Persian Diary, 1939-1941 9780932206930, 9781951519001

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ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS

MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN NO. 71

PERSIAN DIARY

1939-1941 by WALTER N. KOELZ

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN 1983

©1983 Regents of the University of Michigan The Museum of Anthropology All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America ISBN 978-0-932206-93-0 (paper) ISBN 978-1-951519-00-1 (ebook)

To Eugene F. McDonald, Jr., in whose company my wanderings began

CONTENTS Biographical Introduction, by Carolyn Copeland ...................................... ix Introduction to Iran in 1939-41, by HenryT. Wright ........................................ xi Author's Preface ............................................. xiii Introduction ................................................. xv

I. II. III. IV.

v. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X.

XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV.

XVI. XVII.

The Medieval Sea Gate and the Coast ..................... 1 Kirman and the Great Date Oases ....................... 15 Isfahan Nim-Jahan .................................... 43 Shiraz, Jahrum, and Niriz .............................. 55 Khuzistan ........................................... 73 Dorud and TI ........................................ 83 The Capital ......................................... 93 The Caspian Shore, from Below Sea Level to Above the Clouds ................................ 99 The Borderland of the Soviets and Ghengiz's Hordesthe Turkomans .................................. 105 Holy Meshed ....................................... 115 Khorasan, Land of Lost Cities and Great Poets ........... 121 Again in the Great Forest ............................. 149 Again in the Capital ................................. 151 Azerbaijan and the Turks ............................. 163 The Land of the Medes ............................... 191 At the Gates of Mesopotamia .......................... 197 Where My Soul Has Longed to Go ..................... 209

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Walter N. Koelz ............................................................. vm Regions oflran ................................................... ·............. x Map oflran, Showing Route of Travel ............................................ xvi Wangyel, the Thakur Rup Chand, and Rinchen Gialtsen ............................. 2 Paths in the Bedrock near Bandar Abbas ........................................... 4 A Landscape in Southern Iran ................................................... 5 The Camel is the Desert Truck ................................................... 7 Digging the Shaft of a Qanat ..................................................... 9 A Kirman Oasis ............................................................... 17 Deh Shib in Kirman ........................................................... 18 A Fig Tree at Deh Bala, Kirman ................................................. 20 Dugout Homes of the Desert Poor in Kirman ...................................... 22 Rup Chand and a Golden Eagle near Kirman ...................................... 27 The Shrine at Mahun ......................................................... 34 Mountain Forest near Deh Bakri in Kirman ....................................... 35 Reed Houses in Tomogaon, Kirman .............................................. 39 Storks, a Common Inhabitant of Many Towns in the Country ......................... 51 The Shaking Tower at Isfahan ................................................... 51 The Blind Spinner at Eylit ..................................................... 58 Persepolis or Takht-i Jamshid ................................................... 60 Persepolis ................................................................... 61 Persepolis ................................................................... 62 The Bagh Safa at Shiraz ........................................................ 63 An Old Tombstone Dating from the Last Period of the Moghuls ....................... 67 A Grave Marker in Jahrum, Fars ................................................ 68 Wild Almonds at Dehrisk, Jiroft ................................................. 69 Lifting Water from Well at Ahwaz by Cattle Team .................................. 74 Lifting Water from Well at Ahwaz ............................................... 75 Another Method oflrrigating ................................................... 77 A Roadside Cairn in the Bakhtiari Oak Forest ..................................... 79 Market Day in Khuzistan ...................................................... 81 Trucking in Khuzistan ......................................................... 82 A Lur "Village" in Luristan ..................................................... 87 Tents of Tibetan Nomads ....................................................... 88 A Leaf of Wild Rhubarb Common in Iran and Afghan Mountains ...................... 90 The Peacock Throne .......................................................... 94 A Street Restaurant ........................................................... 96 A Muskmelon Collection ...................................................... 101 Tea on the Caspian Slope ...................................................... 103 A Mulberry Tree in the Himalayan State of Chamba ................................ 110 The Lovely Mosque ofHazrat Masumeh at Qom .................................. 118 A Goat Flock on the March Near the Afghan Border ............................... 124 The Bagh Gulshan at Tabas .................................................... 128 Camp at Deh Bala near Yezd in a Field Beside a Mulberry Tree ...................... 130 "Sobhanah Rabii al'Alah va bahumdah!" ......................................... 138 The Zurkhana ............................................................... 140 A Collection of Squash from Quetta ............................................. 141 On the Road ................................................................ 145 Plowing at Shahrud .......................................................... 146

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Tinning Copper Dishes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 147 Muhamed Reza Pahlevi, the Crown Prince at the Time of this Account.. . .. 152 The Shah oflran with the Crown Prince ......................................... 153 A Water Seller in the Capital. .................................................. 155 Threshing .................................................................. 160 The Tibetan Counterpart of the Mountaintop Cairn, a Burje, on Taklung Pass .......... 165 Tree Growing in a Persian Garden .............................................. 170 A Wild Peach Tree in the Himalayan State ofChamba .............................. 173 A Fleet of Camels ............................................................ 175 A Collection of Water Mills in the Himalayas ..................................... 177 An Extreme Development in the Fattailed Sheep ................................. 178 Kurdish Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................... 182 The Bazaar in a Kurdish Town. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............. 184 . .............. 187 At Work at Camp, Skinning a Collection of Flamingos. A Gleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 195 Threshing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... 205 On the Road . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 206 A Well-Tended Garden of Assorted Trees and Flower Beds. . . . . .......... 212 Kurd Nomad Women Milking the Sheep. . . .......... . 216 A Kurdish Dance . . . . . . . . . 221 Piggie, the Pet Wild Boar................ . 224

vii

WALTER

N.

KOELZ.

Photograph taken in Ann Arbor during the 1940s.

viii

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WALTER N. KOELZ by Carolyn A. Copeland College of Literature, Science and the Arts, The University of Michigan

Walter Norman Koelz was born in Waterloo, Michigan, on September 11, 1895, and, after many years spent abroad, once again resides in the house where he was born. He attended Olivet College as an undergraduate and did his graduate work at the University of Michigan, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in June ofl920. His graduate studies of the Coregonid fishes of the Great Lakes brought him not only a government appointment with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, but also an appointment as a Curator of Fishes in the Museum of Zoology at the University of Michigan. During the summer of 1925, Walter Koelz served as naturalist with the MacMillan Arctic Expedition. This was the first of many expeditions that would take Dr. Koelz to the far corners of the world. In the spring ofi930, he began a two year appointment as a biologist for the Himalayan Research Institute of the Roerich Museum in Kulu, India. In the autumn ofl932, he was appointed by the Regents of the University of Michigan as a Research Fellow on the Charles L. Freer fund, and he returned to India to collect Tibetan materials for the Museums of Anthropology and Natural History. He returned to Ann Arbor in the spring ofl934 and during 1934 worked on a government parks project, acquiring land for the Waterloo Recreation Area. As of January 1, 1936, he became a plant explorer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and he left for India once more. He returned to spend the winter ofl939 in Brunswick, Georgia, but was back in Bombay in July. December 14 of that year is the first entry in the Diary that follows. In January of 1946, Dr. Koelz left Persia for further explorations in India, Nepal, and Assam, which lasted until October of 1953. In 1956, he was awarded the Meyer Memorial Medal for outstanding contributions to world agriculture. Dr. Koelz continues to hold an appointment with the University of Michigan as an Adjunct Research Investigator with both the Museum of Zoology and the Botanical Gardens.

ix

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