'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎91] (138/905)

CHAP. IV.]
DIVISIONS OF IRAN.
91
possess (towards the close of the seventeenth century) Turkistan Decline of
to the north, Kandahar on the east; with the territories of^ e p f™
Armenia, Kurdistan, Baghdad, &c., to the north-west and
west: 1 the whole being flanked and protected by the moun
tainous countries which terminated its eastern and western
extremities. Since that period, however, a great change has
taken place, in consequence of the loss of the rest of Affghan-
. istan on one side; and, more recently, some of the fairest and
richest provinces at the opposite extremity. There are now
three great divisions of ancient fran, each of which belongs to
a separate government.
Affghanistan, the most distant of these sections, stretches Divisions of
westward of the Indus, until, in the deserts of Kirman and trin '
Seistan, it touches the second division, or Modern Persia.
The latter kingdom is now limited to the central space, and has
a superficies scarcely exceeding that of the former territory;
from which it spreads westward, gradually becoming narrower,
till it terminates near Ararat. The provinces lost to Turkey
and Russia, together, form the third division. The former of
these fill up the space on the western side of the Shah's do
minions, by extending from the Zagros to the left bank of the
Euphrates; and the latter occupy the space eastward, between
the left bank of the Araxes and the Caucasus, as far as the
Caspian Sea. But as the three divisions of Iran contain many
ancient provinces, and even kingdoms, to which the deepest
interest is attached, it becomes necessary to notice the divisions
particularly; and, in doing so, the precedence belongs to those
parts which have occupied the first place in the history of the
world. Chaldea and Armenia will, therefore, be the subjects
of the following Chapter.
1 Ogilby's Asia, p, 2. London, 1763.
N 2