‘GAZETTEER OF PERSIA VOL. I Comprising the Provinces of ASTARÁBÁD, SHÁHRUD-BÚSTAN, KHÚRÁSÁN, AND SÍSTÁN’ [‎344v] (695/722)

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TURBAT— Lat.
, Long.
; Elev.
/
The name given to a spur of the Tun range of mountains, which leaves
the parent range near the Kalat pass, and runs to the east towards Khaf,
after passing the longitude of which place it turns north, and runs between
Turbat-i-Haidan and Turbat-i-Shaikh Jami; and thus it crosses the road
between Mashhad and Turbat-i-Haidan.— [MacGregor.)
TURBAT-I-HAIDARl— LAt. , Long. ; Elev.
A district in Khurasan. Its southern boundary may be said to extend
to the right bank of the river that flows by Yunsi, and its northern to reach
to above the Gudar-i-Baidar pass. On the east its kmit is the Bakharz
range; but on the west its boundary is not as yet clearly known. It comprises
the subdivisions, or buluks, of Mahawalat, Turbat, Zawak, Khaf Aghan or
Askand, Buyak, and Rukh. The population has been roughly estimated
at 25,000 souls, of whom the Karai, a Turk tribe said to have been brought
here by Taimur, are the permanent race; the rest being of Arab and
Persian origin, with some Baluch nomads. The chief of the Karai, in 1875,
was one Haji Mirza Mahmud Khan.
The tribes of Turbat-i-Haidan are—•
Karai or Garai ...
Baluch
Laks
Miscellaneous
The district of Turbat-i-Haidari was, during the reign of Agha Muham
mad Khan, raised into a semi-independent khanate by Isbak Khan, whence
it is sometimes known as “ Turbat Ishak Khan.” Malcolm gives the fol
lowing interesting particulars of this individual : “Isbak Khan was born a
Tajik, and was, according to prejudice, by birth unwarlike. But his father,
who was the servant of a chief of the branch of the tribe of Kara Tatar,
had shown himself above the duties of a shepherd, which was his first
employ, and had latterly been trusted with the command of a hundred men.
The young Ishak, who derived claims from the character of his father,
was appointed one of the mace-bearers to his chief, whom he persuaded to
depute him to Turbat-i-Haidan (then an inconsiderable place) to rebuild a
caravansarai for the use of travellers. Having obtained a considerable
sum of money for this purpose, he commenced execution of his task. But
his plans, which had been long laid, now approached to maturity. He
gradually converted the caravansarai he was directed to build into a square
fort; and his intrigues to foment divisions in the tribe to which he was
attached were so successful, that by the time his work was completed, the
chief, who had employed him, was slain by some of his own officers, and his
sons were compelled to fly from the country, to save themselves from a
similar fate.
“ These events produced feuds in the tribe of Kara Tatar, which added
to the power of Ishak Khan, with whom all the discontented found refuge;
and, strengthened by these adherents, and by that wisdom which enabled
him to turn every occurrence amid the revolutions which surrounded him to
advantage, the shepherd’s son soon became one of the most powerful nobles
of Khurasan. He had been in the early part of his career greatly aided
by the monarch of the Afghans, whose army he had joined, and whose
court he had visited; but when his power increased, he ventured to throw
off his allegiance, and the troubled state of the dominions of Kabul left
him without apprehension from that quarter.”