![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎177v] (359/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0365.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎177v] (359/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [177v] (359/722)
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
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308
Approximate estimate of population, resources, Ac., of the district.
Area in square
miies.
Population.
Revenue.
Surplus grain,
in tons.
Enrolled irregular horsemen.
Armed
peasantry.
7,000
131,000
Tumdns.
66,000
2,000^
2,000 Aimak and Tai-
muri horse.
1 17,000
(
1,300 local hoi’se
)
This is not. a fixed estimate, but only derived by Captain Napier in
1874.
Of the above buluks, six may be set down as unproductive as regards
capacity for supply of foodgrains, for they do not even produce enough for
their own necessities; and it is unlikely an invader would be able under any
circumstances to get at their small stores, or at those of the peasantry
generally. From the remaining 10 buluks a grain rent, amounting
in all to 7,7£0 kharwars = 2,288£ tons, is taken; and this may be assumed
to be the surplus produce of the district, available at any season to any
force having command of its resources. It is now applied to the mainten
ance of the royal troops and functionaries of the government, assignment
holders, and khans, with their swarms of followers ; the urban population
and pilgrims, &c., and the purchasing consumers being supplied from distant
sources.
Save in limited areas in the mountains, no grains are cultivated or cut for
forage in any part of Khurasan. In the moist hollows in the eastern part
of Sarjam, and the wide plain at the head of the Mashhad valley about
Chinaran and Radkan, there are pastures, on which large numbers of cattle
and horses would find grazing at certain seasons,—in spring and after the
autumn rain. Horses are fed on chopped straw, wheat, or barley, mixed at
times with dried lucerne, of which limited quantities only are raised.
The supply of the former always bears some direct ratio to the supply of
grain. No very large supply could be calculated on in the vicinity of
Mashhad itself.
In a country the soil of which grows nothing spontaneously, save thistles,
wood is naturally scarce and dear. The villages on the hillskirts furnish a
limited supply, grown for the market and cut down periodically when of the
requisite thickness. This supply, however, is strictly limited to the wants
of the town and local consumption, and prices are never allowed to fall. The
mountains to the north, at a distance of 2-0 to 30 miles over the most
impracticable roads, produce a stunted growth of juniper, the supply of which
is at present only limited by the cost of carriage.
^ W ater is everywhere scarce, and often brackish, though not unwholesome.
The Kashaf Rud is brackish below Mashhad, as also are many of its feeders
from the mountain. Along the main line at the valley, however, kanats
and spiings are so numerous, that the largest force collected there would
suiter no inconvenience. At Mashhad itself there are numerous kanats, and
the water rises freely in the wells, which are usually sunk to a depth of
fiom 24 to 30 feet. Hie soil is alluvial to a depth of about 20 feet, con
sisting of small gravel and compact layers of coarse sand, underlying which
js a bed of stiff clay. > J *
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.
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- 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’ [177v] (359/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690762.0x0000a0> [accessed 25 November 2024]
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- 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