslem world  - perhaps as many as elsewhere. polygamy has greatly declined. women are expensive and the economics of the Middle East has driven more and more men to monogamy. even Abdullah, the late King of Trans-Jordan, had only 3 wives.

but the inferior position of women in the Moslem world makes a profound impression on one who, accustomed to the sex equality which we know, walks the streets of the Middle East, frequents its

241  restaurants and hotels and is entertained in its drawing rooms. in every public place the women are shy and furtive, drawing their veils tightly over their faces and usually showing only one eye. one becomes accustomed to that. but it was much more difficult get used to the total absence of women at the social functions.
every lunch, every tea, every reception,every dinner is a stag affair. there is no woman to greet you; the wife of the host is not to be seen. once in a while the eye will catch a slight movement of a shutter or screen where a woman has been watching. women will of course be in the kitchen, cooking the meal; in the dining room, setting the table; in the sleeping quarters, making the beds. but they are discreetly absent  - unseen and unheard - during all of the social activities.  I recall a stay at the home of a prominent official. I was unaccustomed to the house and mistook the dining-room door for the door to the suite which had been assigned to me. as I entered, pandemonium broke loose. women of the household, their faces uncovered, were setting the table for dinner. when they saw me, they were seized with fright and ran from the room like does in a panic.

a stage party usually lacks the grace and charm that feminine company contributes. there is not the same thoughtfulness, the same attention to the guest's comfort as when the lady of the house is they hosts. the talk is apt to be neither so profound nor so frivolous  and gay. women, with their keener perception of the atmosphere of a room, their greater awareness of the mood of a group, their more discriminating taste, give a balance to a social occasion which a stag party customarily lacks  the atmosphere of hospitality they create is more intimate and personal.

when one is a guest in a home it goes without notice if the lady of the house does not turn up for breakfast.  but when for days on end one never sees, let alone meets, the womenfolk, the home acquires an emptiness.
some of the well-to-do people and the professional classes are breaking with custom. their womenfolk  appear at social functions even outside the home, unveiled and bejeweled.   I remember a garden party in Isfahan, Persia, on a clear august night when a full moon rode high in the west over the Bakhtiari country. among the 80 people present were many beautiful women, both Moslem and christian. but the Moslem ladies all sat together in one corner of the

242  garden. no one was introduced to them. none of them danced. I inquired if it would be proper for me to invite the hostess - wife of a Moslem - do dance. there was a whispered conference on protocol and word came back, 'No, it's not done.

my dinner partner was a Moslem lady, a beautiful creature in her 20s with long, black silken hair, lovely skin, deep brown eyes and long black eyelashes. the dinner took an hour, but not once did she look up from her plate. I dept up a running conversation plying her with questions and she answered each one politely with a yes or a no where possible. but not one did she take a thread of the conversation and weave it into a thought of her own. not once did she look at me. and when the meal was over she quickly left without a word and returned to the protective corner where the other ladies of the Moslem faith sat.

244 .... I told this story to May Djumblatt, the charming Druze lady who is breaking with tradition. she nodded with understanding and then said 'These Moslem and Druze women of ours are frightened, timid souls. a terrible sense of sin hangs over all of us whenever we try to be free... I expressed surprise that both Moslem and Druze women wee not thrilled at the proposal of equal rights. there was a wry smile on her face as she answered.  'they want to be. but they're too frightened to be openly thrilled. she went on to describe the difficulties of getting Arab women active in any community or political affairs. 'listen, she said, I have worked days on end, talking with our women. I say, 'Look, I'm free! I discarded my veil. that's what I tell Them to do. but there are very few who have the courage to take the step.
245  there was a mounting emotion in her voice as she spoke and there was fire in her eyes as she turned, 'Why do men do this awful thing to us? whey do they keep us subjugated, filled with the terrible sense of inferiority?
the Russians are too astute and wily to direct their propaganda against this treatment of woman in the Moslem world. one can comb through all the Russian broadcasts and literature prepared for this area without finding a word that challenges or defies either the custom or the teachings of the Koran.  the Soviets do not want a clash with the clergy (the mullahs). their technique is much more subtle and their methods of attacking the problem are more indirect.

the Moslem woman, though socially and legally inferior in the Moslem scheme of things, exerts a powerful influence behind the scenes. when the French move into Syria, she thought the newcomer would be her emancipator. and so she whispered to the menfolk, discouraging them from resisting. perhaps the greatest political mistake the French made in Syria was to endorse the Moslem code and to support the system that held women in an inferior position. as a result, it was not long before the women were stirring the men to new resistance. but for British protection, the french forces might have been entirely wiped out in the last violent  months of their occupation.

the Russians seem to appreciate the moral of that story.

there are 30,000,000 Moslems in Russia, largely in Turkistan. accurate reports of their conditions are hard to get. we do know that Russia has used terror to hold them in line. genocide is part of the soviet technique among its minorities. dispersal of groups is another. in the case of Moslems the Soviets have practically barred pilgrimages to Mecca, allowing their Moslems no opportunity to effect a tie with the brotherhood of Islam in the countries south of the border.  but from sources that I deem reliable I have learned some of the things (apart from terror and other police practices that the Soviets are doing inside Russia to wed their Moslem population to soviet communism.

first. they have had a hand in selecting mullahs or priests sympathetic to the soviet cause - priests who will preach conformance, not rebellion.
second.  all but 2,000,000 of the 30,000,000 Moslems in
246  Russia have been settled on the land. extensive desert areas have been brought under cultivation; and the economic lot of the Moslem population - what they wear and eat and the physical conditions under which they live - has been improved.
third.  more important perhaps than all the other measures has been the emancipation of the Moslem women. the soviets have had a whole generation to work on the problem. the old folds cling to ancient habits. the new generation of women have a new freedom;  they have been given recognition that Moslem women have never known. veils are not worn. women occupy posts of importance;  all avenues of activity are open to the; there is no discrimination against them in education; their talents are given opportunities even in government. their achievements are praised;  even their pictures are carried in the Communist press and given much prominence.

36. Sukhneh's Arab Refugees

248 ...a wind swept down from the northwest, whipping the tents and sending little whirlpools of dust dancing across the ground. it was a hot wind with the warmth of a furnace in its breath. some of the flaps of the tents broke loose and made such a noise as almost to drown out the chant of the Arab prayer. dust whirled into the tents and out again. but the chanting went on without interruption.

Karl Reiser, head of the Red Cross in Amman and our host, told us about the educational adventure which we saw in operation on the hot plateau of Sukhneh.  it was inspired by the Aras themselves. among then were many educated people - doctors, lawyers, teachers, clergy and the like. they proposed that schools be established to absorb some of the energies of the restless group under 12 ..and to give direction to their lives. the Red Cross cooperated by furnishing the tents. Arabs volunteered to serve as teachers.
as is customary in the Moslem world, girls were taught separately from boys, but each was given in the main the same course of instruction. it started in the Koran. the prayer that we heard was from the first book. it came in soft female tones from the tent next to us;  then we could hear it in a more robust male chorus across the way. older girls were chanting it in a measured beat. young lads 5 years of age were singing it in piping tones.
I stood at the door of one tent and listened to a class of boys recite. there were 20 of them, sitting at the feet of a young male instructor who held the attention of the class in spite of our intrusion.

'I have 5 apricots and I eat one. how many do I have left?
249  4 fingers went up from each student except one, a tiny tot perhaps 6 years old, who showed 5 fingers.
we moved to another tent. girls were having a spelling lesson.
'Mary, how do you spell allah?

'Elizabeth, how do you spell anzih (goat)?

in another tent boys around the age of 6 were having a reading lesson. from a distance the pamphlet from which they were reading had a familiar look. I walked up to a lad seated on the floor and looked over his shoulder and had to smile at what I saw. he was reading the story of the 'Three Little Pigs'.  he turned a few pages and there was an illustrated story of the 'Three Bears.

in another tent we listened to boys reading a lesson from the Koran. one 10 year old stood reciting. he read in a faltering unsure way but with dignity and seriousness:  'Praise be unto god, who hath created the heavens and the earth, and hath ordained the darkness and the light.

in another tent, young girls 7 and 8 years old were being given sewing lessons. in still another older girls were writing  - copying from the Koran. across the way was a boys' class in history - a young instructor (without a history book) reciting some early chapters in arab history.

as he spoke the dust swirled under his feet and blew into the faces of the youngsters seated before him on the ground. when we were outside, Karl Reiser spoke of the problem of the dust in this desolate palace. he said it was particularly hard on the students when they were in their classroom-tents. the students and volunteer instructors had decided on a course of action: they would build brick walls 3 feet high around each tent to protect the classes from the dust. but such a project required money. clay and straw would have to be brought in;  forms would have to be made; some tools would be needed; and the help of brickmakers obtained.

there were brick-makers in the camp who contributed their services. the students raised the American equivalent of 25 dollars and, with the help of the Red Cross, the needed supplies were obtained. the day we were there bricks were being made. one tent had already been walled. an enthusiasm which was contagious had swept the school. this school in the wasteland - housed in tents with dirt floors and located in an oven filled with dust from the wings of a torrid wind - had an esprit de corps which is often lacking
250  in more luxurious surroundings. building mud walls together had created a community attitude.

we inspected the kitchen where milk (made from a powder)  was dispensed once a day. a pint for each child each day was the ration. the kitchen, tightly screened and open at the sides, was neat and clean. the line formed where a Red Cross worker ladled out the mild fro a waist-high window.

the scourge of the arab world, so far as small children and others who have not built up an immunity are concerned, is dysentery. dysentery and undernourishment go hand in hand. in the Moslem world if there is not enough food to satisfy the hunger of the whole family, the boys and men are fed first, the girls and women last. it's a man's world; and every advantage from birth on through life is granted the male.  we saw at Sukhneh an sample of this. in one of the hospital tents British nurses were giving intravenous injections to some babies less than a year old.

'what is the trouble?  I asked a slim, blue-eyed, blonde nurse.
'these are girls who were about to die from undernourishment and dysentery, she replied.
'Many cases like this in camp?
'I've been here a month; and I would say we have saved the lives of at least 200 little girls this way.

the cry of one little tot receiving the injection was so feeble that it seemed to come from the other world. the dark face of her tall, thin mother showed a complete absorption in the worked of the nurse - so complete that her veil had dropped, disclosing her whole countenance. at first she was not aware of our presence. when she saw us, she quickly  covered her face. but in that moment I had seen a face full of grief and suffering. it showed more than the deep concern any mother would have when the life of her child hung in balance; it mirrored the suffering of a woman in a world where the odds were against her at birth, where she bloomed and flourished early in life, and where under the burden of work and drudgery she faded early and was apt to be old by her middle thirties.

the ration for the Arabs in this camp was 1500 calories daily. most of it was consumed by the recipients. some of it found its way into a black market that had sprung up in the camp.

251  I inquired through a native if I could get chocolate powdered milk, coffee in that market.

'come with me, he said, motioning with his head.
I did not accept his offer.  instead we toured the dusty streets and saw the life of the Arab camp. women were carrying water from the central hydrant for cooking and washing. men were lolling in the shade of the tents - some asleep, some in groups talking, others sitting in solitary meditation. I asked Karl Reiser what they did all day, how their morale was.

he said that inactivity in a camp rotted people - ate away at their inner core and made them bitter, or else robbed them of initiative and made them indolent and irresponsible.

'it hurts the fiber of a person - whether a prisoner in a war camp in England, a concentration camp in Germany or a refugee camp in Trans-Jordan, he added.  'one who has been behind a stockade for a year usually needs rehabilitation.
many of these refugees wanted to be rid of Moab and Judea and find homes elsewhere - in Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, or along the Tigris or Euphrates rivers. but the pull of Palestine was still strong. I had visited the Shaieba Refugee Camp located in another bit of wasteland out of Basra in southern Iraq where 3000 arabs from Palestine were housed. the heat at Shaieba had a sticky, humid quality.  from the camp I kept seeing vast expanses of blue water that beckoned from the south. they were mirages. so had been the expectations of the refugees for settling in Iraq.  but when at last the Iraqi government offered them land, they refused. the call of Moab and Judea was still too strong to resist.

I sat in a tent at Sukhneh discussing these matters with the administrative staff. after the doctors and nurses joined the group, the talk turned to the psychosis that developed in people who are hemmed in by stockades.
it appeared that the problem in Trans-Jordan was not quite so acute as in other Arab countries. Abdullah had been liberal in granting the refugees in his country freedom to leave the camps and find employment - if they could. some had been able to find outside work. but opportunities for employment in a society based predominantly on a Bedouin economy were quite limited. a young arab doctor, graduate of American University at Beirut, who was on the medical staff at Sukhneh, spoke up.
252  there is in each refugee camp a cross section of people in Palestine. there are peasants of the lowest economic class and professional and scientific people of the highest. there are doctors in a camp in Lebanon who are not allowed to minister to the sick in Beirut. there are engineers, pharmacists, architects, lawyers rotting away in this camp.
one of the Belgian nurses added that these people would all be sick people - sick emotionally and maladjusted - unless resettlement was effected quickly.
the young Arab doctor nodded assent and with a  wry smile added, 'Yes, and the only ones to gain are the Communists. they spread the poison of discontent, building in the minds of these people anger against every person or group or party in power. the Communists whisper that the enemies of the refugees - those responsible for their plight - are the Jews and America, Abdullah and England, Zayim and France, Wall Street and the Vatican.
after a pause he added, 'this camp is like an infection. we run it as best we can. but no camp is healthy. each breeds a virus that medicine cannot control or cure.

37. The Eternal City

259  'the Dome of the Rock, our Arab friend said.  'Holier to us Moslems than any place except Mecca.
the guide took over and explained that undr the huge rotunda of the mosque is a rock. this is the rock whee abraham was going to sacrifice isaac (Genesis 22.14);  it is the rock where the angel stood who threatened to destroy jerusalem and was deterred by David (II Sam. 24.16).  it is the rock from which Mohammed made his night journey to Heaven. the Dome of the Rock, located on the site of Solomon's Temple, was built for the Arabs in AD 688 by Byzantine architects.

a young arab interrupted to say, 'I noticed that you were moved when you stood at the scene of the Crucifixion. we devout arabs have as great an attachment to this spot.

we rented sandals from a priest at the door and put them on over our shoes before we entered the mosque. inside it was dark
260 and cool. the rounded dome was covered with exquisite mosaic work and beautiful colored windows, each of a different design. the floors were carpeted. in the center of the room under the dome was the rock of Ascension, enclosed in a high wooden fence. there was nobility and grandeur in the scene.
the guide pointed out the mark of a foot on it -Mohammed's foot. I wrote in my notebook at the time 'size 15 or 16'. later I read that Mark Twain (Innocents Abroad)  had called it size 18.  anyway , ti was a big foot. the guide's story was that the rock tried to follow Mohammed; but Gabriel seized it. the guide showed us the prints of Gabriel's fingers on the rock - huge indents. but as Mark T said, 'very few people have a grip like Gabriel.
our Arab friend must have noticed  a look of disbelief on my face for he politely said, 'those of a different faith often make jokes about the gossip of guides who show this place to tourists. but like Mecca it is a holy place to millions of us Arabs.
opposite the Dome of the rock is the Temple from which Christ expelled the money-changers. we passed it and came to another mosque. there was a fountain in front, playing into a large pool. here men were washing their hands and feet preparatory to entering for prayer. this mosque is younger and lesser and not as exquisitely done inside as the Dome of the rock. nor was all the mosaic of the walls finished in 1949.  I paused for a moment at the door. a dozen or more men were on their knees, facing mecca, bowing up and down, saying their prayers. others were lying on their backs, reciting the Koran in a singsong way.
the guide paid no attention to these worshipers. he went on, like a phonograph with a loud-speaker, announcing the points of interest. he even shouted something in arabic at one chap who was in our path that evidently meant 'Get out of the way.  for the man broke off his praying and scampered. I felt uncomfortable and unhappy.
'if this is a House of God to these people, I whispered to our young Arab friend, 'we also should treat it as such. he nodded and he, bill, and i turned and went to the door, leaving our guide talking to himself in an alcove.
we went out of the Old City through St. Stephen's Gate and stood at a vantage point overlooking the Valley of Judgment. the guide pointed to a slab of rock projecting a few feet high on the

261  eastern wall of the Old City. he explained that it is the belief of many Arabs that on the Day of Judgment Mohammed will stand on that slab and Christ will stand about a mile across the valley on the Mount of Olives. each will hold the end of a horsehair. the dead will rise and walk the hair. the wicked will fall into the valley. only the righteous will reach the heights.

I turned to our Arab friend for confirmation of the legend. he nodded and then said,  'I have a mullah for a friend. he believes this legend. he thinks that on the day of Judgment he will walk the horsehair. that's why  he grows long curls for sideburns.
what have the sideburn curls got to do with it? I asked.
'You see, when my friend starts to walk the horsehair, angels will come down - one on each side - take hold of the curls, and help him keep his balance.
this time I looked to the guide for confirmation; and at once I was sorry I did. for he nodded his head in violent approval.
'this guide of ours, I whispered to bill, would believe anything.
'Ask him about the moon and green cheese, Bill said.
we started back to the American Colony,  a hotel in the Old City where we were staying.

we had not gone far  when churchbells began to ring. they were announcing sundown.

this was Ramadan, the month the Koran was sent down from Heaven. during this month (which comes at a different time each year) a Moslem cannot eat or drink from dawn to sunset. from this fast none is excused, except travelers and sick persons. the latter, however, must fast an equal number of days when the impediment is over. the bells I heard announced that the period of fast was done for the day. other bells would ring at 1.30 AM to warn the people to start preparing breakfast before sun-up. my Arab friend excused himself, saying as he left, 'Ramadan is severe on many of our people. since they do not eat, drink or smoke from dawn to sunset they get nervous and high-strung. there are apt to be street fights. it is will for christians during Ramadan to be discreet and moderate when they are in crowds or near holy places.
in the morning we passed from the Old City to the New through Mandlebaum Square. on one side of the square were the arab
262  
lines;  on the other, the Israeli. the positions were marked by sandbags, barbed wire and concrete posts set in the pavement to form tank traps.  the houses bordering the square bore the marks of fighting - windowpanes were out, stucco had been broken by shells, sandbags covered the edges of roofs, all walls bordering the square were pock-marked from bullets.

passage through the lines had been arranged. we presented our papers to arab Legionnaires, and in a few minutes they were back in our hands. then we moved 100 feet across the square and Israeli guards went through the same process.
the attitude in the New City was strikingly different from that in the old.  the Old was held by the arabs who had lost the war.  the New was held by the Jews who were the victors. the arabs had been quiet and reflective. the Jews were bursting with energy, ideas, plans. I was to learn that there was more to this psychology of theirs than victory on the battlefield, but victory had given a lift to their spirits. yesterday had been Israeli Army Day. the parade near Tel Aviv had been the best of it nature that our military observers had see. the jews held their heads high; there was spring in their steps.

the talk too was exuberant. a story (told to us by a member of the israeli government) is typical of the attitude:
a Jew who returned from Tel Aviv to New York City was asked how the Jews accomplished so much in Palestine. first, they created Israel; second, they won a war; third they took in all the Jewish immigrants who applied for admission.
'How could the Jews achieve so much?  the puzzled friend inquired.
'there are 2 reasons,  the returning Jew replied. 'one is natural and the other is supernatural.
'what was the natural one?
'the Jews had God and justice on their side.
'and what was the supernatural one?
'the Jews knew how to shoot.

we toured the battlegrounds on the south and west of the Old City with the famed Colonel Moshe Dayan of the Israeli Army and his wife, Ruth, both of whom speak excellent English. the colonel, known to millions by the patch worn over one eye socket, is a young man in his 30s. he has 2 main enthusiasms - his
263family and his farm not far from Nazareth. fighting was for him merely an interlude. he is a quiet, soft-spoken man, short, slender and wiry.
he explained the tactics of infiltration of small forces - the key to the military success of the Israeli army. this was a tactic well known to Arab armies, one in which they had long been skilled. yet it was this tactic which defeated them, while they were trying to master the modern technique of mass maneuvering which Patton used so brilliantly in France.
there was one hill, never taken by an attacking army in 19 centuries, which Dayan and 70 soldiers took.  they went at night in waves of not more than 5. it was brave and daring fighting. 20 of the 70 were lost. but the Israeli flag flew over the hill at dawn. that hill commanded a strategic spot on a line of attack against the walls of the Old City.
we saw position after position which had been taken, lost and retaken in the fighting. perhaps the bitterest fighting of ll was at the Hill of Rachel. a Jewish kibbutz (communal settlement)  had been located here. during the fighting it had changed hands 6 times. it had been fought over building by building, room by room, foot by foot by the egyptians and the Jews. the structures  - all stone or concrete - were a shambles. the place had been utterly destroyed.

'all except the orchards below us on the east, said Colonel Dayan.  come and I will show you.

we started to the orchards when a young israeli noncommissioned soldier cam running out of a lookout post and talked excitedly with Colonel Dayan in Hebrew. the colonel turned to me and said, 'he says we can't go any farther.
'since when has a sergeant overruled a colonel?  I inquired.
Colonel Dayan smiled as he replied, 'this alert young man just told me that the orchard is still mined. now wouldn't that be a bit inhospitable - for me to get you blown to bits?

we returned to a shell-marked rampart overlooking the walls of the Old City and stood in silence for a long while watching the distant sky line of spires, domes, and towers. far in the background  was the Mount of Olives, a dark-green spot on the low-lying Mountains of Judea. there was not a movement of life anywhere to be seen or heard. the city looked vacant,  a city of papier-mache

264  built on a model for some Hollywood production. but behind those old walls an ancient Arab civilization thrived. life droned on and on with the rhythm of the centuries. religious fanaticism grew in the breasts of many. the fervor and zeal of Arab nationalism mounted.  the arabs behind those walls stood committed to defend with their lives  the shrines holy to them.
I was thinking of these things when Colonel Dayan, pointing, said, 'there is the Church of the Holy sepulcher. along the ridge to the north are our medical school and university. below them and out of view is Gethsemane. these historic spots must not be harmed of destroyed. they are ours and we must occupy them.
we visited Ein Karem, a village of 300 people about 20 miles from Jerusalem. it is a quiet, country village, built on a ridge at the head of a draw. the village is flanked by churches - a Franciscan and Greek Orthodox church and school at one end; a Franciscan and a Greek Orthodox church at the other. olive orchards fill terraces that line the sides of the ravine. tall, stately cypresses with their dark-green spires and pine of a lighter hue line the ridge. Father Carrol of the Terra Santa College (Franciscan) of Jerusalem,  a bright-eyed, brilliant priest in his 30s, was our guide.

Ein Karem, an arab village for hundreds of years, was the birthplace of John the Baptist. in the recent war it was never attacked by the Israeli Army. it was indeed not on the path to Jerusalem. it had no apparent military value. yet it was evacuated by the Arabs. every man, woman and child left - all except 8 old women. the refugees put a few personal belongings and what food they had in their cupboards on the backs of donkeys. they walked out of their ancestral homes in ein karem, shut doors and turned to the east. they did this, though no shot was fired, though their village was neither  encircled nor threatened. some went through Jerusalem to Jericho down the corkscrew road on the east that drops off Judea. most went around the Eternal City, seeking a path down the precipitous Judea mountains, fording the Jordan and climbing the hot and blistering ridge of Moab. we had met some of them in the refugee camp at Sukhneh.
I inquired why the exodus and was taken to 2 of the old women in a mud hut on the edge of town. they were wrinkled,
265  wizened and shy, and hesitated to talk. but finally they gave the following explanation:

first, there was the massacre by an irresponsible, lawless element of the Stern Gang at Deir Yassin  in 1948, when men, women and children - all but one in the village - were killed one night. the massacre struck terror in the hearts of villagers throughout the region.

some thought all of us in Ein Karem might also be killed some night, one old lady said as she twirled the ends of a black shawl.
second, the villagers were told by the arab leaders to leave. it apparently was a strategy of mass evacuation whether or not necessary as a military or public safety measure.

they all left during one week, said the other lady. every morning there were more who had gone. finally only a few of us were left behind. we were too old and feeble to go.  there were tears in her eyes and her face had a weary look.
I expected to see a ghost town. but as we started down the main street of Ein Karem. I heard singing.
'new arrivals from Europe, Father Carrol said.
in a few minutes we stood at the door of a large building transformed into a synagogue.  a cantor was singing. a rabbi was bent over a lectern. men and women were bowed in worship.

we walked down the street. another service was being held in another makeshift synagogue. we came upon yet another.  the whole village had gone to church. an overflow of young people was in a class being conducted on the edge of an olive orchard near the center of town.

as we returned from a visit to the chapel of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, on the far side of the village, one of the synagogues was emptying. people were going back to their new homes; children were doing a hop, skip and jump along the road; a rabbi, bent in meditation, walked slowly through the village. the men and women pouring out of the synagogues had faces that were happy and relaxed.
'Not many months ago these people were housed in awful camps in Europe,  Rather Carrol said  many barely escaped death at the hands of Hitler's henchmen.

for them this was, indeed, the Promised Land. here refugees from terror and agonizing death had found security, freedom, a
266  peaceful valley and opportunity to work and live and worship as they chose. their new freedom was reflected in their eyes, in the spring in their walk, in the laughter of their children.

to them this village was a haven, a refuge. it did not then matter that the Arabs at Sukhneh, some 40 miles away, sat in tents dwelling  with anger on the evacuation of Ein Darem and on the occupation of their ancient village by newcomers from Europe.  for Ein Karme had been won in war.  the victorious Israeli Army that swept the village within its lines would defend it to the death.

to the newcomers at Ein karme the Holy Land was a sacred  place where scatterings of this ancient people would regather and reunite for the preservation of the race. here they would bring a new civilization. here they would return to the soil and rebuild  a devastated land into a rich and flourishing garden. here hey would destroy the feudalism that had held the peoples of the region in slavery from time out of mind. this region would become a new home of democracy.

those who reclaimed the land in this way would establish their right to it. their worthiness to survive.

this was a Cause, a Crusade. it swept all before it, including innocent Ein Karem.  it moved on to Jerusalem. like the earlier Crusades it traveled on the winds of tremendous enthusiasm. its call summoned men from all parts of the world. there was fervor in those who faced toward Jerusalem, a fervor that would neither b rook delay nor allow defeat.

in 1949 the contest for Jerusalem as capital of Israel and as seat of the Arab government of Palestine was raging. as I have said, the Arabs held the Old city; the Jews the New. the Jews had not only pushed their front lines into Jerusalem, they had also brought a part of their government there .  the Supreme Court of Israel, created in 1948,  sat in Jerusalem. and on July 22, 1949,  the first anniversary of its creation, I sat with it at a special session.

it was Call Day - when lawyers are admitted to practice. Herman Cohn,  State Attorney and formally dressed, presented each candidate. in our high court admissions are moved in short cryptic motions. in Israel the ceremony was more intimate and personal.  Mr. Cohn would say, for example, Martin Diga. Mr. Diga is, comparatively speaking, a new immigrant. he came here from Bulgaria in 1944 and he has already acquired a knowledge of our

267  language and has passed all his examinations. he was a lawyer for a number of years in Sofia, Bulgaria.
each candidate was presented in that personal manner. each rose when his name was called;  and then the chief Justice, Moshe Smoira,  granted their admissions and delivered an address of welcome.  in his message he referred to my  presence, said a word in eulogy of Mr. justice Murphy, who had just died and spoke of Mr. Justice Cardozo, quoting from his writings. he closed by saying that he hoped that Isaiah's prophecy would be fulfilled in israel:  'and i will restore thy judges as sat the firs and they counsellors as at the beginning; afterward thou shalt be called, the city of righteousness, the faithful city.
it was a friendly, intimate session - dignified but not austere - and it had a warmth that was uncommon. for here was an ingathering of exiles from many lands. they had come to reclaim Jerusalem and the Holy land, to dedicate it to the freedom of man, to make this city  a righteous one and thus to fulfill the prophecy. like the jews  who manned the outposts of the israeli army or tilled the fields, these lawyers and judges were also inspiried. they had a zeal.  a drive, a purpose, a cause. they were dedicating themselves to a crusade in this Eternal City. they were laying in Jerusalem the foundations  for the capital of the new state of israel.
the first meeting of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament)  had also been held in jerusalem. but after Jerusalem came under siege, the seat of government was moved to Hakirya near Tel Aviv where it still was in the summer of 1949.  later in 1949 when the United Nations decided that jerusalem should be internationalized, David Ben-Gurion, Premier of israel, mad an important announcement about the seat of the israeli government. Ben-gurion,short and stocky with a shock of white hear, is dynamic, idealistic and courageous. he has some of the zeal of the prophets. his announcement carried back to an age-old conflict between Moslems and christians over jerusalem.

Ben-Gurion first promised free access to all the holy places and the religious buildings of Jerusalem. he denounced the 'enforced separation of Jerusalem',  which he said violated without need or reason 'the historic  and natural right of the people who dwell in Zion.  he said that under the stress of war the seat of government had been moved from Jerusalem to Hakirya.  but he added, 'for the

268  State of Israel there is, has been and always will be one capital only, Jerusalem, the Eternal. so it was 3000 year ago and so it will be, we believe, until the end of time.

we had seen at Jerusalem, Sukhneh, ein Darem and Hattin, part of the story of that conflict.

Part 5 -
38  Into Israel from the East

269  My son and I came to Israel from the back country...
we had been in a blistering heat for most of our journey: syria, Iraq and Persia had seared us; and some mornings on our pack trips in the mountains of P I  had wakened with my face swollen and eyes closed from sunburn. we ere refugees from the sun who had traveled treeless ridges and basins for day on end.
we had seen in the country to the east of Israel the most ancient of agricultural methods/. there were exceptions. but almost every farmer was using a wooden stick and oxen to , had sickles to reap and primitive thrashing floors for separating the grain from the chaff. 

I had seen the heavy mark of government of the landlords, for the landlords and by the landlords on the land. people lived in squalor with no opportunity of escape. some men owned 200, 600, 1500  villages apiece. they owned every piece of property in these villages:  the mud houses, the community bathhouses, the fields, the animals and the water that serviced them, the farming utensils. they even owned the people who, for
270 all practical purposes, were their serfs. the peasants voted as their landlord dictated. some landlords controlled 500,000 votes and cast them in a way that would perpetuate their control.

this is the sordid side. there are wonderful things about the Middle East - the people and their civilizations. but the features I have mentioned - heat, treeless land, primitive agriculture and the
squalor of a vicious tenancy - were prominent in my mind the day I traveled the tortuous road that climbs 3800 feet from Jericho to Jerusalem.

one who reaches Jerusalem in that mood undergoes a transformation. Jerusalem, standing on top of the Mountains of Judah, is a refuge from the torrid heat of the interior. there are cool breezes here and the shade of pepper trees, cypress and pine. historians say that the location of Jerusalem makes no sense y any standard of commerce, trade or economy. but when one reaches it from the desert side it has special spiritual values.
when I dropped off the Mountains of Judea down the road to Rehovoth and Tel Aviv, I began to get the feel of a different environment.  it came in simple ways. the western slope of Judea are as heavily eroded as the eastern side. it has in many places been scrubbed clean of soil and one sees for miles only the exposed shoulders of limestone. this is typical Middle East scenery. but now I saw a change. there were occasionally new stands of pine 12 feet high! i saw freshly planted forests on barren limestone ledges!
nest I saw a hay baler in operation in a field  - the first sign of modern agriculture that I had seen in weeks. it was being run by a young Jewish farmer. soon I saw tractors; they too were being run by Jews. but shortly i came to a farm operated by an
arab whose kafiyeh was flying in the wind as he too plowed with a tractor.

there were neat modern houses next to old mud huts where poverty-ridden villages had stood for centuries.
I saw chicken farms, compact, highly modernized.
I saw bare slopes being planted with young orchards.
when I reached Rehovoth i saw the Weizmann Institute, a highly modern laboratory for research. I talked with its founder and the president of the Republic. he is a chemist turned politician. he said with feeling that politics was the more important part of his life, much more important than his earlier career as a chemist.
271  when I saw the Institute I wondered if he were correct. his genius as a scientist has loosed on the manifold problems of the Middle East a whole arsenal of talkent. I saw the staff at work on various projects in physics and chemistry - for example, a plan for making nylon out of the castor bean and developing a species of the tree that will make large scale production possible. others were working on a low cost method of taking salt from water, not only for drinking purposes but for irrigation.  (present methods cost about $1.40 per cubic meter of water.) this project strikes  at one of Israel's basic problems, for the lack of surface water in the plains  is a acute as the loss of soil on the hillsides. Israel's agricultural problems are indeed reducible to those 2 simple facts perhaps the laboratories at Rehovoth will produce a formula that will in time make Israel self-sufficient.

some of the gains I saw had been started by the British under the mandate. the British had instituted the tethering of goats. they also created forest reserves and made many planting of pine, oak and carobs. they planted cypress as windbreaks and they covered sand dunes with acacias and tamarisk. what the British did in this respect the early Jewish colonists did to an even greater degree.  out of 50,000 donums (4 = one acre)  afforested during the period of the mandate 37,900 donums were afforested by the colonists. and the people of the new State of Eswael took it up with tremendous zeal and energy. the whole nation is tree conscious. everyone plants trees, as did abraham, who 'planted a grove in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord... Gen. 21.33.  in the 3 years following independence 10.000,000 trees have been planted.

the road is long and the undertaking is tremendous. in Dec,  1950,  there were 1,336,000 people in Israel of whom 1, 161,000 were jews. in the time of Jesus the larger area of Palestine had 5,000,000 people. in AD 1000 it was double the number today. what were pine forests even 100 years ago are sand dunes now.  several feet of topsoil have rushed to the ocean. it will take time and the best of science and land management to restore the ancient fertility of the land and to create industrial wealth.
today everyone in Israel seems conservation minded. there is a passionate endeavor in each community to reverse the cycle of erosion, to rebuild the land, to grow food for an expanding society.

272  some 20% of the total Jewish population of Israel is engaged in farming. those people make conservation their first business. so does everyone else, whatever his calling. every man, woman and child is united in the cause, as though putting out a fire that would consume them.

it is this atmosphere of great events in the making, of unity of purpose and activity that i felt as I reached the coastal plain of Israel. grim causes had united the jews in this endeavor. if the people in the countries to the east of Israel were given the incentive to reclaim their lands, if the same release of energies and direction of power could be achieved there, the whole of the Middle East would experience a renaissance. in every country i had visited there were people eager to undertake it.

39. Israel Experiments

273  Israel's attitude is experimental, not dogmatic. one can be as passionate for private capitalism as he chooses, or he can espouse and practice a socialist philosophy more extreme in some respects than even Soviet Russia's. Israel's tolerance is indeed one of its most impressive qualities. the soviets thrust their dogma down the throats of all me. israel leave the choice to the individual;  no creed is forced on anyone. and in Israel, unlike soviet Russia and most Middle East countries,  one finds the finest traditions of civil liberties as we know them in the anglo-American world. one may write and speak as freely as he wants, within the bounds of decency.  the legislative and executive branches of government do not  have free rein. the Supreme Court of Israel sits in review  of their actions.  one of the first acts of the newly created Supreme Court was to enjoin a cabinet officer who exceeded the authority set by law.
an Arab, abu Luban, had been arrested and held incommunicado for some weeks. the Court held the arrest illegal and said, 'the government is subject to the law in the same manner as any citizen of the state.
Israel has a wide variety of economic organizations.
1. many INDIVIDUAL farmers and businessmen own and run their farms or factories and embrace private capitalism as devoutly as anyone in america. they have a Farmers Federation which functions somewhat as a Grange in this country, and which also offers services in the marketing of produce, the purchasing of supplies and the rental of machinery. 40% of the agricultural population is in this category.
2. many farmers (27% of the agricultural population) are organized into formal CO-OPERATIVES. the individual owns the land; the co-operative does the procurement or marketing or both. the

274  aim is increased efficiency and lower costs. a co-operative among poultry farmers will market the eggs and the meat and but the grain and chicken coops. a co-operative among dairy farmers will own the creamery, process the milk and make the butter and cheese.
3. the KIBBUTZ is a communal settlement (39% of the agricultural population live in these);  and it is probably more strictly socialistic than the collective farms in Russia. in Russia, while all farmers are on collective farms, most of them have a small plot of land. there they may grow what they like  and sell it  on the market. they also have separate hoes and kitchens.

in a kibbutz, however, everything is communal. families have no separate houses, kitchens, gardens or bathhouses. the K has a common kitchen and a common dining room where everyone eats. it has a nursery where all children are placed shortly after birth and nurses who care for them. parents are with their children only at day's end and on week ends. the k has schools and playgrounds;  furnishes doctors and medical services;  owns all the land and all the produce. it is managed by a council or board  (usually 5 members) elected annually by a vote of all the members. they determine the allotment of work for the members - in the kitchen, the machine shed, the orchards and so on. they also determine what crops shall be raised and how he funds shall be invested.

no member of a k receives any dividend at the end of a year or any other period. he has no need for cash while he is in the kibbutz. the communal store supplies his wants - clothing, cigarettes, shaving cream, shoes, writing paper, needles and the normal range of consumer goods. members of some of the older Kibbutzim  are not on rations; they may draw as heavily on the store as their needs dictate. in the new kibbutzim, however, the resources are so limited that rationing is required.

each member of a k receives an annual vacation -usually two weeks; and he is allowed so much cash for that purpose.  each member is cared for until he dies, whether he stays well or becomes a cripple or is bedridden. he receives the same food, the same store  privileges and all the other perquisites of the k  that every other member receives. the k , in other words, offers security through sickness and old age.
there are many types of kibbutzim - some formed from religious
275  groups, some small and restricted, others large. though each kibbutz is always an agricultural organization,  it often has an industrial aspect too. one k may have a creamery , another a fruit-processing plant, another a printing plant and so on. these industrial projects are also collectivized;  the governing committee assigns members to work in them;  and their profits are owned by the community, not by the individuals.
4.  there is an agricultural organization know as the MOSHAVSHITUFI which has elements both of the k and the co-operative. this too is a communal settlement engaged in farming and like the k, it frequently has an industrial or commercial project also.  each family, however, is maintained as a unit; there is no nursery for the children; each couple has a house with a private kitchen and dining room; each family has a small plot of ground where vegetables and flowers can be grown, though none may be sold on the market.  all production is for the account of the community; and is other respects too the pattern of the k  is followed. it has drawn to date 3% of the agricultural population.

5. the Jewish National Fund, another unique institution, was founded by the Zionists in 1901 and was incorporated in England for the purchase of land in palestine and for its cultivation and maintenance. the land acquired is to be chiefly agricultural. it is never to be sold or mortgaged but remains the property of Jewish people for all time. it is rented on 49 year leases at low rates with renewal provisions - 2% of the value in case of rural land.  the scheme has manifold purposes:
to return the Jews to Palestine and settle them on the land;
to keep the land under Jewish management;
to avoid the large landholdings which result in many workers' becoming hired hands;
to avoid mortgage foreclosures and the lose of land;
to avoid death duties and the liquidation of estates;
to dedicate increased increments of value to the community rather than to the individual landowner. 

the purchases of land by the National Fund have been extensive. today it owns close to 25% of the arable land in I and about 2/3 of the acreage actually cultivated in 1949-50. it started early to plant trees and has since its beginning promoted afforestation projects. it has drained swamps and reclaimed land, constructed roads, installed water systems and engaged in extensive building.

276  most of the land is rented to Jews, although the National Fund leases to some Arab tenants. for example, in July, 1949,  the first arab k was formed on land of the National Fund. whoever the tenant may be, the National Fund watches over the management of the land. the leases provide that the National Fund may reduce the acreage . 25 acres may prove to be too much for one farmer to operate; a new water supply may make the need for the large unit unnecessary;  a different use of the land may produce more food or food whose shortage is critical, etc. during recent years when immigration to israel has been high, the National Fund has reshuffled many leaseholds, working for the best utilization of the land.  I visited a chicken farm at Ramataim (not far from Tel aviv) where the National Fund had reduced holdings down to one acre pr family. modern American equipment had been introduced and a highly concentrated operation was under way. new immigrants were assigned to the excess land.
6. HISTADRUT is a trade union of unique character and great proportions. it has so many projects, so many different lines of activity, so diversified a membership that some in Israel call it a state within a state.
the His goes back to 1920 when several unions with a membership of 4400 merged to form it, the purpose being to establish a Jewish laboring community in Palestine. taking in all workers, it served the conventional ends of trade unionism - better working conditions, higher wages and the lie - but its purpose did not end there. formed when the British controlled the land under the mandate, it undertook to prepare the land for the return of the Jews to palestine and to help ring them there. its program was to aid the mobilization of the country around the Zionist cause. and so it launched into manifold activities. today His  has departments of branches that cover a wide range of activities and directly affects the lives of all the people in israel.
for instance, it has formed well over 100 co-operatives in the fields of transportation, waterworks, metalworking, electrical products, building materials, printing, woodworking, tailoring, restaurants, weaving and the like.
His furnishes medical care not only to its trade union members but to anyone in Israel who pays the monthly fee. this service covers all the ills of the family, dental and medical and takes

277  care of operations, obstetrical cases, physical therapy, X-rays and everything in the medical and surgical line. His has sanitariums, pharmacies, and hospitals. when new settlements are formed, His contracts for the furnishing of medical car to them, employing the doctors and nurses and assigning them to one or more settlements, depending on the population and needs. the settlements pay His an annual fee. all in all, in 1950 His was furnishing medical care to 50% of the people of Israel.

His's educational branch has established many schools which provide instruction from kindergarten through high school. it also  has numerous trade schools and conducts extensive physical education projects. its youth movement trains young men and women for life in Israel. it also has established child welfare centers.
one of its most interesting projects is at Onim - a youth center near Tel Aviv where children whose parents are missing are assembled. in this school there are 8 beds to a room, modern kitchens, excellent sanitation, beautiful lawns and gardens, playgrounds, a swimming pool and skilled psychiatrists. 300 children were living there the day we visited the place. some had come from behind the Iron Curtain, many had been picked up in Germany, Morocco and Yugoslavia. they are kept here for about 6 months;  then the healthy ones whose parents are not located are turned over to settlements. those poorly adjusted are given special  treatment.

Jacob Aronson, 12 years old, came from Yugoslavia. his mother found him here 6 years after her search began, one boy had lost his speech; one boy had been tied to a tree since he was young and now walked like an ape;  many had nervous disorders from the terror and suffering they had known.

His has an organization that contracts with settlements for the purchase of their supplies - foodstuffs, feed for livestock, farm machinery and the like  - its fee varying from 3 % upward, depending on the article. this wholesale purchasing provides great savings. it also has marketing agencies that sell thee produce of the fields both at home and abroad, the fee for this service running

278  around 6 or 6.5 %.  these agencies market well over 70% of the agricultural produce of Israel.

the policy of the National Fund is to lease to one person no more land than he and his family can work. if a lessee has so much land that he needs a hired man to help out, the amount of leased land is reduced. it is a cardinal principle in Israel that when possible every man shall be an owner, that the employee class shall be kept at a minimum.  this is designed to increase the dignity and worth of all work and to prevent the exploitation of the employee class. nevertheless, some agricultural crops, notably citrus, require considerable labor, both regular and seasonal. His undertook to organize and protect that labor supply. it formed a branch which contracts with farmers to pick, pack, and ship fruit for a price.  this branch organized settlements for these unattached workers and in addition to contracting for their labor, founded new industries for them (fruit canning and manufacture of tiles and pipes.)
His has a department engaged in finding water and distributing it to settlements. it has numerous wells and vast distribution systems throughout Israel.
it also owns some industries and is a partner with private capital in others. it is owner or part owner of companies making oils, soap,  shoes, sugar, rubber goods, bricks, cement, sanitary earthenware,  glass, pharmaceutical supplies, electrical machinery;  owner or a partner of wool processing and weaving plants, a sugar-beet factory, a large modern foundry, a tool and machine factory, a ship-repairs plant. it has daily newspapers and periodicals, a publishing house, and a theater. 

these days one department of His, the owner, negotiates with another department of His, the trade union, over working conditions and wages. there is real collective bargaining and vigorous trade union representation. but in Israel when labor is a partner in industry there seems to be a large degree of industrial peace.
His likewise has departments that do almost every kind of construction work - road building and paving, quarrying, draining swamps, laying rails, building factories, houses and apartments. the housing unit operates on a nonprofit basis. it plans development work and housing projects.

the Workers Bank formed by His has supplied credit for
279  vast agricultural projects, industrial enterprises, producers and consumers co-operatives that make loans to workers. it also has an institution (Nir)  to extend agrarian credit, to finance workers' housing units, and to establish new agricultural settlements and help finance their manifold activities. and finally His is in the insurance business through Hassneh - life, fire, accident, burglary, workmen's compensation and maritime insurance.
the supreme body of His is the General Convention, to which all affiliated groups send delegates on a proportional basis. the Convention, which meets every 3 years, elects the General Council. the managerial group is the Central Executive Committee appointed annually by the General Council.

His  may in time have many of its functions taken over by the government of Israel. to date it hhas rendered invaluable service to the cause of Zionism, translating into concrete measures the idealism of the Zionists.  more than any other group, it is responsible for the actual reclamation  and settlement of Israel.  it has developed the co-operative form of organization to a degree not equaled anywhere else in the world. 
Israel is experimenting in numerous ways with the ancient problem of landownership and management. its experiments are not ideological ventures;  they were born of the necessities of the Zionist cause. the needs that gave rise to the various forms of co-operative projects are manifold. what served israel may will be slight use elsewhere. but israel is a vivid demonstration center showing that there is no one road to economic salvation and social justice.

we in America are apt to think that the world is choosing sides between private enterprise and communism.  vast portions of the world - notably the Middle East and southeast Asia - feel no such compulsion.  they seek solutions best suited to the genius of their people.  their way will not necessarily be our way when it comes to economic organization. this does not mean it will be any the less devoted to democratic standards or any the less respectful of human rights and the dignity of man. what Israel has done proves that.

40. From Dan even to Beersheba

280  Israel is a small country geographically.  its length as the crow flies is about 260 miles; its width varies from 5 to 70 miles. it is indeed a thin and irregular stretch of coastal plain pressed against  the Mediterranean. Jerusalem - partly held by the Arabs and partly by the Jews - is less than 40 miles from the sea and lies at the end of a long finger of land protruding into Arab-held territory. israel runs east to the Jordan from Dan on the north to a point below Defar Rupin on the south. but the rest of the Jordan Valley is in Arab hands.  Israel extends halfway up the west side of the Dead Sea, the upper portion being held by the arabs. and israel includes the whole of the Negev (the wilderness of Zin) that runs through sand and wasteland to the Gulf of Aqaba.

it is only 175 miles or so from Dan to Beersheba;  and it is in that long narrow corridor of land that most of the people live and that Israel's agricultural and industrial projects flourish, yet the Negev is important to israel too; and there are significant developments even in this desert south of Beersheba.

Dan is at the head of the upper valley of the Jordan, the furthest north of any village in Galilee. Mount Hermon towers over it on the northeast. here the Jordan rises and starts its journey to the Dead Sea. in these headwaters it is a small purling (def - to flow in curling and rippling motion as a shallow steam over stones) stream pouring through deep channels lined with grass and shrubs. the valley that it enters is hemmed on the west by the Mountains of Judah and on the east by the Mountains of Moab. it is a place that is pleasant to the eye. the hills, though mostly bare, are soft and rolling and below them in the alley is some of the rich topsoil that has washed down.  there is the mark of fertility on the basin. it has long stretches of marchland that presented acute malaria-control problems; some of it has been reclaimed and some has been developed into fish

281  ponds where carp are raised for food. most of the land, however, from Dan to the Sea of Galilee and from the Sea of Galilee on south along the Jordan is cultivated.

it was just below Dan at Kefar Giladi that I saw my first kibbutz.  this k was one of the earliest, having been founded in 1914, and for years had only several hundred members. by 1949 it had grown to 750 as a result of the absorption of new immigrants. this collective owns a few thousand acres, most of which is reclaimed wasteland - 1000 acres,  or more in grain, 100 in fodder, 100 in fruit, 100 in vegetables and 100 in fish ponds.  it has 400 sheep, 200 cattle, 4000 laying hens, but few horse or mules, the entire farming operation being mechanized - a thriving, hustling, prosperous place.

Kefar Giladi is governed by a board of 5, elected annually. under the board of 5 is a committee composed of representatives of each division of labor - cooks, mechanics, orchard men, etc. these groups handle all administrative matters - assignment of work,  contracts with the Histadrut, investment of funds, and the like.
one of the elders of this k is Elizer Kroll who looks like Moses. he is a quiet, dignified, pleasant man. when I was there, he was over 70 years old; his responsibilities for work had ended and the k would care for him the rest of his life. he had seen dozens of babies born at Kefar Giladi - babies who were delivered on birth to the communal nursery and raised by nurses rather than by their parents. I had heard friends say in Tel Aviv that they would  not want their children raised that way. at Kfar Giladi I talked with boys in the late teens who had been raised in its communal nurseries and were not members of the k. the k to them was the ideal life. they flourished in it and wanted their children raised by the same formula.
I talked with Yetta Caller, who came out of Brooklyn some years back to join Kefar Giladi, and is now one of its guiding influences. she said that a few had tired of the k and left. (a withdrawing member receives no liquidating dividend.) yet the vast majority had stayed on for 35 years, growing old and spending their declining years in idleness and relaxation.

I asked Yetta Caller what happened when a member of the k

282  turned out to be a gifted pianist or engineer or showed other talents that the agricultural enterprise of the k would not satisfy. that is a problem with which the k is wrestling.  a more prosperous k sends its gifted members to the university at the expense of the k;  others try to provide some sort of training within the limits of their means and the availability of teachers. Yetta Caller was not sure what he adjustment would be at Kefar Giladi.

below K G are other kibbutzim - orchards of pears and apricots, wide fields of cucumbers, large fishponds.  men and women, working in the fields, almost invariably wear shorts of blue, the color that marks the agricultural worker in Israel. we stopped and talked with them and made a long visit at Ashdot Yacov,  a k south of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. it was started in 1935 and now has a membership of 1200 people, 600 of whom are below 19 years of age. this k comprises about 1000 acres, in grapes, fodder, bananas, vegetables, citrus and mixed produce. it has hundreds of sheep, goats and cows, thousand  of chickens, and several fishponds. it also has  a fruit-processing plant where fruit juices, jams and jellies are made and where fruit and vegetables are canned. fruit and vegetables from a wide area are processed here.
I sat in the shade eating watermelons and talking with Jacob Schur about this collective farm and its problems. he was proud of this thriving project; there were plans afoot for bringing new lands under cultivation;  new water pipes were being laid and bulldozers were doing grading. he spoke of these things and he also mentioned with pride the development of a library for the k.  people come in from the fields at 5 PM;  there is the problem of their entertainment and recreation. the k is on a circuit of music, operas, and movies; there is a program of dancing and games; there are some sports for the younger set.
I talked with Jacob Schur about the problem of pleasing every individual in a k, of having enough variety to satisfy the great diversity of tastes.
'could I get at the store of the k my favorite brand of cigarette?
'No, we have only one kind.
'same for toothpaste, lotions, underwear?
283  'yes. a member can have as much as he wants in quantity; but we have to standardize our purchases and restrict the variety.
'suppose I don't smoke but enjoy a cocktail. can I get it or the ingredients at the k?
'No.  we sometimes have wine; but no hard lizuor is distributed.
'some would not like that.
'that's true, but the collective farm in Israel, unlike russia, si voluntary, Jacob Schur replied.  one need not join unless he wants to.
we had come to the Sea of Galilee by the way of Haifa and Safad. S is an ancient town that sits lie a fort on the dome of a high hill. it looks impregnable; yet the Israeli army took it one nigh with a small group who knew the tactics of infiltration. S has interesting features:  an ancient synagogue and old colorful houses set along narrow passageways that climb at dizzy pitches up the hillside. it is also distinguished fro  a beautiful rest center which the Histadrut maintains there. in summer it is always cool in the shade of cypress and pine that flourish on this high hilltop.

we returned to Haifa from the Sea of Galilee by way of Nazareth. someone said that Nazareth clings 'like a whitewashed wasp nest to the hillside' and so it does. and to one of the christian faith it is a hallowed place where the cries of hawkers and the clanging of artisans seem discordant.

below N is Nahalal which lies at the head of the valley of Esraeldon. this is a pleasant, fertile spot where the famous Colonel Moshe Dayan and his attractive and brilliant wife Ruth live.  Nahalal has 80 families, each having 25 acres leased from the National Fund. D has chickens, turkeys, cows.  these farmers pool their resources and own farm machinery in common;  they also purchase co-operatively and market co-operatively through the Histadrut. at Nahalal one hears only praise for this form of organization. 'we are more independent than members of a k , Ruth Dayan told me.

I visited numerous co-operative villages in the central part of israel: Ramot where 70  families have 40,000 chickens; Beit Yizhak, settled by professional and business men from Europe, who raise chickens, eggs and dairy products; Kefar Warbrg, where 100 families do diversified farming and raise mostly hay and grain; Richon Le Zion where citrus fruit,
284  almonds and grapes are raised and where the community owns a co-operative winery; Nira, where 200 families have a knitting mill and raise fruit, vegetables and chickens on small holdings. most of these use Histadrut to make their purchases and to  market their produce.

I heard in each  of these co-operatives what Ruth Dayan had said:  that the co-operative method of farming is the best of all because the members have more independence. Mrs. Sonia Rosenblum summed it up. she lives with her husband and 3 children at Kefar Warburg, but before that they had been in a k fro 7 years. she and her family like the co-op best. 'we're not tied down by the rigid life of a collective, she said.
I learned at Beit Yitzhak that the professional men make the best farmers; that they are far superior even to those who were farmers in Europe. and to my surprise i learned that of the professional men probably the lawyer has tuned out to e the best farmer of them all.

at Ramot Hashavim I found that one of the major tasks of the co-op was to provide movies, lectures and concerts for the villagers. William Stern, one of the leading villagers, who moved to Palestine from Germany when Hitler first came to power, talked with me about the cultural and educational life in these villages. he summed it up i these words, ' A German Jew must always be learning something.
at Nathanya, I learned something of the pull of Palestine. I talked with M.D. Lipsitz, a US citizen whose home had been in Detroit for years, a prosperous businessman, who had pulled up all his roots in Michigan  and is now operating a four acre chicken farm in israel. I told him I could understand why Jews from Poland, Germany, Austria, and Russia flocked to Palestine. 'but why did you?  I asked. you had happiness and security in America, nothing from which to flee.

he thought awhile and then said, I guess it was the call of the blood.

Mrs. Leah Landu and her husband had lived in a k for 13 years, then left it and joined the Nira co-op. their son, however, hastened back to a k when he turned 18. she talked bout the pros and cons of the k. she and her husband had hated to sacrifice the contributions they had made to the k

285  during those years; they had made the change and incurred the sacrifice only after much deliberation.
'what finally induced you to leav?
'the lack of privacy. my husband got terribly tired of sitting down at the same table with the same people three times a day year after year.
I asked her why her son returned to a k. her reply, which was verified the length and breadth of israel, was revealing.
'the people who like the k best are those under 30 and over 50.

those under 30 are caught up with a new idea and a crusade. those over 50 have the longing for security: no worry about rent, heat, food, clothes, medical care, or insurance. those between 30 and 50 want to be on their own.
I asked Mrs. Landu if she and her husband regretted their resignation from the k. her answer was slow in coming because she was perplexed.
'we are near 50 now; and the work does not let up a bit. we go from dawn till dark.  last winter my husband was very sick. I do not know how long we can continue at this rate. she added rather wistfully, 'it would be nice to be back in the k with everything provided for - if my husband could only stand eating in the community dining room.
this matter of privacy for the family has transcending importance to many.  the privilege of withdrawing from the community at day's end and reuniting the family group for exchange of confidences, bestowal of sympathy and renewal of affection is necessary for some. it was the force behind the MOSHAV-SHITUFI movement - the combination of the k and the co-operative in which each family has its own house, garden, dining room and kitchen.

I visited this new and different kind of settlement. one of the leading ones id Kefar Monah located not far from Tel Aviv. started in 1946 by young soldiers, it now has around 50 families who cultivate 300 acres. rye and vegetables are grown; the collective has quite a few milk cows, a growing dairy industry and a printing plant with modern, up-to-date machinery. there is no community nursery. each family has its own house - a man and wife with one child has a one-room house with kitchenette; if there
286  are 2 or more children, the family gets another room. a young man named Ahron goren with whom I talked told me that this kind of collective is growing in popularity; it offers the security people crave and the privacy that many must have. he summed it up this way:  'now we can have our eggs burned if we want them that way.
but at Kvutsat Saad is west of Beersheba, a few miles from Gaza. it is the kibbutz of a religious group; 30 families operate about 500 acres and grow mostly hay and grain. there is an altar in the communal dining room and on it a lighted candle in memory of one of their members killed  in battle. Kvutsat Saad was behind the Egyptian lines for a year. the members lived under ground in dugouts after their village was destroyed in battle. 35 men and women held out until the israeli Army retook the place. I visited their underground homes and found the prize unit of them all - an underground homes and found the prize unit of them all  - an underground bakery run by a diesel engine. their k was supplied by convoys of armored cars that ran the Egyptian lines at night.

a group of young men and women - eager and devoted  - gathered round as I left. I asked why they stuck it out during the war, why they risked the running of the lines. a young chap answered me, 'You see we are more than a settlement. our k had military value. so long as we could keep an active unit behind the enemy's lines we were a thorn in his side.
Beersheba, a bustling town of 10,000, lies at the head of the desert that stretches to the Gulf of azaba. here is where Abraham pitched his tents at the end of his long, hot journey from Babylon. a paved highway runs south to Egypt through one of the most desolate stretches in the Middle East - a desertic steppe from 1000 to 2000 feet high, cut with gullies and washes and dotted with halozylon articulatum, a low shrub that looks like the bitterbush and the saltbush (atriplex).  no matter the time of year this is a dreary, unattractive region. yet a group of youngsters from the Histadrut are trying to make some of it into a garden. one such place is Revivim.

about 25 miles south of Beersheba a small deserted village by the name of Bir Asluj. one turnes right here and goes 2 and a half miles on a dirt road to the dusty k of Revivim.

287  this is rich loamy land with dirt as fine as flour that rises around one when he walks and swirls in clouds with even a light wind. wind here is a considerable problem the k has planted many rows of trees for windbreaks: tamarisk and acacia which are native to the region and the long-needle, dark-green casuarina imported from australia.
the only water at Revivim comes from a well that is slightly salty. the 100 members of the kibbutz  drink the water and now prefer it to the sweet water they could have if they operated the distiller that they possess. the salt water is sufficiently sweet for irrigating olives, date palms and pomegranates. young orchards of these fruit trees seem to be thriving. the only other water supply is the flash floods which usually  come off the Judea Mountains in March. the members of the k have built concrete diversion sluices, which carry the water into a reservoir lined with asphalt. this supply is usually sufficient for their vegetables and Sudanese hay, which grows knee high ans is very nutritious.

Revivim, like Kvutsat Saadk, was underground in dugouts during the war. it was behind Egyptian lines for several months,, and was supplied with food by air and by convoys that ran the lines. during this period the men of Re would raid the Egyptian headquarters at Bir Asluj at night, getting guns and ammunition. despite  8 casualties, about 30 men and women stuck it out, manning the dugouts and fighting pitched battles by day and raiding at night.
when we were there, they were in the midst of a building program. they had moved out of the dugouts into tents and temporary buildings of stone and wood. a makeshift shower room  (with plenty of salt water for bathing)  had been constructed. a large square stone tower that served as a lookout and citadel during the war had been converted into a library and a small factory for making clothes.

we stayed all night and had tea, bread, jam, sausage and potatoes for dinner. these were young people in their 20s, most of them married. they were zealots (def - fervor, eager desire, endeavour) - hardy intelligent,determined. most of them had never been to America;  and they were filled with curiosity about it - curiosity and bewilderment too.
why was America getting ready to fight Russia?
did A think that war was the only way of solving an unemployment problem/
288 why is A against everything that is socialistic?
why isn't a kibbutz a wholesome project?
is there anything evel in collective security?
wh do some ans think Israel had gone communistic because it  has promoted co-operative scheems and collective farms?
isn't a willing to receive new ideas?
mist we all be private enterprisers and worship capitalism?

these were the questions fired at me after dinner, as we sat for a couple of hours holding a seminar on world events. these were youngsters who had lived underground in a parched desert and fought for their new freedom. they were militant cross-examiners. they would not take platitudes about democracy without question. they were interested in solving the problems of the Middle East to avoid the ugliness and oppression of communism. yet they wondered why America thought it could remake the world in its image.
after the discussion I stepped out into the darkness and walked the desert. the stars hung low this night and shone with the brilliance of Persian  stars; a thin slice of the moon showed over Egypt; a cool wind swept in from the ocean. on my return i mounted a small hillock and stood listening to the night sounds of the desert. suddenly a tremendous chorus sounded from the dining hall. these young folds were singing. the voices were exultant and triumphant;  they had the ring of determined men and women marching to victory. this was a chorus of crusaders who would not be turned back.

Israel is the product of a crusade. it has many problems, including that of making a just peace with the Arabs so that taxes can go to the land rather than to armaments. not all of Israel's political problems are easy of solution, for its 11 political parties have made a coalition government necessary. there is the problem of water and topsoil and the development of productivity so that the economy need not be subsidized. Is needs food and industries that can manufacture for export. but Is has conquered the main problems that plague the Middle East - land tenure, illiteracy, disease and corrupt government.
it seeks to provide schools for every child and medical care for every family. Malaria has been wiped out and other public health programs flourish. workers have strong unions;  and the agricultural

289  economy is so organized as to give every farm laborer  a  stake in his country. the standards of the public service are high.
if Israel survives, as tit will, these achievements are certain to give impetus and direction to revolutions that are well under way in other parts  of Asia. Is does not exist in a vacuum. it is an integral part of the Middle East. its contagious ideas are certain to spread.

Part 4 - India
41.  A Girl and a Basket

292  ..at one station my routine of talking with the natives was interrupted. ...(by) ..a group of young children...
these were refugee children. when partition between India and Pakistan was decreed, hundreds of thousands of people pulled up their roots and changed their residences. 9,000,000 people left Pak and came to I, driven by the fear of religious fanaticism. they were poor people  to start with; they were poorer as they began their long trek, for all they could carry was a bit of food and a few belongings. soon they were out of food. a few days after they started they began to fall by the wayside from the weakness of hunger and died where they fell. the highways were so thickly lined with bodies that the vultures could not eat them. and so the corpses bloated and rotted in the sun, the smell of putrid flesh filling the valleys.
the children (where the author is) selling baskets were sons and daughters of these refugees. they or their parents or relatives had gathered in the cities, setting up stalls, manufacturing simple articles, trying to make a living in markets already overcrowded. they lived in cloth and grass lean-tos that lined the streets. the peasants among these refugees had been accustomed to little all their live, for the annual income of an agricultural family does not on the average exceed $100 a year. the average unskilled laborer makes 30 cents a day or less than 2 dollars a week. there is one meal a day  - an onion, a piece of bread, a bowl of pulse (lentils) with milk, perhaps a bit of goat cheese. no tea, no coffee, no fats, not sweets, no meat. $100 a year is not 2 dollars a week,

293  yet even that small amount is hard to earn by selling baskets to people too poor to buy them. that no doubt is the reason these little children descended on me like locust. I , an American, was doubtless the most promising market they had seen.

42. India and Asia

294  this spirit of true independence is the dominant note in India's life today.  it expresses itself in many different ways.
the villagers, for example, have a passionate desire to own their own land;  collectivism - the religion of Communists - has not the slightest hold in agricultural India.

moreover, Indians do not want their country to be the tail to any kite. British imperialism bled them. they still maintain the Brit capitalism first mutilated and destroyed Ind industry in order to give the imperial factories a monopoly. they saw the profits made in India under the Grit (sometimes 300% a year) exported abroad rather than used internally to improve living conditions, to build schools and the like. the want to be independent of that kind of capitalism.

their passion for independence expresses itself in foreign as well as in domestic policies. an Indian official summarized it for me...
the world is choosing sides - America or Russia. both...are wooing the nations of he world. the search for allies goes on; there is the pressure of loans and trade agreements, diplomacy, the threat of the big Red Army, a Communist-controlled strike and so on. In  feels these pressures. Rus is a neighbor on the north. communists inveigh against Nehru and bomb the railways that the Indian government recently nationalized...
..Nehru.. (says)...India's position...is like that of the ancient kingdom of Judah, is not one of neutrality in the insipid sense in which we use the word today. In ind by instinct, by tradition, by

295 religion is opposed to totalitarianism; but Ind does not want to become either a staging ground for American military defence against Rus or a Rus base. the teaching of Gandhi on non-violence is a powerful force in Ind. that doctrine does not mean a passive submission to terror and aggression, but is based on the principle that the human spirit is more powerful than tanks and aircraft. as Nehru put it, the doctrine of nonviolence is 'an active and positive instrument for the peaceful solution of international differences.
...and it has intensely practical aspects. Ind has too many internal problems to solve - problems that will take all her resources and all her energies - to become committed to a military doctrine of force and armed might...
...Ind...great friendliness toward and sympathy for Communist china. ...
Nehru...'China is at last tackling her basic economic problems. the Com government is honest. it is on the side of the common people. it is taking measures against the ownership of the land by the few.  it is for mass education, public health, rural reconstruction. the Chinese peasant at last has a champion'.

...Russian aggression?...the answer was both honest and genuinely Asian. in Asia, China is more Asian than Russia is. there is an Asian consciousness that ties India, China and all the other colored races of that continent close together. Russia, as well as England and the US, is excluded.

296  this color consciousness is a major influence in domestic and foreign affairs. the treatment of colored peoples by other nations is an important consideration in the warmth of Ind's relations to the outside world...
...officials in Uttar Pradesh could not imagine that China would ever be the tail to any Russian kite. one of them at a luncheon in Bareilly said,  'China is communistic; but her communism will be indigenous to China. it will reflect the character of her people. after a pause he added,  'the Chinese people are the most democratic people in the social sense the world over. ..

later Nehru told me, 'communist China has produced a greater crop of capitalists than any previous chines government....the communists have distributed the land to the peasants. they are making landowners out of every Chinese farmer. and there is no more staunch capitalist than a landowner.

298   India, in its treatment of Communists, is following the teaching of Gandhi engraved on the walls of the government radio station at New Delhi: 'I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my hause as freeely as possible. but I refuse to e blown off my feet by any of them.

43. Nehru's Welfare State
299  Nehru is not India any more than Roosevelt was America. but each has represented in a warmhearted way the humanity of his country and made vocal its aspirations.

Nehru is the spiritual heir of Gandhi. Gan is a saint, a holy man. ..

...II visited (the RAjghat - the place of Gandhi's cremation ...at sunset.
at that hour each day Gan held a public prayer meeting no matter where he was, reading passages from the Gita, Koran, and Bible and ending in community singing, sometimes with his favorite christian hymn, 'when I survey the Wondrous Cross'. ...
Gan has probably even more influence in India today than when he lived .  he gave Ind a unity of purpose. he taught tolerance for all minorities; to him ind was a mother who had a full measure of affection for each member of her diverse family. ...he thought of India in terms of the common man..his mission was to raise these downtrodden masses, to lead them to a new life. his devotion...was so great...he even adopted their way of life and their manner of dress so that none in the whole land might feel lowly or inferior.
Nehru's inheritance of the Gandhi tradition is genuine.  his aim is to make India's 400,000,000 people equal partners in all the dividends of freedom...
Nehru is an inspiring leader...people flock by the thousands...

a more silent partner in these endeavors is Dr. Rajendra Prasad, first President of the Republic. his quiet dignity carries tremendous prestige in India. Prasad, like Nehru, spent many years in jail during the resistance to the British. 30 years ago he gave up a lucrative law practice to join Gand. he is a solid pillar of strength - hones, humanitarian, liberal and steadfast n- a symbol of the longsuffering, enduring qualities of he Indian peasant. the people seem to realize it; for Prasad commands their respect and loyalty.
in recent years the third main character on the Indian political stage was the late Sardar Vallahbhai Patel, Minister of State and Home Affairs. Nehru devoted himself primarily to foreign affairs, Patel to domestic matters. he, like Nehru, was an able campaigner, but he did not have the broad base of popular support the Neh enjoys. Neh is philosophically a Socialist. the leaning of the intellectual group who today determines India's policy is in that direction. but patel leaned toward the philosophy of private enterprise;
301  he was the main, political counterweight to socialism in Ind.

political leadership in India poses different questions than in America. in Travancore 75% of the people are literate. that is the exception. in the rest of In only 5% can read and write. there is no tradition of the party system; in the 200 years of British rule there  was no universal exercise of the franchise . thus Indians have had no political experience in the democratic way of life. evry person...21..can vote.
...the Congress party under Nehru's leadership has forged a political program for India that is more challenging than any I saw from Beirut to Bangkok,  both New Deli - the nation's capital  - and the capitals of the provinces )the states of the federation) are humming with it. there is great ferment in the country. every problem is being attacked; new ideas are pouring out; short-range, long-range programs are being devised; the capitals are bristling with energy. there is nothing orthodox dogmatic about the approach. it is as unorthodox and as dynamic as Roosevelt's first term. this is a crusade and everyone is in it.
the burden of it is being carried by the Indian Administrative Service - the real legacy which England left behind....
302....First among the many acute problems of India is FOOD.

the pressure of India's population on the land is increasing. there are about 400,000,000 people who are increasing by 3,500,00 a year. it is not to find 1,000 people living on one square mile of land. every square foo is cultivated. the search for additional acreage has led to the destruction of most of india's forests as new land was opened to the plow. with the loss of the trees, the climate often changed. how winds now blow in from the southwest and burn crops. with the destruction of he trees there have been even more tragic losses. now there are more tragic losses. now there is no fuel. the price of kerosene is too high for the peasants. so they burn cow dung  which should be used as a fertilizer. thus  for years the land has become poorer and poorer.
uncommon
there are 257,000,000 cattle in India. among these re dairy herds that compare favorably with the best; but most of them are thin and scrawny, their ribs plainly visible. since the land can support only 60% of the 257,000,000, there is not enough food to go around; consequently the cows give on the average only a quart of milk a day. cows are sacred in Hindu religion. they may not be killed; the meat may not be eaten. and so hungry cattle get a bare subsistence on fodder  that should go to humans. when i was in Uttar Pradesh a riot broke out in a village because of a rumor that someone had killed a cow. about the same time the government's project to reduce the herds was brought to a halt. a leading politician made a denunciatory speech. 'they say that economic ruin will come to Ind unless our herds of cattle are reduced. I say, let's have economic ruin rather than a sacrifice of our religious principles'.
to increase food production, modern methods of agriculture are needed. but many of the holdings of peasants are pulverized and scattered,  eg. the two acres a man own may be divided into several tiny units and widely separated. the introduction of modern farm machinery is impossible under those circumstances.
the greatest ravager of soil and food is the flood. most areas of India have plenty of rain - one, over 400 inches a year. but the rain is seasonal, coming mostly in the monsoon period and running off quickly. the runoffs carry soil and
crops with them; then a people who already are near subsistence level drop to station ratios. as President Prasad told me, the most important single measure for increasing the food supply is 'to train the rivers'. flood control and irrigation projects rank high in priority - next to care for the 9,000,000 refugees from pakistan.
here are a few of the important steps which Nehru's government has taken on the food problem:
1. food is rationed from surplus areas to deficit areas. about 130 districts (over 112,000,000 people) are on the ration list, receiving regular quotas of basic foods. this includes all the urban population.
2. many surplus cows are being sequestered in state forests, kept segregated from bulls and allowed to live tier natural span.  (cows,by the way  like the leaves of india's oaktrees.
3.fuel forest are being planted near villages in sufficient size and numbers to supply wood for cooking and heating. the fast-growing acacia - which will produce fuel in 10 years - is widely used. as these forrests become available, cow dung will be saved for fertilizing Ind's old and tired lad.
4. ind is tackling the tree problem. each august thee is a week devoted o a tree-planing festival - Van Mahotsva. during this week schools, villages and other organizations are encouraged to plant trees,  which can be ought for a few annas from government nurseries.  in aug., 1950, 20,000,000 trees were planed by individuals. for the first time in centuries Indians are becoming 'tree conscious'.

5. there has been an encouragement of co-operatives and a great development in their use. the problem o small, scattered am holdings is being solved in some places by a pooling o all gland, which is then managed by co-operative methods. each farmer's share o the crop is measured by his proportion o land cultivated...

44. Jai Hind

312  ...Hinduism is not a fanatic faith;  it has a charity that is comprehensive. it acknowledges the validity of the gods of the most superstitious  as well as he highest conception of the unity of God. it teaches that God's scheme embraces the whole human race. an Indian song expresses this religious tolerance:
into the bosom of one great sea
flow streams that come from hills on every side,
their names are various as their springs,
and thus in every land do men bow down
to one great God, though known by many names.
313  but Hinduism requires of each man's God requisites of the Supreme Being.

Hinduism sees in each man a divine potential. it is the role of great souls to awakening common folks this spark of divinity. 'they who worship Me with devotion are in Me, and so am I in them, says the Bahgavad Gita. by devotion, discipline and rectitude in conduct man can himself become like God. it is the spirit, not bread alone, that sustains man. the fulfillment of the spirit is the aim of life. spiritual realization is self-emancipation, freedom;  perfection of every type of activity is an expression of divinity. 'whatsoever is glorious, good, beautiful and mighty, understand that it goes forth from out of a fragment of my splendour.
we talked of these things with Boshi sen and his wife Gertude Emerson Sen.

there was a long silence broken only by the pitapat of goats' feet below the garden wall -goats driven by a scraggy Tibetan. then Boshi sen spoke up and said with deep emotion,  'there is no power on earth that can destroy india. at no time in history has Ind been without her great spiritual giants; it is from them that she derives her enduring strength.

later I drove down from the hill country  to the Ganges plain in an open air. it was early morning. the Snows disappeared behind an intervening  ridge. the excellent asphalt road - built by the British - twisted corkscrew fashion down ravines whose slopes were covered with oak, deodars, and a long-leaf pine called the chir. below us the Kosi River poured like a cataract through deep gorges. we were nearing a village. as we made a sharp horseshoe turn we came upon a group of school boys - ten to twelve years old - with books under their arms. they were dressed like ragamuffins - barefooted, torn and patched trousers, coarse shirts. as the car passed they shouted at the top of their lungs, 'Jai Hind (Glory to India).  Gandhi's teachings, Nehru's example, the spiritual strength that Boshi Sen spoke of had somehow reached down to the boys of a remote Indian village,. in the fleeting second of my contact with them I felt the spirit that is carrying India through valleys  of poverty , squalor, and suffering to her tryst with destiny.