'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎111] (146/714)

FROM ASHKABAD TO KUCHAN
111
Before I leave Kuclian I may furnish a few details of the
district and government of which it is the capital. Bounded bv
The the district of Bujnurd on the north-west, it extends as
Sr far as Radkan 011 tlie road to Meshed, a total length of
pality nearly sixty miles, its breadth from north to south being a
little less, and being about equally divided between the mountain
ranges and uplands in which I had been journeying from the
frontier and the Kuchan valley itself, which is fifteen miles in average
width, and stretches without physical interruption to Meshed.
The Shah Jehan mountains, which enclose it on the south, rise
behind the town of Kuchan, which is 3,800 feet above the sea, to
a peak of 10,000 feet. There is no more fertile or better watered
tract in the whole of North Persia than the Kuchan valley.
Under irrigation it gives a hundred-fold return of grain ; and its
cereal productiveness entitles it to be termed the granary of
Khorasan. Skobeleff knew very well what he was about when he
despatched Grodekoff to buy forage for his horses and camels from
the Shuja-ed-Dowleh; and the Russians of to-day also know very
well what they are doing in planting themselves within easy reach
and in strategical command of a district which would feed a large
army and dominate the whole of Khorasan. The population of
the principality consists mainly of Zaferanlu Kurds, but contains
also some Geraili Turks and a few Persians. Its total has been
variously estimated at from 90,000 to 200,000 souls, the lower
figure being, it is needless to add, nearer the probable mark. The
income of the Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. is derived partly from duties on houses and
shops in the towns and on cultivated lands outside, partly from
the revenues of his own private property. Out of it he is required
to defray the charges of his cavalry contingent, who are well
mounted and armed with guns, but whose numbers, which for
merly stood at 1,000, had, I was informed (perhaps in considera
tion of the altered condition on the frontier), been reduced
to 500.
Supplementary Routes from Kuchan
Kuchan to Meshed (via Jafirabad, Shurcha, Radkan, Chinaran, Gunabad,
Kasimabad, 93 miles).—J. B. Fraser (1822), Journey into Khorasan, cap. xxii. ;
(Sir) A. Burnes (1832), Travels into Bokhara, vol. iii. pp. 74-5; Captain Hon.
G. Napier (1874), Journal of the R.G.S.. vol. xlvi. pp. 79-87 and 151-3; E.
O'Donovan (1880), The Merv Oasis, vol. i. cap. xxviii.
Kuchan to Sebzevvar (69 miles).—E. O'Donovan (1880), The Mcrr Oasis,
vol. i. p. 437.