of fortification, made some improvements on existing structures
(most notably at Yerevan), and drew up plans for the construction
of new forts, such as 'Abbasabad, near the border with Qarabagh.
Fath 'Ali was pleased with developments and asked France to send
another 30 officers and a host of artisans, including painters, print-
ers, potters, jewelers, mining engineers, and armaments makers. (The
purchased weapons were not delivered, the officers and artisans not
sent, because of the Franco-Russian rapprochement and the subse-
quent deterioration of Franco-Iranian relations.)^8
The French, and later the British, also trained Western-style cav-
alry units, but the new ideas made little headway against deeply
entrenched ideas about how this most prestigious branch of the
military ought to function. In particular, Iranians objected to Euro-
pean ideas about how to use the lance. Some European borrowings
were made without regard to their practicality in the Iranian setting.
Spurs, for example, were of doubtful use to these already expert
horsemen and were a menace to the soldiers, who were accustomed
to sitting on their heels.^9
Whatever the potential for these reforms to have improved Iran's
martial capabilities, the efforts faced so many obstacles that little
was accomplished. Foremost among the obstacles was the shah's
disillusionment with French promises to end the war in the Caucasus
and his expulsion of the French in the spring of 1809. Moreover,
'Abbas's financial problems kept him from maintaining all his sar-
bdz as a standing army (although he tried to circumvent this problem
by occasionally granting land as payment in lieu of cash). As a result,
the sarbaz received episodic training. The whole undertaking was so
recently begun that sarbaz were not ready for battle by the time the
French departed. In any case, the French officers would not have
been able to lead the sarbaz in battle against the Russians because of
the Franco-Russian alliance. Some of the new cannon were poorly
cast and were liable to explode. The fortifications also suffered from
structural flaws, largely as a result of design modifications in keeping
with Iranian practices, such as placing the heavier stones in the upper
parts of the walls (making them likely to collapse) and adding struc-
tures to the outer reaches of the fort (permitting the enemy a clear
line of fire into the center of the fort from the outworks). And the
frequent earthquakes in Azerbaijan damaged many fortifications.
Many of the problems were inherent to the process of change,
rather than to the specific conditions of the French activities, and so
persisted when the British took over. The reforms were unpopular
France and Britain in Iran 127