![‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎262r] (530/722)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000001452.0x0002d7/Mss Eur F112_376_0536.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎262r] (530/722)")
‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [262r] (530/722)
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.
The income received in kind is as follows :■
Tumans.
247,000 Miarwars of barley and wheat, valued at ... 494,0('0
8,500 kharwars (650 lbs. each) of rice ... ... 25,500
58,500 kharwars of straw ... ... ... 29,250
75 kharwars of nakhud (pulse or grain) ... ... 800
71 mans of silk ... ,,, ... 1,790
550,840
Adding this to the foregoing, we have a total revenue of 4,842,500 tumans.
Thomson has 4,912,500 tumans = 1,965,000^.
The payments in kind are mostly reserved for the use of the army, the
Skalds own expenses, and extraordinary disbursements. The Shah does
not, however, receive the whole of this revenue. From Khurasan, for
instance, nothing is paid to the royal treasury, owing to the heavy dis
bursements made in that province for military service, and for the pro
tection of the line of frontier by a large body of irregular troops
employed in repelling the inroads of Turkuman marauders ; and during
the last year, in consequence of the failure of the silk crop in Gilan, the
revenue of that province has been reduced by more than 100,000 tumans..
The provincial governors, moreover, are frequently defaulters to a large
amount. When appointed, they undertake to account to the central
government for the sums specified above ; but it often happens that at the
end of the year's tenure of office there is a large deficit, which they declare
they have been unable for some reason or other to collect from their
districts. A fee is then paid to the financial authorities in Tihran ; and
the Shah is persuaded to remit a large portion of the deficit, which has
in reality been received from the peasants, and is eventually shared by
the defaulter and his protector at court.
The following is extracted from Persia i a compilation by the Intelli
gence Branch, War Office, 1880 :
The Statesman’s Year Book states as follows. The revenue and expendi
ture of the government are known only from estimates, as no budgets
or other official accounts have ever been published. According to the most
recent estimates, based on Consular reports, the total receipts of the govern
ment amounted on an average during the years 1872-75 to £1,900,000
per annum, while the expenditure came to £1,750,000.
“ The receipts of the year 1875 amounted to 4,366,660 tumans, or
£1,744,661, in money, besides payments in kind, consisting of barley, wheat,
rice, and silk, valued at 550,840 tumans, or £220,336, making the total
revenue equal to 4,912,500 tumans, or £1,965,000.* The bulk of the
public expenditure is for the maintenance of troops and salaries, with pen
sions to the Persian priesthood; while each annual surplus is paid into the
Shah's treasury."
“About one-fourth (?) of the receipts is constituted by payments in kind
(this is evidently a mistake), mostly reserved for the use of the army
and the Shah's own household. The whole revenue is raised by assessments
* W.!?.—These figures are evidently copied (iucluding mistakes), word for word, from Mr.
Thomson’s Report for 1868, before given.
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’ [262r] (530/722), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F112/376, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100107690763.0x000083> [accessed 28 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
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- Open Government Licence