‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎185v] (375/722)

under their chief, Alam Khan. His family and followers in the time o!
his father, Mirza Khan, were nomads living on the Kuh Nahru, north of
Bampur. In the time of Alam Khan they used to frequent the southern
tracts of Sfstan and the Helmand bank for the sake of pasture for their
camels and flocks.— (Bellew.)
NAIBAND—
A picturesque village of about 400 inhabitants ; it lies 130 miles from
Birjand, 200 miles from Karman, on the western border of Khurasan.
It is perched upon a crag. Many of the houses have watch-towers, the
position having been chosen entirely with a view to defence against the Balu-
cl is. It has a small stream of good water, but the amount of ground fit
for cultivation is very small indeed. Small quantities of wheat and barley
are grown ; but the principal product is dates. The chief resource of the
people is selling provisions to the caravans, which pass through, pilo-rims
from Karman going via Tun to Mashhad, and caravans of merchandise go
ing from Yazd and Karman to Birjand and Herat. The people of Naiband
act as guides to these caravans across the desert. Supplies here are only
procurable in very small quantities. .
The hamlet of Ziaratgah adjoins it. Through Naiband routes pass as
follows, and this constitutes its importance,—from Herat to Karman via
Birjand ; Herat to lazd via Birjand ; Farah to Karman and also Yazd
via Birjand ; Mashhad to Karman via Tun ; Karman to Astarabad via Shah-
rud. There are three marches of desert between Naiband and Khur. Oc
casionally the date crop fails, as it did in 1881, when 2,000 date-palms were
killed, and others damaged by a heavy fall of snow.
Bands of Baluchis wander by Naiband occasionally, and plunder the
country towards Tabas, or elsewhere.— (Lumsden, Stewart.)
NAIGANU —Lat. , Long. ; Elev.
A villnge in Khurasan, about 48 miles from Dili Muhammad, on the road
from Tabas to Turbat-i-Haidan. Water and supplies are obtainable.—
{MacGregor, Gill.)
NAIZAR —Lat. , Long. ; Elev.
A dry riverbed, forming the northern limit of Sfstan proper and dividing
it from Hokat. It is, as its name implies, a belt of reeds and rushes. It
extends for many miles east and west, and connects the pool, or lagoon, of
the lielmand with that of the Farah Bud by a strip of swamp. Duringthe
past four years this swamp has been dry. When the Sistan Mission crossed,
it was six miles wide. Its reeds had been cut, and burnt to the stumps. Its
soil was desiccated, and marked by beaten tracks over the stubble.
Pi evious to its desiccation the swamp tract used to be crossed by the natives on
foot or on horseback, or on the HutP rafts already described {vide “Kimak”),
by passages cut through the dense growth of reeds. Usually the swamp
was covered to the depth of a foot or so with a thickly muddy water, consider-
aily salme, but in flood seasons its height rose to two or three or four
feei, and inundated the country to the south. In some parts where they
mossed the Aaizar tne reeds had not been cut or burnt, and they rose to
a height of 1 < 1 or 12 in impenetrable patches. Away to the right of the
path tall pillars of smoke rising from the burning reeds filled the sky with
dense clouds of obscurity. Vast herds of cattle, described as of a superior
breed, are fed on the young shoots that sprout from the burnt-down reeds.
I he country north of the Naizar is broken into small tumuli of spongy soil
and v hite as snow with saline efflorescence. The surface of most of it is strewed