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are also 13 villages, with a population of 1,200 households almost entirely
of Shadillu Kurds.
The valley of Maneh has 10 villages and hamlets, with 300 households
of Shadillu, and a few families of Turks.
The Simalqan plateau has 12 villages, with an aggregate of 400 houses
of Shadillu and Garili Turks.
Up to a compar tively recent date there were also in this portion of the
chiefship a number of nomads of the Guklan tribe ; but the acquisition
of Kara Kala, in such close proximity, by the Akhal Tekke, forced them
to descend to the Gurgan plain, where they still remain in political con
nection with the Ilkhani of Bujnurd, who collects their revenue on the
part of the Government of Astarabad. The Guklans in the Gurgan number
about 2,000 families at present.
The Shaughan plain, with the hill-skirts about it, has five villages and
a number of hamlets or kalehs with about 400 houses. Jajarm, which
must formerly have been a place of some importance, is now in the last
stage of decay. A miserable village of 500 houses only remains amid the
ruins of what must have been a considerable town under Arab rule.
There are also 3 small hamlets, Juvar, Darreh and Garma, making a total
of about 900 houses. The people are entirely “ ’Ajam ” or Persian, which
is strange, as the name of the town and all the ruins visible are certainly
Arab, and there is in the neighbouring district of Bustam a large mixture
of Arab blood.
In Isfarain the principal village is Mianabad, containing about 700
families and about 50 small villages and hamlets.
The Chehar Deh Sankhas sub-division contains several villages. The chief
village, Sankbas, has some 300 families of Persian-speaking people.
The Shadillu Kurds were transported to this frontier from the west by
Shah ; Abbas at the end of the sixteenth century. The disastrous famines
of 1872 and several previous years that ruined the agriculture and dispersed
the population of other parts of Khorasan.
Condition ot the population. , , * i., n -j. a. j c
^ ^ brought wealth and prosperity to the Kurds of
Kuchan and Bujnurd. Their grain-crops, lying for the most part at a con
siderable elevation, and sheltered from the burning wind of the southern
deserts, are independent of irrigation. Though lighter by reason of the
want of seasonable rainfall, they were still sufficient to feed the people and
many thousands of immigi ants, and to leave a large balance for exporta
tion. The Ilkhani of Bujnurd cited as an evidence of the improved condi
tion of his people, that the number of women in the town had been doubled
by importations during the famine. Young girls from the distressed dis
tricts were sold by their parents to the Kurds for a few loads of grain. The
peasants also of the outlying villages have laid by money and increased
their stock of household goods. There was certainly every appearance of
prosperity ; the villages teemed with infant life, and all classes were well
clothed, fed, and housed. The tracts lying south of the mountain chain
Isfaraln and Jajarm, had suffered somewhat, but there had been few
deaths, the destitute having found food and shelter among the Kurds.
With the exception of Isfarain and Jajarm, the valleys included in the
Chiefship are green and fertile, and would be capable of supperting a far
48 IB M
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