‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎75r] (154/722)

The people of the few villages on the south side of the Allah-o-Aldbar pass
are Kaiwanlu Kurds from Radkan, from 50 to 100 families. In the east
of the valley the villages are inhabited by Turk and Afshars ; to the west,
from Naukhandan upwards, the population is entirely Kurdish. There are
in all in the valley, in addition to the three principal villages, about d0 small
fortified hamlets, bringing up the population to about ]2,000 souls. In the
Atak are 20 villages and hamlets, with a mixed population of Turks, Kurds,
and Turkmans, who have settled there under the Khan’s protection. They
pay no revenue, but are useful as an outer line of defence. If the popula
tion of the “ Atak ” and of the mountains and glens surrounding the valley
be added to that of the valley, a total, at a rough estimate, of 18,000 souls
is reached ; and this is rather above than below the mark. A large and com
paratively rapid increase may be anticipated; for the country has entered on
a period of unequalled tranquillity and security.
Resources .—The Ataks are the granary of Kalat and Daraghaz. Since
the Persian Government have ceased to exercise control over the region, and
all the surplus harvest produced there has been sent to Askabad, the price
of corn in Daraghaz has risen from two tumans to five the kharwar, and
the population is suffering in consequence. A small quantity of grain is
also exported to Radkan and to Mashhad, but only the^continuance of very
high prices can ever repay the transport over the difficult Allah-o-Akbar pass.
The land in the Ataks is so fertile, and the water-supplies so abundant,
that large numbers of the inhabitants of surrounding Persian districts
will probably seek refuge there from the oppression of their own rulers; which,
as the population decreases, will become more onerous.
In the valley itself, too, the land is very fertile and water abundant. With
these advantages, and with no scarcity of hands, the construction of a good
road comeeting it with 'the interior would at once stimulate agriculture,
•and vastly improve the condition of the people. There is room in the
valleys and glens ascending from it for at least 5,000 families in addition to
the present population. In the Atak the grain crops return from 20
to 25 fold. An average grain production of -100 kharvvars for every 100
houses in the valley may be taken as a fair calculation, leaving a balance of
half a kharwar as surplus produce per hundred houses. Allowing 2,000 or
2,500 houses as the population of the valley, the surplus produce would
-amount to 72,500 kharwars in a good season.
Cultivation in the valley and Atak is capable of an almost unlimited
increase, on unirrigated lands in both, on irrigable lands in the latter. A
very small quantity of silk is raised, and some cotton, tobacco, and opium ;
the latter for home consumption. A few years ago its use was unknown ;
now it is largely consumed by all classes, but more especially by the Khans
.and their followers. During the present month (Ramzan), a nimth of fast
ing, the day is always wound up with intoxicating doses of the fumes of this
drug. The average price of grain in the villages of Daraghaz is about 10
maunds per kran for barley, wheat 8 maunds, equal to about ! 25 lb. and
1401b. per 1 rupee. The border villages, those in the Atak outside the hills,
are always liable to attack, and it is even unsafe to move before sunrise or
after sunset on the edge of the plain within the hills; for. small plundering
parties are always lying hidden in some ravine on the look-out for chance
cattle or flocks insufliciently protected At times a large body of Turk
mans wilt scour the whole plains, shutting the people up in the forts, or
-driving them into the bills. This may happen once every year at least.