SIR PERCY SYKES & THE SOUTH PERSIA RIFLES

Sir Percy Sykes spent the best part of twenty-five years in Persia, from 1893 until the end of the First World War. Through his eyes I shall attempt to show you somethingof this turbulent period of the history of Iran and the part in it that was played by the British, the Russians and, later, the Germans and also, something of Sykes himself.First, we need to understand Sykes the man. After military college in England, in 1888 he oined a cavalry regiment in India. Since he spent his free time hunting andexploring in the Himalayas, he was soon recruited by Army Intelligence. In 1892 hewas sent to spy out a new Russian military railway from the Caspian to Samarqand,disguised as a Russian. After this successful mission, his life was devoted to TheGreat Game, the game of rivalry between Britain and Russia in Central Asia. At this time the British were obsessed by the idea that the Russians wished to invade Indiathrough Iran. In 1893 Sykes was due to return to India from home leave in England. Instead ofgoing directly by ship he travelled overland through Iran, with the specific obect of exploring unknown routes on the eastern side, which might be used by an invading Russian army on its way to India. He took the ferry to Ashur Ada___ and rode, with a servant, through the Turkoman country to Mashhad. There the remarkable Britishconsul Ney Elias___ told him to test an unknown route across the Kavir desert___ via Naiband to Kerman. The roads were full of robbers___ and Sykes had a few brushes with them. The city of Kerman had English missionary doctors and a branchof the Imperial Bank of Persia. ___There was no need to stay there so he headed west across Buchaqchi___ bandit country towards Shiraz.