![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎180r] (364/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0370.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎180r] (364/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [180r] (364/722)
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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MAZlNAN— Lat. 36° 19' 30", Long. 56° U ' 0"; Eley. 2,800'.
A village in Khurasan, 22 miles from Abbasabad, 111 miles from Shahmd,
and 98 miles from Nisbapur. It is a fortified village of 300 houses, and has
a very fine caravansarai. The ruins here are very extensive, and there are
whole streets standing without a single inhabitant.
Mazfnan had formerly 900 houses, and the whole district was populous and
well-cultivated. Barley, wheat, and cotton, and fruit of various sorts, are pro
duced in large quantities in favourable seasons. A good deal of silk was raised
up to about 1870, and copper ore found in the district was smelted. In 1874
but a small quantity of silk was raised, and the copper mines were closed.
The water here is good and plentiful, and there is some cultivation around;
and wild game is very abundant. It is one of the nine divisions of Sabza-
war. Its revenue is said to be 1,100 tumans employed in maintaining a guard
of 15 gunners, 100 foct-soldiers, and 2 fieldpieces, to accompany and protect
caravans passing and repassing the Khurasan desert.— {Connolly, Ferrier,
Clerk, Taylor, Mastwick, Napier, Goldsmid, Eozario.)
MAZRAI— Lat. , Long. ; Elev. '.
A village in Khurasan, on the road from. Sabzawar to Khur. Water is
procurable.— {MacGregor.)
MAZRTJA—Lat. , Long. ; Elev.
A village in the Narjun buluk of the Kam district of Khurasan.—
MAZUL— Lat. , Long. ; Elev.
A buluk of the Nfshapur district {c[. v.) .— {Belleiv.)
MEGfASI— Lat. , Long. ; Elev. '.
Some caves in Khurasan, halfway between Miandara and Chahardih,
on the road from Astarabad to Tibran. They are excavated on the side of a
clayey hill to the number of 30 or 40. A clear rivulet flows near at
hand.— {Holmes.)
ME IIANABAD— Lat. , Long. ; Elev. '.
A halting-place in Khurasan, the fifth on the road from Nisbapur to
Damghan via Sangkhar and Jajarm, 133 miles west of Nishapur.—
{Kinneir.)
MEHDIABAD— Lat. , Long. „ ; Elev.
A village in Khurasan, about 22 miles west of Khaf, on the road to Turshfz.
■— {Taylor.)
MEHNA, (?), on MEGNA (?)— Lat. _ , Long. ; Elev.
One of the posts on the north frontier of the Kalat Atak. It is now in
ruins, close to Hazrat Sultan {q. v.), and about 16 to 19 miles west of
Chacha. Crops are sometimes raised hereby the Turkomans from Iviarv,
about 100 families residing here during the sowing and harvest. They
render one kharwar of grain out of every seven gathered to the Khan of
Kalat.
The Mehnais were, and are still, Sunnis, and were in possession of their vil
lages at the time of Kurd occupation. They were gradually forced out ^of the
plain by the pressure of the aggressive Turkoman tribes, and retired to Auchan,
Shu-wan, &c. No information exists as to the origin of these former occu
pants of Mehna and other towns in the Atak. They are known now only
by the names of the towns they occupied. They were probably immigrants
or invaders from Turkistan, subsequent to the Tartar conquests whence
their distinction from the other Turki tribes of Iran.
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’ [180r] (364/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690762.0x0000a5> [accessed 7 February 2025]
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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