![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎177r] (358/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0364.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎177r] (358/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [177r] (358/722)
The record is made up of 1 volume (384 folios). It was created in 1886-1895. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
about 40 miles ; west, to the watershed of the Mirabad range, 20 miles ;
east, to the Hari Rud about 100 miles; north-east, to Kalat 60 miles. An
area of 6,000 to 7,000 square miles, of which 2,000 may be set down as
level valley or plateau land, more or less culturable when there are faci
lities of water. The remaining area includes high mountain ranges, rising
to 8,000 or 9,000 feet, and showing but few culturable spots and scanty
herbage for cattle. Of the culturable tract, a large portion, about one-third,
lying east towards and along the banks of the Hari Rud, is, owing to the
ravages of the Turkomans, a complete desert, and the remainder is but
sparsely populated.
This country should now rapidly recover, as, owing to Russian influence
and presence on the frontier, Turkoman raids are a thing of the past.
The villages are small, scattered thinly over the plain on the spots most
readily irrigated, and since the late famine of 1871 but half-peopled.
A line drawn for 20 miles from Mashhad in any direction across the
plain would pass through perhaps 6 small walled hamlets, with an average of
40 houses each and with a population of about 1,000 souls, 2 or 3 miles
of irrigated land, 5 or 6 of unirrigated, dependent on a precarious
rainfall, and a large balance of stony desert or hill slope affording a
scanty pasturage for sheep and goats.
The finest villages lie along the Kashaf Rud and hidden in the barren
ravines of the Mfrabad and Kalat ranges, where small perennial screams
support a luxuriant growth of garden and vineyard, but little or no corn
land. In Jaghark, the finest example of these f garden ^ villages, the
grain raised is actually by about half insufficient for the population of
the village. The villages on the Kalat or northern range are in this
respect in a slightly better situation ; for the hill slopes are there less steep
and rocky and yield grain crops dependent on rainfall only. Irom
Mashhad to Herat the road is too well known to call for remark, it is
practicable for wheeled carriage. . .
The district is divided into 16 buluks, or subdivisions, as follows:
Name of biilukg.
Beyehtfe.
Estimated popula
tion.
Cash.
Grain.
Ardamah
Biwajan
Mian Wilayat ... ... ••• ^
Shandiz
Chinaran ... •••
Badkan ... ••• •••
Gulmakan
Sarjam ... ••• **'
Tabatkan
Darzaf
Chulai
Jaghark
Kami ... •••
Firezi ...
Akhlumad ... •••
Tumans.
3,526
1.300
2.300
4,015
3,700
4,680
2.500
1,400
4,870
3,100
1.500
1,615
500
675
300
400
Khar wars.
106
150
1,700 1
195
1,190
660
100
680
1,740
870
210
40
30
*"l5
200
No.
5,000
1.500
20,000
6.500
9,000
7,000
2,000
1.500
10,000
6,000
2.500
3,000
500
600
500
700
—
Ror description of each, see article on each buluk.
About this item
- Content
This volume is Volume I of the four-volume Gazetteer of Persia (1886 edition). It was compiled for political and military reference by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Metcalfe MacGregor, Assistant Quarter Master General, in 1871, and brought up to 31 July 1885 by the Intelligence Branch, Quarter Master General’s Department in India. It was printed by the Government Central Branch Press, Simla, India in 1886.
The areas of Persia [Iran] covered are Astarabad, Shahrud-Bustan, Khurasan [Khorāsān], and Sistan. The boundaries of the areas covered by Volume I are as follows: the Afghan border from the River Helmand to Sarakhs in the east; and from there a line north-west to Askhabad, due west to the Atrak, which it follows to the Caspian Sea; then along the sea coast to Ashurada Island; then in a straight line to Shahrud; and from the latter south-east to Tabas hill, Sihkuha, and the Helmand, from where the river first meets the south-east border of Sistan.
The gazetteer includes entries on human settlements and buildings (forts, hamlets, villages, towns, provinces, and districts); communications (passes, roads, bridges, canals, and halting places); tribes and religious sects; and physical features (rivers, streams, springs, wells, fords, valleys, mountains, hills, plains, and bays). Entries include information on history, geography, buildings, population, ethnography, resources, trade, agriculture, and climate.
Information sources are provided at the end of each gazetteer entry, in the form of an author or source’s surname, italicised and bracketed.
The volume includes the following illustrations: ‘VIEW OF AK-DARBAND.’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 12v]; ‘PLAN OF AK-KALA.’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 14]; ‘ROUGH SKETCH OF ASTARÁBÁD, FROM AN EYE-SKETCH BY LT.-COL. BERESFORD LOVETT, R. E., 1881.’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 24]; ‘ROUGH PLAN OF BASHRÚGAH’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 40v]; ‘ROUGH PLAN OF BÚJNÚRD’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 48]; and ‘BUJNURD, FROM THE S. W.’ [Mss Eur F112/376, f 49v].
It also includes the following inserted papers (folios 51 to 60): a memorandum from the Office of the Quartermaster General in India, Intelligence Branch to Lord Curzon, dated 6 December 1895, forwarding for his information ‘Corrections to Volume I of the Gazetteer of Persia’, consisting of articles on the Nishapur district of the province of Khorasan, and the Shelag river.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (384 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged as follows from the front to the rear: title page; preface; list of authorities consulted; and entries listed in alphabetical order.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 388, these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [177r] (358/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690762.0x00009f> [accessed 22 November 2024]
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- Mss Eur F112/376
- Title
- ‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’
- Pages
- front, back, head, tail, spine, edge, front-i, 2r:12r, 13r:13v, 15r:23v, 25r:40r, 41r:47v, 49r, 50r:195v, 196ar:196av, 196r:357v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence