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'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOL. III. PART I: A to K' [‎536v] (1077/1278)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (635 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. .

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530
KAR—KAR
Steamers and native craft. —It is over sixty years since the immense
latent value of the Karun trade route, as an avenue of expeditious approach
to the great cities and centres of grain cultivation in the west of Persia, and
as an opening, more especially for British and Anglo-Indian commerce,
was first brought prominently before the notice of the British by the united
labours and writings of Sir H. Layard and Lieutenant Selby. But it was
not until October 1888, that by a decree of the Shah, the Karun river as far
as Nasirieh was, subject to certain somewhat vexatious conditions, opened
to the mercantile marine of the world. Immediately this permission
was obtained, Messrs. Lynch Brothers, of the Euphrates and Tigris Stream
Navigation Company, detached one of their steamers from the latter river
for the Karun service ; and have continued to run a boat at intervals of
a fortnight between Muhammareh ani Nasirieh ever since. The boat
first employed was the Blosse Lynch, a fine paddle streamer ; but she was
found to be both too long for the abrupt bends and zigzags of the river,
and of too deep a draught to pass over the shoals in low water. Accord
ingly she was replaced by the Shushan. The Shushan, a stern-wheeler of
100' in length, 18' beam, with a draft of 2' 11" with 30 tons of cargo : it
tows a barge holding 45 tons of cargo at the same draft ; and subsequently
in 1890 by the Malamir, a paddle-wheeler, a good deal larger than the
Shushan and somewhat smaller than the Blosse Lynch. The Shushan
was then taken up in the spring flood time above the rapids and berthed
just above Ahwaz. By a free gift of this boat to the Shah’s Government,
Messrs. Lynch Brothers were enabled to override the difficulty of the
embargo against the navigation of the waters of the upper Karun by foreign
stean e^s ; and they run the vessel on behalf of the Persian Government
all the year round as far as Shalaili, a point about 8 miles below Shushtar
on the Ab-i-Gargar. She has been run ever since under the Persian Flag
and Messrs. Lynch Brothers have a claim amounting to some krans
1,821,681 cents 33 against the Persian Government in respect of losses
said to have been incurred in the running of the vessel from 1890 to 190»,
when stimulated apparently by competition with the Muin-ut-Tujjar’s
steamer it began to pay its own way. The draught of this steamer is no
more than 2 feet 11 inches ; and even so, she experiences considerable
difficulty in navigating the Gargar in the dry season.
A considerable number of native craft, mostly of the type locally known
as mahaihlas, and varying from 5 to 70 tons in burden, ply for trade on
the river. They are wedge-shape with a raking prow, flat bottoms and a
raised open door for the accommodation of the crew. The mast, placed
somewhat forward, has a list forwards and carries one expansive lateen sail.
When the wind is unfavourable they require to be tow^ed on the journey up
stream. This is an extremely laborious process, especially when the current
of the river runs strong, as the banks in most of its reaches are quite
unsuitable for this work. A boat 90 feet long, 20 feet wdde, carries 70 tons
and draws 7 feet 3 inches.
Besides these larger crafts a small boat, hallam, worked by paddles, as
well as by towing is much in evidence especially in the neighbourhood of
Muhammareh. They run from 16 to 20 feet in length and from 3 to 4 feet
in breadth. A somewhat heavier and deeper ty r pe of the same craft is

About this item

Content

The item is Volume III, Part I: A to K of the four-volume Gazetteer of Persia (Provisional Edition, 1917, reprinted 1924).

The volume comprises that portion of south-western Persia, which is bounded on the west by the Turco-Persian frontier; on the north and east by a line drawn through the towns of Khaniqin [Khanikin], Isfahan, Yazd, Kirman, and Bandar Abbas; and on the south by the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .

The gazetteer includes entries on towns, villages, districts, provinces, tribes, forts, dams, shrines, coastal features, islands, rivers, streams, lakes, mountains, passes, and camping grounds. Entries include information on history, geography, climate, population, ethnography, administration, water supply, communications, caravanserais, trade, produce, and agriculture.

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 an Index Map of Gazetteer and Routes in Persia (folio 636), showing the whole of Persia with portions of adjacent countries, and indicating the extents of coverage of each volume of the Gazetteer and Routes of Persia , administrative regions and boundaries, hydrology, and major cities and towns.

Printed at the Government of India Press, Simla, 1924.

Extent and format
1 volume (635 folios)
Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 637; 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
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'GAZETTEER OF PERSIA. VOL. III. PART I: A to K' [‎536v] (1077/1278), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/MIL/17/15/4/1, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100041319222.0x00004e> [accessed 22 December 2024]

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