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CHAPTER 40
When I came out of the palace I walked along with my shoulders hunched –
dawn in Tabriz is never warm – and in this manner I made my way toward the
caravansary without trying to take any short cuts. I was not in a hurry to get
there. I needed some time to think things over as I had not calmed down from
the exhilaration of the night and my mind was still full of images, gestures and
whispered words, I could no longer tell whether I was happy. In a way I felt
complete, but this feeling was tinged with the inevitable guilt which comes with
clandestine affairs. Thoughts kept on coming back to me, as haunting as
thoughts can be during sleepless nights. ‘After I left, did she go back to sleep
with a smile? Does she have any regret? When I see her again and if we are not
alone will she treat me as an accomplice or a stranger? I shall return tonight and
try and look for some faith in her eyes.’
Suddenly a cannon shot rang out. I stopped and listened. Was it our brave and
solitary de Bange? It was followed by a silence, then a prolonged fusillade and
finally a lull. I ventured a few more steps and kept my ears peeled. There was a
new roar immediately followed by a third. By this time I was starting to be
worried; a single cannon cannot fire at that rate, there had to be two or even
more. Two shells exploded a few streets away from me and I started to run
toward the citadel.
Fazel quickly confirmed the news which I feared; the first of the Shah’s
forces had arrived during the night. They had taken up position in the districts
held by the religious chiefs. Other troops were on their way and were converging
from all directions. The siege of Tabriz had begun.

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The tirade given by Colonel Liakhov, the military governor of Teheran and
the architect of the coup d’état, before his troops set off for Tabriz went along
the following lines:
‘Brave Cossacks! The Shah is in danger. The people of Tabriz have rejected
his authority and have declared war in an attempt to force him to recognize the
constitution. The constitution would abolish your privileges and dissolve your
brigade. If it triumphs, it is your women and children who will go hungry. The
constitution is your worst enemy and you must fight like the furies against it.
The way you destroyed the parliament has aroused the greatest admiration
throughout the world. Follow this salutary action by crushing the rebel city and,
on behalf of the sovereigns of Russia and Persia, I promise you money and
honours. All the riches of Tabriz are yours, you only have to help yourselves!’
The command which was shouted out in Teheran and St Petersburg and
murmured in London was the same: Tabriz must be destroyed, it deserves the
most exemplary punishment. If it is defeated no one will dare speak of a
constitution, parliament or democracy; once again the Orient will be able to sink
comfortably into death.
That is how the whole world came to witness a strange and heartrending race
over the following months: while the example set by Tabriz started to revive the
flame of resistance in various corners of Persia, the city itself was undergoing a
more and more rigorous siege. Would the Constitutionalists have enough time to
pick themselves up, organize and take up arms before their bastion gave out?
In January they won their first big success: in answer to an appeal by the
Bakhtiari chiefs who were Shireen’s maternal uncles, Isfahan, the former capital,
rebelled and affirmed its attachment to the constitution and its solidarity with
Tabriz. When the news reached the besieged city an explosion of joy erupted on
the spot. The whole night long people chanted indefatigably: ‘Tabriz-Isfahan, the
country is waking up!’ However, the very next day a massive attack forced the
defenders to abandon several positions in the south and west. There was only
one road left connecting Tabriz to the outside world and that was the one which
led north, toward the Russian border.
Three weeks later the city of Rashd rebelled in turn. Like Isfahan, it rejected
the tutelage of the Shah and extolled the constitution and Fazel’s resistance.
There was a new eruption of joy in Tabriz, but immediately the besieging troops
launched a new attack and the last road was cut: Tabriz was completely
surrounded. The post could no longer get through, and nor could any food. They

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had to organize very strict rationing to be able to keep on feeding the two
hundred thousand or so inhabitants of the city.
In February and March 1909 more towns rallied. The territory of the
constitution now extended to Shiraz, Hamadan, Meshed, Astarabad, Bandar-
Abbas and Bushir. In Paris the Committee for the Defence of Tabriz was
formed, headed by a certain Monsieur Dieulafoy who was a distinguished
orientalist; there was the same drive in London, under the presidency of Lord
Lamington, and more important still, the principal Shiite clergymen who were
based in Karbala in Ottoman Iraq pronounced themselves solemnly and
unambiguously in favour of the constitution and disavowed the backward-
looking