RASHT (also Rascht, Rescht, Rashd, and Resht), a town in northern Persia, situated in 37° 18' N. lat. and 49° 37' E. long., capital of the richly wooded maritime pro-vince of Gilan, contains from 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. Eastwick, who was there in 1861, accepts the former estimate, but states that the place was four times as popu-lous before the plague of 1831. The distance from Enzelli, on the southern shores of the Caspian, the actual port of dis-embarkation for passengers and goods from Russia, is about 16 miles, of which 12 (to Pari Bazaar) are accomplished in an open boat, the last part by river, but for the most part over a widespread brackish lake or lagoon ( murdáb ), abounding in wild fowl, surrounded by reeds, and separated from the sea by a narrow belt of sand. From Pari Bazaar to Rasht the road, piercing through forest and swamp, had for many long years been memorable only for its puddles and pools, its ruts and ruggedness, but it has more recently undergone great improvement. As for the town itself, the tiled houses in the streets, and the lanes, lined with hedge and cottage, in the environs, impart a cheer-fulness to the locality little in unison with the sickly and fever-stricken faces and forms of the inhabitants. Yet the beauty and hazel eyes of the children, with their “true English pink and white complexions” noticed by Eastwick, are not significant of inherited enervation....
Rasht is the residence of a Russian and an English consul, and the seat of a local governor nominated by the sháh. It is the centre of the silk trade, which once flourished so greatly in Persia as to show an annual export of nearly a million and a half pounds in weight, valued at £700, 000. In 1882, however, the prevalence of disease among the silkworms caused many of the peasants of Gilan to abandon the culture of silk in favour of rice, which became largely exported to Russia. But the geographical position of Rasht gives it a world-wide reputation irrespective of trade. If the roads by Trebizond, Erzeroum, and Tabriz on the one hand and by Poti, Tiflis, and Tabriz on the other can still be considered the two “commercial highways” from Europe to Persia, the line of land and water communication by Astrakhan and the south-eastern shores of the Caspian has a good claim to be called the true modern highway for travellers and diplomatists moving in the same direction.
Rasht was visited in 1739 by “two English gentlemen from Petersburg,” whose narrative, published three years later, contains much interesting information on the existing relations of Gilan with Russia. It is noteworthy, but not astonishing, to find that in those days the shah (Nádir Κúli) was himself “in a manner the sole merchant or trader in all Persia.” In 1744 Jonas Hanway came there also; but no fuller account of the capital of Gilan has perhaps ever been recorded than that of Samuel Gmelin in 1771, when Hidáiyat Khan ruled the province, and Karim Khan Zend was sovereign of Persia. Gmelin was received with extraordinary honours, as an imperial officer of Russia, and every opportunity was afforded him of observing the country, its features and produce, and of acquainting himself with the manners and customs of the inhabitants. In 1882 a concession for the construction of a railway from Rasht to Teheran, via Kazvin, was granted to a M. Boital. It is probable that no more practical effect will be given to this scheme than to that of Baron de Reuter some ten years before.
See A Journey through Russia into Persia (London, 1742); Histoire des Découvertes, vol. ii. (Lausanne, 1784); Eastwick, Three Years' Residence in Persia (1864); Telegraph and Travel (1874); and published official Reports (1882).
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