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‘Military report on Persia. Vol IV, part II. Fars, Gulf ports, Yazd and Laristan.’ [2] (12/206)
The record is made up of 103 folios. It was created in 1924. 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.
disturbances, however, coupled with the attitude adopted by
Russia, who, by the end of 1913, had on one pretext and
another sent some 14,000 troops into Northern Persia, had
brought Persia to the vei'ge of ruin. Her treasury was empty,
she had no military forces available to suppress disorders
or to collect revenue, and there was no strong public man
to be found to direct efforts to reform. Most of her troubles
were ascribed to Russia, wliich had consistently thwarted
every effort at reform ; but Great Britain also incurred much
odium for connivance.
During the Great War, Turkish troops and German agents
intered Persia in order to cause further difficulties for the British
Government. Their efforts were successful to a certain extent
and they had the effect of still further increasing the difficulties
of the Persian Government.
An additional danger arose early in 1920 from the advance
of the Bolsheviks to the borders of the former Tsarist Empire
in Tfans-Caucasia and Turkistan. Their arrival there was
a signal for an attempt to get Bolshevik agents into Persia, and
for the commencement of a violent anti-Persian campaign in
the Bolshevik press. The general tenor of this campaign was
that a revolution must be caused in Persia to get rid of the Shah
and that, if the Persians themselves could not initiate such
a revolution, the Bolsheviks would invade the country and bring
it about themselves. On the excuse of capturing the Volunteer
Caspian fleet which was interned at Enzeli, the Bolsheviks, in
May 1920, landed troops at that port, got into touch with
Kuchik Khan and the local Persian revolutionaries and com
menced an advance on Tehran. The Persian forces, backed as
thev were by British troops, checked this advance but were
unable to drive out the Russians altogether.
Tinder the Anglo-Persian Agreement, concluded in 1919, the
British Government had offered to loan to the Persians, the sum
of two million pounds sterling and to reorgani/e the Persian
Army and finances. A military mission, as also^ a financial
adviser and staff, were sent to Tehran to report on the require
ments of Persia in accordance with the terms of this agreement.
But the Persian Government were from the start only half
hearted about the agreement, and put obstacle after obstacle in
the way of its ratification.
About this item
- Content
Military report on Persia (volume IV, part II) covering Fars, Yazd, the Gulf ports and Laristan, dated 1922, and published by the Central Government Press at Simla in 1924. The report’s chapters cover:
- History , including a recent political history of Persia; military history; the Anglo-Persia War of 1856-57 (with sections on the battle of Khūshāb and the occupation of Bushire); a recent history of Fars; and operations at Bushire in 1918-19.
- Geography , with a general introduction and sections headed (a) Fars and the Gulf ports; (b) Yazd; and (c) Laristan. The section on Fars includes: descriptions of the Gulf Ports; a table listing the districts of Fars, with details of their boundaries, sedentary populations and administrative authority; details of the four principal rivers in Fars (the Khūr Khalīl, Rūd Shūr, Rūd Hilleh and Chāhkutāh); salt lakes in Fars; islands; principal towns; Bushire and its harbour, with details of harbour facilities (lights, buoys, pilots tugs and launches), landing places for troops, facilities in the town; minor ports. The sections on Yazd and Lariston contain details of the principal towns, with the latter section detailing harbour facilities and amenities at Lingeh [Bandar-e Lengeh];
- Population , or Ethnography , with sections headed (a) Fars and the Gulf ports; (b) Yazd; and (c) Laristan. The section on Fars contains descriptions (population, general character, tribal structures, agricultural activity) of the various nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes found in the various districts of the region. Brief sections on Yazd and Laristan are followed by an overview of the principal religions of Persia;
- Climate and Health , with a general description of the climate of southern Persia and sections headed (a) Fars and the Gulf ports; (b) Yazd; and (c) Laristan. The section of Fars contains details of the availability of drinking water for men and animals at Bushire. At the end of the chapter there is a description of the general medical conditions in Persia (drinking water, diseases) and a description of the medical dispensaries at Bushire and Bandar-e Lengeh;
- Resources , divided into sections on (A) supplies and (B) transport, and further subdivided into sections headed (a) Fars and the Gulf ports; (b) Yazd; and (c) Laristan. The section on supplies in Fars contains: details of the availability of a range of foodstuffs (including cereals, fruit, vegetables and meat), grazing, fuel (wood, charcoal), mills, storage of supplies, packing; a description of the general availability of supplies in principal towns, including Bushire. Transport lists the availability and characteristics of transport by mule, donkey, camel, cart and oxen. At the end of the chapter there is a veterinary note, detailing the prevalence of lameness and various diseases in livestock. A fold-out table (presumably Appendix F – see below) details the numbers of supplies and transport of agricultural produce available in the different regions;
- Military , including: a description of the Persian army; the numbers of available armed men in the different tribes of Persia; the South Persia Rifles; aviation facilities in Persia, an outline of the military ranks in the Persian army; military features (fortifications, guns) at Bushire and Bandar-e Lengeh; and additional notes on the migratory nature of the Qāshqaī tribe, and arms trafficking into Persia;
- Communications , including descriptions of the region’s railways, roads, telegraph lines, telephone lines, cables, and wireless stations;
- Political , including: a description of the administrative governance of Fars, Yazd and Laristan; coinage in Persia; weights and measures.
Appendices A to E are lists of the subdivisions or subtribes of: the Khamseh Arab tribes; the Bāserī tribe; the Bahārlū tribe; the Qāshqaī tribes; the Mamassanī. Appendix F, described on the contents page as a table of supplies and transport is presumably that included at the end of chapter 5.
The maps and plans, included at the end of the volume are: a general map of the area, a plan of Bushire, and a sketch map of the Khamseh tribe migrations. The plan of the customs wharf at Bushire and the sketch map showing Qāshqaī migrations are both missing from the volume.
- Extent and format
- 103 folios
- Arrangement
The volume is arranged into eight chapters (labelled I-VIII), followed by five appendices (A-E), and finishing with five maps and plans, as set out on the volume’s contents page (f.3). Each chapter is arranged by a series of headings and subheadings. The volume also has an alphabetically arranged index (ff.85-95). The contents and index pages use the report’s pagination system.
- Physical characteristics
Pagination: The report has a printed pagination sequence. Page numbers appear at the top and centre of each page in the main body of the volume, and in the top-right corner of rectos and top-left corner of versos on the volume’s index pages.
Foliation: There is a foliation sequence, which is circled in pencil, in the top-right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio. It begins on the first folio with text, on number 1, and ends on the last of the various maps and plans that are inserted at the back of the volume, on number 101. Total number of folios: 101. Total including covers and flysheets: 103. Note that the foliation sequence on the maps and plans does not follow the order that the maps and plans are listed on the volume’s contents page (f.3). Two of the plans and maps listed on the contents page are missing from the volume (Plan of customs wharf at Bushire, and sketch map showing Qāshqaī migrations).
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/L/PS/20/C201/2
- Title
- ‘Military report on Persia. Vol IV, part II. Fars, Gulf ports, Yazd and Laristan.’
- Pages
- front, front-i, i-r:i-v, 1:6, 1:119, 119a:119b, 120:192, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence