'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎200] (235/714)

200
PERSIA
Kain is ruled by an Arab Amir, in whose family is vested a
hereditary chieftainship, and who among the border chieftains of
the south occupies a position analogous and even superior
to that enjoyed by the Ilkhanis of Bujnurd and Kuchanon
the north. Mir Alam Khan, the present Governor, is probably the
most powerful subject of the Persian Crown. Now more than sixty
years of age, of strong character, and with a formidable reputation
for severity, he has cleared his province of the roving, bands of
marauders, principally Afghans and Beluchis, who used to lay it
waste with impunity ; and is so big a personage that he requires to
be very cautiously interfered with by the Central Power. The Amir
was already Governor at the time of the Seistan Boundary Com
mission in 1872, and did not behave with any excess of civility to
Sir F. Goldsmid. However, as the area of his own dominions was
at stake, Seistan being a subdivision of his province, there was
perhaps some excuse for offence; and he has since been extremely
attentive to such Englishmen as have gone his way. He bears a
ceremonious title, conferred upon him by the Shah, and holds the
rank of an Amir-i- Toman 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. , or Major-General in the Persian army.
The sovereignty of the Crown is typified by a detachment of Persian
artillery in the fort at Birjand'. (The Amir has since died,
November 1891.)
The inhabitants of the khanate are of Persian and Arab de
scent, and are estimated at not less than 80,000. Formerly the seat
^ , of government was the town of Kain ; but it has now been
Popula- 0 ^
tion and transferred to Birjand, a larger unwalled city, with 14,000
capital inhabitants. Colonel Stewart reports that opium is
enormously grown and consumed here, and that hundreds are said
to die yearly from excessive indulgence. 1 The military contribu-
of the Amir is 700 horsemen, from Kain and Seistan combined;
and two regiments of infantry, which are called out in turn, one
doing duty in Seistan, while the other is disbanded in Birjand.
Seistan, as I have indicated, is one of the hehiks or subdivisions
of the province of Kain, and is administered by a deputy of the
1 Vide a most interesting paper by Colonel C. E. Stewart, entitled ' The Herat
Valley and the Persian Border from the Heri Kud to Sistan,' I'rocecdings of The
R.G.S. (New Series), vol. viii. pp. 137-156 (1886). Kain has been described by
the Seistan Boundary Commission, 1872 (i. Col. Euan Smith, Eastern Persia, vol.
i. pp. 336-343 ; ii. H. W. Bellew, From the Indus to the Tigris, pp. 320-322), and by
(Sir) C. MacGregor, Journey through Khorasan, pp. 161, 162. For Birjand, ride
the same writers on adjoining pages.